Like the shifting and often turbulent skies of our own emotional meteorology, Rhonda Batchelor’s poems forecast the shifting patterns of a marriage from quiet moments of a graceful dawn to stormy seas of absence, from brilliant love-strewn sunshowers to dark moments of loss and bitter nights upon the shore. In three sections, "Backbone of the Moon", "Ghostly Dialogues" and "Still Breathing", Batchelor explores the fleeting forever trilogy of expectations, unions and releases that comprise the tidelike phases of a lover’s cycle. Dedicated to respected Canadian poet Charles Lillard, Batchelor’s late husband, this work keens to the notes of a personal lament but emerges triumphantly healed and ultimately blessed.

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.

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