new from above/ground press: Go Under The Surface, by Stephanie Gray

Go Under The Surface
Stephanie Gray
$5

Under which surface

As of now, I can’t confirm that, and I have no reason to. Which confirmation was in? Which out was confirmed? Whose Catholic confirmation was destroyed by the band? Who confirmed that Catholicism as cultural? Whose cultural was it? What confirmations did the city reveal? What part of the city confirmed? Who reasoned why not? Who reasoned why? Who did not reason? Who clarified the city’s confirmations? Whose confirmations were clarified? Who had no reasons? Whose reasons had none? What no were the confirms in?  Who knew that? Who confirmed the circuitry? Whose street hadn’t been confirmed to be plowed? What plow was confirmed? Who confirmed the plows? Which san men confirmed the snow? What snow confirmed the san man? Who said they have no reasons? Who said they have no confirmations? What city said we failed? What failure equaled what city? Who confirmed the lonely girl in South Detroit? Who confirmed the midnight train?  Who asked if you were talking to me?  Who said the fall out, I don’t know what it will be? Whose surface went under? What surface went where? Whose surface was which? Who confirmed the surface? Tell me again, under what surface.

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

Produced, in part, for the author’s appearance at the 2018 AWP Conference and Bookfair, Tampa FL, March 7-10, 2018.

In Under the Surface, Stephanie Gray's newest chapbook, the author plays (tears apart? dissects? deconstructs? sic) with the seemingly innocuous phrase "under the surface". In her poetic exploration of this phrase and others, Gray opens up what we think we see and know. Everyday occurrences sift through the minutiae of those momentary philosophical thoughts we have while gliding through our days. What makes us so sure we know what we know? Mostly in prose poems, the works incur a sort of internal rhythm that marches through the density, like the best air-conditioners when you are tired of the noise, but when you hear it long enough, you start to hear the music in the fuzz, despite your best efforts to shut it off.

Poet-filmmaker Stephanie Gray’s most recent book and chapbook are Shorthand and Electric Language Stars (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2015) and A Country Road Going Back in Your Direction (Argos Books, 2015). Her super 8 films and screened internationally. Recent flash fictionwork is in the May 2017 issue of the Brooklyn Rail.  Work also appeared in the anthology How Lovely the Ruins (Spiegel & Grau) in October 2017.

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