Threshold

by Shirley Kaufman

Shirley Kaufman has long been a house favorite at Copper Canyon, and we’re celebrating her new book with a special price of $12.00. 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.
A life of wandering
like the desert generation of Moses.
The wandering Jew. But that brings me
back into history.
Sealed rooms. Windows
criss-crossed with tape so the glass won’t shatter.
A dark noose of memory around my neck.
Coffins covered with flags and flags
burning. I need to be nowhere.
—from "Sanctum" "There’s such solidity to Shirley Kaufman’s writing. . . . You feel in conversation with someone wise and passionate, someone you can trust."— Poetry Flash "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.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Copper Canyon Press sent me this book when I made a recent purchase and I really enjoyed this book. Kaufman has lived in Jerusalem for the last thirty years although she was born and raised on the U.S. west coast and makes frequent trips back. These areoems about her live abroad.

What I enjoyed was her keen sense of history and surrounding issues but she doesn't make a political statement. Instead one senses that all she wants is that they all get along. There are some powerful pieces like Immersio, which recalls the Nazi sinking of a boat of fleeing Jews from Crete or Rachel's children are playing war games both dealing with war and conflict. And then there is the The Emperor of China that examines an Anselm Keifer painting or the funny poem called Asparagus about the dinner party guest who is funded to see why urine smells badly for some people who eat the green vegetable. There are several love poems, views of returning to America, as well as dealing with family issues that round off the five books in this small collection. Yet I feel the best qualities are her keen observations about life instilled with vivid images. A real treat and thank you Copper Canyon for broadening my horizons.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems that talk about Jerusalem and the US, culture, relationships, and history. I didn't feel pulled into these poems. I found a few lines I liked but overall not my style of poetry.

from And you on my birthday: "but the bonsai / is crippled / this is not / about binding / its trying / to tell me about / compression"

from The Floor Keeps Turning: "or my friend measures /three cups of water / for the packaged soup / and sits down / across from the place / where he / used to be"

[Mills College Library]

811 K21t 2003