In her first book of poems, Nomi Stone meticulously records how it feels to be an outsider living among her own people. In 2003, she decided to live on an island off the coast of Tunisia amid an ancient community of Kohanic Jews who have lived in Djerba since 586 B.C.
These poems trace her growing knowledge of Hebrew and Orthodox African Jewish culture, along with her awareness of their otherness amidst their neighbors, Muslim Tunisians. She explores the exactness of their religious observance while she examines it in relation to herself. In a poem called “Outside of Time” she sees the essence of the Sabbath this way:
During the Sabbath you are in other
time. You carry nothing
but your continuing
breath. Enter here, where
time is not
time, inside an alignment of
the heavenly
and earthly worlds
Although she feels the wonder of the Sabbath’s timeless dreaminess, she practices her own rules during the weekdays. Her conflict is between her attempt to accept and live according to the rules of the Jews of Djerba and her need to remain true to her usual way of life. So during the week, she practices her Hebrew grammar in a cafe “where no respectable girl of the village would go,” and notices the “Muslim men’s eyes flash.” And then she goes to the other side of the island, where “bare-shouldered” she writes more freely about the festivals and Israel itself. And during her peaceful co-existence, she gains perspective and clarity, as shown in her depiction of Jerusalem:
The stones are tunnels
of light. The city touches
your funny bone with
a mallet of light, the
of emerging from
a tunnel into a bright room.
She captures the balancing act of feeling estranged and belonging in these poems.