Thanks to the editors of The Malahat Review and The Fiddlehead where earlier versions of some of these poems were first published.
An earlier version of “Darkling” (“This is what I remember of life on earth”) received Honourable Mention in The Malahat Review’s 2011 Long Poem competition.
“The boat that was not a boat,” first published in The Fiddlehead, is included in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013, (Tightrope Books, Barrie ON). Thanks to Sue Goyette, editor of the 2013 anthology, and to Molly Peacock, the series editor.
My sincere thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts for a Grant to Professional Writers, to the British Columbia Arts Council for a Project Grant in Creative Writing, to the Banff Centre for the Arts for funding to attend the 2011 Writing Studio, to Access Copyright for a Professional Development Grant, and to the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild for their subsidized Artists and Writers’ Colonies.
Many thanks to the Brick Books team: Barry Dempster, Alayna Munce, Sue Sinclair, Nick Thran, Cheryl Dipede, the inimitable Kitty Lewis, and my wonderful editor, Don McKay. I am also grateful to Carolyn Forché and John Barton; Marilyn Bowering, Jan Conn, Rebeca Helfer and Ian Munro; Lorna Crozier and my fellow colonists at St. Pete’s; Roo Borson for serving as a sounding board; and Jan Zwicky for her insights and friendship.
Blue Sonoma is in memory of Robert Amussen, 1924 – 2013.