Laura Kasischke, Space, in Chains (Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 2011)

The past few years I have made it a discipline to read poetry every day. I tend to read one or two poems, most often out loud and let them sit for the rest of the day in the midst of all of my other activities. My routine is to read poems as my espresso machine is warming up for my morning coffee.

Laura Kasischke’s poems lingered throughout my days as I was reading the book. The images of daughter, wife, and mother are a bit unsettling. Her reflections on her mother and father demonstrate deep love with a dose of guilt and regret. That is, if she is writing about her own life and her own experience. There is just enough whimsey in her poems to leave me off balance. Perhaps I know here better for having read her poems. Perhaps I don’t know her at all. Perhaps she is just pulling my leg.

It is the not knowing that makes the book so delightful for me.

This is a book I could read again - several times.