Roy Miki's first poetry collection is an arresting, cleanly conceived series of meditations on the ties of family and place witnessed from his own place as a third-generation Japanese-Canadian. These exquisitely balanced poems trace the fragility of ancestral bonds."The drama of Roy's life--his family, politics, community, his unswerving passion for justice--is transformed here into burning coals that glow through the long, cold night."--Joy Kogawa, author of Obasan