Some of these poems first appeared, often in earlier incarnations, in The Antigonish Review, Arc, Bei Mei Feng (China), CV2, Event, fhole, The Moosehead Anthology 10: Future Welcome (Montreal: DC Books, 2005), Grain, I.V. Lounge Nights (Toronto: Tightrope, 2008), Jacket (Australia), The New Quarterly, Nuit Blanche: Poems for Late Nights (Toronto: RSS Press, 2007), The Peter F. Yacht Club, poetrypei.com, poetry’z own, Prairie Fire, PRISM international and Riddle Fence. My thanks to the editors of these publications.
Thanks to all who, in various ways, helped to shape these poems: Julie and Ian Dennison, Adam Dickinson, Adrienne Barrett Hofman, Robert and Margaret Hoops, Ken Howe, Jessica Johnson, Anita Lahey, Richard Lemm, Steve Noyes, John Reibetanz, David Seymour, Charmaine and Matthew Tierney, Andy Weaver and Jan Zwicky.
Thanks and enduring love, as always, to Janet who, for some reason,
didn’t want a book about the end of the world dedicated to her.
I am eternally grateful to John Smith for the hours spent on the
telephone discussing poetry and much else.
Special thanks to my editor Don McKay and to everyone at Brick Books.
My thanks to Shaun Lowe for the cover photograph and to Adriana
Afford of Argyle Fine Art (http://www.argylefa.tk).
The Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the
Toronto Arts Council provided financial support during the completion
of this book.
The poem “When It Comes for You” received a “Highly Commended”
award in the 2005 Petra Kenney International Poetry Competition.
“Advisory” takes liberties with two base texts: The Voluntary Code
Regarding Violence in Television Programming developed by the Canadian
Association of Broadcasters and the parental guidance found on a rental
DVD copy of Adaptation, Dir: Spike Jonze, 2002.
“Envoi” is the traditional address of the poet to his or her poem or book
of poems before sending it out into the world.
The book’s second epigraph is by C.D. Wright, from “The Secret Life
of Musical Instruments,” Steal Away: Selected and New Poems (Port
Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2002).
“Strait Crossing” is for Geoffrey Green.
“The Hypochondriac Flies to Mexico” is for Janet McOrmond.