Famous

A group of children once asked a poet, “Are you famous?” In response to their question poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrote:

The river is famous to the fish

The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching his from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your heart
is famous to your heart.

The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous that the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.