Author Statement: Five years ago I began working on a collection of poems titled Unus Mundus, derived from Marie Louise Von Frantz’s description of human union with “the one cosmos.” In her book, Creation Myths, she writes: “This unus mundus is not the cosmos as it exists now, but an idea in God’s psyche.” When I began this manuscript, I was interested in exploring how we as a species have moved beyond searching for a “union with” the cosmos in the spiritual sense—and understanding ourplace within it—to the desire to conquer its mysteries and exploit its resources. As a science writer who has come to be known as an eco-poet, I am acutely aware of the danger, as Heidegger states, of becoming “enframed” by technology—or not only being reliant upon it, but subservient to it. Yet I am also captivated by how the language of science and technology has seeped into mainstream use, mutating and multiplying vocabulary. How the concepts and discoveries of science fuel our hopes and fears. And how poetry can explore, challenge and celebrate science. As a writer who has returned to the prairies, I am also enthralled with the colours, scents, textures, light, space, and sky of this place. It is a landscape that has inspired my work creatively and thematically. Like artists and writers Marian Penner Bancroft, Sharon Butala and Simon Schama, I am interested in how landscape shapes our personal histories in memory and physical experience. And how this sense of “place” informs one’sdaily life and creative work.

Mari-Lou Rowley has published six previous collections of poetry, most recently CosmoSonnets (JackPine 2007) and Viral Suite (Anvil Press 2004). Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada and the US—and on Canadian Association of Physicists website. Rowley has performed her poetry across the continent, from Harbourfront to Seattle, where she performed at Bumbershoot, Seattle’s annual arts extravaganza. She also participated in the Poetic Ecologies conference in Brussels in May 2008. Rowley has a Master’s of Liberal Studies degree from Simon Fraser University. A science writer and avid star gazer, her favourite constellation is Orion. Her favourite cosmological phenomena are binary pulsars. In 2006 she moved to Saskatoon from Vancouver to be closer to the sky.

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