This collection has seven parts, each with a distinctly different theme and setting. The first part gives a visitor's vivid impressions of the people and culture of Fogo Island, Newfoundland. The second part recounts the family history surrounding the author's childhood in Montreal. The third and fourth parts, in a more abstract and metaphorical style, are introspective reflections on growing up, aging and the workings of memory through the passage of time, also touching on the environment and the nature of reality. The fifth part was written in Elizabeth Bishop House in Nova Scotia, and concerns the great Canadian-born poet's early life there. The sixth part is a series of poems about the anatomy and behaviour of a highly intelligent, exotic Rainbow Lorikeet owned by the author. The last part is a single long poem about the suffering and death of an injured rabbit the author found in her back yard.

Montreal-born writer Claudia Coutu Radmore has lived, taught and created art in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, China and, as a CUSO volunteer, in Vanuatu. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Queen's University. Now residing west of Ottawa with husband Ted and rainbow lorikeet Desirée, she began editing and publishing selected poets with her catkin press in 2012. Accidentals won the bpNichol Chapbook Award in 2011. Her poem "the breast of sappiness" is included in The Best Canadian Poetry of 2019. Claudia has published collections in Japanese forms as well as lyric, and is the President of Haiku Canada.

Claudia Radmore's profile page