Selected from a series of brief poems well over one hundred parts long, con/tig/u/us strings together ephemeral, non sequitur thoughts into a fragmentary and ever-shifting stream of poetic consciousness. With only a handful of words, Kevin Heslop writes tiny poems opening upon a world of possibility, and with that in mind we've produced a limited edition of tiny hand-bound chapbooks, a mere 2" by 5.25", opening a window into Helsop's larger poetic practice. Fifty copies of con/tig/u/us have been published, now available from The Blasted Tree Store, and you can preview the collection in the online gallery.
Poetry Chapbook - ̶c̶o̶u̶p̶ by Kate Siklosi
̶c̶o̶u̶p̶ is a collection of visual poems made from the destruction of a vintage book, The Famous Men and Great Events of the 19th Century (1899). Using a variety of techniques and materials, Toronto-based author Kate Siklosi dismantles and reconstructs the narratives propping up the 'great man' theory and European patriarchal ascendancy, documenting each experiment in historical revisionism with colour photographs. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of 40 hand-bound chapbooks incorporating the materials used in the making of ̶c̶o̶u̶p̶ : torn up maps, pages from a book, red string, and transparent tape. ̶c̶o̶u̶p̶ can be viewed online, and copies of the chapbook, each one unique, can be purchased from The Blasted Tree Store.
READ ̶C̶O̶U̶P̶
Poetry Chapbook - CRYPTOPOEMS by mwpm
Encoded within unique and structurally challenging forms lie mwpm's "cryptopoems," puzzle-like arrangements of letters concealing lines of poetic meaning that unfold to careful readers. These poems function like a riddle or a joke, comical little brain-teasers which require you to read in unfamiliar ways, to use memory and pattern recognition in deciphering the message, but which reward those who get it. Surveying a variety of mwpm's signature forms, each built on a simple set of constraints, CRYPTOPOEMS can by read online, and a limited edition of hand-bound chapbooks are available from The Blasted Tree Store.
READ CRYPTOPOEMS
Poetry Leaflet - -19° 54’ · 12h 53m by Kyle Flemmer
-19° 54’ · 12h 53m, a new visual poem by Blasted Tree editor Kyle Flemmer, uses randomly generated celestial coordinates to form a composite view of the night sky. Each poem is made from grid spaces excerpted from star charts enclosing the set of 14 coordinates, substituting lines of text for sightlines in the sonnet. A limited edition of fifty 4.25" x 9" folded leaflets have been produced on metallic silver paper, get yours today from The Blasted Tree's Store.
VIEW -19° 54’ · 12h 53m
-19° 54’ · 12h 53m is The Blasted Tree's 50th print publication in just under four years of operation! Thank you to our readers and contributors for all the love and support so far, we look forward to publishing more boundary-pushing Canadian content in the coming years. For a comprehensive list of our publications in print, please see our Publication History.
Poetry Booklet - Pushing, pulling by Katerina Sevelka
Katerina Sevelka's second poem on The Blasted Tree continues her exploration of place, tone, image, and perspective. Like the painters invoked in Pushing, pulling, Sevelka employs "subjects at once alien and familiar" like wisps of forgotten memory, "(a Canadian vernacular.)." 4.25" x 2.75" folded booklets were produced in a limited edition of 50 copies, get yours from The Blasted Tree's Store.
READ PUSHING, PULLING
Poetry Leaflet - Our twigs (just in case) by Simon Brown
Our twigs (just in case) is one of two new poems by Simon Brown, both written in a fragmented two-column form which encourages multiple readings. This poem is pointed as a shiv, while Brown's second entry, When fleeing was it, is soft as a cloud. A limited edition of 50 folded leaflets featuring Our twigs (just in case), 4.25" x 5.5" on granite-grey paper, is now available from The Blasted Tree's Store.
READ Our twigs (just in case)
Poetry Longsheet - Lakes and Highways by Katerina Sevelka
Within the contemplative scenery of Katerina Sevelka's poem, encounter the reflexive connections we form between people and places, the memory of a dream, like great lakes in a cup. Lakes and Highways is now available from The Blasted Tree's Store in a limited edition of 4.25" x 11" longsheets, each printed on antique grey Classic Laid paper.
Read Lakes and Highways
A special edition of 100 longsheets was produced to commemorate the inaugural Canzine Calgary, held Saturday, November 4th, and the Memorial Park Library. 50 copies of Lakes and Highways were included in filling Station magazine's small press issue Fall 2017.
Poetry Leaflet - pattern by psw
Produced on a typewriter with both a blue and black ink ribbon, pattern is The Blasted Tree's second print media outing by the German visual poet, psw. This attractive and colorful broadside has been made into a limited edition of fifty 8.5" x 3" folded leaflets, copies of which are now available from The Blasted Tree's Store.
View pattern
For more amazing visual poetry, abstract graphics, artist books, and print ephemera made by psw, make sure to check out the PSW Gallery online!
FLASH HAIKU - Jesse Anger
The winner of The Blasted Tree's second flash haiku contest, held on Facebook earlier this week, is Jesse Anger! We've published his haiku into 2.5" x 2.5" mini-leaflets in a limited run of 60 copies. Jesse's poem was selected for its unconventional structure, loading the last line with contemplative images that lend retroactive meaning to the first two. While we usually go for haiku that open up, this one zooms right in, a surprising move, and a turn in its own right.
BUY FLASH HAIKU: JESSE ANGER MINI-LEAFLET
Poetry Leaflet - Luster + Occult by Amy LeBlanc
Two poems in the form of dictionary definitions, each term is a nucleus encased in poet Amy LeBlanc's personal lexicon, memories, and associations. Featured together, these poems take on a dimension expressed though symbolic actions and taboo significance. 50 limited-edition 2.5" x 7.5" leaflets, printed on high quality granite-grey paper, are now available from The Blasted Tree Store.