CONTENTS -- A BOX FOR SMALL BIRTHS -- Listening on the Back Steps -- How Acupuncture Is Like Poetry -- Lost Footnote from an Essay on Rhythm -- Shuffles -- Two for the Winds -- Under the Old Roof -- The Colours at McCormack's Beach -- Sloth Surprises -- The Afterlife of Trees -- A Toss of Cones -- A Lake Named After My Ancestors -- The Basement that Became a Garden -- Gardening Until Dark -- 1 four cats among the flowers -- 2 curses on garden thieves -- 3 whippersnipper rant -- 4 rat by a peony bush -- 5 Charlie's voice -- Graveyard Haiku -- Tree Trilogy -- HAWTHORNDEN IMPROVISATIONS -- Hawthornden Improvisations -- A WORLD OF COUNTING -- Work at Twenty-One -- Three Windows -- After the Age of Parties -- Every Lion Until Now -- A Glosa for Joshua -- Sick for the New Millennium -- Diner in a Storm -- Three Tales of Halifax -- Atlas, We Laughed -- Foot-doctor for the Homeless -- The Sonographer -- TALKING TO THE BIRDS -- Talking to the Birds -- 1 to a red-eyed vireo -- 2 to a northern gannet -- 3 to an albino red-tailed hawk -- 4 to a great blue heron -- 5 to a goldfinch -- 6 to an osprey -- 7 to a brown-tailed shrike -- 8 to a sooty shearwater -- Acknowledgments.