'These are tender, grave poems and it's as though the poet is encountering everything - a fox, a tunnel, a lily, a sunset - for the first and last time. Allow Me is an eyes-cracked meditation on time, what we do with it, and how it treats us. We must pay attention to the silences between comings and goings, between lines and stanzas and poems; the poems themselves are loud with life and what comes to life from the other side.' ~ Michael Kenyon, author of Travellers May Still Return

Rhonda Batchelor has worked in and around publishing, as a writer, editor, publisher, bookseller and consultant, since 1977. From 1990 to 1997 she and her late husband, the poet Charles Lillard operated Reference West, a small literary press publishing over 100 chapbooks of poetry and short fiction by some of Canada's finest writers. Her own poetry titles include Bearings (Brick Books), Interpreting Silence and Weather Report (Beach Holme Publishers). A chapbook from Leaf Press, And roll from me like water: the erotic tanka suite, was published in the fall of 2006 and a teen novel, She Loves You, was released by Dundurn Press in 2008. Her poetry, fiction, reviews and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Rhonda has lived on Vancouver Island since 1971 and holds a BFA from The University of Victoria. She is currently the Assistant Editor of The Malahat Review.

Rhonda Batchelor's profile page

These poems are bright, direct, and sure; fully present on every page. Rhonda Batchelor speaks plainly and timelessly, with vivid focus, from a life which gathers the force of its perspective into poetry of wit and beauty.

Marilyn Bowering, author of What is Long Past Occurs in Full Light