The poems in Portable Planet touch on Shaffer's experiences on, around, and within the Pacific Rim, from California to Japan to Indonesia. The heart of the book is "The Western Room," a poem that presents glimpses of Okinawa by means of a tour of Shuri Castle, the newly-restored royal residence of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Portable Planet is essentially a book of poems that celebrate and examine the status of humans as "inside-outsiders," not only in other countries and cultures, but also on the planet and even within our own families.