Ezekiel's Wheels

“Progressive, passionate, and unfailingly feminist, Kaufman is a breathtakingly fine poet.”—The Nation

“If someone is going to be exalted as a representative voice of Jewish or Israeli life in contemporary American poetry, one couldn’t ask for a more insightful or mature writer to assume such an impossible role.”—The Jerusalem Post

“Kaufman approaches Jerusalem’s bitter memories, contested histories and joyous unfoldings with a wary love.”—Publishers Weekly

Shirley Kaufman utilizes enigmatic symbolism from the Book of Ezekiel as she writes into the themes of exile and emigration that have marked her work since she moved to Israel thirty-six years ago. Her new poems attempt to bring meaning to an irrational world—the unrelenting passage of human life, the risks of artistic endeavoring, and the artist’s struggle with the loss of sight and memory. After nearly four decades of writing and publishing, Kaufman maintains a lightness of touch even while her poetry takes on an increased awareness of danger and urgency.

. . . I don’t want to
look back but can’t see ahead
from where I am now

and now is whatever I didn’t do
yesterday. Not what I live in.
Now is the fear
there won’t be anything
after now.

Shirley Kaufman was born in Seattle, lived in San Francisco, and immigrated to Jerusalem in 1973. Eight volumes of her award-winning poetry have been published in the United States, three by Copper Canyon Press. She lives in Jerusalem, Israel.