england a-m
Acrobat by alan bertolla. 27p. poetry one, 33 fitzilian ave, harold wood, essex. a neat book written and illustrated by bertolla. i feel that perhaps he makes a better artist than poet, although one or two of the poems do strike higher than the mediocre.
Albion (3) 7 1/2p. david kay. 1c northridge road, manchester 9. streetsell u/g newspaper format mag with some of the best graphic illustrations i've seen for ages by james green & martin Button. basically its literary based with an uneven set of poetry, prose & shouting article. not at all to put it down though, its a lot lot better than many: sneyd/ dave stringers "the marriage of heaven and hell"/ reviews/ david kay on the lost age of aquarius/ etc etc.
All In hand lettered and illustrated poetry posters. about the cheapest on the market of this type. nina steane, 31 headlands, kettering, northants. could perhaps be printed on stronger paper.
no 13 pewfolder green/black & white with poems by booth/ steane/ goodson/ jaffin.
no 14 firework poster a poem by kevin crossley-hol land, gold on black, not too hot design.
All Horses Have Feathers by dick miller & alien fisher. 15p. I B held books, 60 garfield rd, london sw11. a collage novel printed in blue, illustrations and bits & pieces from all over stuck together in an attempt to form a new whole. somehow it doesnt work, remaining as bitty as it was before the pieces were stuck together.
Alternative London by nicholas saunders. 2nd edition. 270 page paperback. 30p. 65 edith grove, london sw10. one of the many guides around, this one not on how to beat the system in the yippie tradition but more how to live with the system and come out on top. solid full with the most useful set on information ever gathered into one book. although its about london in the main, many of the pieces are just as useful anywhere else in the country: main sections include:
somewhere to live/hints on decoration etc/food "branded groceries sometimes have a coupon for say, 2p off your next packet printed on the label. tear if off before you reach the cashier and use it straight away"./ money/ drugs/ sex/ jobs/ publications/ poetry - by a well known poet who doesnt want his name mentioned but comes out heavy on the concrete side!/ & much more.
Amazing Grace (5) 13p. elaine randell. 71 horn park lane, london sell 2, a well printed mag of poetry & graphics and somehow you can tell that its edited by a woman. uneven in content but with quite a few high spots. one of the better littles. incl: horovitz/ alan ireland/ tom pickard/ jeff nuttall (v.good)/ macsweeney/ tony rudolf's translations/ small mag reviews/ etc etc.
And Suddenly This by david h.w. grubb. 50p. driftwood publications. copies available from 21 prospect place, corsham, wilts. a tall thin 60 page neat one this. grubb has appeared a few times in second aeon, included because of his almost dreamlike stance and emotion hinged images. much of these two qualities rush up at you from this book. its a good one, well worth getting, reading and re-reading. grubb has that rare quality of being able to turn most things into poems worthy of the title. he fails a few times of course, but overall its worth the high-ish price asked.
Anthology (1) janet gordon. z press. beaconsfield bookshop, 52 london end, beaconsfield. although with the outward appearance of being badly produced this pocketsized mag isnt too bad at all once you get into it. mainly for new poets, and with the inevitable results.
Assistant Librarian is starting a small mag & book section to be run by john noyce of smoothie fame, anyone wanting to try their luck should send books to 67 vere rd, brighton.
At The Airport by bryn griffiths. 30p. sceptre press, 15 keats way, rushden. a 12 page well printed book containing the one poem - a love poem, strong, griffiths best style.
Autobiography by adrian henri. 50p. jonathan cape, 30 bedford sq, london wc1. a slim volume that dives from prose to poetry. adrian recounting the periods in his life not covered by his other work, his poetry being nearly always autobiographical. somehow this is a new stance for the archpop schoolgirls toothpaste hillsides & rock music liverpool poet. i've always felt that adrian's poetry is far more valid to our times than most people think, the fact that he has used the images that form the commercial world with which to make poems has made the great literary academics sneer in much the same way that pop artists like warhol and lichtenstein caused sneering when they first emerged. although autobiography still retains a lot of adrian's usual style i feel that its a hard fought battle on the poets part to prove he can do something else. okay, this proves he can. but i was a lot happier with the older stuff.
Automatic Transmissions by pual violi. swollen magpie press. available from strange feaces, 42a pembridge rd, london w11 . a large collection of american poems - often using surrealistic images in the middle of something distinctly earthbound, an action that jolts. as poems they tend to sprawl some but the overall effect is readable.
Ballade des dames du temps jadis. after francois villon. d.g. bridson. 35p. sceptre/menard press. 15 keats way, rushden, northants. 1 page poem luxury printed limited edition. expensive and expectedly traditional version, nonetheless worth a read.
Beau Geste Press felipe ehrenberg, langford court south, cullompton, devon. a rediscovery of the mimeo here. avante guarde stuff all the way thru and very exciting: 3 items so far
documento (d.t.) trimestral "in spanish - a record of the notes & projects of latin american artists & all while in the uk". short, foolscap mimeo.
world art organization by felipe ehrenberg. 80p. limited edition mimeo handmade spoof on directories i think. a small very funny pocket book complete with greenshield stamp & nudes
dreck "bits and pieces from the frontier" a large-ish magazine edited by mike weaver from the univ of exeter. a round up of articles & notes on recent avante guards activity. a much much needed magazine this one, well worth supporting for the news & information it puts across. this first issue including: mike gibbs on anslem hollo & charles olson/ carolee schneemann, tony rayns, david mayor etc on the new cinema/ mike gibbs on john cale & terry riley/ etc etc. the beau geste press is a strange and brave venture, worth supporting indeed.
beethoven today a poster by bob cobbing. a two colour version of cobbings earlier poem sequence in 15"x21 " poster format. a good addition to the concrete on your wall. £1.25 signed and 25p unsigned from the covent garden bookshop, 80 long acre, london wc2.
Bella by geoff charlton. 15p. Wham arts lab, tower st, birmingham b19 3uy. a small mimeo set of 5 prose pieces, stories, call them what you will. didnt excite me all that much.
Bernard Stone, the Turret Bookshop 1b kensington church walk, london w8 runs what must be the biggest poetry bookshop in london. his lists contain many many hard to get and out of print items. one sae will bring them, ideal for the collector & general reader alike. the shop is also a publisher of limited edition books, many of which i'd like to see out in regular cheaper editions. full listings again available for an sae.
Bit 141 westbourne park road, london w11 (tel: of 229 8219) regularly put out mimeo lists of information on events &actions, contact addresses, publishers, u/g, and the rest. a solid attempt to beat the problem of who, where, how and when. send them a few pence and get on their lists.
Bogg (12) 15p. george zack cairncross. 31 belle vue st, filey, e yorks. still spirit mimeo but bigger format and a lot more readable than the terrible last few issues. its the stance that bogg takes that appeals to me, totally irreverent in its presentation of literature but with out the anarchy that marrs many mags. the content itself rushes from the good n'solid to the rough and useless. incl: d.c. carr/ sneyd/ upton/ connors/ stanleythoams/ opal I. nations/ etc remember "joseph breumah invented the Bogg in 1778" - i thought it was thomas crapper.
no 13 goodies include sneyd/ nations/ grubb/ spiro/ finn/ lenihan & other regulars.
Camden Journal (vol 7 no 5) wm r maidment. st pancras library, 100 euston rd, london nw1 has a special poetry issue: margot petts on poetry in the libraries where we learn which areas of london dig which poets/ jeni couzyn on 30 camden poets/ veronica harvey on poetry for children/ peter hodgkiss on poetry mags/ etc. the magazine is issued free.
Cantilever elegy for crossed lovers by alan riddell. a limited edition (75 copies) concrete poem poster done originally as a hommage to apollinaire for the apollinaire exhibition at the ica in november 1968. 10" x 30", black and purple lettering on silver card. beautiful and fully de-lux. available at £3.00 each from 23 chapel side, london w2.
Carsplays by gee gee baba (bernard kelly) bonefold imprint. 68 parkhill rd, london nw3. a rather rough mimeo set of cut-ups of car reviews. okay we all know that there are psycological links between cars and women and as a result this set rather overworks itself.
Catalyst jos tilson. 71 stepney green, london e1. this evolving directory of artists, their events & their current actions is sadly no more. however i'm pretty sure that copies are still available of the last two issues (oct 71 - a large large A-Z round up) and (dec 71 a large wall poster) and that they are still relavent. send for the last issues and be amazed at the value you get and watch out for jos tilson's final round up of the information she has in a large "who to contact & how" book).
The Catonsville Roadrunner 8p, now run by the manchester collective at 28 brundretts rd, man chester 21. radical christianity, the underground street walking church. not the jesus freaks but still pretty wild.
China-Cat Sunflower a new alternative mag for brum, due soon. phil glover, 2 the coppice, off denewood rd, handsworth wood, birmingham b20 2ad.
Collected Poems 1958 1970 by george macbeth. £3.50 hardback. macmillan. hounsmills, basingstoke, hampshire. 254 pages in a most wonderfully produced book, drawn from macbeths numerous previous collections. the complete best of macbeth in fact. the book splits into five sections, each dealing with a different aspect of the much varied macbeth. there are the "straight" poems of love, death & life - solid works, never dull but never quite uplifting enough to be great. there are the animal & childrens poems - wry & gentle, easy to read, hard to write, a delight to have. there are the performance poems, the clown poems, the out-loud works, the crazy stuff that makes macbeth what he is. clever indeed, good in their immediate-zap for readings, but lacking something in the cold white & black of print. there are the sound poems, ones i think should be forgotten quickly but only after noting that the poet has at least the outlook broad enough to create them, and then to include them in his BIG book. there are the inventive new poems, here macbeth excels. game poems, make it yourself poems, all maner of new twists and turns. anything to get away from the traditional format. of course some dont work, but the important thing is that some do. after staggering away from the end of the book what are you left with. confusion in a sense, certainly admiration of the man for the many many sides and directions he has put upon his poetry. for certain macbeth can write a good poem, he is thoroughly undisciplined in his choice of forward motion(s) and its perhaps here that lies his success and failure. wildness in anything leads to unknown places. if those places are worth it or not can only be known with time. for now lets say that macbeth entertained me all the way through, uplifted me and put me down. where he goes to now is what is important.
The Conservation Society Newsletter a small mag of news & notes sent to members of the society (£2 per year - 34 bridge st, walton-on-thames, surrey). the C.S. seems to be the only body around with an overall policy & action set up on the problems we now face having ruined the planet for so long. it seems by the look of its literature etc that it could do with some modern designers to have a go at its image. it needs many many members to work & wont get them unless its willing to play a bit. ideals are all very well, but they alone dont attract people, not in the uk anyway.
Contacts (1) 10p. john noyce. smoothie, 67 vere rd, brighton. the latest in a very strange series of publications. it fits noyce's addiction to catalogueing things, listings, much in the bit style, of info/help agencies, claimants unions, pup groups, womens lib etc.
Contrasts (8) 15p. russell pemberton, 76 rosedale ave, liverpool 123 Ouq. a printed mag of poetry & reviews without any recognisable layout at all. contrasts boasts a staff of 7 and for a 32 pager that comes out twice a year i'd say that someone isnt pulling his weight. the poetry is almost unbelievably uneven, some pearls and a lot of dishwater. including: nuttall/ simmons/ horovitz/ bold/ pudney/ buck/ etc. "are you waiting to be discovered?" send here.
Country Decadence by bill butler. 20p. unicorn bkshop press. 50 gloucester rd, brighton. "tender ballads of young lust" - vastly different from butlers normal long distance style, funny in places, but rather trite - could be an attempt to break into the pop reading circuit, easy listening poetry.
The Crying Embers by martin booth. £1.50. fuller d'arch smith ltd, 76 gloucester place, london w1 . martin booth's first major book, although he has had numerous booklets and broadsides out. booth is a poet really worthy of his title, the contents of the book are poems by anyones definition. his images flow in the form of dreams, the poems push you through mist after mist and then slam a light in your face. surrealism touches lightly, almost undetectable, but there enough to give the work a different "feel" than might be expected from an english school teacher. perhaps the best thing in the book is orbis pictus, a poem sequence illustrating and illustrated by old woodcuts. so simple, or so it seems. poetry. d'arch smith are good publishers. they choose fine type & paper, they bind their books well making a hardback that will last - but they do cram the poems in, giving them little room to breathe. a small point really when you consider the power of those poems.
Cube by dave Calder. 64 canning st, liverpool 8. a rough mimeo production of a long prose piece. looks good & i'm told a better more readable version is on the way.
Curiously Strong free. ian patterson. 18 micheldever rd, london se 12. under fred buck's command the curiously strong was a free foolscap sheet of poetry, now its much much larger and deals with individual sets by one poet at a time. send stamps and get some. recent issues:
vol 3 no 10 brother wolf Isections 1 - 11) by barry macsweeney the full set due soon as a heavy hard back. macsweeney shows here what he's really capable of as a poet, the sections link fully with each other and exclude much of the triteness visible in macsweeney's earlier work. i think too that i detect here a similarity between film technique and poetic form.
vol 4 no 2 ouch by peter ackroyd open ended sex and scenes from the cities poems.
vol 4 no 1 flange by fred buck. rather vauge sequence, but then thats perhaps what its about.
Curtains (1) 25p. paul buck. 27 london road, maidstone, kent. "Writing poetry today is like dropping rose-petals into the grand canyon and waiting to hear the echoes - ezra pound". for all its roughness i think we have one of the new real magazines of 1972 here. full all the way with rose petal echoes. an absolute must for those really interested in the new written arts, not one weak point in it and open to the experimental as well as the straight. poetry & prose works from: stuart montgomery/ larry eigner/ roy fisher/ alexis lykiard/ hemensley/ opal nations/ michael butterworth/ allen fisher and many more. its really good these days to see a solid real magazine come out amidst the welter of lightweights.
Death is a Pulpit & Life is a Platform two new hardbacks issued simultaneously, by peter levi. £1.20 & £1.50 respectively. anvil press poetry. 69 king george st, london se10 in death is a pulpit lie five solidly rhetorical live-reading poems, in life is a platform lie the personal, the to-be-read, the poem poems. so the introductions say. levi is a great lyric poet, he is jesuit and his religion naturally hangs often in the body of his poetry. the death is pulpit selection i found the most significant, to me anyway, his long poem "Christmas sermon", dull though its title sounds, is one of the best soul-searching, personal, relevant long poems i've read in ages. its worth buying the book for that alone. not to say that life is a platform doesnt contain a bunch of gems. it does. well turned poems of god, of man, of life in fact. its very difficult to say much more about such an involved & simple poet as levi in a piece like this without taking up 6 or 7 pages. best to say just that i found in both books a poetry rare in the english language. something we need much more of. something that needs to be read.
dieter rot editions hansjorg mayer, 61 b aberdare gdns, london nw6 have set themselves, or rather himself the unending and almost impossible task of publishing the complete collected works of icelandic poet, concretist, sculptor, artists and joker dieter rot. rots work covers a vast vast field spreading himself all over the far outside edge of the avante guard, his output is huge, huge, huge and like our own dsh he lacks the self-critical faculty. his work ranges from genius to rubbish, and as anyone will tell you the two are very near. (perhaps its me thats at fault not being able to tell the difference between them). the collected works are to appear in 20 telephone directory size volumes, in full colour print where needed and selling at £2.40 each. the series is not being published in cronological order and the four volumes i have here range over rots full spectrum - brilliance to triviality.
vol 2 is perhaps the tritest -a reprint by way of photographing the original of rots early typographical books. his old poems that deal with the relationship between bpq&d amongst other things. its all there but so are a lot of photos of blank pages, and pages with perhaps one dot on them rot the joker no doubt.
vol 18 covers some repetitive experimenting with questionnaires but also some of his newspaper collage work and tiny book-objects. as well as a series of what must be porn photos with the interesting parts cut out. more of rot the joker, but a funny one this time?
vol 19 covers some of rots amazing little pen drawings, fine dada/surreal pieces done in rots traditional sloppy style, ink smudges and corrections all left in. his almost concrete stuff gets an airing here, a hand drawn and very effective death/destruction of language and some other pieces that involve repetition. also some of his photo collage work & pantings.
vol 20 is the best of the 4 volumes i have here. titled "grafiek en boeken" it covers rots books posters, graphics and paintings from 1947 to 71. his books are amazing in their invention: plastic pages in some full of chese, urine, paint etc etc, cuts outs, fold outs, boxes with stamps in them for do-it-yourself books, linocuts, 3-d work etc. surely taking publishing as far as it can go and still remain publishing. the "grafiek" are in full colour and occupy most of this volume, strange and familiar, beautiful and horrible. and the most interesting thing is that rots slopy style does not appear here at all. for those interested in these and other volumes and also hansjord Mayers other books send sae for a large free & illustrated catalogue.
Dodo (5) 12 1/2p. steve kuttner. 23 lausanne rd, withington, Manchester 20. a strange issue this, very well illustrated poetry, litho print, foolscap unhandy size (although i hear a new format is in the making), a bad poem by brian patten, some reasonable student work, an inevitable bruton connors story, 3 good horovitz items, a direct take of mike gibbs amazing tree poem by some miserable lacktalent called mykl yt, & more.
Don't Look Back by ian fearnside. 15p. 40 belle vue tce, Malvern. small neat letterpress of short neat & simple poetry. nothing cluttered here, nothing really too strong either. poems of town, love, seaside, love, rain & love. easy.
Dreams by kris hemensley. edible magazine, 54 hayes court, new park rd, london sw2. a large edible book this, and good to see hemensley's poetry together in a large set. the poems are as the title suggests, recordings and interpretations of dreams, they are not lyrical in the old sense, hard edged, lifting. they are also not as surreal and misty as dreams ought to be, hemensley must have a rock solid head. its an enjoyable read, pushing you over the small brink between knowing and understanding.
Earth Ship (4/5) kris hemensley. 106 bernard st, southampton. one of the last of the battered foolscap mimeos (i hope) although the rough appearance of this mag is by no means an indication of its content. Earthship started off as a really promising mag and although it hasnt really progressed in 4 issues its still very very good. a maze of letter extracts, prose, poetry & articles. black mountain is the nearest one can come to defining the style and even that is a rather vauge description. incl: paul buck/ peter riley/ longville/ turnbull/ tarn/ john freeman/ richard miller/ allen burgis/ paul matthews/ hoida/ bill butler/ chaloner/ tipton/ garioch & much more.
no 7 "an extraspecial new year issues" and by far the best to date. hemensleys own intelligent survey of a years magazines "Both the vehicles of 'breakthru' & 'movement' are worn out, for every poet there is a sheet willing to publish - we have broken thru!". buckmaster/ opal nations/ hilton on wieners/ symes on tom phillips & thomas nets/ paul buck/ alien fisher/ peter riley/ john jenkins/ jim burns/etc etc. a very good issue indeed. far ahead of earlier numbers.
Eboracum drwent college, univ of York, heslington, york. a typical university magazine, overloaded with the advertisements that pay the printing bills & carrying a lot of uncontrolled work. no 11 1/2 interview with edwin morgan/anne boyd on composing today/etc. no 12 misc student poetry/paulo freire on education as liberation/etc.
Elements in a landscape published by peter & ginny barnfield. a small book of bristol based poets beautifully designed & with some exact graphics. a prize for design. the poets dont really spark, become somewhat lesser than they should be in the face of such a well put together book. incl: pickard/ abe adams/ steven williams/ doug constable/ jon head/ etc.
Elephant Book by tony loves, illustrated by tim goulding. albion village press, 28 albion drive, london e8. small press books are getting a lot better looking these days, another solid piece of design here, intergrated text & drawing. the author is shy, his name appears only in small print, once, on the last page. its a sort of diary, a hippie (a who?) beat wanderers drug trip smash meanderings across india. its been done before & better. although to give due there are places in the text where I did learn something new. cut to about a third the length it might have made a readable book.
An Equivalent by alan brownjohn. 35p. sceptre press, 15 keats way, rushden, northants. a 12 page limited edition booklet this. its a hollograph that occupies one page only, a collectors item. a good poem it is too & i dont often like brownjohn. buy now before they all go.
Experiments in disintegrating language/konkrete canticle. arts council of great britain long playing record AC 1971. E1.50 (plus 20p p&p) 105 piccadilly, london w1. a strange but welcome venture this, the arts council producing and selling a record itself. its by no means a hi-fi job, plenty of rumble and chshchsh but very listenable nonetheless. basically its two groups of sound poets with one side of the 1 p each. experiments ... consists of tom clark, charles verey & neil mills. verey comes out top here, performing like i've never heard before - i was never too great a fan of his work but since the last time i heard him read (about 2 years ago) he seems to have really learnt how to do it. semantics non semantically and like the title says, disintergrating language. tom clark is good enough but somehow doesnt fit in, too readily understandable in a semantic sense while neil mills uses numbers in the way most sound poets use words. konkrete canticle is bob cobbing, paul claire and Michael (scratch orchestra & private company) chant on organ & mandoline. the material here is much nearer music but still using un-studio-processed voice. cobbing again proves himself the british master of this medium, his soaring roaring syllables interlocking finely with the weaving voice of paula claire & chants organ blasts. i've been waiting a long time for cobbing rock singer to appear and i'm sure that konkrete canticle could make it in a big way. after all the things they do, a do very well, are pretty near a lot of the things progressive pop groups record. the main difference being the type of audience and thats not too hard a barrier to overcome.
Eye-Witness 3p. dave tremellen. crossing house, oddingley, nr droitwich. a proposed arts news sheet for the worcester area - to carry news, notes etc plus interviews. for fuller details please send sae.
five visual poems by bob cobbing. writers forum folders no 9. 25p. 262 randolf ave, london w9. a cobbing reprint of selected popular items. five different size cards in a folder. apollinaire poem, grin, worm, cobbings first typestract, & a giant fold out version of are your children safe in the sea. all worth seeing again & a good introduction if cobbings work is new to you.
Folio 30p. sceptre press. 15 keats way, rushden, northants. a loose leaf set of five poems by five poets. elizabeth jennings, gavin ewart, laurence lerner, peter redgrove & peter finch. wide range of styles. signed limited edition available at £2.25.
Footnotes by paul Matthews. 71/2p. writers forum, 262 randolf ave, london w9. a new departure in book format for the publishers & in style for paul Matthews. the book itself is bound and about the neatest thing i've ever seen from writers forum, its also one of the strangest, and paul Matthews being the author makes it quite something. Matthews has never ever struck me as an experimental poet yet here he is with an absolute piece of dada. a supposed book was found covered with black treacle, all that was left intact was an odd word on each page, the footnotes and the index. here it is then, a book of odd words, dots & footnotes. funny & poetic. well worth getting. the index lists such amazing items as "Hedgehogs (see Bedsocks), wombats, Yoghurt (see Oblong), Lugwort, Soggy, etc etc.
Gargantua (2) 10p. robert ensor. 134 hollybank road, birmingham, b13 Orl. looking much better production wise in this second issue, reminds me of old mimeo second aeons - same pale yellow paper, size, clarity and crampedness. 48 pages & a glossy cover make good value. the content is all over the place, for the life of me i cant see the editors style at all great stuff, bad stuff & indifferent stuff. whichever way you look at it however for 10p you are bound to find something to suit you. give robert ensor a few more issues and he might very well be producing a really solid mag, you never know. contents include: opal I nations/ upton/ steve morris/ surtees/ paul brown/ & a welter of lesserknows. also a rather stupid letter from peter cash, who does seem to be annoying a lot of people these days.
Global Tapestry Journal (summer 71) 15p. dave cunliffe. bb bks, 1 spring bank, salesbury, blackburn. a bad cover hiding a very good magazine. mimeo with illustrated insets, weak at times in its choice of poetry but at least exciting: dennis gould on the poet in school/ tipton/ birney/ cloves/ gene fowler writes/ vegan action/ carr/ farrell/ snyed/ eigner/ dowden etc etc.
Gong (5) peter cash. wayncroft, croft lane, wainfleet, nr skegness. 15p. the penultimate issue of the well printed mag with the hardest editorial line in the uk. this issue carries some worth while prose and some irelevant poetry. greenfield on hermann hesse/ john snow/ parvin/ darlington on stock hausen/ upton/ cashford / mcmanus/ musgrave/ jaffin/ lowe/ lenihan/ etc. contributions are not sought for the last issue.
Graffiti by ian fearnside. 10p. 40 belle vue tce, Malvern. neat mimeo book & much better than his earlier "don't look back" set. somehow fearnside has become both tighter & looser in his poetry, he is beginning to learn to make the poem suit him rather than the other way about.
Greedy Shark a projected mag to be edited by barry macsweeney & ian patterson. first issue due soon from 90b high st, barnet, herts & to include: nuttall/ john james/ buck/ bland/ pickard/ brian marley/ lee harwood/ tony jackson/ & many others. looks pretty good indeed.
Grosseteste Books tim longville, 35 north st, fowey, cornwall, plan three new books for 1972 (1) john hall's days, poems from 1969 and 1970, an extension of the ground of his "between the cities" which they published in 1967; (2) jack collom's blue heron & ibc, 2 short mss by a widely published american poet whose work has never appeared in book form: (3) denis goacher's logbook, a selection from me last 12 years work of the only englishman ever to figure at length in cid corman's origin. advance subscription orders are needed for these titles, each subscriber will get a hardback copy, signed with an extra poem written in by the poet, and all copies of the books will carry an acknowledgement of the subscribers help. prices are £1 each for the 64 page hall & collom books & £1.50 for the 72 page goacher book.
Haiku Byways (3/4) 23p. gerry loose. 14 frognal, london nw3. more & more like eric amann's canadian haiku & just as good too. for those that like haiku, haibun, tanka and the like, try this.
Hard-Up by richard hill. 15p. driftwood publications. 48 middlesex road, bootie 20. copies also available from second aeon. tight funny poems in the roger mcgough mold, a liverpool pop poet who has so far been overlooked. try this one for a wry smile and a belly laugh. driftwood are also offering subscriptions at £1.20 for 8 books which is good value. future titles include brian wake and david h.w. grubb.
Headland (8) 25p. the last issue to be edited by gerald england. new editor is william oxley, 27 brook rd, epping, essex. this issue uses the more solid better little mag regulars, although the overall feel is somewhat dull. including: anne lewis-smith/ spratling/ edmonds/ carr/ grubb/ cash.
no 9 joint edited by william oxley & gerald england. no new direction yet, seems to be using up accepted mss from englands term of office: plomer/ tipton/ jaffin/ paul brown/ sneyd/ cairncross/ etc.
Helix by mike shields. 20p. here now folio 1, 22 torquay parade, hebburn, co. durham. "a progression of verses" that went right passed me and off into the grey distance.
Here Now (5) 15p. tom kelly. 22 torquay parade, hebburn-on-tyne. "mid-tyne poetry/views" a small mimeo that takes its contributors from all over (not just mid-tyne). not too great but a
few high spots in barry cole & bruton connors.
Hiatus (2) 10p. stanley angel. 12 stevenage rd, london sw6. 56 pages of very neat mimeo, poetry content rather on the weak side but with a large supply of excellent graphics by engel & ian robbinson. mccarthy/ kahn/ rice/ opal nations/ sneyd/ david ward/ fromberg/ etc.
Hummi Grundi part one by opal I. nations. ddible magazine, 54 hayes court, new park rd, london sw2. opal nations hilarious hummi novel, or part of it, spread out in a letterpress book let. hummi grundi doesnt really move in the experimental directions of nations later work but is as funny as hell. a section was published in second aeon 13. hummi is a character with a wierd obsession over sand, surrealistic to the extreme. a book not to be missed, this one.
Hope (1) "the hallamshire and osgoldcross poetry express) free. gerald england, 34 albany rd, sheffield, s7 idp. gerald englands new venture after giving up headland. two foolscap sheets carrying short reviews & poetry. issue one devoted in the main to a well covered investigation of the "vanitypresses". the places you pay to have your useless work published in. its about time the little mags opened up on this legal con, send your sae's at once and learn the horrible truth.
Icarus Landing by steve sneyd. 10p. hilltop press, 4 nowell place, almondsbury, huddersfield. rather untidy home made letterpress collection. sneyd has plenty of good images, he lacks in the main the control needed to shape them into poems. one or two in this set do work & hope fully these are his later ones. hopefully because i think steve sneyd could turn out some very good poetry some day, the ideas are there.
In Dark Mill Shadows - bailrigg poems - edited by graham taylor. 30p. continuum, bailrigg, lancaster. an anthology of poets who have either read at lancaster univ or appeared in their magazine continuum. a heavy weighting of good poetry here, enough to make it a worthwhile purchase but i have two major criticisms: the locals, mostly the weaker poets, appear too often; and the style of the book, de-lux & glossy, is ruined by jamming too much print onto
each page. calder/ patten/ pudney/ alan jackson/ henri/ connor/ graham/ jaffin/ macbeth/ nuttall/ macsweeney/ macdiarmid/ magee/ mitchell/ pate morgen/ david ward/ & many others.
The Information Explosion edited by john noyce. 10p. 67 vere rd, brighton. a small mimeo mag for librarians and library students containing what i'm told is a collection of humerous & satirical articles on librarianship. it didnt make me laugh, but then i'm no librarian.
In Transit by tine johnson. 45p. hub publications, youlgrave, bakewell, derbys. a vastly over priced set of poetry that doesnt deserve the name. a forced use of old speech forms, complete lack of valid imagery, poor rhythm and rhyme where there need not be. say no more.
Iron Flute (6) free. alan fuz bleakley, 25 trevemper rd, newquay. a free mag, no editorial intervention. publishes what arrives. actually it isnt as bad as it sounds, it comes out well up to the standard of many mags that have been edited. a bit rough in production, but then its free. basically the well known small mag poets morris/ connors/ sneyd/ upton etc etc.
Joe Dimaggio (1) 20p. john robinson. 6 knowle ave, bexleyheath, kent. and suddenly the uk starts filling up with new good mags again. things seem much much better these days than they were (say) 3 years ago. Joe Dimaggio is a large mimeo in the lon chaney style with a powerful set of contributors and a solid line in contributions. well worth investigating this one. chaloner/ gogarty/ mike horovitz/ nations/ buck/ burns/ waites/ tina morris/ paul smith (who turns out much better poetry these days) /cunliffe/ paul brown/ connors/ etc.
The John Upton Cookbook 15p. aloes masters handbooks. 60 garfield rd, london sw11. another marvelous little book from the aloesh b held/edible combine. this one all graphics, ideal for the knicker fetishist. some pretty good visual ideas going on.
Journey to the surface of the earth mark boyles atlas and manual. £1.80. edition hansjorg mayer. 61 b aberdare gdns, london nw6. published as part of an exhibition at the haags gemeentemuseum 1970. another beautiful & giant mayer book dealing with a not so typical mayer subject. mark boyle is an artist, a new romantic, following the line taken by spoerri and his snare pictures. the basis of boyles work is to arrive, by using chance methods, at a point on the surface of the earth & record just what he finds there. by tape, film, notes and primarily by making an exact replica of the ground on which he stands, frame it, and hang it up. about half of this book consists of maps, large and small used in the arriving at various points on the earth. i found this section somewhat pointless. its followed by examples of various surfaces, sand, snow, cities, brick etc etc. amazing in their detail. the book ends with a round up of boyles other associated work notably his light shows with the soft machine, his projection of body fluids and functions, his events etc. well documented with quotes from newspaper reviews of the time, photos and detailed explanations of his objects, and the degree to which he attained them.
judith walker posters no 2 features bob cobbings found-sound poem growrocks overlayed in part with a photo of the man himself. a very attractive poster, 21 "x15" black & white for a very low price of 15p plus postage. available from good london bookshops, try turret, 1 b kensington church walk, london w8.
The Kodak Mantra Diaries by ian sinclair. £1. albion village press, 28 albion drive, london e8 4et. the giant ginsberg book from which the interview with him in second aeon 14 was taken. firstly its well worth a pound, 16" by 6", many long thin pages covered with photos. sinclair has set out to prove interviews as an art form & does so too. the book is a background to a project by sinclair & mates to make a film/interview of ginsberg for german tv. the result is amazingly readable, autobiographical notes of the project, full text of the interviews themselves, poems, bits & photos. the whole thing is very truthful, right down to ginsberg getting completely pissed off towards the end. even if the beat poets are not your thing you should read this.
Konkrete canticle by bob cobbing. signed limited edition only £2.25. Covent garden press, 80 long acre, london wc2. somewhat of a rip off this one, at a writers forum type price it would be a good & valuable book since it distinctly lacks the finesse of a true high value limited edition. nonetheless the production is reasonable & the material worthy. its the background texts to cobbings new 1 p in part & examples of new work in others - foundsounds, straight sound texts, duplicator overlays, in fact a pretty good sampler of what cobbing is up to as of late.
Kroklok (2) 25p. dsh. writers forum 262 randolf ave, london w9. the continuing text book to sound poetry, the only magazine anywhere i think that devotes itself to sonic. this issue very well produced containing bob cobbings various manifestoes, hausmann, schwitters, artaud, peter mayer, neil mills, verey, hugo ball, collected tongue twisters, van doesburg, henri chopin, man ray etc etc. as obvious by the contributors a meeting of modern & dada.
Lament for the Maker by jack spicer. aloes books, 60 gerfield rd, london sw11. a neat small book that lets spicer grasp & tumble in his own silence. usa1963 firstly, a collectors reprint.
Lantern (1) david carr & Chris gibson. 10p. 100 olive ave, leigh-on-sea. "an arts and social mag for south-east essex." uneven quality mimeo, as always happens with a mag based on a certain area: adventure playgrounds/ arts councils/ common market/ plus local poets.
Laissez Faire. sent free to mag editors. 10p each to others. ember press, 128 ember lane, esher, surrey. a few sheets of paper each issue dealing in depth with the merits of certain small mags. there have been two issues so far and the mags covered include scrip, the review, outposts, & samphire. slightly weighted to one type of magazine it seems to me.
The Lead Singer by robert conrad. 15p. smoothie. 67 vere rd, brighton. 52 page neat mimeo that reads the wrong way round. conrad lacks good image, and a poets rather lost when he gets to that state. the poems rush through city life and the rocking 70's, casting loud word lumps as they go. not for me.
Leo Poems by eric ratcliffe. 20p. ore publications, 11 high plash, cuttys lane, stevenage, herts. a slim 17 pages of poems in praise of old britain, the age well before the machine.
...like contemplation... by dom silvester houedard. writers forum folder 11. 25p. 262 randolf ave, london w9. another sylvester typewriter set, printed on card and delivered in a folder. "concrete poems just ARE; have no outside reference: they are objects like TOYS & TOOLS..." runs dsh's introduction. the poems themselves follow his most un-published and most interesting line, shapes from the typewriter using only the dash and the line. the title sums up what you can do with them. brilliant.
Lines 10p. geoff holland. 9 park cres east, north shields, northumberland. a typical little mag this one, neat printed cover, neat mimeo inside, a mixture of poets, lacking cohesion, lacking excitement. there are parts that i cant really argue with but they are few.
no 9 pearce/ kuttner/ elsberg/ surtees/ parfitt/ leonard/ etc, reviews & notices.
no 10 sneyd/ stanley thomas/ mcgough/ cashford/ simpson/ etc (a better issue this one)
no 11 a much better issue than earlier ones this, a worthy review section plus a fair selection of poetry: calder/ patten/ simpson/ kirkup/ connors/ parfitt/ jaffin/ cowell/ etc.
Littack (1) 40p. ember press, 128 ember lane, esher, surrey, a large white printed mag devoted to "a critical survey" and boldly anouncing its non-support by the arts council. written entirely by editors jason hardy, j. swift, and william oxley littack attacks the current literature and all its attitudes, sometimes its funny, sometimes its stupid, its certainly different. i cant say i'm in line with all its remarks, often it goes too far just for the sake of sounding outspoken, but its good to see something sparking and smouldering in the distance.
Logbook by denis goacher. p/back 75p. gr/ew books. 10 consort cres, pensnett, staffs (see special offer under grosseteste books) a very neat set by an english poet thought a lot of outside the uk. not an english stance at all, neither is it a european one, something very fresh, something highly original indeed. goacher is quiet, uses his language a lot better than many of his contemporaries, is rich in lyrical imagery, has that out-of-style air that makes the reader stop, think, and read again to make sure he had it right. log-book does not experiment with form, goacher is a poet of the spirit rather than the mind. he speaks, often, thoroughly, significantly. get the book and stay with it for a week or two, it needs that length of time, the end result is a feeling that all is not lost.
Ludds Mill 10p. steve sneyd. 4 nowell place, almondsbury, huddersfield. a slim photo litho job with a great mixture of typewriters & clippings, graphics, photos etc. basically a poetry mag that has strong underground/localpaper leanings. readable indeed.
no 3 bruton connors/ Spencer/ w.t gregory/ tom bamford/ henderson-smith/ etc.
no 4 cartoons & expanded local/national notes section/ multiviewpoint drama/ connors etc.
Magazine (4) 10p. 82 cumnor hill, oxford. a second aeon award to magazine for the worst produced mag of the year, its an illustrated mimeo that almost didnt make it as reading matter. apart from a small thing like that i found it rather funny: keith armstrong's attempts at type-writer poems/ opal I nations illustrated story/ muldoon en maroc cartoon strip/ & more.
Mindplay edited by john sharkey. 90p. lorrimer publishing ltd, 47 dead st., london wt. (who dont go too far with their review copies ...i had to buy this one). the long long awaited anthology of british concrete poetry. sounds great but there are pit falls. to start with the anthology was finished two years ago and therefore gives the impression that it represents whats happening now, which it does not. concrete moves fast & many of the poets included here were only just starting out when the compilation was made. secondly britains best known concretist, ian hamilton finlay is missing (through no fault of sharkey's however - finlay has his thing about being head & shoulders above everyone else, he may very well be right but thats no reason to become exclusive). thirdly i would argue that sharkey hasnt chosen the best work of some poets, even going on what they had produced two years ago. he complains in his introduction that many editors have misrepresented dsh by not showing his best work, i feel that sharkey has done just that here. what we are left with is still valuable, sharkeys introduction is long & lucid, one of the best pieces written on concrete for a long time (even if it is slightly out of date), the cover specially done by tom phillips fits the book perfectly & there are some real high spots in among the contributors. poets include: tom clark/ bob cobbing/ furnival/ gibbs/ cox/ lloyd/ mccarthy/ mayer/ morgan/ riddell/ verey/ zurbrugg/ rawlinson/ draper & others. good value.
Muse (2) 20p. geoff charlton. birmingham poetry centre, margaret st, b'ham 3. a lot better content wise than issue one but still needs to broaden its field in order to become a solid magazine. good production & good value incl: steane/ steve morris/ booth/ etc.
My Iron Current Singing by jenny leith. scrip. 15p. 67 hady cres, chesterfield. looking very much like scrip itself this set of clever intricate word wooshes still fails to move me.
Page(s) 131-148
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The