dedication and acknowledgement

For my team

to whom all that i write

is dedicated to...

Appa

    Aatha

      Akshaya

          Ashwin 

           Aishwarya 

             Saravanan

               Meena Aunty

                 Pillayar

Acknowledgements

this my first collection of poetry to my first supporters and critics, my family, 

who have endured hearing and reading draft after draft of some poems! 

special shout out to my mum who knew I'd be a poet before I did, when she saved my writings from age 8! 

Also to my writing class buddies Shilpa, Priyanka, Michelle, Vaishnavi, Nuhzat and Patricia, 

and my wonderful teachers along the way, in particular Chris Mooney Singh who got me believing I could write and encouraged me to send my words out to various journals

other teachers who helped me hone my craft include Mary Jean Chan 

and I cannot forget the spwm community, a number of poems in the collection were first written to prompts given there and the community is so encouraging that it allowed me test out first reactions to many poems there. 

and as close to my family are my friends from my youth, my steadfast group of 8

Malar, Sutha, Subair, Siamala, Kannan, Yasmin, Jeroen and Siva 

Special thanks to my editors ... 

Thank you for believing in me and journeying with me! 

writing and revising poetry makes me feel calm and out of this world for awhile, like I'm suspended and floating somehow