This volume features thirty-five of Don McKay's best poems, which are selected with a contextualizing introduction by Méira Cook that probes wilderness and representation in McKay, and the canny, quirky, thoughtful, and sometimes comic self-consciousness the poems adumbrate. Included is McKay's afterword written especially for this volume in which McKay reflects on his own writing process-its relationship to the earth and to metamorphosis.

Don McKay has published eight books of poetry. He won the Governor General's Award in 1991 (for Night Field) and in 2000 (for Another Gravity), a National Magazine Award (1991), and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry in 1984 (for Birding, Or Desire). Don McKay was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize for Camber and was the Canadian winner of the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize for Strike/Slip. Born in Owen Sound, Ontario, McKay has been active as an editor, creative writing teacher, and university instructor, as well as a poet. He has taught at the University of Western Ontario, the University of New Brunswick, The Banff Centre, The Sage Hill Writing Experience, and the BC Festival of the Arts. He has served as editor and publisher of Brick Books since 1975 and from 1991 to 1996 as editor of The Fiddlehead. He resides in British Columbia.

Don McKay has published eight books of poetry. Among his many awards are the Governor General's Award in 1991 (for Night Fields) and in 2000 (for Another Gravity). He was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize for Camber and was the Canadian winner in 2007 for Strike/Slip. Born in Owen Sound, Ontario, Don McKay has been active as an editor, creative writing teacher, and university instructor, as well as a poet. He lives in Newfoundland.

Table of Contents for
Field Marks: The Poetry of Don McKay selected with an introduction by Méira Cook

Foreword

Neil Besner

Biographical Note

Introduction: Song for the Song of the Dogged Birdwatcher

Méira Cook

Down River, Into the Camp

At the Long Sault Parkway

The Great Blue Heron

The Eye Meets Tom Thomson's "A Rapid"

The Trout

August

Lependu nearly materialized by his blackbirds

Field Marks:

Leaving

The Boy's Own Guide to Dream Birds

I Scream You Scream

Adagio for a Fallen Sparrow

Field Marks (2):

Identification

VIA, Eastbound

Buckling

Some Functions of a Leaf

How to Imagine an Albatross

from Black Spruce

Another Theory of Dusk

Meditation on a Geode

Choosing the Bow

Meditation on Shovels

Poplar

Early Instruments

Twinflower

Alibi

Materiel:

(i) The Man from Nod

(ii) Fates Worse Than Death

Setting the Table

(i) Knife

(ii) Fork

(iii) Spoon

Sometimes a Voice (1)

Load

Luna Moth Meditation

Hush Factor

Sometimes a Voice (2)

Astonished

Afterword: The Shell of the Tortoise

Don McKay

Acknowledgements