Harbor Me Jacqueline Woodson Quotes

If the worst thing in the world happened, would I help protect someone else? Would I let myself be a harbor for someone who needs it?’ Then she said, ‘I want each of you to say to the other: I will harbor you.’ I will harbor you.

Back then, we still all believed in happy endings. None of us knew yet how many endings and beginnings one story could have.

Tragedy is strange. It takes away. And it gives too" -Haley

I didn't know it would be people you barely knew becoming friends that harbored you. And dreams you didn't even know you had - coming true. I didn't know it would be superpowers rising up out of tragedies, and perfect moments in a nearly empty classroom.

That’s what up , Amari said. Read those poems in all kinds of American, son.

I know in my heart, Tiago whispered, the language we like to speak is music and poetry and even cold, sweet piraguas on hot, hot summer days. But it feels like this place wants to break my heart. It feels like every day it tries to make my mom feel tinier and tinier, like the size of Perrito’s head in my hands.

Before, you used to hear the word immigration and it sounded like everything you ever believed in. It sounded like feliz cumpleaños and merry Christmas and welcome home. But now you hear it and you get scared because it sounds like a word that makes you want to disappear. It sounds like someone getting stolen away from you.

And in the night, when the dog barks at shadows, tell him not to be afraid of what he cannot see or the things he does not yet understand. There is mystery everywhere. Beneath rocks, there is damp earth and an army of ants planning a revolution. Esteban stood at the front of the room, staring at the page. Then he lifted his head and looked at us. We cheered again, even louder this time. I don't know if any of us really understood his dad's poem. But for a long time after he'd finished reading, I thought about that army of ants, how they were coming together. Like us.