rob mclennan, “Subject”

rob mclennan

Subject;

it's not that he died

it's that he won't stop

                        Jon Woodward, Rain

1.

rounding vowels; a vanishing eye,

voicing; perpendicular lines,

sleep the vast plains,

a temporal musk,

my own to speak; a means

of other means,

the heart pays close attention

to the frame,

thin, roping twist,

is guaranteed,

to love, love, love,

the great endings,

right or wrong,

what is to know,

2.

a recent hurricane; introduced

a discourse,

this crucial fact, ideas

what we face

are simply doors,

shivered; ordinary,

forged with molecules,

enacting, heedless,

citing attribution,

a question, sugar-formed

fighting an anachronism,

a social promise

etched in language,

, this season

of floods,

can hear

the starlings swerve,

3.

some words I know:

rotation

of white space,

apace,

a spate of address,

now addressing,

knowing,

sentence

someone else,

stories placed so,

so; a garden,

fenceline,

to start is somewhere

of a certain mind,

an ocean,

4.

contain, or thus,

continue,

aware of light,

or like

a canvas would not sing,

murmur, weakly, widely,

silence ever

just takes place,

encroaching air

extends, how far,

at once,

spring cleaning:

you must write this

, you must leave home

5.

behind her own voice,

icicle; forgets the body

, mouth a tarnished wheel

sling of prophecies, forget

courtship, comprehension,

dark stain on a lung,

inky print,

frames

in biological time

, great distances

is next-door sweet,

is perfume,

wave a point, a reference,

, admonishments

a dislocated finger,

6.

index: phantom aesthetic,

do you think there's such a thing

rhythm, rhythm, song

, this flood

textures of a vice,

a human voice: reluctant,

contour narratives,

a mouse-tongue,

soft, and sweet

an earthen twist,

death is matter, matter, not

the moments,

speculative use,

what do we know,

we lose,

one thing, another

words: we overflow,

_____

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa.  The author of more than twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles include the poetry collections A (short) history of l. (BuschekBooks, 2011) and Glengarry (Talonbooks, 2011), and a second novel, missing persons (2009).  An editor and publisher, he runs above / ground press, Chaudiere Books (with Jennifer Mulligan), The Garneau Review (http://www.ottawater.com/garneaureview/), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (http://www.ottawater.com/seventeenseconds/) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (http://www.ottawater.com/).  He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at http://www.robmclennan.blogspot.com/

_____

RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/, ISSN: 1938-3592, Volume 5 (2011): Disappearance