Curated by Kantara Suffrant, in the Annie May Swift Studio, Department of Performance Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (April 2014).
This page is offered in loving memory of Alan Shefsky (1959-2014), poet and dedicated Northwestern University Performance Studies Department employee, and friend to many a graduate student.
"Shefsky was a poet with his works published in many literary journals and performed at a number of venues in Chicago. He is the author of Amelia Absent, Amelia Present (Clay Springs Press, 1995) and What Emily, “a playful, inquiring romp into the inner life and poetical line of Emily Dickinson” (Magnolia Press Collective, 2011). His last collection of poems, Glee (Magnolia Press, 2012), was written before, during, and after Shefsky’s diagnosis with a glioblastoma brain tumor."
Verse
A tumor in the brain
is fine I say to the nurse,
It’s like having a new house with
A view of the universe.
The little girl asks
The little girl asks “How can he stand?”
She means on my feet.
“It’s not so bad,” I say. I mean It’s not so easy.
It’s not so sad.
It’s okay don’t cry, says the little girl, walking by.