Antecedent, Severson-Baker’s second collection, is a ferocious and candid outcry from the West. This is a book willing to reveal, to tell the frank truth, about “the weave of what is human.” Among the love and cruelty of existence, the poet uncovers fish guts, little yellow violets, a red fox in an apple orchard, and the lipstick section of London Drugs. From the small towns, big cities, mountains and prairie of her home Alberta, east to Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, then across the pond to England—back in time through ancestors, to the beginning of the universe—Severson-Baker’s unique voice belts out tales of origin stories, "everyself" figures, and how sorrow and growth entwine in the human condition. When she tells us, with breathless wisdom, “this whole thing is about / slices of light,” we trust her.

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