new from above/ground press: Lives of Dead Poets, by Penn Kemp

Lives of Dead Poets
Penn Kemp
$5

Die Verse

As if. What matters. As if. What’s left.
As if. We have only our elegies. As if.

Even the need for elegy. As if remembering
and inventing—invenio —as if.

As I come upon. As I discover.
As if in passing through this vale.

As if memory’s world is
as if trudging up sludge,

As if the word that springs to
mind is devotion, as if, despite

the mess, life's unholy
business forever left

unfinished. Dead
poets, by your name

we shall know you,
by your work.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

cover image: James Kemp

Penn Kemp has been celebrated as a trailblazer since her first publication (Coach House, 1972). Kemp has long participated in Canada’s cultural life, with 30+ books of poetry and prose; seven plays and multimedia galore in collaborations like www.riverrevery.ca. She was London, Ontario’s inaugural Poet Laureate, The League of Canadian Poets’ Spoken Word Artist (2015) and Life Member, acclaimed “a foremother of Canadian poetry”. Recent poetry collaborations include Intent on Flowering (https://rosegardenpress.ca); P.S., https://www.gapriotpress.com/shop/p/penn-kemp-sharon-thesen-p-s and her co-edited anthology for Ukraine, https://www.rsitoski.com/poems-in-response-to-peril. Penn’s latest collection of sound poetry, Incrementally, text and album, is on https://www.hempressbooks.com/authors/penn-kemp. Join her on https://www.instagram.com/pennkemp, https://pennkemp.substack.com, https://x.com/pennkemp and www.facebook.com/pennkemppoet. See also www.pennkemp.weebly.com and www.pennkemp.wordpress.com.

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) 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