A bird on every tree
Page 16
This. This is what he holds out.
Acknowledgements
“The Race” was published previously in Riddle Fence #20 (2015), and “Doves” in Running the Whale’s Back (Goose Lane, 2013) and in The Antigonish Review (Spring 2005). “Solstice” was performed as part of the 2012 Lilah Kemp Reading Series at Bus Stop Theatre, Halifax. “The Vagabond Lover” first appeared in Nova Scotia Love Stories (Pottersfield, 2016) and “Polio Beach” in Local Hero (Breton Books, 2015). Many thanks to Beth Follett, Mark Harris, Andrew Atkinson, Richard Cumyn, Ronald Caplan, Lesley Choyce, and Corey Mombourquette for their input on these.
The Bliss Carman lines in “The Vagabond Lover” are from Bliss Carman’s Poems, McClelland & Stewart, 1931 edition.
My deepest gratitude to my editor, Jaime Forsythe, and the wonderful crew at Nimbus, especially Whitney Moran and Terrilee Bulger, for publishing the collection. Thanks to Lorri Neilsen Glenn, Binnie Brennan, Ramona Lumpkin, and the friends to whom the book is dedicated, and, as always, to Bruce Erskine and our sons; to Garry Gilfoy for his stories about Doris, 1927 international swim marathon champion; and to Bess, in memoriam, for joyfully sharing her Bliss.