Thanks to…
Ali and Avery, for sharing this amazing ride with me, and allowing me to include you (once again) in these dispatches. I love you both so much.
Marie Harris for her work on the Bruised Heart collaboration and for understanding when I needed to break it. That book lives behind and inside this one.
Curtis Bauer and Vievee Francis for being such good friends and for serving as the initial audience (and as editors) to many of these pieces.
Alex Long and Ryan Walsh for sharing morning lines with me and Curtis.
Keith Flynn, A. Van Jordan, and Dana Levin, who inspire and bolster me by who they are and the work they do.
Charter Weeks for his powerful and disturbing photomontages to match mine. And for being there through thick and thin.
Kevin McIlvoy and Emilie White for being not only loyal supporters of my work but also good friends and such amazing writers themselves.
Matthew Olzmann, Ross White, and all the “Grinders” I shared the ever-valuable Grind with.
Maggie Anderson for insisting that “Black Hills” was a poem.
Ross Gay and Patrick Rosal for their interest in “Recovering” and their own amazing, badass poetry.
Landon Godfrey and Gary Hawkins, for being so cool and so dedicated.
Laurie Corral and Landon’s Vandercooked series at Asheville Book Works for including me in such a creative, nurturing scene.
Paul Moxon for his elegant and creative broadside of “Dear Virgo: ‘It’s not the first time…’”
Jen Acker, Gaylord Brewer, Christopher Buckley, Stephen Corey, Luke Hankins, Ata Moharreri, Emilia Phillips, Elizabeth Scanlon, and Pamela Uschuk and William Pitt Root for helping me see that these poems were more than therapeutic and pushing them out in the world.
Donna Read, dear friend, for training me and helping me remember that the way out is indeed through.
Gary Clark and the staff at the Vermont Studio Center for providing such necessary sanctuary for so many people, including myself.
Mark E. Cull, Selena Trager, Hannah Moye, and the crew at Red Hen Press for putting this thing together so expertly.
And, of course, Kate Gale, who saw the book I was writing, backed it enthusiastically, and pushed me to dig deeper.