Threshold

Description

Born in the United States, Shirley Kaufman has lived for the past 20 years in Jerusalem, a city split by cultural and religious fault lines. In direct, sensitive language, Kaufman's poems occupy the shifting border between ordinary life and violence, Palestinian and Jew, young love and aging companionship. They grapple with the meaning of routine, of family, and of life among a daily existence punctured with bombs. Sometimes I need to be nowhere. A place without history. "Kaufman's poems flourish in the spaces between what is familiar and unfamiliar, between life in Israel and life in the U.S., and in those moments when the differences between Palestinians and Jews, mothers and daughters, history and the immediate moment play themselves out." -- American Book Review "Kaufman is adept at revealing the human face behind politics, carefully accumulating familiar details to make a large portrait." -- Publishers Weekly Shirley Kaufman is the author of seven books of poetry and several translations from the Hebrew. Her awards include the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award. A native of Seattle, Kaufman now lives in Jerusalem. One. Threshold. Prologue: You have to begin -- In Jerusalem -- So many zeros -- The pines on our street -- Our neighbor in charge -- All over Rehavia -- You can feel the rising -- So we got out of Lebanon -- And you on my birthday -- New translation of Tsvetayeva -- Ripple of voices around the bed -- The trouble with anger -- Black ink black paint -- The Floor Keeps Turning -- Away -- "Forgetting" he said -- The sign on the new bridge -- Places I'm not allowed -- They are all we are all -- The city levitates -- Thirty years since I wanted -- They've rolled the parchment -- The evil has been committed -- Unstoppable fury -- Jerusalem Again -- And then you were peeling -- Waking in bed in the shrill -- No rain yet -- Because you have everything -- Daily ritual -- On the wall next to my window -- Little love poem -- Last fling of sundown -- What wants to continue -- Rachel's children are playing -- I remember when Jesus wept -- The weatherman tells us -- On clear nights I watch -- Two. February -- The Emperor of China -- Ungaretti's Umbrella -- The Small Nouns -- Translation -- Outlet -- Wind -- Figure out -- Likely -- Put aside -- Nibbling -- Human vessel -- The Lawns of Delhi -- Asparagus -- Three. Listening -- Jump -- A Sheet of Foil -- The Haunting -- Shell-Flowers -- Islands -- Little Late Marriage Poem -- Chartreuse -- Four. In the Beginning -- The Death of Rachel -- Yael -- Job's Wife -- Unfinished Poem -- Ladders -- Hubris -- Five. After -- Immersion -- Sanctum.