Nettie Farris
Like the Psalms of David,
not a collection to be read beginning to end in one sitting. Instead, these poems are best savored, one at a time, perhaps randomly. The organization of the collection defies simplistic classification and division. These poems are arranged in alphabetical order according to authors’ last names. I came to this collection of poems published by the Ashland Poetry Press with one question:
What does it mean to be Jewish? I abandon the collection with a more general question:
What does it mean to be human?
You might begin, as I did, with Jane Yolen’s poem, “Shoes: Holocaust Museum, Washington D.C.” I am not Jewish myself, and I wanted to start with something familiar. Jane Yolen, I knew I could trust. Long ago, I read many of her picture books to my children, and I admire her work on fairy tales. Her poem, here, is also familiar. It’s a meditation on the difference in knowledge residing in our heads and knowledge residing in our h