cover image A Space Filled with Moving

A Space Filled with Moving

Maggie Anderson. University of Pittsburgh Press, $0 (63pp) ISBN 978-0-8229-3704-3

Anderson ( Cold Comfort ) writes in the poem ``Setting Out'' that ``even the most beautiful / of late summer days can cramp into a memory, uneasy /attention to what we haven't thought about in years.'' In attempting to transform her life experience into poetry, the poet is unfortunately unable to conjure up more than a ``cramp'' of emotion when relating the events of her past. She writes in ``Empirical'' that ``Everything sad that ever happened to me / I have mourned beside a river''--an interesting declaration, to be sure; but what follows is `string' is singular a string of vague metaphors and incongruous images. Anderson speaks much about the places where she has visited and lived, and often gets caught up in descriptive details at the expense of any emotional and spiritual resonance that an account of her activities could produce. Ultimately, the poet is quite up front about her reluctance to share anything other than occasionally clever wordplay with readers. She notes in ``Heart Labor'': ``You want me to name the specific sorrows? / They do not matter. You have your own.'' (May)