The Blue Hour of the Day

Author Essay

A Word about The Blue Hour of the Day by Lorna Crozier

It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve been writing poetry for over thirty years, and publishing with McClelland & Stewart for over twenty, beginning with my sixth book of poetry, The Garden Going On Without Us in 1985. Now, after fourteen books, most of which have been kept in print, it seemed time to sort through the poems and compile a selected of what I think is my best work.

It was humbling and terrifying to choose what I want to survive. A selected poems is, for me, a showcase for the writer’s life. The poems I chose from each book read now like small chapters of a poetic memoir that has tracked my experiences from the young woman I was when I started writing to who I am today. There’s been sadness along the way, a lot of outrage and laughter, and a number of obsessions. (There are so many poems about horses and angels!) This book says, more than anything else, how I place myself in this puzzling and beautiful world. I hope readers will find their own blue hour of the day to find some pleasure within its pages.