new from above/ground press: ECHOES, by Ken Norris

ECHOES
Ken Norris
$5

MEMPHIS BLUES

O call it what it is.

Call out anything
that occurs to you.

The air’s gone out of everything,
and life flattens.

So you try for a
C7add9.

I just can’t keep jazz chords
out of the blues.

Not any longer.

And I’m winding it down
to the point where
it almost breaks.

But it doesn’t,
cos it can’t.

So you go round
and around in the endless
cycles of life,

trying to jump the wheel
you can’t get off of.

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

Ken Norris was born in New York City in 1951. He came to Canada in the early 1970s, to escape Nixon-era America and to pursue his graduate education. He completed an M.A. at Concordia University and a Ph.D. in Canadian Literature at McGill University. He became a Canadian citizen in 1985. Norris is Professor Emeritus at the University of Maine, where he taught Canadian Literature and Creative Writing for thirty-three years. He currently resides in Toronto.

This is Ken Norris’ eleventh above/ground press chapbook, after Windward – St. Lucia Poems (1995), The Commentaries (1999), Songs For Isabella (2000), Green Wind (2010), Looking Into It (2011), Hong Kong Blues (2019), Hawaiian Sunrise (2021), Stray Dog Café (2021), The Traveling Wilburys Collection (2021) and False Narratives (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