Inspired by the Rocky Mountains, 'Land of the Sky', the last poem in this collection, is a means of using detail from various distances to reflect on the socio-political and the human that is all around us. At the essence of all the poems in the collection: to explore the land through the distance of the sky and understand that which seems so grounded as-- the sky-- full of metaphor and near-unfathomable reflexes of histories. This collection is also a continuation of one of the projects of the previous poetry collection, Letter Out: Letter In defining and redefining love as an alternative to solidarity, with the added twist of drawing alternatives to diversity and democracy from the multiplicity of nature.

Salimah ValianiI is a poet, activist, and researcher. Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, of a Ugandan mother and Tanzanian father, like her parents, Salimah left home in her late teenage years and began a journey of study and work that included extended stays in Montreal, Quebec; London (UK); New York City and Binghamton (USA); Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario; and Cape Town, South Africa. She has published four collections of poetry: breathing for breadth (2005);

Letter Out: Letter In (2009); Land of the Sky (2016); and Cradles (2017). Her latest publication is the poem-story," Dear South Africa," one of seven pieces in Praxis Magazine's 2019-2020 Chapbook Series. Check out her work online at: https://www.facebook.com/SalimahValianiPoet.

Salimah Valiani's profile page

"Land of the Sky delivers poetry that is moving, transporting, and transcendent. A citizen of the globe, Salimah Valiani has no time for the pedestrian and no room for the commonplace. She recognizes that "things are similar and different simultaneously": "What's wrong with choosing the strange?" In Land of the Sky, Valiani connects Canada, Tanzania, and Uganda; Ismaili, Ishnashari, and Buddhist; Anishnabek Cree, Chinese, and Luganda; Chez Rodin and Plante Bath; snow and savannah; astronomy that's based on criminal justice forensics. For Valiani, "The first crime is alienation," and so she savours the world-- exotic menus and mountain gorillas, public transit workers and women dancers-- and each moment's "eminence / decadence." This book is the result of the poet's "fragmenting my life / into more new places." Why? "How many times can a heart be broken?" The resolve? "it takes pain / to feel free."
-- George Elliott Clarke, Parliamentary (Canadian) Poet Laureate (2016-2018)