Acknowledgements Thanks are due to the editors of the following publications in which some of these poems first appeared: Ambit, Poetry London,Virginia Quarterly Review, Poetry Review, Fourteen Poems, Stinging Fly, Pain, Winter Papers, PN Review, Granta, Butcher’s Dog, New Poetries VIII (Carcanet, 2021), Sam’s Eden (Catalyst Arts, 2021), Empty House: Poetry and Prose on the Climate Crisis (Doire Press, 2021), Queering the Green (Lifeboat, 2021). ‘Our Personal Papers’ and ‘It Only Remains’ were commissioned in response to exhibitions at the MAC Belfast of works by Lindsay Seers, and Francis Hegarty and Andrew Stones respectively. ‘50ml of India Ink’ was commissioned by Belfast School of Art. Thanks to Paul Maddern and Stephen Sexton for their advice about the arrangement of this collection; Zosia Kuczyńska for her careful readings of many drafts, Tara McEvoy for similar reasons (and so much more besides); Manuela Moser, Stephen Connolly, Dane Holt, Sacha White, Michael Nolan, Susannah Dickey and Caitlin Newby for their friendship and guidance. To my mother for her years of support. And to my teachers, colleagues and students at the Seamus Heaney Centre for making a space in which to think: Sinead Morrissey, Leontia Flynn, Glenn Paterson, Rachel Brown, and Ciaran Carson. I would also like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council of Northern Ireland for their financial support while writing this book. And, of course, to John McAuliffe for his patient and insightful editorship. 83