some author activity: Atkins, Burdick, Boyle + Ross,

Tim Atkins has some new work up at The Abandoned Playground; Alice Burdick has some new poems up at The Brooklyn Rail; Frances Boyle has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal; and Stuart Ross has posted an essay on death on his blog.

new from above/ground press: SkyMall, by Mikko Harvey and Ashley Yang-Thompson

SkyMall
Ashley Yang-Thompson & Mikko Harvey
$5 

White Pogo Stick


I am told that an overbearing wife can cause a man to become a shadow of his former self, that he could develop a hunch back, or become emaciated, or his hips might screw loose from his sockets in pursuit of some eternal wiggle.
I tried to please you by remaining a rabbit in a hutch of my own creation, wearing only white mesh, & eating pellets & straw for weeks.
& when I burst from your birthday cake at Hooters wearing nothing but frosting, parts jiggling as I crossed the room on my white pogo stick, you were staring at your phone the whole time.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Mikko Harvey is the author of Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit (House of Anansi, 2018). He lives in Ithaca, New York.

Ashley Yang-Thompson aka Miss Expanding Universe produces a weekly zine, WORM HOUSE: the only source of real news in the world / bringing Las Vegas to the Berkshires.

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Dept. of Continuous Improvement, by Ben Robinson

Dept. of Continuous Improvement
Ben Robinson
$5

OPEN4BIZ

A single child’s handprint in the sidewalk
two dog pawprints in the mud

A kid tells his mother he found a long money
pulls a twenty from behind his own ear

The dog tied up outside the payday loan place
barks at anyone who gets close to the door

A For Sale sign
Mother Daughter Realty:
We sell homes for living life

Someone is delivering Domino’s
in a Mercedes Benz

Someone is driving
with an AYN RAND licence plate

Someone is ordering meat
from the drive-thru window

Someone is living
in the storefront across the street

The bars on the windows
all rusted through

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Ben Robinson is a poet, musician and librarian. In 2019 he published three chapbooks: Mumbles in Hollywood, California (Simulacrum Press), The Sims in Real Life (The Blasted Tree) and Talking Gibberish to Strangers (above/ground press). He has only ever lived in Hamilton, Ontario on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas. He is @bengymen on Twitter.

This is Robinson’s second above/ground press title, after Talking Gibberish to Strangers (2019).

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Clayton, mclennan, Sikkema, Siklosi + Best,

safely delivered above/ground press chapbooks!

Conyer Clayton is interviewed over at The Puritan; rob mclennan has a new poem up at pioneertown.; Michael Sikkema is being interviewed over at poetry mini interviews; Kate Siklosi has new work + a statement in the Spotlight series; Ashley-Elizabeth Best has an essay in the "Talking Poetics" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter.

new from above/ground press: Solitude is an Acrobatic Act, by Khashayar Mohammadi

Solitude is an Acrobatic Act
Khashayar Mohammadi
$4

The Seventh Seal

a parting of bruised clouds       
sunrays pierce the opacity of the ocean
waves sand down rocks into mirrors
the sun shines so the devil can find us in daylight
the eloquence of death leads to a vision
a naked soul atop a naked body shrivelled
from a plague painted on frescoes
the companionship of spirits in church
where god eludes all extended hands
but at the edge of life one can peer
into the abyss and beckon silence
the wonder that is the body        
pulsating with premature life
and a miasma punitive to all
a crusade chastens idealists
thuribles purify the holy path
and a plague shrivels the realists
flagellants who pour their blood
into bile to keep away witches
purge black death by fire
the insignificance of another dusk
when death excepts no knight or jester
a drop of water for the witch
before alighted at the stake
not to console the dying
but to console all who live
and after the storm: dappled in sunlight
a look of contentment while death hangs
on a branch by the troubadours’ tent
a little pleasure for the townsfolk
before thuribles lead the way again

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Khashayar Mohammadi is an Iranian-born Toronto-based writer and translator. His last chapbook Dear Kestrel was published by knife|fork|book and his debut poetry collection Me, You, Then Snow is forthcoming with Gordon Hill Press.

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: trauma suture, by Melissa Eleftherion

trauma suture
Melissa Eleftherion
$5

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
May 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Melissa Eleftherion is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. She is the author of field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & nine chapbooks. Born & raised in Brooklyn, Melissa created, developed, and currently co-curates The Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange with Elise Ficarra. She now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Library, teaches creative writing, & curates the LOBA Reading Series. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.

This is Eleftherion’s second chapbook with above/ground press, after little ditch (2018).

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Afterworld, by Andrea Rexilius

Afterworld
Andrea Rexilius
$5

The Structure of a Flower: Ovary

That goddess was once a word,
and the word for that goddess
was girl. And she was not o-shaped,
not open or agape. She was swarming
or fissured. Indented as a way to speak
deeper than surfaces. As a huntress
she was wild-eyed and ravishing. No other
atom dare approach uninvited. Lest he be
gutted. She was not “girl-like,” not pink
and tied up with ribbons or rope. She was
volcanic, triumphant. Named woman. Named garden.
And the person who named her was herself.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
May 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Andrea Rexilius is the author of Sister Urn (Sidebrow, Spring 2019), New Organism: Essais (Letter Machine, 2014), Half of What They Carried Flew Away (Letter Machine, 2012), and To Be Human Is To Be A Conversation (Rescue Press, 2011). Her creative and critical writing is featured in the following anthologies: Anne Carson: Ecstatic Lyre, The Volta Book of Poets, Sixty Morning Talks: Serial Interviews with Contemporary Authors, and Letter Machine Book of Interviews. She is Co-Director, and Core Faculty in Poetry, for the Mile-High MFA in Creative Writing at Regis University. She also teaches in the Poetry Collective at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver.

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com