rob mclennan


a valentine for kathy

to intro thinking; the bar or even draft
would strike a dumb or drum, an image curls
                               discursive skin;
to keep your things; a heartfelt must,
                                                inherited blocks of gold
              & silver ruin; a mordant

if does become a preference; a last gauge sky
undercutting tones; a vague anxiety
                                 of tones & tunes & crescents
, would utterance, a phone call measure

                                                                              coffee lightly, burn
or hustle buses out
                                  ;would that eternity is, restraint
a jar of kitchen-blue, a tarp
                                                of gardens concrete creep

                 & never salvage; against neither nor
or suffering, sin

                                     ; a breaking tonal shift of furies
                                                                   made out of chocolate, bees

& even only denser reference is clean



a valentine for kate

a venerable eros; cut & clean to number street
in zeroes, set & ones
                                                        ; what fishing for testing
would shift a veritable bleed, an office towner
& a drink go writing, waiting
            fork lift in routines
                            & russian-blue

the arm gives out; a stormy foursome banjo
east coast from the whether
                                                   five books are; in picture,
each house had a window, window
had a long forgotten urge
                                                                   ; has always somewhere happened
never-history or known
            from cold war crises; beer store plaques
                                              that almost mention

a bicycle built for through; an elm branch wash
demolition & the drizzle rain

                                  corrosive; terror-stain
           & wafer-wide an email
                                                              cuts you

for the seventh rasping day

            ; takes the very taste


a caution for david

go causal & think; breathe out a three-hole
                                   blasted; fish-hooked mouth, the bottom
of an endless bay
                                            ; look homeward, strangle
metaphysical & deeper bait
            you weapon would be out; go
                                                                    eaten alive

a tire pulls it, toilets, sink already sold
                       for two-hand glue; a painted face
of poets in a backyard dream, the basement
studio the lawn
                                              ; wait from the outside, children
dressed up to fill
            our rural origins

we knew the leaves of shells & slaving propaganda

                                        ; muses worn for sleeping
& the plague, a rid disease yawns tenderly
, curse unfurled of each house
                                                 that you stepped into

time a drift; electrode cross
                                  the border south

go safer in; they never will forgive


a postcard for suzannah

a buckled praise; if orbit horribly in charge
or split decision;
                                                  hard moulded to a word
a swiss to safety, archive alps
& a family to swim w/; soccer plays,
                                 but passive interest seen
; black clouds concentrated against snow

                                                              nothing smaller burns,
dark watching changed, as in a foreign dream
of cars & jars, canadian winters
               & an africa built of beads & worry
; where are you now
                                                  ; the writing of this wisdom pearls

a pumice stone, brief history
of neglect, a country pandemic through
                                 a trembling cup, an open grill

would corresponding mark in january, july
would to any of various larger kinds
                                                        of english, broken           
               if at all

giving out a kind of story a culture painting sticks
an active copy; rivers made of gold
                               excuses, castor sugar blackened

& a tourist milled
for when you finally home


a prop for chuck

made curiosity, seeming child; jill waits,
patient & forever always
                               ; a missing thirteenth passion page
; would through his scratch & morbid
                                                                ambivalence; a smartest made
; curious to the touch, a look or look upon

            , step on ragged river, breaking all news
placed in jars, or northern burn so natural
you couldnt wait to leave;
                                                get up
from the children woke, a kitchen chair
when let before; we talk
            we love, we find ourselves

a history of the colour blue vancouver waves & blood

this bottle followed me home, & heart
the voice from here
                                            scraped out
            what I decided; square a rochester of light

if trick & lime you, sear us pass
the wall moves quietly, magnum flask

            what baby gesture finally happens
            neither from towards or too

& then make three; hair falling over eyes


(These poems are dedicated to, in order: Watchum, Bryden, Cation, Showler and Double.)


rob mclennan lives in Ottawa, Canada's glorious capital city. The author of a dozen trade poetry collections, he has three forthcoming in 2007, including avalanche (Outside Voices, US), a compact of words (Salmon, Ireland) & The Ottawa City Project (Chaudiere Books, Canada), as well as a collection of literary essays with ECW Press. A prolific publisher & editor, he co-edits the online critical journal Poetics.ca & the annual pdf poetry journal ottawater. He posts reviews, rants, essays & other nonsense regularly at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com


 
 
 
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