"poem" broadside #298: this used to be a sestina, by Fenn Stewart

they don't know that/ the earth is a magnet
when they are released/ they cannot find their heads
they navigate/ they don't know where

they move/ confused/ into the swamps

to live! slowly they remember
to experiment! they have magnets!
they seek crocodiles!

O those scientists,
we will swath their heads
extrememly. in black bandages. in thick technique.
in florida.

we will disrupt these territorial scientists
they are unique/ and valuable creatures
we will disrupt them/ at a rate of 10 miles per week

to increase their numbers!
this is our radar/ this is our responsibility

their eyeballs are magnets
they roll/ their gait/ their heavy eyes inside their heads
they watch

they are less

their eyes
their magnet eyes
shine deeper in the swamps/

the disruption is over

it is safe to


this used to be a sestina
by Fenn Stewart
above/ground press broadside #298

Fenn Stewart reads and writes in a skinny old house in Toronto. She used to live in Montreal and Vancouver and probably will again, someday. Recent work also appears in The Capilano Review and the "Toronto issue" of The Peter F. Yacht Club.

Mark McCawley's mini-review of rob mclennan's "First you know, and then so ordinary,"

Edmonton writer/editor Mark McCawley's mini-review of rob mclennan's First you know, and then so ordinary (above/ground press, 2010) at Fresh Raw Cuts.

above/ground press is moving!

After fifteen years in Ottawa's Chinatown, we're finally moving. The new mailing address for above/ground press, effective September 1, 2011, will be:

402 McLeod Street, #3
Ottawa ON Canada
K2P 1A6

update your records! And keep your eyes out for information on various upcoming new titles, as well as 2012 subscription information. 


Have you taken advantage of the end-of-summer sale yet?

above/ground press' end-of-summer sale!

Celebrating (so far, at least) eighteen glorious years (1993-2011)

poetry chapbooks: 3 for $10 / 6 for $20 / 9 for $30 / 12 for $40 (until September 1, 2011)

Given eighteen years of publishing [thanks to Amanda Earl for the image, from a lovely blog post a couple of years back], it means parts of the warehouse are overflowing, so I'm clearing out some backlist in anticipation of forthcoming titles by derek beaulieu, Dennis Cooley, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Ken Norris, Hugh Thomas, Shannon Maguire and others. Watch here for updates.

Some of the titles available include: Robert Kroetsch, Further to Our Conversation (2011), Julia Williams, MY CITY IS ANCIENT AND FAMOUS (2004), Donato Mancini, @phabet (2003), Jessica Smith, Shifting Landscapes (2006), Phil Hall, Verulam (2009), Amanda Earl, The Sad Phoenician's Other Woman (2008), Emily Carr, & look there goes a sparrow transplanting soil (2009), Matthew Holmes, SHORTS, BRIEFS and curlies (2005), Josh Auerbach, in/form/al measures (2002), Marcus McCann, Town in a long day of leaving (2010), Nelson Ball, Scrub Cedar (2003), Artie Gold, THE HOTEL VICTORIA POEMS (2003), Lea Graham, Calendar Girls (2006), Gwendolyn Guth, Good People (2010), rob mclennan, 16 Yonge (2010), Alessandro Porco, Autobiographia Cinematica (2005), K.I. Press, FLAME (2002), rob mclennan, Some Forty (2010), George Bowering as “Ellen Field,” A, You're Adorable (2^nd printing, 2004), Gregory Betts, the curse of canada (2008), Helen Hajnoczky, A history of button collecting (2010), Marilyn Irwin, for when you pick daisies (2010), William Hawkins, the black prince of bank street (2007), rob mclennan and Lea Graham, metric (2010), kath macLean, ten: ways to skin a cat (2003), Shauna McCabe, land over time (2005), Gil McElroy, (The Work of Art) In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (2005), Ken Norris, SONGS FOR ISABELLA (2000), Douglas Barbour, It's over is it over: Love's Fragmented Narrative (2005), Larry Sawyer, A Chaise Lounge in Hell (2003), D.G. Jones, standard pose (2002), bpNichol, KON 66 & 67 (for jiri valoch (2002) and The Peter F. Yacht Club #15, VerseFest Ottawa special (2011).

Inquire for titles not listed here, at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com. In Canada, add $2 for postage; outside, add $4; paypal now available (via rob mclennan's blog), or send cheques c/o rob mclennan, 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa Ontario Canada K1R 6R7.