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

A (b) jeremy adler. c/o the poetry society, 21 earls court sq, london sw5. second large envelope of visual & experimental poetry from workshop held at the poetry society. adler's editorial intervention is virtually nil and again he has managed to collect a tidy experimental slice simply by asking the right people. some of the high spots here include jennifer cobbing rocking with stencil letters, gail corney touching up frank sinatra, peter mayer's amazing alphabet typefaces, mick gibbs, dsh, caldwell, todorovic, radin, claire, bill griffiths, etc. edition limited to 200 copies, try your rare book dealer.

Acrospirical Meanderings in a Tongue of the Time by chris torrance. 75p. albion village press. 28 albion drive, london e8. chris torrance never did have a way with titles but that aside this collection of his "welsh" poems is a good one. torrance has been stranded in a cottage in the wilds for sometime now. he likes it. the book shows photos of torrance and cow, torrance and field, torrance and cat. his poetry is back on the beam. mainly they are meditative, very involved with the movements of nature, a searching for identity in a place that is far removed from the city. its an expensive book, but its a good one. good to see torrance active again.

Act by tom raworth. £1.10 trigram press blue tile house, fakenham, norfolk. typical & beautiful asa benveniste production job with no aspect left to chance. this is the largest raworth book yet to come out. i've spent a long time with it making sure that my eyes have not deceived me. all the elements are there, almost sound poems, almost concrete poems, almost haiku, almost dada, almost everything. but nothing quite absolute. raworth is elusive, highly elusive, an almost there. almost. most of the poems are short, and very very cryptic. basically i dont like it. i feel i should but i dont. its tough going and going no where. perhaps its drugs and raworths reactions, but then thats no excuse at all. back to the earlier stuff.

Actual size (8) from paul brown's transgraverty press (now at 47 northwall rd, deal, kent) comes in the form of a poster: stanley marsh letter on one side, overlarge map on the other.

Adressant Unbekannt edited by steve sneyd. hilltop press. 4 nowell place, almondsbuy, huddersfield. ludds mill magazine, like all mags, has a large number of poems by people they can no longer trace - either the poets name or his address has gone astray. rather than junk it steve sneyd has photocopied them out into booklet form in the hope that contact can be made. needless to say the standard is terrible.

Aegis (1) andrew hall, emmanuel college, cambridge. quite a tidy typewriter offset mag splitting between the good and known, the poor and unknown, and the perhaps edwin morgan's voznesensky translations / john wilkinson / Locals / together with decent length reviews.

The Aesthetics by ken friedman. £2.00. beau geste press. langford court south, cullompton, devon. friedman one of the minds behind fluxus and the dada revival gives forth his dense artistic theory, and solid solid thinking it is too. he spices things by bringing in a large dash of concept art and adds his own poems, shouts and prose bashes. in parts he is a brecht with basic philosophy and plan of action within a poem but mainly hes too damn heavy going. production is mimeo one side of the sheet, 90 sheets long and spine bound. looks fine but very very expensive, considering the prices of a press like writers forum.

Aggie Weston's (2) 10p. stuart mills. 37 laund close, belper, derbys. after a strange first issue this replacement for tarasque gets back on traditional form with "view of stonypath", a glossy series of photos of ian hamilton finlay's landscape & outdoor poems at his home.

airmail 1973 compiled by letty woods, available free from art information registry, burlington house, piccadilly, London w1 is a very useful booklet listing information sources of all sorts relevant to artists.

Alembic 25p. grasshopper productions, 7 earlsfield rd, London sw18 is a plastic bag containing some not all that interesting poems and illustrations from peter barry, ken edwards, jim stewart & robert hampson. blurb note informs "for the edinburgh fringe festival 1973".

Alembic by anslem hollo. £1.10. trigram press. blue tile house, fakenham, norfolk. a wonder book of jabs and spikes disguised as a packet of cigarettes. fine, gritty & difficult stuff with some top of the world design in the print & illustrations. a winner.

Allende a poem by bernard j kelly, translated to spanish by george leeson. 4p. bonefold imprint. 68 parkhill rd, london nw3. good political action, neat poem, cheap production & price. the press of the street. what more could you ask? for it to be a little neater.

All In Wallstickers (19) "indian poster". 30p. nina steane. 31 headlands, kettering, northants. this latest large wall poem poster features john horder's small poem "baba" worked into an 18th century indian gauche adaptation by nina carroll. quite striking but i tired of it being on my wall swiftly.

All Through The Pig Fashion by paul brown. 25p. transgravity press / man ray dog rocket society. 47 northwall rd, deal, kent. minimal cartoon like drawings by antonio claudio carvalho face paul brown's dada lyrics, now cryptic and tending towards the minimal.

alphabox by jeremy adler, 10p. writers forum object series no 1. 262 randolph ave, london w9. the concrete "visual" poem presented outside the book. this is a fun item, a long long strip of adler's letter reworkings folded square and presented in a small transparent envelope. one of the delights of small press publishing, wish that there were more of them.

Alternative Bookshops compiled by john noyce. smoothie pubs, 67 vere rd, brighton. a mimeo list of such shops in alphabetical and town / area order. very useful to small press operators.

The Alternative Press in Britain by mick hoey. smoothie publications, 67 vere rd, brighton is no more than a small mimeo pamphlet listing a small selection of places where one can read about this alternative publishing. a comprehensive article would have been better.

Ambit (55) 25p. martin bax. 17 priory gdns, london n6. pretty good issue no 55, plenty of excitement, visual & vocal, usual smattering of sex & reviews jg ballard short story, poems from john welch / martin horan / asa benveniste, fiction from bax, jannick storm, abigail mozley, etc, drawings by michael forman, stewart mackinnon plus gavin ewart reviewing. good value.

no 56 "ambit's special picture number" which runs poems by henry graham / benveniste / & gioseffi amid a rain of visuals.... none of them concrete poems and none of them near the porn line which is what i expected. exciting stuff too: paolozzi / hockney / gablick / laing / leman / etc.

a bee colony (or a "bob colony" or even "a colony cobbing") by bob cobbing. writers forum, 262 randolph avenue, london w9. a foldout poem in cobbings latest vowel sequence. this one uses a reduced image from a previous poem based on the letter e in swirling bee like forms, visual sparks and excitement. grey paper, making a good wall hanging.

Balzac by v.s. pritchett. £5. chatto & windus, london. nothing to do with the small press scene this, but for the price of a bottle-&-a-half of scotch it provides a full portrait of a great writer & fantastic human being who knew how to live (as yeats said, "processions that lack high stilts have nothing that catches the eye"). a splendidly-produced, illustrated biography by the veteran new statesman critic which concentrates almost entirely on balzac's life & gives very few evaluative judgments on the novels, (uncreative academics are doing this all the time, anyway) - but pictures of people & places relating to the flamboyant frenchman are presented with the curious charm now associated with the early 19th century. pritchett is fascinated by balzac, whom he says is not unlike one of the monsters in the novels. honore de balzac (1799-1850) was a creature of excess, fat, likeable & slightly comic - a kind of tragic falstaff figure without dignity but bursting with genius - showing off his absurd houses, surrounded by his antiques, bedecked & bejewelled in expensive costumes he couldn't pay for, appealing to older women, extremely enterprising & utterly impervious to ridicule. he was an example of romantic megalomania, the ego run riot, wanting nothing but fame, adoration & objects. he also had a napoleonic complex, seeing his function as a writer to take over society through words as bonaparte took it over through military power. he lived with incredible urgency - the all-night writing sessions, gallons of black coffee to keep him running, endless demands, orders & requests sent out to others, reflecting a sort of imperial dominion transferred to french literature. balzac had a very fertile imagination, but on a practical level, like many other artists, he was hopeless: he longed to be rich, to own a palatial residence, to have a wife-hostess like a queen; he went into rash business ventures such as publishing which landed him in a lifelong web of debt & drove him into hiding. pritchett says balzac's element seems to have been commotion, not the peace & quiet most writers need. nearly always in a financial & emotional mess, starting some new crackpot scheme or love-affair or breaking off an old one, he died at 51, ironically just when he had obtained a big house & a prosperous aristocratic polish wife with royal connections to go with it. he constantly confused things as they were with things as they might be. reality mocked him, but his masterpiece "the human comedy" survives. jt.

Baron Samedi (1) 20p. mick gibbs & graham keen. devonshire house, university of exeter. a very well produced and above average student arts mag. feature on r.d.laing / ian breakwell interview / fiction & poems including harry guest & david h.w.grubb. nutall back cover.

Behind Heslington Hall by calclothier; Scarred temple by jeffrey radley. 20p each. york poetry, 37 ouse lea, clifton, york. clothier is a delicate & deft nature poet - good but a touch insubstantial. 12 poems here in a nice pamphlet, taut, unsentimental, pinpoint imagery, brief & clipped forms, a name to keep an eye open for. radley was a yorkshire archaeologist who died three years ago, his poems mostly on local scenes, industrial landscape or bleak natural terrain. impressionist, described as having "clotted, over-alliterative textures" & shaky tone, but the colour & shape are there. york poetry offer quality things. let's hope they survive. jt.

Being a lunatic is no easy thing by george cairncross. excello & bollard. 66b whitstable rd, canterbury, kent. mimeo funny novelette by captain mogg. not subtle but still humorous.

Belladonna by paul matthews 15p. aquila / phaethon press. 18 atherstone close, shirley, solihull. a fine new addition to jim green's publishing enterprise, glossy cover & tidy print. paul matthews never ceases to amaze me, this time he's done a short surreal prose piece that completely captivates. one of the best small press books this year.

The Birth Rug by iain sinclair. 75p. albion village press. 28 albion drive, london e8. a series of mystical, powerful poems on the birth of his daughter (or at least that is what has set this collection off). superb production matching the well worked, sharp edge poetry.

Bitman (8) 25p. donald winterton. 146 great western rd, london w11. one of the few genuine national u/g news mags left. this one mimeo and packed jam tight with info and items of interest. very large dope supplement this time. Bitman grew from the BIT info centre and although still retains a connection disclaims direct association.
no 9 is titled bitwoman, just to show equality, and continues the good work, although the format has suffered somewhat this time and the mimeo isnt up to scratch.

Black Sun by kris lloyd. northern poetry brokers. 36 marlborough rd, liverpool 13. a small photocopy book inside a letterpress cover. the poetry, like the production, is awful.

Bogg (20) 15p. kapitain mogg (george cairncross). 31 belle vue st, filey, e. yorks the spirit mimeo anarchist whirlpool goes on with my copy of this issue readable all the way through! usual mixture of regular little mag poets, reviews & fiction: leon spiro / rolfe / upton / connors / ilcher / nixon / calder / lenihan / cross / lamprill / & others.
no 21 don long / crowe / darlington / buttress / sneyd / lenihan / calder / & other regulars.
no 22 pilcher / nixon / sneyd / connors / jon harvey / egleton / lenihan / & the rest of the gang.

Bone Songs by ulli mccarthy.15p. writers forum 'fours' no 3. 262 randolph avenue, london w9. "vintage mccarthy, written 1968". fine mimeo, many full page, fitting jeff nuttall drawings. a composite book.... the poetry is typical style, jerking images, sense and nonsense. mccarthy has refined his poetry recently and i'm not convinced, after reading this one, that its too good a thing. whatever "bone songs" should be listened to. top marks to wf for production.

Brecht Times (2) ed. peter langford, alexandra cottage, kimpton rd, welwyn, herts, england. 25p. three times yearly, this mag aims to publish work of "socialist" poets pretty ephemeral stuff, but hearts in right places, as one would expect of a paper carryhing brecht in its title. stuffed with urgency, the actual "poetry" is indifferent if not non-existent - by any reasonable standards it needs polishing, whatever the important subject-matter (poems about overseas liberation movements & the nastier aspects of apartheid). if anyone is interested, contributions need not be directly political (says the ed.) but should "reflect marxist thought in some sphere." best outline of the socialist view of poetry is in alan bold's intro to the penguin socialist verse.     jt
no 3 shaw / markham / trevor / clegg / langford / howells / &c plus news of brecht times records.
no 4 lester / ward / salkey / gallagher / shaw / gray / & others.

Captain Harwood's Log of Stern Statement and Stout Sayings by lee harwood. 10p. writers forum, 262 randolph ave, london w9. a small booklet consisting mainly of quotes, both long and short taken (i guess) from the poets recent readings. the material is linked by harwood's own words and poems. as the title says, stern & stout, a goodly booklet.

Cariboo Fishing Notes by kevin roberts. 40p. beau geste press. langford court south, cullompton, devon. "mimeography by felipe ehrenberg" which means its nigh on the best in the land, spine bound too. prose & poetry (mainly) fishing trip in the americas, easy narrative style. illustrations by john mason.

The Catonsville Roadrunner 8p. 28 brundretts rd, manchester 21. ups member and u/g styled radical christian mag with an extremely broad based approach to the subject
no 44 ireland / pluscarden community / welsh extremists / buddhists / & notes, news & reviews
no 45 norwich squatters / swamy vivekananda / exorcising the independent british evil spirit / &c.
no 46 getting out of the army / anarchy in action / on the road in n. ireland / &c.
no 47 communes / solitudes & celebrations / the building of a new society? / &c.
no 48 Stockholm "alternativ stad" / guide to food / cesar chavez interview / &c.
no 49 on the road in latin america by paulo freire / &c.
no 50 cars / kids books / non-violence / ivan illich / tanzania / on the road - venezuela / &c.

Cell (4) 10p. 4 richard cres, malabar, truro. "a community paper for truro", mimeo, on the tidy side: record reviews, cooking, news, notes, uncovering local coverups. good local mag.

Chapter 42 / The Goldfinch by nadezhda mandel'shtam & osip madel'shtam, translated by donald rayfield. 75p. menard press. 1 primrose gdns, london nw3. two russians represented in one well printed but overpriced book. nedezhda has the missing chapter from her "hope against hope" (a work of memoirs) in english for the first time. her late husband osip was a strong poet and his selection of poetry, in dual english and russian text, stands well against the rest of the european tradition. an obscure menard book which could have been made much less academic and therefore more approachable, and it deserves to be.

Charles Baudelaire by walter benjamin (trans. by harry zohn). £3.25. nib, london. a good book on the extraordinary baudelaire (1821-67) who prepared the way for rimbaud, verlaine & the symbolists. he was born at paris, sent to india by his guardians as a check to his dissipation, but remained so extravagant on his return that his inheritance was put in the hands of trustees. he joined the revolutionaries in 1848. his first book of verse, "les fleurs du mal,'' caused considerable scandal & was condemned by the censor as endangering public morals: author & printer were fined, & the most offensive pieces suppressed. it wasn't until nearly a century after his death that this sentence was quashed, in 1949. baudelaire combined concentrated rhythmic & musical perfection with a morbid romanticism & eroticism, finding beauty in decadence & evil: he experimented with opium & hashish, & kept writing marvellous poetry & prose. his excesses impaired his health & he spent the end of his life in hospitals at brussels where debts had driven him, & then back in paris where he died. he was one of those very complex writers with an involved private life (he had a wild mulatto mistress named jeanne duval, among others) who lend themselves to endless interpretation. eliot reacted against the traditional decadent view by seeing him as a character with classical aspirations; sartre pilloried him as a parasite who preferred to live a crippled life of dependence on his family instead of acting responsibly as an adult(as if this had anything to do with his art!); roy campbell, a tough roaring poet, worshipped him & never saw him as a muddled weakling. this biography of baudelaire is made up of fragmentary essays, assembled posthumously (the author committed suicide under the stress of the second world war), & now published in english for the first time, about 35 years after their completion. despite the title, though, their subject is not so much baudelaire as the state of france in the last century, with the poet out of sight for many pages during long discourses on balzac & others. baudelaire's significance lay not in his critique of a now-extinct society, but as a poet of the lyrical tragedy of existence. jt.

Centre 17 (6) 15p. frank davies. 57 newbiggen st, thaxted, essex. mimeo poetry. sneyd / vanson / tripp / nigel jenkins / finn / leale / land / &c.

Child by deryck grice (surprised if his name is spelt that way on his birth certificate). 20p. aquila/the phaethon press. 18 atherstone cl. shirley, solihull. one of those dreadful modern verse dramas, this one featuring a teacher, a war correspondent and a child (no poet in this one?). even when a poet of worth writes one of these its tedious but when its a newcomer.!

Circa 73-74 by bob cobbing. 10p. writers forum. 262 randolph ave, london w9. WF 101 is an odd little hook, reprinting certain cobbing classics "h'm", "tan", "grin" etc, throwing in some of the more simple new poems and digging up some pretty awful, very straight and very old cobbing poems (back as far as the fifties i'm told). for cobbing collectors only

Clare Market (68) 20p. john c. stathatos. students union, london school of economics, wc2 a neat white mag on the style of "oasis", mixing poetry, translations & fiction. a few quite stimulating items in this issue: matt simpson / radnoti / ritsos / calvo / booth / david grubb / sneyd / gogarty / alan marshfield / connors / seferis / jaffin / &c. littlemagers & editorial initiative mix.

Claud He Was by raymond frederick seaford. oasis books. 12 stevenage rd, london sw6. a tiny neat booklet in the poets own hand. an odd item about claude, mother and a naked girl.

Cloud Flowers by bryan walters. 15p. aquila: the phaethon press. 18 atherstone close, shirley, solihull. new, smaller format booklet running a long and complex poem cycle which interlinks with music & dance.

Collection 1 by alex kernaghan. 5p. straight enterprises. 50 upper brow rd, paddock, huddersfield. a short mimeo set of "speculative fiction and poetry". kernaghan is a belfast fiction man of great possibilities, he can write. he is with the small presses now but i'm pretty sure it wont be for long. good fiction writers, unlike poets, can make a publisher money. straight certainly have enterprise.

Common Grave by mirko lauer, translated by david tipton. 10p. platform / green horse. avalon, london rd, stockbridge, hants. letterpress hand printed, and rather roughly, but inexpensive. lauer is a young peruvian poet with a good line in political poetry, tipton renders the verse conversationally to english resulting in a workable and biting product.

Controlled by paul becker. good elf publications. 18 clairview rd, london sw6. mimeo A4 book of poems, i expected them to be predictable & dull but they were better than that.

Conversations with a Captor by jean overston fuller. £1.90. fuller d'arch smith. 60 oxford st, London w1. adventures with the ss, the attempt at tracing a friend after the war complete with full colour paintings (which are not too good). its a long series of prose poems that would have been more suited to the novel form.

Corgi Modern Poets in Focus 5 edited by dannie abse. 35p. corgi books, transworld publishers, cavendish house, uxbridge road, london w5. each volume in this softback series features six different poets with an intro. by the editor & comments by the contributors. the six in each book comprise: 1.a mod. master who continues to influence those writing here & now in the uk; 2. a living poet celebrated on both sides of the atlantic; 3. a "poet's poet" who's been somewhat neglected by the reading public; 4. a poet who's recently died but whose work is very much alive; 5. a new young poet whose reputation has already begun to grow; 6. a poet never before published in book form by a london-based commercial publisher. the six here are ezra pound, thom gunn, bernard spencer, sylvia plath, fleur adcock, & john ormond. it's a good idea to try to bring poetry to a wider audience, because corgi can reach even railway bookstalls, even if it seems a bit contrived in its six categories of poet. excellent value, though, especially for the poets' own remarks. here's a good piece of advice from old ezra: "Go in fear of abstractions. Do not retell in mediocre verse what has already been done in good prose. Don't think any intelligent person is going to be deceived when you try to shirk all the difficulties of the unspeakably difficult art of good prose by chopping your composition into line lengths." (i agree with this, but it's a bit odd coming from pound, who seems to have been a chopper-upper on several occasions, particularly in some of his more baffling cantos.)
jt.

Coronis by martin booth. £1.85. andium press. haut du mont, la haule, jersey. with his finger in a thousand publisher's pies martin booth comes out with his second major collection. this time its from andium who certainly know how to produce a good looking book, illustrations throughout are by norman bailey. the poems show booth's road travelling from his earlier neosurreal touches into a kind of total object / involvement poem that uses elements from both redgrove & hughes yet still manages to be booth's alone. its a good book, often exciting yet always heavy going. still, poetry is not meant to be easy.

cube by dave calder. 20p. raven books, 52 the temple, 24 dale st, liverpool. this is printed by the excellent anvil press on success bond 85 gsm paper by gestetner 211 offset from OE 1 plates, typeset by IBM composer in 10pt press roman face. having said that, i should add that there are some good stretches of prose here, but the aim eludes me. seems a waste of a descriptive talent, pushing out all this bad anarchist philosophy without tidying-up the thoughts first. calder can write, but his "cube", massively representing all that's wrong with the world since adam, is a lot to take in one mouthful - especially without some rational, coherent support. jt.

Curtains (5/6) "a range of curtains" 50p. paul buck. 12 foster clough, hebden bridge, yorks. in the small mag area of publishing, no matter how high your ideals, no matter how strong your motives, no matter how large your difficulties you cannot just sling a mag together as paul buck has done here, and its certainly not his contributors i'm talking about. a bundle of battered, loose sheets, almost unreadable mimeo shoved in an unmarked envelope and with an asking price as high as 50p. you just cannot do this kind of thing. mr buck you should be ashamed, all the more considering the high quality stuff your contributors have given you: auster / hilton / osers / freeman / corman / rudolf / hirschman / haslam / hemensley / nuttall / hall / riley / eigner / turnbull / tysh / & many others. do a decent reprint for gods sake.

Datr (2) john noyce. 67 vere rd, brighton. mimeo format & not at all like a regular littlemag even if it does publish littlemager poets in part. there is a difference here that i cant quite put my finger on, perhaps it will come to the fore in future issues. pilcher / carvalho / sneyd / nations / darlington / connors / spratling / oxley / cullingford / steane / carr / &c.

De-Press, the co-operative of john digby, ronnie goldberg, jenny kuper & other neo-surrealist poets operates from flat 4, 1 ainger rd, london nw3. "screaming with terror" @ 15p is a large black broadside containing poem swirls in many colours. "sphlirm lips" @ 5p is a 4 page news paper of poems & drawings. both objects are interesting but neither highly original.

Deaf Eyes by andrew darlington. free. fiasco publications, 31 belle vue st, filey, e. yorks. this press has the right name. simply too many unnecessary words. monumental fudge. learn to cut, the editor should say to the author. also The Fruit Machine (fiasco) by geo cairncross. much whimsy in intro, but the good elf & fruity b. romp in the sunshine for the author. jt.

Diary of a Falling Bird Man by D.J.Windmill. 39 elm park, filton, bristol. hand made book of hand made poems.

Directory of Alternative Periodicals (3rd edition) 50p. compiled by john noyce. smoothie pubs, 67 vere rd, brighton. detailed survey of all but the poetry based mags. mimeo format and looking like the most accurate issue to date.

A directory of alternative society projects "a book of visions" £1.00 BIT information service, 146 great western rd, london w11. "the alternative society ideas pool" was formed when an anonymous donor gave london BIT £1.250 to be spent on a useful alternative project. plans, ideas & projects were collected and the best received a cut of the money. the 300 or so entries are printed in this mimeo book of telephone directory proportion. they are split into categories "communes", "religions & other freakishness", "dope", "unusual structures & living spaces" etc, and range from the practical to the mad. its a great book to leaf through, to see some of the ideas projected to transform this land (or at least part of it). most of them will never see realization but BIT intends to keep its ideas-pool open, to seek money for the project and at least help some of the ideas. more strength to their arm.

Driving Home by miriam waddington. £1.25. anvil press poetry. broadway house, carter lane, london ec4. selected from 30 years of writing, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to a canadian poet of lyrical charm. its a steady, soft kind of poetry, well turned, reliable, sometimes powerful, biblical but more often using the canadian local and geographical landscape as a starting point.

Earth Erect by vasko popa. 85p paperback. anvil press poetry. dist by routledge & kegan paul. very good translation of popa's 5th book by anne pennington who worked in close co-operation with popa himself. the poetry is the serbian landscape, people and in fact nationality in one book. the surface is easy, descriptive yet the depths of the poem reveal more & more on rereading. a folksy people shown in historical perspective.

Ehrenberg is the catalogue of felipe ehrenberg's mexico exhibition (copies available from beau geste press, langford court south, cullompton, devon) the text is in spanish, although i understand a mimeo english translation is being prepared. the photos in the catalogue show glimpses of conceptual, action, event and other forms of activity, art. literature. with a translation to hand the document should provide a good deal of interest.

An Earthquake Somewhere else by john barron mays. 30p. rondo pubs ltd, 10 pall mall, liverpool 13 6hj. small glossy pamphlet of traditional poems, quiet and solid.

Electric Love by david ward. 5p. collection 3. 50 upper brow rd, paddock, hudds. mimeo format version of a brash, rough poem look at music.

Eleven Poems by mark hyatt. 60p. ted cavanagh. 83a haverstock hill, london nw3. handset & well handprinted. crisp new wave lyricalism, a good set.

the elusive gnome "the journal of the diggers and levellers". 4 richard cres, malabar, truro. the religious aspects, people talking about their own activities & problems. mimeo format.

Equinox by trevor kneale. 30p. rondo pubs ltd, 10 pall mall, liverpool. bit of a mixture this collection, little cohesion in the selection & the styles. mainly on the dull side although some lines and images strike home with a bang.

Eve by alison bielski. 25p. aquila / the phaethon press.18 atherstone close, shirley, solihull. the adam and eve story reworked in the light of the poets own experience and situation, its a novel idea and on the whole works well.

Every Good Girl's Big Book of Dragons by david porter. toulouse press. 15 sandhurst st, liverpool l17 7bt. 8 delightful dragon poems, they wont set the world on fire but they are eminently readable.

An Exploitation of Labour by lawrence upton. 5p. 18 clairview rd, london sw6. the upton philosophy behind himself as a poet seen in terms of his own worth to society via his writings and via his other daily bread occupation. a well thought out booklet.

Factor T by stefan themerson. £0.80. gaberbocchus press. 42a formosa st, london w9. a set of almost fables based around themerson's philosophical discourses on the relationship between like, dislike and need. strong & profound.

The Fire Escape by terence strachan. 15p. good elf publications. 18 clairview rd, london sw16. good mid stream poetry in a mimeo format booklet.

First class earth by judy hawke. horace walpole productions. the red house, whitehill rd, hitchin, herts. one of those little mimeo books of poetry that should be burnt on sight.

First collection by nigel jenkins. 10p. smoothie. 67 vere rd, brighton. nothing much going on here as regards production but the poetry broods & grasps. its going to take off soon.

Fractured Angels by mike dobbie & jocko lekutanoy. 10p. poet & peasant books. flat a, 38 walsworth rd, hitchin, herts. plenty of ideas from both these poets but as yet no sense of control or form in either case. wish i could say better. bio notes has lekutanoy as "painter / poet / prophet / wanderer". . god help us.

Freesheets are one off poems on mimeo sheets produced by good elf's lawrence upton, 18 clair view rd, london swl6. they are free for postage. issues to hand are no 7 "strangers" by stewart brown & no 13 "if my calendar shows.. ." by john whitworth.

Friends of the Western Buddhist Order Newsletter (17) aryatara community. sarum hse, 3 plough lane, purley, surrey. "femininity" issue with all sides of the doctrine covered. poems and some very fine illustrations. offset, large format.

The Garden of Cain by raymond turner. aquila new poetry 2. 18 atherstone close, shirley, solihull. fine production job with wrap round covers, crisp well placed print inside, best aquila job to date. the poetry is firm, conservative to an extreme.

Glad Day 25p. guildford artists co-operative. 50 guildford park ave, guildford, surrey. a small anthology that joins poet & artist together in an adventure of presentation, its certainly different in that direction. poetry however comes off on a lesser level. keith bradley / philip crick / martin jones / fred pipes / gus garside / clive young / &c.

Gong New Age (1) 30p. nick kent. 56 ditton court rd, westcliff-on-sea, essex. after the tight tight policy of peter cash the new gong editor stresses that "special attention will be paid to writing showing a total ignorance of 'form' ". . .i think i know how he feels. policy for future issues will be a mixture of high powered specials and student poetry issues. the kick off issue goes right against the old gong standard by devoting its whole issue to the found poems of bern porter, and a fair selection they are. a good introduction to this much underrated form. future issues intend to feature the work of dick higgins amongst others.

Good Elf spin off productions, free for postage from editor lawrence upton, 18 clairview rd, london sw16 include pete morgan's "balloon poem" on freesheet 12 and john whitworth's poem about naked women on freesheet 13 together with "good elf supplement" which deals in biting terms with the birmingham poetry society bbc2 tv production. all mimeo production.

The Great American Novel by philip roth. £2.95. cape, london. wow! not really your actual true masterpiece at last, out of hemingway, fitzgerald, wolfe, steinbeck & faulkner? etcetera. relax. this is a novel inside a novel by the author of "portnoy's complaint," that deepthroat suckflesh fantasy of hilarious proportions. the novel of the title is the mad lifework of one Smith, an 80-year-old ex-baseball scribe, a poor old nut who once went shark-fishing with hemingway the hairy soldier, and who's now incarcerated in an old folks' home called, of all things, "valhallah," which was the german / prussian jackboot's name for heaven, i think. this smith is considered to be crazy, completely round the twist, because he spends most of his time trying to rewrite the official history of american baseball, particularly that of the forgotten leagues. he first considers earlier contenders for the great usa novel - melville, hawthorne, twain etc. - & assesses their chances in detailed & obscure baseball terminology. there is a very funny dialogue with an imaginary hemingway who used to "talk till dawn about which son of a bitch who could spell cat was going to write the Great American Novel. By the end of the week he had narrowed it down to a barber in the basement of the Palmer House in Chicago who knew how to shave with the grain." the book is rambling, fragmented, episodic, with entire chapters given over to dead baseball heroes, but also with plenty of laughs & rich satire that we expect from roth, who is one of the cleverest & funniest men writing today. it.

Great Works (1) 50p. bill symondson & peter philpott. 47 windsor st, hanley, stoke-on-trent. a welcome surprise, a precocious title turns out to be a very good magazine indeed. for a first issue this one really shows itself up well. neat litho production, plastic binding, and a good selection of on the ball poetry from such as peter riley / paul selby / tim longville / john james / andrew crozier / john hall / chris torrance / david chaloner / glen baxter / jh prynne / &c the range of contributors sounds very very familiar, they've been in so many mags together by now that they form a school, one without a name. nonetheless its good to see a new mag strong enough to devote itself to them. perhaps future issues will broaden the horizon some?

Greg Bright's Maze Book E1.75 cloth. latimer new dimensions 104 earls court rd, london w8. here the maze becomes an art form, an enjoyment, a mind buster. greg bright has taken the maze almost as far as it can go with his hole maze which spreads over 4 pages and involves running through small pin holes from page to page. quite a book.

Grey Songs by fred beake. 10p. bath arts workshop. available from 12 dartmouth ave, bath. mimeo, a set of new poems.

Grimoire of the Entangled Thicket by ithell colquhoun. 50p. ore publications. 7 the towers, stevenage, herts. terrific booklet this one, dealing with the connection between the gaelic tree alphabets and the lunar months. fine illustrations round off the total experience of ancient celtic mystery. it ought to sell well but it wont.

Grope (3) 20p. nick dowson. charlotte mason college, ambleside "the poetry magazine of the lakes and north west". very small. david watkin price / mike smith / sneyd / darlington / harry kemp / jonathan williams / holloway / &c. a reasonable mixture, well printed.

Grosseteste Review (vol 6 no 1-4) £1.20. tim longville & john riley. 10 consort cres, pensnett, staffs. money problems, similar to those that caused "sesheta" to fold, have been hanging heavy for grosseteste editors. a recent grant from the west midlands arts seems to have temporarily solved the problem. temporarily? it appears that the whole grant has been spent on one huge quadruple issue. its a large and powerful piece of small mag too. beautiful fold over cover by andy thursfield, 256 clean clear pages and all of the right in the traditional quietly exciting mold: bronk / corman / armstrong / wright / hemensley / prynne / oppen / kenner / beardsley / beltrametti / mcinerney / chamberlain / &c. with the issue comes a slim (in width and number of pages) item titled "seven years of grosseteste" being an index to the magazine and a complete catalogue of their books

Growth is the news magazine of the west midlands arts association, lloyds bank chambers, market street, stafford. this issue covers the field and includes a fine photograph of the wmaa's literature officer reading his poems on a barge together with another one of him in high ranking poetic company. there is also a photo of a puppet.

Guide to Modern World Literature by martin seymour-smith. £10. wolfe publishing, london. this is a borrowed copy i'm looking at - 10 quid is a ludicrous price, even for 1,228 pages a reference book to outdo all previous ref. books, written as a continuous narrative which at least takes the curse of the donnish candle off it. seymour-smith gives a critical discussion of all the "important" novelists, poets & dramatists of this century throughout the world - including many i've never heard of. god knows where he dug up some of them. he assesses their work in relation to their historical, political & social backgrounds, influences on each other, not only nationally but in a "world context" (tall words) & the major lit. & philosophical movements with which they're connected. his opinions are frank & individual (he's done quite a bit of satire in the past on literary pretensions & poseurs, & can be as wicked as a cobra). you may agree with him or be violently opposed, but there's plenty here to stimulate thought, a lot of valuable info. & the enthusiasm to read & learn about foreign scribes whom you don't know. robert graves said it should become a readable classic. we'll wait & see. jt.

Hampshire Poets 28p. katherine sparks. 7 leep lane, alverstoke, hants. a local mag in a plastic bag that hits the snags all area based operations have - the restrictions make for an inbred scene, allow the weaker poetry to dilute the strong. there are good & bad poets here, the predictable quiet mixture that at least doesnt follow fashion
no 10 elizabeth saxon / ian caws / r.d.gregory / nic tapp / greg hone / &c.
no 11 raymond tong / b.k.sen-gupta / ray rumsby / bill allchin / june knight / &c.
no 12 r.g.gregory / elizabeth saxon / tong / peter beck / & many more.

The Harmless Building by douglas oliver. £1.50. ferry press / grew books. 10 consort cres, commonside, pensnett, staffs. this is a difficult and oddly constructed 150 page novel, i found it too muddy to satisfy as a novel and not inventive enough to work as experimental writing. it falls between two stools with a crash.

Harold and Sylvia's Book of Revelations by sylvia hikins & harold hikins. toulouse press. 14 harringay ave, liverpool L18 1JE. well, they've done it again and even better. sylvia & harold present a public and popular poetry of their own making - this booklet is filled with open, lively and often humorous stuff, jokes, drawings, picture inserts, a brown paper bag complete with newspaper cuttings, drawings and poems. the whole object a gas.

Here Now (vol 2 no 2) 15p. tom kelly / mike shields. 22 torquay parade, hebburn, co durham. still a pretty lively mag this "south tyneside arts quarterly"; guest editorial by robin gregory / m.a.b.jones / david jaffin / colin simms / paul groves / cyril hodges / a large "chat & backchat" section which is both useful and possible with a local based magazine / fred reed on why write, what & how / plus a selection of reviews. the magazine works because it is balanced and informative, its failing might be in its typically blinkered attitude to anything outside the narrow path of the english tradition in poetry.

The Hermaphrodite Album by peter redgrove & penelope shuttle. £2.50. fuller d'arch smith. 60 oxford st, london w1. i must admit that when i first heard that peter redgrove and his lady were working on a joint book i shuddered a little. images of the john & yoko abominations came to mind. but i forgot one thing, it isnt only peter redgrove who is talented, penny packs a powerful punch too - admittedly her works bears a certain resemblance to her boss man, but what of it. peter redgrove is a hell of a poet, one of the best the uk has to offer, vastly original, swimming his own stream engrossed with the relation of his gut to that of the landscape / seascape. spice that with penny's sheer and solid approach (no delicate touch from her) and you have a very exciting book. who wrote which poem, which poems are joint efforts we are not told, again it doesnt matter. poem is a poem. another second aeon book of the year award.

Herts free festival magazine 10p. mike Bobbie. poet & peasant books no 3, flat A, 38 walsworth rd, hitchin. a small magazine in the style of "streetword" that has all the problems that the festival itself had: bad production, bad poetry outweighing the good, lack of subtlety. but it does have some good poems and like the festival itself is well worth the asking price: opal 1. nations / calder / ulli mccarthy / nuttall / pickard / horovitz / etc.

Hide & Seek by Antony Lopez. 20p. oasis books. 12 stevenage rd, london sw6. oasis books are always cheap, superb value in fact and always crisp, clean, clear and well designed. of the smaller offset presses oasis must be the best for production. this tidy poem sequence is interleaved throughout by mary french illustrations. result is delightful.

History by robert lowell. £2.95. faber, london. the companions to this one are called "the dolphin" & "for lizzie and harriet", all out at the same time from faber & the result of lowell's splitting his "notebook" three ways, tidying-up the mass of 14-liners contained in that interim volume. "history" reprints those poems to do with public events, lit. & historical personalities, to which are added 80 new, fairly public ones ("for 1. and h." are concerned with his daughter & second wife, & "dolphin" is mostly new stuff). lowell has revised, extensively, too many of these pieces - like the late auden did on his pre-war output - as if he wanted to disown the originals. often this revision is just a matter of the odd adjective or two, or the transposition of a few lines, but frequently it is so drastic as to change the whole meaning & tone. One has a right to feel slightly baffled: what is this man up to? lowell seems to have exchanged slabs of poetry, with his hallmark on it, for topical commentary, conversation - brilliant as it is - & diary jottings. everything is here but the new england kitchen-sink. he is an intensely private person who worries about the state of america & the world generally, revealing it with his usual astonishing facility, cleverness, & fully mastered technique, but his easy mannerisms & occasional shoddiness peep out in places. What has been called his favourite 14-line free-verse "machine" is still stuck to. but nothing in the books is uninteresting or unintelligent, for it is seldom that lowell is dull or boring. still, some of the subjects seem better fitted to prose, which he was edging towards as far back as "life studies" with its almost prose-narrative calm & quality to describe his own nervous breakdowns. he will always be admired, anyway, for freeing post-war poetry from the awful costive academic style of the 50s, & has been a major influence on the "confessionals" who tried to imitate him & failed. after "for the union dead" (what a title!) he discarded the "confessional" label which he detested, and with these three fresh volumes has reverted to a tenser, obscurer form. one wonders what he will do next, gifted but unhappy in a crap-laden society. jt.

Home Movies by tony curtis. 10p. platform / green horse. avalon, london rd, stockbridge, hants. handprinted booklet of usa impressions. rolls along okay but lacks the vital spark.

Honor Est A Nilo by ron staley. 40p. ore publications. 7 the towers, stevenage, herts. a new series of booklets entitled "torches of the island" which are "selected primarily for their sense of country", this one deals with horatio nelson's victory at the battle of the river nile, 1798. traditional in style, of course. general editor eric ratcliffe warns me not to be intolerant, so i shall not be.

H.O.P.E. (5) free. gerald england. 745 abbeydale rd, sheffield. foolscap mimeo info sheet, listings of some of the items gerald england has to hand for the dustbooks directories as well as the odd article & poem. this issue has "the alternative press in nineteenth century yorkshire", & a poem by paul lester. format could be more durable to increase value.

A House on Fire by philip ward. £1.05. oleander press. 28 parkfield cres, harrow. the price is high but the poetry solid. ward holds a good image into a well crafted form, his subject range
is broad. more should be heard of him.

The Hydra of Birds translated from the greek by yannis goumas. 10p. green horse / platform. 13 windsor house, lawn st, winchester, hamps. handset letterpress booklet, which makes it rough looking but cheap. the work of three greek poets: alexandros baras, andreas embiricos and nikos engonopoulos.

Hydrogen by hugh ferguson. 80p h/back. mitre press. 52 lincoln's inn fields, london wc2. such vanity press crap as this should never be sent out for review. the blurb likens the "poet" to blake god help us. run a mile.

In The Country of the Skin a radio script by peter redgrove. dist sceptre press.15 keats way, rushden, northants. second aeon heaped much praise on peter redgrove's novel of  the same name in its last issue. that book was a flyer. this is a free adaptation of part of the novel that was used in the radio 3 production broadcast in june of 1973. it proves both redgroves talent as a poet and as (now) a playmaker / novelist. great.

In the land of the gorsedd bard & the ballad of fowey by david stringer. 25p. firebird pubs, c/o the bookshop, 153 woodhouse lane, leeds. wild man stringer has plenty of surprises for all disbelievers with this set - blakean poems, songs, chants, rich with the imagery of the land. reminds me somewhat of horovitz but without his wit, replacing that with a very strong feeling for traditions. these poems go right to the old celtic roots stringer rounds the collection off with a potted history of cornish celtia, a detail of what happens there now on cultural & economic fronts, and a discourse on what is to be done. production is mimeo and full of faults, but forgive him that, the set is well worked & enjoyable.

Interludes by john vidler. 20p. aquila pamphlet no 9. 18 atherstone close, Shirley, Solihull. one of aquila's less successful booklets - the poems are weak structurally and image wise, a lot more work should be done before entering the public eye again - the ideas are there.

Into the meatgrinder by norman r. price. 10p. smoothie pubs. 67 vere rd, brighton. satirical poem on the joys of brighton university. for inmates only i'd guess.

It by hunter cordaiy. 50p. arrow press. 2 swiss cottages, yapton lane, avisford, sussex.a neat, illustrated set of short thin poems rather in the style of cid corman or early david jaffin but lacking those two poet's strength and insight.

Junta by john rice. 35p. oasis books. 12 stevenage rd, london sw6. very good value for money - clean tidy production, spine bound, 80 pages long. really it should be by rice & tan robinson who has illustrated the collection throughout with his intricate ink drawings. rice himself is no sloth as a poet, he moves well, knows how to handle language & image, is never short of a good idea, a good route of attack - the set should be brilliant on those grounds. i didnt find it so, somehow something lacks. he is on the right road in any event.

Just Twenty Two And I Dont Mind Dying by barry macsweeney. turpin 5, 15 trafalgar st, cambridge. subtitled "the official poetical biography of jim morrison - rock idol" and produced in the form of a 7" square mimeo booklet inside a mock record sleeve this becomes one of the neatest small press design jobs for ages. and the poem itself, it sticks to morrison, reads like the doors music and the age that grew from. a winner.


Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer by bp nichol.12 1/2p. writers forum. 262 randolph ave., london w9. a new reprint of a 1967 item (wf certainly keep their mimeo neat and clean as well as making sure most things remain in print). nichol is, of course, canada's arch concrete / sound poet and this collection shows off some of his basic typewriter concrete ideas together with some superb sound poems. its a good, honest and original set.

Kontexts (5) 35p. mike gibbs. 31 pinhoe rd, exter. back on form with a new shape, a general look at the new, experimental & concrete poetry rounded off with a survey of other publications in the field: breakwell / valoch / cobbing / mayer / lax / gerz / adler / belsey / kocman / & others. good stuff.

Krax (5) 63 dixon lane, leeds 12. local poetry & prose: sneyd / boothroyd / charlton / darIington / rhodes / morland / & others.

Lady Sings the Blues by billie holiday with wm.dufty; Bessie by chris albertson. both £2.95. barrie & jenkins, london. different in their styles, similar in their quality, these two women singers were legends in their lifetimes - great artists. "lady" was first published in 1958 & now reappears unaltered to coincide with the movie featuring diana ross as billie holiday - a film that dragged heavily in parts, with much self-indulgence from director, writer & actors who made a meal of it. there's also a complete comprehensive disc-list, told in the first person, it is a bitter tract. billie holiday competed in the white world, met deadly segregation, narcotics to switch off her nerves, & finally, a stinking prison. her music declined correspondingly. (she said: "nowadays you have all this talk & bull & nothing's happening." she said this in the 30s, but it could apply today.) the other lady, bessie smith, was a big, foul-mouthed, boozy character, useful with her fists (she beat up an impresario till he released her from a contract, & you had to call her "miss bessie" if you didn't want a smack in the chops). she was also reported to be bi-sexual, liking the girls in her road-show as well as the men.she supported her entire family, & her three sisters drank as much as she did without having the saving grace of being able to sing; she was very generous, known as a "soft touch," & above all a terrific artist, carrying a show single-handed with her negro audiences like wax in her hand. they all loved her. she was mainly a folk performer, & when the blues started slipping she slipped with them, suffering when the tides of fashion & the economy ran against her, but staying with her people - unlike billie h. it took the depression to change her repertoire, & she recorded some beautiful love-ballads of the cole porter / jerome kern class. "i feel i am on the brink of new successes," she said in 1936 - next year she was killed in a car crash. this book is a full-length portrait of bessie, from her teenage debut ("she just sang in her street clothes, but she was such a natural she could wreck anyone's show"), through her 20s marriage, the depression, & her later association with the bootlegger uncle of the vibes-king, lionel hampton. three days after bessie smith cut her last disc in nov.1933, billie holiday advanced to the same mike to make her first. both knew their jazz, and both had sad, rotten lives. we'll not see the likes of them again - certainly there's no woman around today to touch either of them for passion, skill, & sincerity. jt.

Laissez Faire (4) william oxley. 27 brook rd, epping, essex. photocopy sheets of oxley's view of the littlemags. you are either with him or against. there are no half measures.

Last Fly (1) 40p. john clement & derek telling. 2 silveys cottages, catbrain lane, bristol 10. the editors of the old "imprint" back with a strong new mag. clean crisp production, good variety of poetry with no sleepers plus an interesting set of graphics, visual poems and reproductions of poets worksheets: ehrenberg / redgrove / goacher / shuttle / brake / jackowska / booth / &c.

Letters From Sarah by john james. 90p. street editions. 31 panton st, cambridge. superb large page production with illustrations by philip crozier, yet vastly too expensive for 32 pages. james is a basically autobiographical conversational poet given to neat mental jumps & twists. its a very good poem series from a very underated poet. more the pity its price.

Lifelines by alexis lykiard. 20p. arc pubs. 11 byron rd, gillingham, kent. how arc keep their prices low for such neat booklets i dont know. this set covers lykiard's range and shows how far he's come since "robe of skin". intelligent, easy poetry. crisp & regular and lacking the usual obscurities expected from the modern poet.

Littack (3) 40p. william oxley. ember press. 27 brook rd, epping essex. oxley's own mag vehicle for his rantings on the state of english literature. (he doesnt like it). this issue is by far the best to date containing some good arguments. one might not agree at all with any of oxley's views but he does argue them well. main point is the (so called) "vitalist" manifesto and movement which oxley has started along with peter russell and a few others, it aims to put the world to rights. ian hamilton finlay provides the mag cover so i'd guess that he is in on it too. elsewhere there is a fair selection of poetry, some terrible short pieces from russell and oxley and stronger items from richard burns / hugo manning / walter perrie / & others. oxley believes in strong detailed criticism and to that end there are a lot of lengthy ramblings in the review section. its not a mag to pass off lightly, rather one to read in depth and then get hot under the collar about. its good to have such a thorn about.
no 4 continues the tradition: more vitalism / good, lengthy richard burns / macdiarmid / perrie on measure & emotion / david miller on wyndham lewis / much correspondence / spiro / manning / rose /
russell at length / tom scott / gurney / ormole / bonnefoy / &c.

Love: A Poem by robyn miles. tetralith books. c/o 262 randolph eve, london w9. a weakish & very spread out poem held up by large ungainly brush drawings by kanenas. not a winner.

Loves and fissures by stuart rolf. fiasco publications. 31 belle vue st, filey, e.yorks. a free booklet obtainable by sending a large sae. spirit mimeo format, clever poems that miss me.

Lilly Mallone's Patent Remedies (1 & 2) sheila brown. 37 gwydir st., cambridge. "poems from students at cambridge tech" rough mimeo format, a quote from the editorial sums the content up "the important thing about these poems is not the quality of the printing, nor indeed the standard of the writing.,. ."
no 3 in which they announce grant aid towards professional printing. i didnt notice any difference apart from a price rise to 7p and a slightly larger selection of rubbish.
no 4 mimeo this time, neat enough production, price back to 5p, weak poetry in the main but a fine piece of bomb dropping by mick gowar on his reaction to william oxley & co. make mr gowar the editor and it'll be a good mag.
no 5 beginning to pull its head up. production mimeo good with a fair selection inside.

The Little Word Machine (3) 25p. nick toczek. 103 moorhead lane, shipley, yorks. this new litho mag is turning into quite a good one, broad editorial standpoint now giving a tidy range of contributors: aleister crowley / sue jackson / james kirkup / tony curtis / grubb / goumas / pilcher /  musgrave / henri / horovitz / yevtushenko / & others. visual poetry even!

Local Movement by eric mottram. 50p. writers forum. 262 randolph ave, london w9. a 60 page A4 mimeo book which must be one of wf's longest yet. base poem is mottram long title poem which extends into a snatch of shorter pieces. mottram shows himself here as a lot more than just a critic & editor - a wide ranging poet using a large variety of source material. strong stuff.

London Poetry Express is a free info sheet put out by mike dobbie, 8 findhorn ave, hayes, middlesex. it contains details of all poetry events in the big city. info on forthcoming activity requested.

Look to the Scars by brian moses & greg venables. 20p. pv publications, 4 wealden close, crowborough, sussex. some basic forms & images from two new poets, both trying but neither there yet. workmanlike production inside a bad cover.

Lucid's Mill (9) 10p. steve sneyd. 4 nowell place, almondsbury, huddersfield. at last this anarchistic, underground literary, offset collaged magazine comes of age. issue 9 is certainly the best to date, jammed with poems, graphics, information and reviews - truly readable. alex kernaghan short story / usa ug paper survey / andy darlington on stan barstow / loads and loads more. worth double the asking price.

Malenka (5) jeffrey bleakley & brian moses. eastbourne college of education, darley rd, eastbourne. more mimeo sheets inside an overprinted envelope. lykiard / lamprill / venables / dick russell / ian robinson illustrations / plus a selection of locals. better issue than before.

Many Flies have feathers by ivor cutler. £1.00 paper, £1.60 cloth. trigram press. blue tile house, stibbard, fakenham, kent. design is right on top with this small book of funny, light poems. in the style of the liverpool poets but with a little bit of extra subtlety.

Mad Dog is a schools magazine with a pretty high standard going for it. production is litho and many of the print ideas used can put your regular little mag to shame. teacher behind the venture is david h.w. grubb from culverhay school bath, from whom copies may be obtained.

Marcato by jeremy bindman. 20p. aquila: the phaethon press. 18 atherstone close, shirley, solihull. first small collection from a new poet. nothing too exciting.

Menard Press run by tony rudolf from 1 primrose gdns, london NW3 have put out two items: "free gift sheet no 1" in the form of a poem by vasko popa and a jewish new year card with a poem by primo levi @ 10p a copy.

Midwinter Mandela by penelope shuttle. 20p. headland pubs. 56 blakes lane, new maiden, surrey. neat small book containing a fine bunch of startling poems. this lady can handle her words. schooled by association with peter redgrove the poems somewhat reflect his attack, yet the talent had to be there in the first place. a goodly book.