N.A.C.L: “Test Pattern” from Steve McOrmond’s New Book of Poetry, The Good News about Armageddon

From the backcover: Poems that occupy the difficult territory of contemporary crisis with great candour and trenchant wit. Steve McOrmond’s unflinching take on contemporary life may remind readers of the anti-poetry of Europeans like Zbigniew Herbert: intense, humanistic and deeply sceptical of inflationary gestures or stagy rhetoric. Shedding illusions, but equally refusing the consolations of despair, McOrmond’s well-tempered satire is carried home on its own crisp music. 

Mary Dalton on The Good News about Armageddon: “A metaphysical wit and a self-mocking humour leaven this often dark account of the calamity that is our contemporary way of living. In his own distinctive way, Steve McOrmond … he ranges across the detritus of mass culture with a blend of wryness and intensity that is highly engaging.”

Sample Poem: “Test Pattern”

Hunkered down on the couch, brain
refusing to follow the body into sleep

or vice versa. The no man’s land
between 3 and 4 in the morning.

heat lightning over the lake,
Turner meets Van de Graaf.

Thumb on the flicker, I receive
the world on a wide band of channels,

Paid announcements for countertop rotisseries,
knives that slice through beer cans like butter,

diet pills, Bowflex. Right now, beautiful
young women are waiting to take your call.

I had to stumble across
some sci-fi flick from the cold war,

We come in peace, but it’s much too late,
most stations have suspended

their programming, NTSC colour bars,
the continuous 1,000 Hz monotone,

which is the frequency of the dead,
informationaless.

At a certain age, 7 or 8,
my vision was better than 20/20.

I could see the monster in the closet,
the yellow slits of its eyes.

Everything feels in focus,
though the lenses are a little dusty,

blind spots, scotomata. Now the monsters
are out of the closet and the wolves

wear wolves’ clothing. The sky flares,
bright as phosphorus, over

before it began.

About Steve McOrmond: PEI poet Steve McOrmond made his mark in 2004 when his debut, Lean Days, was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award ( an award for the best first book by a Canadian poet.) His follow up, Primer on the Hereafter, won the Atlantic Poetry Prize. As expected, his 2010 release, The Good News about Armageddon, is a great, and, distinctive collection of poetry.

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