In this study of Dorothy Livesay’s love poetry, Nadine McInnis focuses on Livesay’s maturing sense of herself as an artist, exploring the sexual/ -textual conflicts present in much of Livesay’s love poetry and their later -resolution. McInnis is an important young poet. Poetics of Desire is a perceptive and persuasive account of Livesay’s lifelong poetic struggle with the personal and social implications of love. –David Staines, Editor, Journal of Canadian Poetry