An award-winning poet continues her exploration of the complexities of society, the intellect and the heartFrom lyric, to narrative, to bardic, Linda McCarriston's poems continue to probe not simply the relations that bring us our joy and our anguish, but the contexts in which we experience both. Emotion remains the heart of these poems, but idea is the increasing frame as both narrative and motive are rewritten. With her characteristic honesty and energy, McCarristion creates fine and loving portrayals of animals, children, friendships and landscapes while taking on the difficult issues of family life and gender power structures. Drawing on new material, her recent experiences in Alaska come to represent, therefore, not an adventure in these poems, but an emigration as urgent as the previous generation's from County Down, Ireland.