founded July 1993 : CELEBRATING THIRTY-PLUS YEARS OF CONTINUOUS ACTIVITY + MORE THAN 1400 PUBLICATIONS TO DATE! Ottawa-based poetry chapbook + broadside publisher; publisher of The Peter F. Yacht Club (a writer's group magazine) + Touch the Donkey (a small poetry magazine) + G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] + periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, as well as home of The Factory Reading Series (founded January 1993); edited/published/curated by rob mclennan
rob mclennan, The underside of the line, (above/ground press, 2011)
reviewed by Susan McMaster
One of a series from rob mclennan’s above/ground press, this chapbook opens with a quote from Cara Benson that start, “the story goes like this: I made a poem….”We can count on rob mclennan to read and mine texts from many sources as guideposts to his own explorations — and clues for us. underside features three poems punctuated only by section numbers and commas, on his father”‘s cancer:
have tried to understand death
a step
dying isn’t
on a 41st birthday:
What stays a marvel
and for the birthday of “C”:
lived, a day
…
wet pools of paper
soft vehicles of travel,
The comma, that appears sometimes in odd places such as at the beginning of a line, acts as a soft exhale, a lyrical pause and gesture forward.
I like these poems. mclennan’s language is assonant, rhythmic, full of unexpected word conjunctions that carry readers around the idea of an emotion without forcing it on us. Although sometimes his allusions are too obscure, too self-referential — my mind drifts — when rob steps closer, he writes very well.
