new from above/ground press: Gardens in Motion, by Stephen Collis

Gardens in Motion
Stephen Collis
$5

went out to walk at plant pace

long arcing stride of rubus stepping canes

coastal rainforest zone Pacific mists

to berry and behold

if we ever come this way again the seeds were saying

sown on the wind and trampled on the trail

gut carried and shat forward

mycelium inching beneath the forest’s shifting fringe

some forgotten corner of the holy forest

bees’ jet-black bodies and blue iridescent wings  

time lapse and our lapse in timing

no future as sure as less abundant being

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

Stephen Collis' many books include Almost Islands and A History of the Theories of Rain. Most recently he edited A Dream in the Eye: the Complete Paintings and Collages of Phyllis Webb. He lives near Vancouver and teaches at Simon Fraser University.

This is Collis’s third title with above/ground press, after NEW LIFE (2016) and FIRST SKETCH OF A POEM I WILL NOT HAVE WRITTEN (2017).

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