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Chapters (71)
  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Dedication page
  4. PREFACE
  5. Epigraph page
  6. “In this foggy, dispute-ridden landscape”
  7. I
  8. THE NORTH
  9. SAUCHOPE LINKS CARAVAN PARK
  10. CRAIL AUTUMN
  11. A PLENITUDE
  12. NO 59981 05825; 56.24324° N, 2.64731° W
  13. Having abandoned his mission . . .
  14. Efforts are made to dissuade him . . .
  15. Evidence of his own cult in Pictland . . .
  16. “Ethernan” likely derived from the Latin . . .
  17. THE DESERT FATHERS
  18. “WHEN SOLITUDE WAS A PROBLEM, I HAD NO SOLITUDE”
  19. TENTSMUIR FOREST
  20. A MISCALCULATION
  21. THE SPIES
  22. MERCENARIES KNOW THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR SPECIALISTS IN THE MARKET
  23. THE MERIDIAN
  24. WHOSE DEATHS WERE RECORDED OFFICIALLY AS CASUALTIES OF “THE BATTLE OF MAY ISLAND”
  25. SONG
  26. II
  27. NO 59981 05825; 56.24324° N, 2.64731° W
  28. He remembers a friend . . .
  29. Like Cormac Ua Liatháin, he sought . . .
  30. Hostilities were inevitable among the four peoples . . .
  31. Now blood on his lip . . .
  32. Tomorrow, for sure, he will make a start . . .
  33. A vision . . .
  34. He reexamines his practice . . .
  35. A visitation . . .
  36. He enquires of the silence . . .
  37. AN ENTHUSIAST
  38. FROM THE INVERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE FIRTH OF FORTH, PART 2, 1881
  39. THE SHAGS, WHOSE CONSERVATION STATUS IS “OF LEAST CONCERN”
  40. “GOODBYE TO COCKENZIE POWER STATION, A CATHEDRAL TO COAL”
  41. A TRAWLERMAN
  42. SHE IS BURIED ON THE WEST BRAES
  43. WHITE STRANGERS
  44. ORIGIN STORY
  45. KENTIGERN AND THE ROBIN
  46. TO THE EXTENT A TRADITION CAN BE SAID TO BE DEVELOPED; IT IS MORE ACCURATE TO SAY IT CAN BE CLOTHED IN DIFFERENT FORMS
  47. AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER WITH HE WHO HAS BEEN LEFT ALONE TO HIS PERILS
  48. A RETREAT
  49. SONG
  50. III
  51. SONG
  52. A LESSON
  53. THE INTERCESSORS
  54. CRAIL SPRING
  55. THE SHARING ECONOMY
  56. TIME AWAY WITH THE ERROR
  57. TWO CHAPTERS ON ANCIENT STONES
  58. ANCIENT REMEDIES WITH CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS CURRENTLY IN DEVELOPMENT
  59. 56.1833° N, 2.5667° W
  60. The Isle of May lies just outside the western boundary . . .
  61. Its paved road, which has all the appearance . . .
  62. Having once dwelt at Caiplie, “place of horses” . . .
  63. In a purposeful adoption of an ancient burial site . . .
  64. YOU CAN’T GO BACK
  65. STINGING NETTLE APPRECIATION
  66. THE HERMITS
  67. CLARITY
  68. NOTES
  69. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  70. THE CAIPLIE CAVES
  71. ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

I am grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Chalmers Arts Fellowships, Access Copyright Foundation, Queen’s University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the Landfall Trust for the time and financial assistance crucial to the completion of this book.

For shelter from the storm, thank you Katherine Ashenburg and Hadley Dyer.

Kitty Lewis, as ever, you have my gratitude and admiration.

Caroline Adderson, Dionne Brand, Greg Hollingshead, Meghan Power, and Shyam Selvadurai, Banff Writing Studio colleagues, your work as writers and as mentors has been an inspiration.

This book has been immeasurably improved by Kevin Connolly, who deftly and subtly picked the locks of doors I didn’t know were there. Thanks also to Sarah MacLachlan, Maria Golikova, Janie Yoon, Matt Williams, Alysia Shewchuk, and everyone at House of Anansi Press. Peter Norman, I owe you one. Jonathan Galassi, your support and kind encouragement have supplied fresh oxygen at every stage. Thank you, Don Paterson, for your thoughtful attention, and your ear.

For conversation, advice, wit, and generosity of spirit, thank you Gil Adamson, Ken Babstock, Sheri Benning, John Burnside, Michael Dickman, Michael Helm, Michael Hofmann, Chris Jones, Kimberley Peter, Michael Redhill, Alexandra Rockingham, Declan Ryan, John Sauve, Matthew Tierney, Tara Quinn, Janet Walters, Sheryda Warrener, and Michael Winter.

For my family: everything I write is for you.

THE CAIPLIE CAVES

Karen Solie was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. She is the author of four collections of poems including Pigeon, which won the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Pat Lowther Award, and the Trillium Award for Poetry. She was International Writer-in-Residence at the University of St Andrews in 2011, and is an Associate Director for the Banff Centre’s Writing Studio programme. Her poems have been published in the US, the UK, Australia, and Europe, and have been translated into French, German, Korean, Hebrew, and Dutch. Her first UK collection, The Living Option: Selected Poems, was published in 2013. She lives in Toronto.

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out

The Living Option: Selected Poems

Pigeon

Modern and Normal

Short Haul Engine

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