Jennifer Harrison's Anywhy is exceptional. The depth and lightly carried learning of the author, as we embrace each poem, is startling. We are philosophically shaken. Her title Anywhy may suggest the cool shrug of ̀whatever' but Harrison's neologism is a steady-eyed consideration of the world: its ecology, its history, its fragilities and resilience. Her insight is subtle but never vague, inviting our imagination to consider the inner life of birds, the emotive pull of hardware, Emma Hamilton, a reverie at Blackwood Village (from which the title emerges), DNA or Absolute Zero. Above all, it scintillates with human sorrow and human response. Harrison is a challenging and significant poet, the quality of whose work needs defining and celebrating. Martin Duwell With its subtle but inventive lyrical strategies and masks, poetry like Jennifer Harrison's addresses poetry-which means it addresses us, quietly, as readers who enter its space as observers and who are active, and who feel its presence within us, not in our faces.