Born in 1957 of Canadian parents, I have lived most of my life in Ottawa. In 1974 – I was an athletic teenager then, with dreams to match – I became paralyzed due to a diving accident. Everything that had given meaning to my life was now impossible, a thing of the past confined to memories. Depression took hold of me and did not release its grip for many years until I grew so disgusted with this constraint and put up such a struggle that I broke free from it. Before that turning point, I had written some gloomy poems that fed on this depression and relieved it somewhat, not enough. I needed more...
