The second galley has been received and I'm working on making a few edits. I'm pleased with some of the choices the designers made, but still working with a few formatting issues. My line breaks are important for meaning and rhythm, but unfortunately one poem's line breaks are not able to be kept as I had intended per the size of the page and the font used. I will either have to accept their line breaks (cringe!) or find some other solution.

Below is an excerpt of a poem, "Sought," that has never been posted anywhere but here:

Approaching where she has been, her voice trails

farther into the future, a memory carried on the wind.

He treks onward.

Forest. Camouflaged clues evade.

The past disappearing.

Still he searches.

Patiently.

Through the forest to the hills from hills to mountains,

to that valley.

Wild horses graze. Rare birds untouched.

Nose kissed by the smell of her neck,

where the shoulder pined for its grace,

he became a starved lion on the hunt-

© Heidi Van Dolah 2011

And while I'm thinking about it, I want to thank the wonderful people and poets at TPS (The Poet Sanctuary: www.thepoetsanctuary.net) who have been a huge part of me being able to publish this book at all. I would also like to thank Matt Matters for introducing me to Iron Mic Music (www.ironmicmusic.com) and for the inspiration to start writing again.

Whether this endeavor is fruitful beyond the chance to publish a book is of course left to destiny, but I do hope that whomever decides to purchase this piece of my mind will enjoy it! (I'm already pondering volume 2.)