A Brief History of Time promises scope and Shaindel Beers delivers. Her strong first book goes beyond the farm girl who escapes and has love affairs. This young woman writes poems crammed with the beauty, irony, and sadness of the world: crummy jobs, meanness, illness, loss, and all the perspective they bring. The free verse is crafted and the sestinas are strong narratives. As Beers says in one poem, ''I try to use old wordshellip;and make them say new things.'' She succeeds!