Complex, intricately textured and polyphonic, this sequence of five long poems enacts the fulfilment of poetry and philosophy in one another. "In Schiller's terms, it is the elegiac longing for unity of soul and world, here expressed in some of the most beautiful poetry of 1986." -- Ronald B. Hatch, University of Toronto Quarterly

Jan Zwicky is an accomplished poet, philosopher and musician whose intense and vivid lyricism imbues her poetry with music and passion. Born in Calgary, Alberta, Zwicky studied at the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto before undertaking an academic career teaching philosophy at a number of North American institutions. She is also a professional musician, with an active interest in baroque performance technique. Zwicky is a prolific essayist, as well as the author of a dozen books. Her works have won her the Governor General's Award (Songs For Relinquishing the Earth, 1998) and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (Robinson's Crossing, 2004) as well as many other accolades and shortlist nominations. Zwicky lives on Quadra Island, British Columbia.

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"This is a disturbing book about great tensions, about the results of frustration, about the mild, real sunlight of winning, through pain, some sort of understanding."-- Christopher Wiseman, Calgary Sunday Herald

"An interesting blend of the passionately terse and the compassionately expansive."--Donalee Moulton-Barrett, The Canadian Book Review Annual