This is a stunning new long poem by an important Canadian poet. It is a poem of love against violence and loss. Written in the language of flowers, and reimagining the alphabet stunned by this history-changing event, it marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the murders of fourteen female students in Montreal on December 6, 1989. It is an incantation, a chant, a protest, a memento, an invocation, a prayer organized in fourteen sections. It is a bouquet of flowers. It challenges syntax, liberates lyric and the spellchecker. Many new words have been created, or old ones rewritten, especially using enjambment, a passionate and strikingly female device.

Cathy Ford is the author of fourteen books of poetry, and numerous chapbooks and folios published by blewointment press, Intermedia Press, Caitlin Press, Vehicule Press, Harbour Publishing and gynergy books. Her poetry, personal essays, poetic fictions, novel excerpts, prose and long poems have appeared in over two hundred magazines and anthologies. She has been a creative writing teacher, editor, typesetter and book designer. This is her first full-length book of poetry in 21 years.Ford served as the President of the League of Canadian Poets and was one of the founding members of the Feminist Caucus of the LCP. She is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers’ Union of Canada, and PEN International. For many years she has worked as a community and arts activist committed to world peace and improving the status of women, especially women artists, in Canada, and internationally.Born in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, she grew up in northern British Columbia, attended the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, and has a BFA and MFA in Creative Writing, with Honours. She lives in Sidney, B.C. and is married, with one son.

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