Andrew Lansdown’s Filling the Emptiness shows that even a highly prolific poet can continue to discover fresh meaning in the world. The title poem, in tanka form, uses the compartments within a bamboo stem to suggest how emptiness is constantly being filled with new stories and insights.
Throughout the collection, Lansdown employs concise tanka and haiku to reframe familiar scenes and objects, revealing unexpected layers of connection and significance. Light, humorous pieces such as “Them Shoes,” set on Bourbon Street, sit comfortably alongside more reflective works like “Kansai Blossoms” and “Of Bells and Bodies,” which move quietly from the tangible to the spiritual.
While the poems are shaped by Christian faith, they express it through shared human experience and subtle suggestion rather than direct statement. The result is a book of precise, restrained writing that rewards close attention and feels like a genuine addition to Lansdown’s body of work.
Admin –
I have enjoyed reading this collection. So much of it is what I think of as quintessential Andrew Lansdown: charming, accessible, humane, and thoughtful, with fresh and delightful vignettes from every day life.