Acknowledgements and publication credits

Several of the poems included in this book were first published by the following journals and organizations, to which I am very grateful. I am also deeply thankful to the teachers, mentors, and colleagues with whom I workshopped many of the poems in this collection; to the manuscript’s anonymous reviewers for their tough, incisive, and generous feedback; to everyone at AU Press; and to Peter Midgley, who edited the collection and helped it achieve its final form.

“Shadows the words” was first published in UnLost, 4 June 2017.

“Three votive candles” was first published in an earlier version in subTerrain, no. 28, 2000, pp. 27–28.

“Here is where was” was first published in Existere, vol. 35, no. 2, 2016, p. 21.

“No family one pictures” was first published in an earlier version in EVENT Magazine, vol. 46, 2017, pp. 48–49.

“Grand parenthesis” was first published in an earlier version in The Eramosa Anthology, edited by Katherine L. Gordon and Joshua Willoughby, Eramosa Writers Group, 1996, pp. 72–73.

“A sound outside the house” and “Was I asleep?” were first accepted for publication in Coffin Bell, vol. 2, no. 3, 2019, in press.

“The leaf is not the line” earned Honourable Mention in Riddle Fence’s 2017 Compton Poetry Contest and was first published in Riddle Fence, no. 28, 2017, pp. 22–23.

“Why the blue whale risked its neck” was first published in On Spec Magazine, vol. 29, no. 1, 2018, p. 49.

“Mab and Burke” was first published in an earlier version in subTerrain, no. 21, 1996, p. 31.

“Voyager 2, thinking, types things” was first published in concıˉs, Winter 2017, https://concis.io/issues/winter-2017/mark-a-mccutcheon-voyager-2/.

“Lunar sonata” was first published in Tigershark ezine, no. 11, 2016, p. 9.

“Baby Bee explains Jupiter’s Great Red Spot” and “The Pit of Carkoon” were first published in earlier versions in Writual, no. 2, 1995, pp. 25–26.

“Heaven help the roses” earned Runner-Up in Into the Void’s 2017 Poetry Contest, and was first published in Into the Void online, 21 January 2018, https://intothevoidmagazine.com/2017-winners/.

“The lineaments” was first published in Quills, no. XI, pp. 52–53.

“New patriot love” was first published in Milkweed Zine, no. 3, Spring 2017, pp. 41–42.

“The space of one paragraph” was first published in Riddled With Arrows, vol. 2, no. 2, 2018, http://www.riddledwitharrows.com/riddled-with-arrows-issue-2-2-toc/shadow-play/#space.

“Stranger music” was shortlisted for the Edmonton Poetry Festival and Edmonton Transit Service’s Poetry Moves on Transit contest in 2018, and was first published on the Edmonton Poetry Festival’s shortlist website, on 13 June 2018, http://edmontonpoetryfestival.com/poetry-route/.

“Cash paradise” was first published in Grain, vol. 46, no. 1, 2018, p. 72.

“Moon of a far planet” was first published in Star*Line, vol. 41, no. 4, Fall 2018, p. 37.

“Fuseli in Peru” was first published in Kaleidotrope, April 2014, http://www.kaleidotrope.net/archives/spring-2014-2/fuseli-in-peru-by-mark-a-mccutcheon/.