Space, in Chains

Space, in Chains is a collection of poems by Laura Kasischke. The voices in it are often ghostly, and the pieces arrive as fragments: narratives broken off midway, overheard conversations, songs and prayers.

The language draws on medieval lyrics and puts them into contemporary idiom. The poems hold the haunting quality of memories and dreams, with a strangeness that follows its own music.

Images move quickly from one setting to another. An ancient place has air bound by chains, stagnant water holds a reflection of lightning, and a rock falls through space like a bride tossing off flowers and veils. A subway rushes underground.

Bodies in a room appear as jars of wasps and flies, yet enchanted, like frightened children's laughter. Reading the book means moving between dread and odd tenderness, sometimes within a single line.

Kasischke has written thirteen books of poetry and fiction. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan and was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2009.