"How much have you thrown away in your lifetime already? Do you ever think about it? Where does this plethora of leavings come from? How long does it take you, even one little you, to fill the can by your desk?" National Book Award finalist, Young People's Poet Laureate, and devoted trash-picker-upper Naomi Shihab Nye explores these questions and more in Cast Away. With poems about food wrappers, lost mittens, plastic straws, refugee children, trashy talk, the environment, connection, community, responsibility to the planet, politics, immigration, time, junk mail, trash collectors, garbage trucks, all that we carry and all that we discard, this is a rich, engaging, moving, and sometimes humorous collection for readers ages twelve to adult. For Naomi Shihab Nye fans, poetry fans, English and writing teachers, librarians, and anyone worried about our planet. Includes an introduction by the poet, an index to first lines, and an index to poems.