Kodiak Herbal, February 2008

Mary did such an amazing job on my book cover. I have had a great time giving readings here and there, selling my chapbook, talking to kindred spirits about poetry. Some of the work in this collection is quite old, and was written when I lived in very remote Alaska from 1996-1999, before I moved to California. My husband Nick worked as a fish culturist for the National Marine Fisheries Service at Alaska's oldest field research station, Little Port Walter. We were on the southern tip of Baranof Island, near a fishing town called Port Alexander. The year-round population at LPW was four humanoids. When my daughter Naomi was born, the population increased to five humanoids. We got our groceries and mail once a week (more seldom in the winter) by float plane. I spent my first winter pregnant, my second with an infant, my third with a toddler. I wrote the poems in order to stay connected to the world around me. And to keep from watching The Shining over & over.