Ross Brighton's above/ground chapbook, TEMPORAL MAZE DENTURE, is now on-line as pdf

New Zealand poet Ross Brighton's above/ground press chapbook, TEMPORAL MAZE DENTURE (2011), originally published as part of the Dusie Kollektiv 5, is now available on-line as part of the same (along with nearly one hundred other works, including one by above/ground press editor/publisher rob mclennan, published by Brighton; see the full list here). Check out the link to Brighton's chapbook here.

"poem" broadside #289: Night Zoo, by Stephanie Bolster

Dogs ravaged the yard where yesterday
rabbits and toads. The dead
fed to the cages and the dark.
The mouth of the mouth.

Plants dangled from pegs
beside padlocks. Reaching,
though they weren’t.

A dark stain on concrete.
A little water.

Let’s go, I said,
meaning stay.


Night Zoo
by Stephanie Bolster
above/ground press broadside #289

Stephanie Bolster lives in Montreal. Her fourth poetry collection is A Page from the Wonders of Life on Earth (Brick Books, 2011). She has published two different chapbooks through above/ground press.

Camille Martin: On Writing

An interview with Camille Martin, "On Writing," is now posted at Open Book. Her chapbook If Leaf, Then Arpeggio is still available here.

new from above/ground press: Shannon Maguire's Vowel Wolves & Other Knots

 

THE MIDWIFE’S HANDS

(Palms up, Ready to Catch)

Left

threat to deer from the covered hook
extended extended the extended deer

bend deer hair wing to the upright hook
attach extended behind from a tail
wrap fur covered thread over wing
hook to the upright furry worm

right up deer bend hair extended behind wing
attach thread to fur wing
from behind wrap deer hair over a worm
bend hook to the tail wing

hook hair to the covered tail
right from a bend attach deer to the hook
wrap fur up from behind the coveted
to hook upright attach bend right


Right

from marsh all-night moose send night
lava image all forms passing a hider
night forms the “send moose” button from a marsh
marsh pearl from a hidden sail

send marsh from a sail letter
forms passing raw button pearl under the lava
moose trail from image letter
left all buttons...send pearl future-passing letter

marsh from an all-night imagery lava
raw image hidden trail under letter
moose future passing forms the sail
send button pearl letter from an all-night marsh

future future a future button
trail from button forms a hidden marsh

Vowel Wolves & Other Knots
by Shannon Maguire
$4

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2011
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Shannon Maguire is a poet and playwright. She is the co-cultivator of AvantGarden, an experimental text and sound based performance series in Toronto. "Fur(l) Parachute" was shortlisted for the 2011 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Her work has appeared in CV2, Gulch: An Assemblage of Poetry and Prose (Tightrope) and Nightwood Theatre's 4X4 Off Road Festival, among other places.

Shannon Maguire launches in Toronto on November 22 at the Art Bar Reading Series, alongside rob mclennan and Pearl Pirie.

Verulam: Phil Hall wins the GG for Killdeer (BookThug)

It was announced today that Perth, Ontario poet Phil Hall has won this year's Governor General's Award for Poetry for the collection Killdeer (Toronto ON: BoookThug, 2011). Congrats to Phil Hall and everyone (Jay, Hazel, Jenny) at BookThug! It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, a more deserving poet, or a more deserving book. For further information on Hall's work, check out the lengthy essay I wrote, up at Poetics.ca.

One of the sections of Killdeer was originally published as a chapbook through above/ground press. Produced in 2009 in a run of two hundred copies (hand-stamped by Hall), there are still a few copies left, if anyone is interested.

Verulam
by Phil Hall
August 2009
$4

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Ken Norris’ LOOKING INTO IT

WRITING POEMS
I'm writing poems,
trying to find a place to stand.

Sometimes you can awaken
yourself with a poem.

It doesn't always have to be
about the reader's pleasure.

Sometimes you're just desperately trying
to save your damaged soul.

LOOKING INTO IT
by Ken Norris
$5

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2011
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Ken Norris was born in New York City in 1951. He emigrated to Montreal in the mid-1970s, and became a Canadian citizen in 1985. He currently teaches Canadian Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Maine. His previous above/ground press titles include Windward - St. Lucia Poems (1995), THE COMMENTARIES (1999), SONGS FOR ISABELLA (2000) and Green Wind (2010).

new from above/ground press: Camille Martin's If Leaf, Then Arpeggio

 ~

Right now is what dwindling feels like, despite
the mulberry outside my window steadfastly
anchoring its taproot. The new century counts planets
that might support rooted beings and ravenous predators.
But stardust piles up on lines connecting dots
in constellations, blurring them into nebulae. Shapeless
experience waffles between concrete and abstract, accounting
for the popularity of horoscopes, especially when Jupiter enters
Aries and we vacillate, like volcanoes heaving ash
before the pyroclastic flow, collapsing before tsunami, dwindling
until the next cycle. I abstractly shake dew from ripe mulberries.
Or I lie down, gazing at shivering green tracery non-existent
a couple of months ago and just as soon to vanish.
A more or less concrete cup of coffee balances on my belly,
wobbling to the diastolic and systolic rhythms of my heart.

If Leaf, Then Arpeggio
by Camille Martin
$4

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
October 2011
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Camille Martin, a Toronto poet, is the author of Sonnets (Shearsman Books, 2010) and Codes of Public Sleep (BookThug, 2007). Her work has been widely published in journals in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Her current work in progress is a collection of double sonnets. She is also engaged in a project funded by the Ontario Arts Council: a long poem (working title: “The Evangeline Papers”) based on her Cajun/Acadian heritage and her recent visit to Nova Scotia to participate in an archaeological dig at Beaubassin and to research Acadian and Mik’maq history and culture. She earned an MFA in Poetry at the University of New Orleans and a Ph.D. in English at Louisiana State University. Currently she teaches writing and literature at Ryerson University. Her website is http://www.camillemartin.ca and her blog is http://rogueembryo.wordpress.com