The Last House Read online

  – Zhuangzi (in Watson, 1964)

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to the Canada Council for support during the writing of this book, to Patricia Young for her invaluable friendship and support, and especially to my editor Jan Zwicky for hearing and helping to shape the whole manuscript.

  The following poems, some in earlier versions, have already appeared in print. A bow to the editors. “Feast” in Long Journey: Contemporary Northwest Poets (David Biespiel, editor); “The Last House” in Fiddlehead; “Ancestors” in Poetry Northwest; “The Stars” in Grain; “Subdivision,” “Manchester,” and “Dumpster” in Event; “Hand” in The Literary Review of Canada; “Basement Suite,” “Cellar,” “Lost Countryside,” and “When Hawks Stop Hunting” in The Malahat Review; “Courtyard” in Rocksalt: An Anthology of Contemporary B.C. Poetry (Mona Fertig and Harold Rhenisch, editors); “Broken Roof” in Dream Catcher.

  Michael Kenyon was born in Sale, England and has lived on the West Coast since 1967. His work has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the SmithBooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Baxter Hathaway Prize in fiction, The Malahat Review Novella Prize, PRISM international’s fiction contest, the Journey Prize, and the National and Western Magazine Awards. He divides his week between Pender Island and Vancouver, having in both places a private therapeutic practice.