“I believe a book can be a labyrinth whose centre is the journey to itself,” writes Peter Sanger. “A concerto grosso, not a singular declamation” And indeed in reading Sanger, individual books, like individual poems, may profitably be read as layers in the strata of his oeuvre, each influenced by what was written before and influencing in turn what was to be written next. Taken together, his books describe the long arc of his particular sensitivity to language and his ever-evolving sense of nature, culture and place. “All the poems in Fireship,” writes Sanger, “concern where we were, where we are, where we will be.”

As well as his many prose projects, Gaspereau Press has been publishing Sanger’s poetry since 2002, issuing two full-length collections–Aiken Drum and John Stokes’ Horse. While these volumes remain in print, Sanger’s first two collections, published elsewhere, have essentially disappeared from view–The America Reel (1983) and Earth Moth (1991). With the blessing of their original publishers, Gaspereau Press is marking Peter Sanger’s seventieth birthday in 2013 by reissuing his first two poetry books in a single volume, collecting with them 24 previously unpublished poems which predate them. The volume also includes a new essay entitled “Log-slate.”