Naomi Shihab Nye on Jerusalem

“Jerusalem is so permeated with layers and textures, minglings of all kinds that, once you've lived there you don't get over it.”

“In Jerusalem so much old anger floated around, echoed from fading graffiti, seeped out of cracks. Sometimes it bumped into new anger in the streets. The air felt stacked with weeping and raging and praying to God by all the different names.”

“In the rugged hills outside Jerusalem, I was reeling with sadness, as usual, my people pressed like cattle by sharp butts of Israeli guns, herded through battered lines, endlessly insulted, when a guide climbed on our bus wearing a FREE TIBET T-shirt.”