Poetry In Plain Sight - Nancy Shiffrin

I purchased Nancy's poetry book called The Vast Unknowing. It is a journey into Jewish identity, living in Los Angeles and the fears that bind all of us if we are honest.

This is a poem with multiple levels of depth. The intersections of youth and culture mixed in with straddling living in America when you were born elsewhere. How do you fit in? How do you understand freedom?

For me it is loving the poetry of Rumi and finding out "Wait, there are others poets I should know about?" Of course there are other Persian poets and people I should know about. A poem gives you a chance to expand your world view, if you are open to hearing about the lives of other people.

Not everyone is willing.

Nancy has a new collection of poems called Game with Variations. If you would like to purchase her book you can e-mail her or visit the Unibook web site.

I generally try to only post one poem per poet but this one is short. I have to post this video to represent for those of us still longing for the touch and refusing to give it up, no matter what society says.