[The prose poems of Hollander's In Place] are not so much lyric, though light and shadow pass and interplay, as about what constitutes or fails to constitute lyric; that is, what constitutes (or fails) poetry; that is, what constitutes (or fails) knowledge; that is, what constitutes uncertainty. A major theme is the unknowability of reality, hence the impossibility of validating poetics, ethics, or ontology. Explorings, nostalgias, beseechings and unbeseechings inconclusively conclude, sometimes with tentative hope, sometimes not. While one can hardly claim that the poems are affirmative, they are less consistently self-parodying and skeptical than Hollander's book Reflections on Espionage. In tone, subtlety of intelligence, control of imagery and prose rhythm, they are very fine, a grand pleasure to read. "In Place of Place" is a philosophical and poetic meditation well worth serious philosophical as well as poetic attention (whether or not its author will keep its distinctions...