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

it comes from the mountains
across the mists of time
man, the little jig is fine
it came to my life on an old ancient stream
    part of the ancestors’ dream

Steve Young

 

Editorial notes - this issue is built around a broad theme of source, roots, wilderness, wildness. Theres a lot of history (recent or ancient) in these pages, and you’ll find many mountains, rivers, wintry landscapes, and wild creatures, alive, dead, sick, or extinct. Spain, the Far East, and the Indian subcontinent also feature prominently.

The sad news of Barry MacSweeney’s death arrived just after the last issue went to the printers. I hope to print work in a future issue which will serve as a fitting tribute to one of our few truly adventurous and creative voices of recent years - in the meantime I’ll draw your attention to Ric Hool’s Square One, and a poem that I know was one of Barry’s favourites, Paul Summers’ In The Shadow Of Chimneys, to serve as a tribute in this issue.

Errata from no.11 - apologies for one or two errors that crept into the last issue, to Bob Beagrie for a couple of spelling mistakes in his poems, to B.Z.Niditch for omitting the word ‘left’ from l.27/28 of Picking Up Cavafy, to Linda Chase for omitting her from the Notes on Contributors, and most of all to Denise Hyam for in those same notes saying she is Canadian when in fact she is Australian.

Also, as an afterword from the last issue, William Corner Clarke has been located in Virginia, USA, and I hope to include some of his more recent work in a forthcoming issue.

There will be a FIRE celebration reading, featuring a number of writers who appear in this issue, on Thursday November 16th at 8pm at Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill, London. If you’ve not had a flyer for this reading, or if you’ve had one but would like more, please contact me by letter or e-mail. I hope to see many of you at the reading!

Very little space for mentioning books or magazines, but I must reiterate the seminal importance of The Redbeck Anthology of British South Asian Poetry, (edited Debjani Chatterjee), £9.95 from Redbeck Press, 24 Aireville Road, Frizinghall, Bradford, BD9 4HH. Also from Redbeck - MICHAEL TOLKIEN, Outstripping Gravity, £7.95.

From Blacksuede Boot Press, EMMA McCORDON, The Hangman and the Stars, £3.00 from 8 Homewood Drive, Hensingham, Whitehaven, Cumbria CA28 8JS. (A very bright new talent).

Two ROY FISHER celebrations - Interviews Through Time, Shearsman Books 2000, Lark Rise, Fore Street, Kentisbeare, Devon EX15 2AD, and - news for the ear (a homage to Roy Fisher) £8.95 from Stride Publications, 11 Sylvan Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 6EW.

Finally, a poet I published in FIRE no.4, and more of whose work will be appearing in an upcoming issue, TABISH KHAIR has a major collection of his poetry just out, Where Parallel Lines Meet, (Viking / Penguin Books India, Rs 195) 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017.