Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Anglo-Welsh Review 60p. roland mathias. deffrobani, maescelyn, brecon. some real fresh winds blowing through this vast 300 page magazine now - gone are the italic print jobs on the poems, replaced by a clearer type running a solid selection of poetry plus the usual articles and short stories. the review section, however, is still as obscure as it ever was.
no 49 tom davies' fine dockland reportage in words & photographs / herbert williams / john idris jones / j.c.evans / sam adams / robert nisbet / richard poole / &c.
no 50 - a superb issue - new david jones poems / philip pacey on paul nash & david jones / glyn jones / leslie norris / john ormond / raymond garlick / r.s.thomas / john tripp / harri webb / john stuart williams / peter thomas / hugh macdiarmid / alun llewellyn / four unpublished vernon watkins poems / &c.

Artists in Wales ed: meic stephens. £ 1.75 h.back. gomer press. llandysul. the second volume in a series of three where welsh artists of all disciplines are invited to write about their art, their background, their creative process, etc. vol 1 dealt with artists would had achieved much that they set out to do, this volume deals with those in mid-career. without putting a name to them, certain practitioners show themselves to be out and out big heads although the general feel of the essays is instructive and entertaining. john ormond in particular sheds a deal of light on how he goes about creating a poem. others included are: david tinker / roy bohana / john metcalf / raymond garlick / jonah jones / anthony conran / aled vaughan / &c.

Broken Arrow (6) free, 55 charles st, cardiff. the local u/g paper continues its terrible way. almost without exception, every other town's u/g paper is better.

Decal (3) 50p. meic williams. 52 dan-y-coed rd, cyncoed, cardiff. after a monster double issue printing a large, fine range of modern poetry this second issue comes as a disappointment. its overpriced for 40 pages, its uneven to an extreme and one wonders just which direction its supposed to be going in: bly / bielski / jaffin / scannell / curtis / enslin / connors / & others.

Definition of a Waterfall by john ormond. £1.25. oxford univ. press, ely house, london w1.a splendidly produced collection from one of the best welsh poets currently writing in english. his reputation has long been established in wales, & this vol, which includes his latest and most important work to date, will probably bring his poems to a wider audience. with a painter's eye for detail & a musician's ear for sound, ormond has found his true & unmistakably
individual voice. the poems begin in the harsh mining landscape in which he was born & brought up, & with some of the local characters in his home village, his roots are described with a finely-gauged control over language & a subtle affection that informs his work, but the statements of this concern go beyond the immediately personal, revealing a sense of kinship with men of past generations & ages - even with the men of prehistory. Underlying all the
poems is the need to come to terms with the uneasy sense of flux which the human consciousness bears. the poetry is the definition of this state: the definition is the answer to its threat. all in all, a fine effort. (hamilton alvarez)

Earthsong the stable, shirecombe, bendrick drive, southgate, gower. "an armchair in the woods" offset elves and back-to-nature living. very flower bound, pretty little poems by poets with first names only. very groovy.

Exiles All by meic stephens, & The Boy Inside by sam adams (triskel poets 8 & 9). 25p. christopher davies, dylan thomas house, swansea, wales. two more in this well-produced, enterprising series of pamphlets - the belated collection from meic stephens, ex-editor of poetry wales & lit. head of the welsh arts council, form a cohesive group of 13 poems, although the content & style differ from poem to poem. cliche peeping out here & there, but nothing glib, as this poet is essentially terse & unsentimental, with no trace of dylanesque fripperies. this reviewer is on his side when contemplating the dire split in modern welsh culture, & here is a good, solid, stylish interim sheaf of work to give the special flavour of stephens. sam adams, present ed. of poetry wales, has 15 poems in his package. for him, after the depression & poverty in glamorgan, came the post-war affluence & bingo, bringing utter spiritual desolation with it. adams sees this quite clearly, & his fine poems record the back-end of the foulness & decay of the raped south wales mining valleys. an unusual goodie, this, proving his track-record is building up. if he can squeeze out more poems between his editing & teaching, his prospects look bright. jt.

Fern Hill is a 7 colour 20"x30" poster version of dylan thomas poem illustrated by sue shields and available from the welsh arts council, museum place, cardiff for 71p plus 15p postage. thick paper & superb design.

To Keep The Earth by david watkin price. dock leaves. ty newydd, lodge hill, caerleon, mon. a small, well printed booklet by a poet with plenty of skill and much of natures lot still hanging from him. a good one.

Mabon (6) 20p. guest ad: anthony conran. 9 wellfield house, bangor. apart from conran's own assessment of idris davies this magazine would appear to be publishing an alternative anglo-welsh tradition: bob eaton / peter gruffydd / richard white / alan perry / philip pacey / cordell / &c writers not seen all that often in the pages of poetry wales.

The Old Man of the Mist edited by lynn hughes. £2.00 h.back. martin brian & o'keeffe, 37 museum street, london wc1. new short stories from wales, most hanging very heavily on the "I am a welshman" theme and mostly weak into the bargain. standouts are the set by cliff james, one by diana gryffydd williams, john tripp & byron rogers. other contributors include huw joshua, roderic rees, paula griffiths, jenny sullivan, ray john, fletcher watkins & others.

Planet 30p. ned thomas. llangeitho, tregaron, cards, this inexpensive and neat magazine continues with a surprising regularity. It's basic aim to cover the problems of political minorities the world over with a reference to the situation in wales. in addition it publishes poetry & fiction together with the odd book review. the recent appointment of poet john tripp as a sub-editor for the literary section should mean a great increase in the amount of that kind of material published. as yet this has not happened.
no 17 becoming a breton / scottish oil / national identity / roland mathias short story / garlick / &c.
no 18 & 19 use bilingual education /south africa /r.s.thomas / ucw aber / portraits from local govt. / welsh railways / short stories by shirley toulson, herbert williams, alan perry, etc / & more
no 20 the eec from the periphery / john jenkins / yugoslavia / ron berry / alun rees / harri webb / &c.
no 21 john wain in russia / elections in quebec / peking's nationalities / harri webb / david jones / &c.

Poems'73 edited by gwyn ramage. £1. gwasg gomer, llandysul, wales. the fifth anthology of some of the best poems published in anglo-welsh & other mags during the previous 12 months, plus a number of unpublished ones. the editor says he's selected them for the qualities he values, principally form, precision, significance & originality, which covers just about everything. it's a fair choice, spanning a wide range. in his foreword he makes a good point about the weakness of much of the "nature" poetry, which is often up to its haystacks in wordsworth or the early rev. r.s. thomas, whom god preserve. he's also right about the lack of urban subjects & humour, & an overlay of obsessive nostalgic self-indulgence etc. all in all, a decent collection that won't set the taff on fire, with good ones from adams, hodges, humphreys, glyn jones, mathias, norris, ormond, pacey, sally roberts jones & gwyn williams. jt.

Poetry Wales. 40p. sam adams. 11ys meilyr, ponthir road, caerleon, mon. the prime poetry mag of the anglo-welsh (plus a slice of the welsh tool has undergone quite a few changes recently. it has a new editor, a new cover and a new policy of publishing special issues devoted, so far, to one writer every few issues or so. production is still first rate.
vol 8 no 4 the last issue under meic stephens editorship is a special dafydd ap gwilym number with 8 crisp english translations by joseph p. clancy plus a variety of critical articles by gwyn williams, gwyn thomas, r. geraint gruffydd, rachel bromwich, etc.
vol 9 no 2 isa special dylan thomas issue with articles by r. george thomas, raymond garlick, leslie norris, john ormond, glyn jones, roland mathias, etc.

Ram randolph ellis. 1 frandirion, allt glanrafon, bangor. little shape on the latest issue of this rather unkempt mag. conran / higgen / kearns / donahue / lovibond / &c.

South Wales & Bristol Area Information Bulletin 30p sub. jock & eve spence. 22 cwmdonkin tce, swansea. mimeo news sheet on political and allied activities. nationalism, libertarian forms of education, squatting, mental patients union, and more.

Welsh Dylan is the catalogue of the welsh arts council's dylan thomas exhibition but works very well as a book. it shows thomas' life in swansea via innumerable photographs together with hollograph versions of his poetry. comprehensive notes by john ackerman. available at 50p plus 10p p&p from museum place, cardiff.

Zodiacpoems by alison bielski. 40p. cottage studio, itton common, chepstow, mon. a well printed and designed booklet of poems dealing with the signs of the zodiac, graphic repros of the signs themselves face each poem. sections from some of the poems work but in the main i get a feeling that the whole thing is somehow contrived, especially in the calligramic poems.

Zohar (1) 26 brooklands tce, swansea. another new lifestyle mag, slightly less flower beded than "earthsong" yet still pretty fairy light. buddhism / macrobiotics / beads / poofs