Monday, July 29, 2013

new from above/ground press: The creeks, by rob mclennan

The creeks
rob mclennan
$4

The creeks:

            Mercy does not come from the sky
                     Norma Cole, Coleman Hawkins Ornette Coleman


Watershed. Stretched, a bend. Erupts. To be vulgar, coarse. Urban song, a thread of water. Spills. Underground, a Mohawk sky. We catch the rain. It snowflakes, tongue. Dark, manifold. So much a mirror, corner. Questions, held. Held up. This constellation, margin. Deeper than fulfilled, arthritic postures. We were not afraid. Thin, silent, mouths. Eye on you and then.


*


Search. We hold the river, down. This resolution, meets. Mouth to concentration, mouth. I can’t go. No stream made, out-of-print. Useless, feathered, goods. What drawn and twisted, space. Snow warrant. Thin portraits. A simple-minded function. What ritual, thing. The trees, the skimming moon. Bookstalls. A brittle, darkened room. The pavement, ear. Abyss. Tonal waves direct.


*


Atlantic, between. Heavy manner, a centred abyss. This battered dawn, bashed ancient stone. The remains of civilization. First thought, Ur-thought. Grotesque. The ocean’s subdivision. Tactless. Define a score, a roundabout, a hedge. A supernatural crescent. This heated, cooling effort. Passive, energized. History, become a mine. A gravel tendril. Soothe. You, who are large in our eyes.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2013
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy


Produced, in part, as a handout for the 7th annual Welcome to Boog City poetry, music and theater festival, August 2-5, 2013 in New York City. Thanks much to David Kirschenbaum and Adam Tobin for their help and support. See the facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/487315468023865/

The author of more than twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, rob mclennan won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. His most recent titles include the poetry collection Songs for little sleep, (Obvious Epiphanies, 2012) and a second novel, missing persons (2009). The Uncertainty Principle: stories, is scheduled to appear in spring 2014. He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

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

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