Alina Stefanescu on Andrea Rexilius and Khashayar Mohammadi

American poet Alina Stefanescu (who is both kind and clever enough to be an above/ground press subscriber) has been writing short essay-pieces on poems lately, including some poems she found in recent above/ground press titles: Khashayar Mohammadi’s poem, “Brink of Life,” from Solitude Is An Acrobatic Act (above/ground, 2020) [you can read her essay on such here] and on Andrea Rexilius' "The Structure of a Flower: Stem," from Afterworlds (above/ground, 2020) [you can read her essay on such here]. Thanks so much! Her blog has some other neat pieces worth reading on there as well, if you wander around for a bit, including "'Voice' by Jennifer Horne: Wondering towards a mother's voice," "11 poetry writing prompts for pandemic moments," and this really lovely personal essay I quite enjoyed. Gadzooks!

new from above/ground press: FLORALS, by Misha Solomon

FLORALS
Misha Solomon
$5

Chunnel

a stranger looks like a boy but yawns like a man
children yawn freely
little lions roaring at their tiredness
he shows restraint
jaw tense, cheeks taut
ashamed of his fatigue

I was last on this train as a boy
expecting to see fish under the Atlantic
expected to read the map for my mother

now, fish surround me
one raises the armrest between our seats
and leans its head on my shoulder
I’m not sure I’m moist enough
to keep its gills from drying up

I’m tired too
but my jaw clicks
and my cheeks

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Misha Solomon (he/him) is a queer poet in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. These are his first published poems.

cover artwork: Naomie Hadida

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Civilization, by Dani Spinosa

Civilization
Dani Spinosa
$4

The English

By 1858 I declare war on my final opponent, the English, who have taken the rest of this continent. They have redcoats, and by now I have tanks.

I take Hull, Sheffield.

In 1866, I take London. It’s the last capital on the map, and for this game, that means I’ve won. It plays a victory cut scene. I can’t stop.

Just one more turn…

I take Manchester. I take Stoke-upon-Trent. I take Plymouth.

I take Preston. I take Bradford. England is defeated. I do not see it, but imagine the game plays out a sad cut scene of a sun setting.

There is no cut scene. The dial simply loads, lets me choose the next turn.  

I can’t stop. I start taking over city states: La Venta, Lisbon. I head towards more but now I have AT crews that are clobbering catapults. It feels pointless, wrong.

And Love has spread across this world, tiny turtles by each city’s name.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Dani Spinosa is a poet and a scholar and an adjunct professor. She’s a co-founding editor of Gap Riot Press, the Managing Editor of the Electronic Literature Directory, and the author of two books: OO: Typewriter Poems (Invisible Publishing, 2020) and Anarchists in the Academy (U of Alberta Press, 2018). You can find her online at www.genericpronoun.com.

This is Spinosa’s second chapbook with above/ground press, after Glosas for Tired Eyes Volume 2 (2018).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Year Zero, by Andrew Cantrell

Year Zero
Andrew Cantrell
$5

Open this up and break it


Don’t ask me about our usual impression. That is something that can’t be spoken about.

Please. You know me. Creeping up the trunks of willows. I don’t want to remember.

I don’t want you there.

It was another who dashed into the river waters.

You dropped stones in your pockets to follow.

The reeds and all held your arms and you looked – oh nothing heart-breaking.

I am so sick now. You changed for the worse. Craved any upheaval.

An absolute spasm which – oh the memory is gone.

I am old though and anything else – I can’t do a thing.

Your arms were flung creeping along the bank

like willows bending over towards my face.

I am sore and I am going to give you honey if I can.

I am old though – no good whatsoever.

The red fruit. Your arms. I want to pay. Oh – let them leave me alone.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Andrew Cantrell is a poet, labor activist, first-generation (former) academic, and working-class southerner transplanted to the Midwest. He is the author of the chapbooks Phantom Equator (above/ground press) and Stratigraphy (Finishing Line Press). A Puschart Prize nominee, his work has been published widely, including in Posit, Lana Turner, Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology, and Vestiges (Black Sun Lit). Since 1993, he has served as a rank-and-file organizer, steward, and elected leader in local unions of the American Federation of Teachers and the Communication Workers of America, and has organized hospital, industrial, and educational workers in Pennsylvania, California, and across the Midwest. He currently works in Chicago, where he organizes public employees, secondary and higher education faculty and staff, grad workers, and teaching artists.

This is Cantrell’s second above/ground press title, after Phantom Equator (2018).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Aigen, Tierney, Carpenter, mclennan + Burdick,

Razielle Aigen has new work up at IceFloe Press; forthcoming author Orchid Tierney has new work in Alligatorzine; J.R. Carpenter has a new essay in The Digital Review; Claire Kelly reads from rob mclennan's chapbook snow day as part of her #StuckAtHomeBookClub (copies are still available, by the by); and Alice Burdick is currently being interviewed over at poetry mini interviews.

Black Lives Matter : chapbook giveaway,

I thought it would be interesting to select a handful of titles from the above/ground press backlist for a Black Lives Matter chapbook giveaway, as a way to use our resources to provide our support in tangible ways (we have also donated monies, as we’ve been able), and to help further amplify the work of some writers of colour the press has produced over the years. So, read up on resources to donate to in the link: https://linktr.ee/NationalResourcesList (thanks to Khashayar Mohammadi for providing the original link); and, after donating (no proof required) $5 or more, I’ll send you a chapbook of your choice from the list below; if you donate $25 or more, I’ll send you a handful of titles, if you wish.

Poetry chapbook give-away titles in this give-away include: Solitude is an Acrobatic Act (2020) by Khashayar Mohammadi; Furigraphic Horizons (2019) by Hawad, translated from the French by Jake Syersak; from The Book of Bramah (2019) by Renée Sarojini Saklikar; After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees— (second printing, 2019) by Renée Sarojini Saklikar; Open Island, three poems (2017) by Faizal Deen; CONCEALED WEAPONS / ANIMAL SURVIVORS (2018) by natalie hanna; dark ecologies (2017) by natalie hanna; G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] #9 (2020), edited by natalie hanna; and ANGELTONGUE / LENGUA DE ÁNGEL (2018) by Miguel E. Ortiz Rodríguez.

First come, first served! And while supplies last, obviously. I’ve twenty or more of all but natalie hanna’s earlier chapbook on hand for this give-away. I had hoped, as well, to be able to include copies of either of Jordan Abel’s above/ground press titles, or either of George Elliott Clarke’s above/ground press titles, but I simply haven’t enough copies of any of those. If you are able to donate and wish to let me know, send me an email to rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com with your mailing address, and your requested title(s). I will keep running this until all of the chapbooks in this box by my desk is empty!

Could above/ground press be better at producing works by writers of colour? Oh, certainly. There’s plenty of room for improvement. I will do my best to do better.

new from above/ground press: Elegiac Verses, by Mark Scroggins

Elegiac Verses
Mark Scroggins
$5

    4SB

Jaunty the porkpie, and jaunty
    the cigarette angle. Shard
broken off something hard
    and luminous penetrating
uncomfortable light—eclipsed,
    we shrink from unalloyed
heat, wit-sharpened rage to melt
    pretense and carefully curated
social mechanism. Dystopia a cliché,
    but still reality, total.
Vox clamantis in the street, or from
    the balcony of some tower-
block apartment, glass concrete
    I imagine and metal.
(Metal, metal—flesh so fragile.)
    Money’s sour breath, or light
glancing momentarily off spun
    filaments curious necessary
impertinent webbing of words
    in cold sun air.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Mark Scroggins is the author of four previous collections of poetry, the most recent being Pressure Dressing (MadHat, 2018). The first fifty sections of Zion Offramp are forthcoming as a single volume.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: ALL WE’VE LEARNED, WHICH ISN’T MUCH, by Michael e. Casteels and Nicholas Papaxanthos

ALL WE’VE LEARNED, WHICH ISN’T MUCH
Michael e. Casteels and Nicholas Papaxanthos
$5

CENTO

This murderous little world
on this suburban street
in a column of moonlight,
in a documentary that remembers the dead.

If we are separated
in the solitary evening of water,
shake out your dreams
up and down the street
marked by bones, rocks too large.

This is a game, and we are winning.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Michael e. Casteels is the author of over a dozen chapbooks of poetry. His first full-length collection of poetry, The Last White House at the End of the Row of White Houses, was published in autumn of 2016 by Invisible Publishing. Recently his work has appeared in Taddle Creek, Carousel, and Industrial Sabotage. He lives in Kingston, where he runs Puddles of Sky Press.

Nicholas Papaxanthos grew up in Lefkosia, Cyprus, and lives in Montreal. His work has appeared in various magazines, including Illiterature, The New Chief Tongue, Cosmonauts Avenue, Lemonhound, Lake Effect 5 and This Magazine. He is the author of the chapbook Teeth, Untucked (Proper Tales Press, 2011) and the winner of the 2014 John Lent Poetry-Prose Award for his chapbook manuscript Wearing Your Pants. His first poetry collection, Love Me Tender, was published by Mansfield Press in 2015.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Atkins, Burdick, Boyle + Ross,

Tim Atkins has some new work up at The Abandoned Playground; Alice Burdick has some new poems up at The Brooklyn Rail; Frances Boyle has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal; and Stuart Ross has posted an essay on death on his blog.

new from above/ground press: SkyMall, by Mikko Harvey and Ashley Yang-Thompson

SkyMall
Ashley Yang-Thompson & Mikko Harvey
$5 

White Pogo Stick


I am told that an overbearing wife can cause a man to become a shadow of his former self, that he could develop a hunch back, or become emaciated, or his hips might screw loose from his sockets in pursuit of some eternal wiggle.
I tried to please you by remaining a rabbit in a hutch of my own creation, wearing only white mesh, & eating pellets & straw for weeks.
& when I burst from your birthday cake at Hooters wearing nothing but frosting, parts jiggling as I crossed the room on my white pogo stick, you were staring at your phone the whole time.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Mikko Harvey is the author of Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit (House of Anansi, 2018). He lives in Ithaca, New York.

Ashley Yang-Thompson aka Miss Expanding Universe produces a weekly zine, WORM HOUSE: the only source of real news in the world / bringing Las Vegas to the Berkshires.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Dept. of Continuous Improvement, by Ben Robinson

Dept. of Continuous Improvement
Ben Robinson
$5

OPEN4BIZ

A single child’s handprint in the sidewalk
two dog pawprints in the mud

A kid tells his mother he found a long money
pulls a twenty from behind his own ear

The dog tied up outside the payday loan place
barks at anyone who gets close to the door

A For Sale sign
Mother Daughter Realty:
We sell homes for living life

Someone is delivering Domino’s
in a Mercedes Benz

Someone is driving
with an AYN RAND licence plate

Someone is ordering meat
from the drive-thru window

Someone is living
in the storefront across the street

The bars on the windows
all rusted through

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Ben Robinson is a poet, musician and librarian. In 2019 he published three chapbooks: Mumbles in Hollywood, California (Simulacrum Press), The Sims in Real Life (The Blasted Tree) and Talking Gibberish to Strangers (above/ground press). He has only ever lived in Hamilton, Ontario on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas. He is @bengymen on Twitter.

This is Robinson’s second above/ground press title, after Talking Gibberish to Strangers (2019).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Clayton, mclennan, Sikkema, Siklosi + Best,

safely delivered above/ground press chapbooks!

Conyer Clayton is interviewed over at The Puritan; rob mclennan has a new poem up at pioneertown.; Michael Sikkema is being interviewed over at poetry mini interviews; Kate Siklosi has new work + a statement in the Spotlight series; Ashley-Elizabeth Best has an essay in the "Talking Poetics" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter.

new from above/ground press: Solitude is an Acrobatic Act, by Khashayar Mohammadi

Solitude is an Acrobatic Act
Khashayar Mohammadi
$4

The Seventh Seal

a parting of bruised clouds       
sunrays pierce the opacity of the ocean
waves sand down rocks into mirrors
the sun shines so the devil can find us in daylight
the eloquence of death leads to a vision
a naked soul atop a naked body shrivelled
from a plague painted on frescoes
the companionship of spirits in church
where god eludes all extended hands
but at the edge of life one can peer
into the abyss and beckon silence
the wonder that is the body        
pulsating with premature life
and a miasma punitive to all
a crusade chastens idealists
thuribles purify the holy path
and a plague shrivels the realists
flagellants who pour their blood
into bile to keep away witches
purge black death by fire
the insignificance of another dusk
when death excepts no knight or jester
a drop of water for the witch
before alighted at the stake
not to console the dying
but to console all who live
and after the storm: dappled in sunlight
a look of contentment while death hangs
on a branch by the troubadours’ tent
a little pleasure for the townsfolk
before thuribles lead the way again

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Khashayar Mohammadi is an Iranian-born Toronto-based writer and translator. His last chapbook Dear Kestrel was published by knife|fork|book and his debut poetry collection Me, You, Then Snow is forthcoming with Gordon Hill Press.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com