Thursday, April 26, 2018

new from above/ground press: Catalogue d’Oiseaux, Toronto < — > Mainz-Kastel, by Aaron Tucker

Catalogue d’Oiseaux
Toronto — Mainz-Kastel
Aaron Tucker
$5

A Sunday afternoon, that morning, our Toronto bed

the cedar smoke from the neighbor Anishinaabe centre

mingles with late autumn rain pecking at the window

with the drums & chants from the ceremony next door

& the clouds bend to our sleep, make themselves soothing

our asleep waterhands over each other, like cirrus or silty dreams

our waking causes the rain to pause momentarily

& it resumes only when we kiss softly good morning, hold

you, soft sea mist, cajole us from our bed eventually

the promise of our favourite simple diner, Chew Chews

the runny yolks over potatoes, toast with strawberry jam

the server overexcited that Cher & Queen Latifah

film there next week, his hands clasped as he repeats

& we finish our breakfast, walk through Cabbagetown

under umbrellas, soft patter, watery dance steps

buy lattes from Jet Fuel, milky & vapoursteam, continue east

this neighbourhood named for the poverty of its Irish settlers

tailoring & lining their front yards with the large green brassica

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2018
celebrating twenty-five years of above/ground press
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy


This is Aaron Tucker’s third chapbook with above/ground press, following punchlines (2013) and apartments (2010). He is the author of the novel Y: Oppenheimer, Horseman of Los Alamos (Coach House Books) as well as two books of poetry, Irresponsible Mediums: The Chess Games of Marcel Duchamp (Bookthug Press) and punchlines (Mansfield Press), and two scholarly cinema studies monographs, Virtual Weaponry: The Militarized Internet in Hollywood War Films and Interfacing with the Internet in Popular Cinema (both published by Palgrave Macmillan).

His current collaborative project, Loss Sets, translates poems into sculptures which are then 3D printed (http://aarontucker.ca/3-d-poems/); he is also the co-creator of The ChessBard, an app that transforms chess games into poems (http://chesspoetry.com).

Currently, he is an uninvited guest on the Dish with One Spoon Territory, where he is a lecturer in the English department at Ryerson University (Toronto), teaching creative and academic writing. You can reach him atucker[at]ryerson[dot]ca

[Aaron Tucker launches this new chapbook alongside his novel in Ottawa as part of The Factory Reading Series on April 29, with co-readers Brecken Hancock, Christine McNair + rob mclennan]

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

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