Shirley Kaufman (1923–2016) published nine poetry collections, including Roots in the Air, Threshold, and Ezekiel’s Wheels. For her achievements in unveiling the voice of a woman on such topics as childbirth, family relationships, envy, love, aging, and the meaning of Jewish fate, she received many honors, including the Pushcart Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Israel President’s Prize for Literature in 2007.

Hope

by Shirley Kaufman

Through a blue window

I am letting it go, light
having washed its feathers.


The sky is a flat sheet
of water reflecting itself,
and when I face


its immeasurable underside,
there’s nothing behind it.
Only a darkening space
People on couch
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