In Praise of Falling

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Thanks to the editors of the following journals, in which many of these poems were published, sometimes in earlier versions: Barrow Street (“Creature”); Calyx (“Hard Labor”); Clackamas Literary Review (“Bernal Heights”); Controlled Burn (“The Amnesiac, Seventh Grade”);The Cortland Review (“Don’tAsk Me”); Gargoyle (“Narrative”); Haight Ashbury Literary Journal (“The Hill”); Hootenanny (“Revisited”); Indiana Review (“In Praise of Falling”); Jeopardy Magazine (“Theories”); Literary Mama (“Teaching Luca Mr. Potato Head”); Louisville Review (“American Robin”); Many Mountains Moving (“It’s notArmageddon” and “Say Yes,” under the title “Dark Night, Cool Water”); Mudfish (“Afterbirth”); Nimrod International Journal (“When”); poemmemoirstory (“Atlantis” and “Somewhere in a Box Marked Keep”). “TriangleTattoo” appeared in Dorothy Parker’s Elbow:Tattoos onWriters, Writers onTattoos (). The following poems appeared in Yuba Flows ():“Creature,” “Dark Magic,”“Getting It RightThisTime,”“If,”“Junk Shop Magic,” “Meteorology,” “Narrative,” “Other Nights,” “Q to the  Train,” “Recurring,” “Revisited,” “SayYes,” “Somewhere in a Box Marked Keep,” “The Swimmer,” “When.” The epigraph to “If” is taken from Open Secret:Versions of Rumi, translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks, ©  by John Moyne and Coleman Barks. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston, MA. www.shambhala.com. The epigraph to “Q to the Train” is taken from Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, Stefan Radt,Vol. IV , Göttingen . ©Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG. The epigraph to “Revisited” is taken from “Desire,” in BodyTraffic by Stephen Dobyns, ©  by Stephen Dobyns. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Thank you to Ed Ochester and the staff at University of Pittsburgh Press for their vision and dedication, and to Deborah Meade for her eagleeye editing. Thanks to the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for award money that bought ten essential hours of child care—every bit counts.  Dumesnil PGS:Layout 1 4/28/09 12:32 PM Page 77 For their gracious support, literary and otherwise, thank you to Kim Addonizio, Dorianne Laux, Ed Mayes, Michael Martone, and Melanie RaeThon.Thanks to Mom for the writing gene.Thanks to Dad for the storytelling gene.Thank you to Mick Markham for helping me build the foundation on which these poems stand.Thanks to Becky, Deema, Heidi, Judy, LaDonna, Laura, Paula, Susan, and Suzi, for years of listening and cheering.Thanks to my students for inspiring me through times of drought. And to Tracie Vickers, for all of the above stated reasons and more, I offer my endless gratitude.  Dumesnil PGS:Layout 1 4/28/09 12:32 PM Page 78 ...