ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book was imagined and created on land stewarded for generations by the Coast Salish peoples of Lekwungen, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ nations, and by the Anishinaabek of the Three Fires Confederacy.

Versions of these poems appeared in CV2, Event, Grain, Poetry Is Dead, Prairie Fire, PRISM International, SAND Journal, and The Malahat Review and were awarded prizes from Grain and PRISM International. Thank you to the editors of these fine magazines for their tireless support of writers.

My thanks to the BC Arts Council, The Malahat Review, and the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria for scholarship and fellowship assistance during the writing of this book.

Investigating this history was made possible by the resources of the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, the Warsaw Rising Museum, the German-Russian Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst, the William C. Mearns Centre for Learning – McPherson Library at the University of Victoria, the UK Ministry of Defence Polish Correspondence Section, the UK National Archives, and the Imperial War Museums Collections. Ewa Bratosiewicz provided on-the-ground context in Warsaw.

My thanks to everyone at McGill-Queen’s University Press for bringing me along with excellent attention, and to David Drummond for his luminous cover design. Thanks especially to my editor, Carolyn Smart, for her wisdom and grace.

Thank you to the professors, staff, and fellows of the Department of Writing and the Phoenix Theatre Department at the University of Victoria, where variations of these poems were workshopped and performed, and to Charlotte Schallié in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies for conversation at the thesis stage. To my Phoenix Family and my Writing Clan (you know who you are), “I am wealthy in my friends.”

Tim Lilburn: I quite simply could not have realized this work without your unstinting mentorship, rigorous exchange, and encouragement from the very start. Thank you.

The writers of Barocca – Frankie Blake, Barbara Campbell, Kevin Couture, Matthew Miller, David Stewart – and their families enrich my practice with their silent discos, alphabet potlucks, and esteem. You are all good ones.

Support from community and friends kept me going. I am grateful to more people than I can name here, especially Khawla Nassar, Jodi Wilding, Melony Burton, Cory Judge, Heidi Fink, Philip Kevin Paul, Ewan and Pavlina McLaren, Warren Heiti, and Jeramy Dodds. Astrid North was a profoundly generous artist and kindred spirit. Wherever you are, Astrid, I know your song is grooving them to their feet. Leah Chisholm, your friendship is a true compass.

I thank my grandparents and ancestors who called me to this. I thank family who shared stories and memories, and my nieces and nephews who bring me wild joy. Thank you to the McCleery family, for your embrace.

This project would have remained a mere dream without the steadfast and practical assistance of three women. My undying thanks and love to my mom, Jo-Ann, for her great sorcery and faith; to Mary Carpenter, an ally and angel; and to my daughter, Anouk, the best first mate, for her courage, insight, and sheer radiance: you give meaning to all I do.

My dad, Brian, first taught me to play with words, and indulged me all my life in many a long conference, no matter the hour. This book just missed him, but it could never have been without him. Chi miigwech, Dad, and big love.

And to Eamon, whose broad-mind and immense goodwill lend all around him a brighter light: thank you for all you bring to my thinking and to my life.