i imagine a nun or two

After sitting in my "to read" pile for a few months, I finally got to the first series of chapbooks from the Alfred Gustav Press, a micropress run out of North Vancouver by David Zieroth.

The series featured three chapbooks, one each by gillian harding-russell, Richard Therrien, and David Zieroth. All three are beautifully constructed (obviously with a great deal of care), and featured strong work. David's own chapbook, Dust in the Brocade, stood out as the strongest. Dust in the Brocade (whose title is taken from a line in the opening poem, "The Nuns' Chair") features 13 sonnets (why not 14?), ending with the charming "After All These Years":

After All These Years

by David Zieroth

…still writing, they ask, gentle, mild types
curious but anticipating my capitulation
to the other side—theirs—where I will never-
ever-again take up a thought and turn it
this way or that into something other
than it was before, not necessarily
better but at best something better than
originally thought—oh, yes, still writing
I reply, surprised, as if they’ve asked
still breathing? blood continues circulating?
fecund ideas and senses wheeling? is that
how a glimpse is gained, gripped (how many
slip away?), how the unimagined grows
when you dream of it dreaming in you?

Series Two is already in the works, and looks like it might be even stronger than its predecessor, featuring chapbooks by Matt Rader, Susan McCaslin and Christopher Levenson. It's only $10 for all three, and the chapbooks are available to subscribers only, so sign up before the deadline (April 1st). Info on how to subscribe can be found here.