SOURCE: "Questions and Images," Canadian Literature, No. 41, Summer, 1969, pp. 17–22.

Here, Page attributes her artistic growth to a number of elements, including where she has lived, her temporary inability to write poetry, and her subsequent interest in drawing. Critic Constance Rooke described this essay as "the best possible guide to an understanding of [Page's poetry. "]

The last ten years span three distinct places—and phases—in my life: Brazil, Mexico, Canada, in that order. All countries of the new world.

Brazil pelted me with images. Marmosets in the flowering jungle; bands of multi-colored birds moving among the branches of the kapok tree outside the bedroom verandah; orchids in the kapok tree, cucumbers in the kapok tree, the whole tree bursting into cotton candy. Flamboyantes in flaming flower against the sky as one lay on one's back in the swimming pool. Doric palms waving green plumage, growing antlers and beads...