new from above/ground press: What's Left, by Ken Norris

What's Left
Ken Norris
$6

FALLEN ANGELS

Desecration. Wide-eyed
with failing wonder.

The fallen angels lift
themselves up, dust

themselves off. The war
in Heaven took no prisoners.

It’s just exile again,
with every dawn a new

beginning. I can’t muster
the words I write into battle,

can’t tilt the images any longer.
I’m open to the sky,

as always. In a world
of defeated things.

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

Cover Image and Lettering: Marlene Konyves

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 PhD 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’ thirteenth 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), False Narratives (2022), Echoes (2023) and Broken River (2024).

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