new from above/ground press: In Which Archibald Lampman / Translates Arthur Rimbaud, by Grant Wilkins

Grant Wilkins
In Which Archibald Lampman / Translates Arthur Rimbaud
$5

Morning

Matin means morning     or sometimes, wakening sky     when night’s dying shadows     and old superstitions     meet the stirring of the sun     writing hope in blood and gold     above the marble quays and laurel woods     like warm breath     on silence

Le Temps s’écoulera means Time shall flow     or sometimes, the world marches on     when the hallucination of words     empties and refills     the drawing rooms and schools     and the woodyards of our youth     with the woeful felicity     of a quaint morning melodrama     or a high sovereign creed

Le chant des cieux means the song of the heavens     or sometimes, the lament of the winds      for though the city bells are singing     in their hollow towers     echoing endless Ave Marias        I can still hear the Goddess whispering     broken in grief and dim old age     dying slowly away      like mist in the morning

Rêver et attendre means to dream and to wait     or sometimes, somehow, my spirit is asleep     when the pale broken sun     that lured our youth     and disordered our minds     is beaten smooth to gleaming silver     we will finally be free     to drink the alchemy of the Word     in a long Circean draught

L’aube d’été means summer dawn     or sometimes, morning summons      when the sun breaks dull red     and the outer verges of my sleep     slowly vanish      to the sound of sparrows and fresh light     as I stir in the morning     and weep in mourning     for the antiquity of your wisdom

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Grant Wilkins is a printer, papermaker and occasional poet from Ottawa who has made a practice of doing strange things to other people’s words. He has degrees in History & Classical Civilization and in English, and he likes ink, metal, paper, letters, sounds and words, and combinations thereof.

This is Wilkins’ second above/ground press chapbook, after Reading The Great Classics Of Canlit through Book 5 of bpNichol’s The Martyrology (2022).

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 rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com