Dee: How did you come up with Threadbare Like Lace as the title for your collection? Jacqueline Baldwin: Oh, I had difficulty with the title. I had several working titles and none of them were suitable according to the editors and the publisher because they wouldn,t have sold the book. One of the titles that I had was ,,Barefoot on the Butterfly Dream Wind,[!] but who would have looked at a book with that title (laugh)? Karin: What does the image Threadbare Like Lace convey? Jacqueline Baldwin: I have noticed throughout my life that, while I am in the middle of some enormous difficulty or, even at a funeral, where you are completely bereft, grief-stricken, something wonderful will happen at the same time. The image of Threadbare Like Lace stems from my poem "The Good Sex Guide". In this poem, a man holds up underwear to the light. Looking at his lover through the threads, he tells her he has a new perspective on their relationship. Karin: Can you elaborate on the motif of weaving in your poetry? For instance, in your poem called "Grandfather Mackenzie, Storyteller" you use the image of a grandfather's stories that became part of your "life-weave." Have you used that image of weaving elsewhere in your poetry? Why is the image of weaving important to you? Jacqueline Baldwin: That's an interesting question because it's sort of connected to the lace. It's the way that I see life, the way that I saw life as a child, too. I trusted life when I was a child and then I lost that ability to trust, probably around puberty. When I went back to farming I found out that everything is actually woven together. When we get off the track of staying in touch with nature, that's when we lose the feeling of being a part of the weave. When I look back to what my grandfather did for me, he sort of saved my life. He gave me a father figure to look at when my own father was in all these difficulties. I see his stories as a life weave like a hammock that can hold you up. Dee: Do you think that stories, and the stories in your poems, also function that way? Jacqueline Baldwin: Yes, I sure do. I,m amazed that I lost sight of that for a long time when I was young. I lost sight of story. And stories to me are the pillars of life. And the more I write, the more I realize this. The one