Library Journal Review: The conversational yet metaphysical poems in Hirshfield's (Given Sugar, Given Salt) sixth collection look at everyday circumstances through a foreshortened lens. Images of flowers, fruits, stones, wolves, beetles, fireflies, paintings, and dogs?most of these poems mention dogs?all represent elusive emotional states. In Lemons, e.g., Hirshfield uses grated lemon rind bitters to suggest the moment when one lover knows that his feelings are not reciprocated. The best poems are spare meditations on life's disappointments. They usually begin in the middle of things, letting the context accrue gradually until they end in mystery, as in Seventeen Pebbles, a series of 17 poems each resembling haiku. One could easily become heavy-handed and maudlin with these subjects?many of the poems feel as though they were written at the end of a love affair. But Hirshfield, whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Atlantic Monthly, the Nation, and The New Yorker, manages to avoid just that with vivid imagery, understatement, and a tone that is emotionally distant but not removed. Her poetic voice?although distinctly her own?faintly echoes the work of Louise Gl?ck and Robert Haas. Suitable for all libraries.?Diane Scharper, Towson Univ., MD Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.