new from above/ground press: By the Shores of Issyk-Kul, by Helen Hajnoczky

By the Shores of Issyk-Kul
Helen Hajnoczky
$5

What use is faith
for a faithful woman?
What use is belief
for the believer?

Taken from the valley
where they last laid down their heads—

Taken from the valley
where the pestilence consumed them—

Where they took their final breaths.



In the shadow of the foothills—
exhumed from their graves—

With what regard
for their mourners,
their friends, their kin?

With what regard for
whoever it was who so carefully
carved their names?

With what regard for
whoever carved
their last confession of faith?

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

cover image: Holbein d. J.; Danse Macabre. XXXII. The Count

Helen Hajnoczky is the author of the poetry books Frost & Pollen, Magyarázni, and Poets and Killers: A Life in Advertising. She can be found on Instagram @ateacozyisasometimes and online at ateacozyisasometimes.com.

This is Hajnoczky’s fifth chapbook with above/ground press, after A history of button collecting (2010), The Double Bind Dictionary (2013), No Right on Red (2017) and a grain of sand (2021). Report from the Hajnoczky Society, Vol 1. No. 1, appeared in 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