“Kindness” appeared in Naomi Shihab Nye’s very first full-length collection, published when she was 28 years old. She grew up in a cross-cultural household, caught between American and Arab identities. Throughout her literary career, Nye traveled extensively around the globe; this brought her a range of experiences in both privileged and underprivileged environments, which she used to inform her writing. “Kindness,” although an early example of her work, highlights many of the themes that went on to reverberate through her later collections, such as compassion, tolerance, and understanding of others.

In its original publication, “Kindness” closed with an additional note: “Columbia, 1978.” The poem was based on a real-life experience of Nye’s while she was on her honeymoon in Popayán, Columbia in that year. While their holiday started off well, it quickly took a traumatic turn as they were robbed of their belongings and someone who had been riding the bus with them was killed. Nye and her husband were forced to recalibrate as they navigated an unfamiliar landscape without money or passports. They encountered a stranger who treated them with compassion and understanding, and Nye was inspired to sit down and write this poem.

Rather than allowing this experience to darken her view of humanity, the poet chose to view the memory through a small act of kindness.