The process of writing a novel is done in solitude, and if you’re lucky, inside a circle of love. My circle is filled with literary Zen Masters, high priests and priestesses of nature, students of life, and laborers in the fields of ordinary miracles. To all, my sincerest gratitude. First among these is my editor, Nate Roberson, who guided me past each mile marker. Thanks to my immediate family for listening and excusing my hundred-yard stare of inattentiveness. To all the poets, especially Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Ira Sadoff, Dzvinia Orlowsky, Gary Miranda, Steven Huff, Sam Hamill, Michael Simms, Aliki Barnstone, Kathy Fagan, Peter Meinke, Mary Jane White, Henry Carlile, Christopher Merrill, Meg Kearney, Sandra McPherson, Major Jackson, Jonah Bornstein, and Ana Castillo, whose poems were daily companions. To dear friends whose faith never wavered: Bruce Berger, Ann Rittenberg, Jaime Manrique, Lisa Parmenter, Alicia Griffin, Alison McLennan, Gloria Estela Gonzalez, Migs Muldrow, James Cleveland, David Yoo, Joan Macri, Kerry Beckford, Shawn, Tracy, and Ramona Smith, Michael and Elaine DeLalla, Rich and Pam Larsen, and Jon and Dally Ingersoll. A very special thanks to the writers and faculty of the Writers in Paradise Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. To my agent, David Hale Smith, and always to my mentors from the Pine Manor/Solstice MFA Program, Sterling Watson and Sandra Scofield, whose wisdom and stern affection are always present.