The language of love : an oblique beginning -- Love and other unofficial stories : narrative prowling in Kristjana Gunnars' The prowler -- Possessed by love : the metaphoric production of desire in Elizabeth Smart's By Grand Central Station I sat down and wept -- In between : Dionne Brand's poetics of love and resistance -- Love letters from an unmade bed : Dorothy Livesay's poetics of disquiet -- On the line : revenge as confessional strategy in Kristjana Gunnars' Carnival of Longing and Nicole Markotic's "No goodbye, just:" -- Bone memory : love and breath in Louise Bernice Halfe's Blue marrow -- Speaking in tongues : Daphne Marlatt's answering touch or how to sign a love letter.