new from above/ground press: Bridges under the water, by Jérôme Melançon

Bridges under the Water
Jérôme Melançon
$5

word a single word ordering all things knowing thus willing
a rudder to seed the path, to drag the bed
that separation again touching all things
to break on all things    knowledge a placing
from this groove an order an ordering a word
a bulwark to defend
                          our feet within it and
                          within the river, external to their
                          depth, their length insufficient
                          to make an impression
never in the same tributary  ,  in the same boat
held upright  ,  throat open, but these millennial metaphors
river and ocean    word and speech    knowledge and will
length and depth    age and decay    current and fueling
floating and sinking the opposites of the slow downing
of the chest on the beach   rest   the thread from
water to earth   the string and the plucking
a tension between chests   sounding only in refusal
of the current borne by the other, bearing the other
plexus solar against plexus  ,  a curtain in the fall
the tension remains  ,  grave


published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
[Jérôme Melançon will be launching this title in Ottawa as part of the above/ground press 30th anniversary reading/launch/party on August 12!]

Jérôme Melançon lives in oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina, Saskatchewan. His most recent poetry collection is En d’sous d’la langue (Prise de parole, 2021). He has also published two books of poetry with Éditions des Plaines, De perdre tes pas (2011) and Quelques pas quelque part (2016), as well as one book of philosophy, La politique dans l’adversité (Metispresses, 2018). He regularly publishes poetry criticism, notably in the online journal periodicities, and his essay on above/ground press' thirty years of activity can be read in Arc Poetry Magazine #101. He has edited books and journal issues, mostly in political philosophy, and keeps publishing academic articles that marginally relate to these poems. He can be found on social media with the handle @lethejerome.

This is Melançon’s third above/ground press title, following Coup (2020) and Tomorrow’s Going to Be Bright (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