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

 The American Poetry Review (vol 2 no 6) $1.00. stephen berg. 401 so broad st, philadelphia, pa 19147. tabloid format poetry paper. donald hall / bly / major / wakoski / welch / adame / & others.

The Alien Critic (6) $1.00. richard e. geis. box 11408, portland, or 97211. "an informal science fiction & fantasy journal" with informal being the operative word - its a typewriter offset mag of news, notes, letters, mini articles, more letters, books received and reviewed plus vast listings of other available publications in the field. a mag for addicts only.

Amazon Quarterly (vol 1 no 4 & vol 2 no1) $1.50. laurel & gina. 554 valle vista, oakland, ca 94610. "lesbians around the continent", very well put together magazine with a tidy clear layout running articles, interviews, photos on the ultimate form of womens lib. vast contact address listings together with a run down on other publications.

Amour a mort by cesar moro & translated by frances lefevre. vanishing rotating triangle press. 81 second avenue, new york 10003. a huge & beautiful book, surrealist in tone, by a south american poet absorbed into the paris scene. when a small press produces an item like this i begin to wonder why the majority of poets bother.

And She Finishes by j.rutherford willems. $1.50. isthmus press. 2514 milvia st, berkeley, ca 94704. tidy set of lyrical works, crisp and not lacking craft.

Andy / For Jesus Lunatick by b.p.nichol. $3.00. coach house press. 401 (rear) huron st, toronto, canada. concrete / sound poet nichol working in an extended experimental prose form resulting in these two novels. "andy" is a piece of cut-up, a form now so overdone that each new attempt verges on boredom. the alleviating factor in nichol's case is the series of bright coloured drawings that run throughout the text. "for jesus lunatick" is more complex, a sensual love story that seems to rely on a twisted timesense for its effects. typical superb coach house press production on this title. a small press with know-how.

Ark River Review (vol 2 no 2) $1.00. jonathan katz. 348 north ohio, wichita, kansas 67214. good quality consistent mag of poetry & fiction. nothing wild but all bearing that tang of good literature. lifshin / peter wild / britt / locklin / bowling / pedro montez / & others.
vol 2 no 3 a special 3 poets issue devoted to albert goldbarth, michael ryan & james tate.

Astral Projection po box 4383, albuquerque, new mexico 87106 is a quite long lived alternative newspaper, devoted as one might expect from its title to the more esoteric aspects of life. its always had a thing about large full page illustrations and this issue (vol 5 no 1 @ 50c) is no exception, huge old wood engravings grace articles on the holy grail, yoga, spacemen, atlantis, letters, poems and book reviews. the same people also produce four other papers, all of the same high quality. The Old Town Gazette @ 50c is a qtly newspaper of local history with much space devoted to photographs and (again) wood engravings. Tribal Messenger is free and carries on the red indian's fight via article and large wood engravings, Decorative Engravings Magazine is the ultimate, old wood engravings and little else, printed on high quality newsprint and only 95c as is Artists Magazine ($1.50) devoted to the work of one artist, issue 1 being matthew horton.

The Beggar's Bowl (2) $5.00 patron's sub or free if you cant afford it. alan altany. pax et bonum press, r.r.1, box 61, alden, minnesota 56009. mimeo format mag of poems with zen & buddhist leanings -- mainly new & upcoming poets: petroski / burgess / anfinson / pilcher / &c.

The Best Name of Silence by david helwig. Oberon Press, canada. available @ £ 1.00 from dobson books, 80 kensington church st, london w8. mainly situation poetry, easy flow with a reasonable tight style. not outstanding.

Beyond Baroque Newsletter (vol 3 no 2) free. george drury smith. 1539 west Washington bvd., venice, ca 90291. the beyond baroque centre is a meeting place for poets, writers & artists - it holds readings and exhibitions on a regular basis. the newsletter is what it says plus information on writing outlets, tips, hints, listings and a few poems as well.

Bleb (7) 75c. george ryan. box 322, times sq sta., new york 10036. reasonable new little. hansen / shapiro / ryan / wade / khrakhouni / & others. good design.

Breasts by donald hall. red hanran press box 03527, hignland park, mi 48203. visual poem postcard, delux production.

Byron Exhumed by robert peters. the windless orchard. section of english, purdue univ, fort wayne, indiana 46805. "a verse suite" on the death of byron, the exhumation of byron 14 years later and the parallels of this in the poets own life. strong stuff indeed.

Cadastre by robert bringhurst. $3.50. kanchenjunga press. route 3, spencer, indiana 47460. conventional format neo-classical americana. a style all the rarer these days. bound & well illustrated.

California Quarterly (4) 60p. elliot 1. gilbert. 100 sproul hall, univ of california, davis, ca 95616. the official literary magazine of the university and of course a fine production job. poetry & fiction, with the odd piece of art work. reasonable standard without sparking too much. robert kelly / hartmann / mchaney / simic / bertolino / duffin / schneider / hildreth / &c.

Camels Coming Newsletter (3) $7.00 for 12. richard morris. po box 703, san francisco, ca 94101. this 10 page issue has poets such as charlie potts, bern porter, a.d.winas, dick higgins, paul mariah, harold norse, hugh fox etc answering the strange question "what is literary polution?". of course none of them agree.
no 4 richard kostelanetz on clark coolidge & hugh fox on peter weiss.

Cancer in my Left Ball by john giorno. $2.95. something else press. box 26, west glover, vt 05875. giorno uses found source material for his poems, bits from newspapers & magazines although he is no "found" poet. he reworks his material to suit his needs. his main technique is that of repetition and partial echo, he divides his page in two and runs repeats of parts of the poem appearing in the left column in the right hand column. the effect in the short term is fascinating, reminiscent of certain sound poet's tape recorder work. in the long run the whole thing gets a bit much to read, although to hear the poet i imagine might be different. its an innovation, and i particularly like the fancy typography which appears towards the end of the book. but a new focus point in modern poetry? i dont think so.

Caterpillar (20) $2.00. clayton eshleman. orders to serendipity books. 1790 shattuck ave, berkeley, ca. 94709. the final issue of one of the strongest poetry mags of its type to be put out from america in recent years. eshleman has worked long and hard, straight and seriously for something he believes in... and its certainly worked. caterpillar has always been consistently good, never allowing dead wood to block its space. this final issue goes out with a bang, eshleman's stable there in force: snyder / robert kelly / paul blackburn / thomas mayer / david antin / vallejo & baudelaire translations / rothenberg / enslin / dawson / & on for 175 pages.

Concrete 1 $1.50. konglomerati press. 5719 29th ave. so. gulfport, fla 33707. two booklets and a large size book in a well designed package. the whole object is well designed and does contain a certain amount of interesting work - but not quite enough perhaps. the large book contains typical kostelanetz plus stan vanderbeek & drawings from lee de jasu. small booklet one has kitty williams graphics backing poetry by o'brien & nettlebeck. booklet two is the best with a coloured sticker by steve smith, a postcard from aram saroyan and a series of  minimals from gerard malanga

Contact jeff goldberg. red room books. 3802 lancaster ave, philadelphia 19104. a mimeo magazine that provides good value for 50c. a gathering place for what could be called the north eastern american post concrete poets, short poems, sharp poems, a liking for long (& sometimes tedious) interviews, a select group doing their own thing. i enjoyed much of it although i can see why many people dont.
no 5 anne waldman issue with an interview by bockris-wylie, poems from the lady, ted berrigan & joe brainard writing about her plus otis brown / pickard / wieners / & others.
no 6 tom pickard issue, bockris-wylie tape recorder interview again, robert bly, otis brown & others on the man, plus new work from robert creley / malanga / brown / weiners / goldberg / etc.
no 7 john wieners issue with the expected interview & eric mottram on the man plus aram saroyan / tom pickard / tom weatherley / malanga / & others.

Daddy's Darling by t.j.mccarthy. $2.95. branden press. 221 columbus ave, boston, mass 02116. why this obviously vanity presses bothers to mail out review copies i dont know. daddy's darling is out and out crap, unthinkably bad, without form, image or even the slightest winkle of originality. and this rubbish is served up as poetry and the man responsible for writing it goes around feeling himself a poet. something begins to smell badly.

Daedalus (vol 102 no 3) $2.50. the proceedings of the american academy of arts & sciences. 7 linden st, harvard univ., cambridge, mass 02146. "language as a human problem". 250 pages of solid academic writing covering education, learning second languages, history etc etc. an ideal christmas gift for those deep into the subject.

Damage Within the Community by edward mycue. $2.00. panjandrum press. 99 Sanchez st, san francisco. city landscaped conversational or shattered image poems mixed in with some unusual oil painting on x-ray plate illustrations by richard steger. good production.

Early Selected y Mas by paul blackburn. $4.00. black sparrow press. available thru books, 84 woodhouse lane, leeds. selected early poetry from the late paul blackburn, a man of huge outpoet and considerable power.

Encounters by kathleen wiegner. $1.00. membrane press. po box 5431, shorewood, milwaukee, wi 53211. brown recycled paper carries a set of overgrand poems, large in concept but lacking conviction.

An End To Pinball by al masarik. 75c. vagabond press. po box 2114, redwood city, ca 94064, rough styled easygoing story telling poems, the fifties, women, cars, elvis, sex and more sex. okay it isnt high art but it works on its own level and certainly entertains.

Everyman (73) english dept, ccc metro, 2900 community college ave, cleveland, ohio 44115. it seems then that some american university magazines can be as bad as their british counterparts. a terrible selection of college styled poetry, photos & drawings. well printed of course.

The Falcon (6) $1.00. stanley harrison. belknap hall, mansfield state college, mansfield, pa 16933. 130 thick letterpress pages for a buck shows where university money goes its a heavy magazine, solid, somewhat unadventurous with a taste in long interviews with various novelists. a staff of 15 have given us poetry & fiction from such as peter wild / david bromige / sobin / jack anderson / laurence wyatt / etc. the fiction at least excited me.

Father For My Prayer by martin j. rosenblum. 30c. monday morning press. 2629 n. bremen, milwaukee, wi 53212. poem broadsheet with woodcut, rosenblum in good form.

The Fault (3) $1.00. terrence ames. 41186 alice ave, fremont, ca 94538. a well balanced mixture of poetry, fiction, drama and art work. nothing earth moving but nothing basically bad either. very fine cover by tom rowe. harley elliott / hauser / tepper / lifshin / &c.
no 4 best issue to date. numerous drawings, insert book "making hay" by tom montag and illustrated by tom rowe. contributors to the mag include jay meek / lange / lifshin / glee knight / abbott / finch / & others. short stories plus "black & white" a play by terrence ames.

The Figa by paul mariah. camels coming press. box 703, san francisco, ca 94101. gay lib and the act of poetry meeting in this unique broadside.

Four Dozen Songs by Cornel Lengyel. $2.50 dragon's teeth press. el dorado national forest, georgetown, ca 95634. poems, songs & music with a biblical slant. paperback production.

Four Parts Sand by birney, copithorne, bissett & suknaski. oberon press. canada. available in the uk @ E2.00 from dobson books, 80 kensington church st, london w8. an attempt at a stylish production job representing 4 canadian concrete poets. firstly the production is good while the design is awful, poems are printed as framed pictures against some kind of grain wall-paper background. secondly only one of the four poets would seem to have anything to do with concrete, bill bissett whose typewriter bashes entertain even if the ones here are a little trite. earle birney, a real poet if ever there was one, is shown via a few chalk scribbles. he should stick to what he knows well. judith copithorne has poem-drawings, a kind of art-nouveau appolinaire while andrew suknaski, who also does poem-drawings, has difficulty in even scribbling. if this is canada concrete then i'll go back to europe.

The Gar / Illuminations is a u/g paper & poetry mag link up under the hand of norm moser, 1510 san antonio no 1, austin, texas 78705. "the gar" is the u/g while "illuminations" runs the poetry - both are tabloid format and are available in tandem or individually.
gar 12 illuminations 7 rolando romo / teeple / ecology in texas / hal wylie / 7c
gar 15 illuminations 8 comix / ginsberg / krauss / cody / romo / &c
gar 18 illuminations 9 texan woman / rosenberg / winas / goodstein fiction / ditsky / &c
gar 19 feminist gar / small publishers feature / &c
gar 20 austin eros issue / moser fiction / jerry bumpus / &c

Geography and Plays by gertrude stein. $6.95 h,back. something else press. uk dist by mcbride & broadley. one of the easier stein books to get thru, miriad short items in play and story format, small slices can thrill, large chunks send to sleep. i liked this book.

The Great Canadian Sonnet (part two) by dave mcfadden, drawn by greg curnoe. Arcana by frank davey. both unpriced. The Dainty Monsters by michael ondaatje. $2.50. coach house press, 401 huron st, toronto. the "sonnet" is a tiny booklet about four inches square, authorised for use in schools (at what level is not stated) & great fun for kids - if you flip the little pages with your thumb you can see the corner pictures move! what the pics & the text are about is anyone's guess, but it looks like an enjoyable spoof to me, at the expense of sprawling canada, modern living, trad values & the whole cock-up etc. lots of visual jokes, clusters of disjointed prose, & crazy logic. a good piss-taking surrealist exercise. "arcana", a lavishly-made slim paperback, is a tarot book of lyrical document - one of the earliest of recent canadian tarot-oriented collections. they're called "discovery" poems, with the cards taking their place among the actual & imaginary objects of the poet's life - including discarded mss. - to tell him and his readers a story of "two marriages, two kingdoms." according to the blurb, "an unsuspected seasonal cycle within the tarot reveals itself in the waning & waxing of love." or something. old eliot of the wasteland would have been interested in this one, with his references to the tarot pack, but the author himself seems out on some wild wing of his own. a very strange undertaking indeed, but perhaps i'm too earth-grounded these days. the author was original editor of the vancouver poetry newsletter tish, & now edits canada's only avant-garde journal open letter. "the dainty monsters" is a first collection, revealing another impressive surrealist imagination, a sort of poetic safari full of beasts & monsters that are real, frightening & funny, ondaatje is heavily attracted to what is gorgeous, bizarre & rare. for acquired tastes, but worth quoting his intro. from auden:
"we've been watching you over the garden wall for hours / the sky is darkening like a stain, / something is going to fall like rain / and it won't be flowers." jt.

Great Humor edited by louis untermeyer. mcgraw-hill, new york. someone said that when untermeyer (a man of taste, knowledge, & deft translator of comic verse) honestly promises great humour, every item in the anthology has to fully qualify for the adjective. unfortunately, the choice here is rather mildewed & antiquated - aesop, petronius, rabelais, swift, lamb, gilbert, twain, & co. - these were all funny or satirical men in their time, but their time was a helluva long time ago, & the wit doesn't wear all that well. they have endured, but jest... i've read funnier things on bog walls. jt.

Hedged Bets by larry zirlin. release press. 47 7th st, brooklyn, n.y.c. 11215. small booklet of poems produced by someone with an eye for design. the poetry is a bit selfindulgent with a fair touch of poems about writing poems.

Here is Einbaum by wright morris. black sparrow press, los angeles. uk dist by books, 84 woodhouse lane, leeds. typical b.s. production yet untypical content. a book of odd short stories, american jewish background, and rather unfulfilling. not for me.

A History of America by bill hutton. $coach house press. 401 (rear) huron st, toronto. a surrealist fantasy on the history of america. short chapters each dealing with one aspect, amusing to read at first but boredom soon sets in. paperback 107 pages plus plates.

The Identical Lunch by philip corner. $3.00. nova broadcast press. uk distribution by mcbride & broadley, wood cottage, nash road, bletchley. a lengthy diary based on the attempts made by composer corner to eat everything on the menu at one restaurant. the book details his day by day attempts in minute detail. beyond that i dont care to comment.

The Immanentist Anthology $2.50. published by the smith. 5 beekman st, nyc 10038. subtitled "art of the superconscious" this anthology presents the work of 19 young poets all working in the style begun by duane locke in tampa florida and printed in the university magazine the UT Review. No editor is credited but its easy to see that duane locke had a lot to do with it. these "linguistic realists" are bound up in a good deal of poetic theory, and not too surprising when in reality the poetry has much to do with french surrealism, which also managed a good deal of manifesto and theory. locke leads the set in typical tight funky fashion and no one else quite equals him. other contributors include many of locke's former students plus a bunch of poets associated with fred wolven's ann arbor review: wyatt / britt / roth / lustig / fazio / boxer / & others. its an interesting book but not mind blowing nor vastly new. production throughout the 120 bound pages is smith superb.

Invisible City 75c. john mcbride & paul vangelisti. red hill press 6 san gabriel drive, fairfax, ca 94930. this one continues its rise to fame, a superb magazine combining european poets in translations with the top cream of america. format is newspaper style but on crisp white paper.
no 8 jack hirschman as poet and as translator /  bukowski / richard snyder / al masarik / malanga / willems / & countless others. includes "air" a poem supplement by paul vangelisti
no 9 fortini / mallarme / schaeffer / brecht / rilke / john thomas / sereni / & many more.

Invitation to a Dying by al masarik. vagabond press. box 2114, redwood city, ca 94064. a very neat 60 page illustrated mimeo job introduced by charles bukowski. masarik is certainly a poet in the buk manner. a steady strong voice in the conversational, gut felt, almost confessional style. i found a small set of poems inside that are really outstanding. this book is mighty good. masarik will go places. on the other hand, its only fair to add that a good many more midstream critics are bound to condemn the stuff, out of hand, as nothing at all to do with poetry. however, i think it is.

Jack Kerouac - A Memoir by john montgomery. the giligia press. uk distribution @ 50p by mcbride & broadley, wood cottage, nash rd, nr bletchley. tidy 16 pages of letterpress montgomery is known as henry morley & alex fairbrother, two minor characters, in kerouacs novels. the booklet details the background to his involvement. its interesting to those involved with the great k's books but i detect a little glory hunting here, not much, but a little.

Journeyman Press - po box 4434, grand central station, new york 10017 is robert lax's usa equivalent if ian hamilton finlay's "wild hawthorn press", in fact the two presses have been linked in a recent V&A exhibition. journeyman's speciality is high quality print work with design & crisp illustration by emil antonucci of lax's minimal & repetitive poems. lax is regarded by many as a concretist although his visual aspects come via suggestion rather than typelayout. a recent bumper package included the following: an evening at webster hall @ 75c "everything comes together somewhere in the mind". a guide for the perplexed @ 75c 8 pages which make you so. a moment @ 75c which follows on. red circle blue square @ $1.50 a colour poem using coloured inks & images mostly blue $1.00 where the words are replaced by coloured blobs. thought @ 50c symbols & love. three poems @ 50c dark & light, fire & wing. tree @ $1.50 which says a lot more than is usual. another red red blue poem @ $1.00 fold over poster colour poem where oblongs replace the words two colours 3 or 4 poems about the sea @ $1.50 crayon landscape / seascape, beautiful. black & white @ $1.50 the classic lax colour poem. how does the flower @ 50c. 2" wide and almost 10 foot tall. fables @ $2.00 still repetitive but hardly minimal, cage like with some very good drawings 24 pages. new poems @$1.50 48 pages with no colour but much minimalism, repetition and the concretist of the lot. the circus of the sun @ $1.50 bigger than most - stein like and heavy. the mental traveller @ $1.50 is not by lax but william blake with antonucci on top illustration form.

The Joys of Meditation by justin f. stone. $2.95. sun books. po box 4383, albuquerque, new mexico 87106. someone else has come back from that far eastern road of zen and ashram, full of the lingo and the technique and determined to pass it onto others its a straightforward and convincing book, useful certainly, but only if you havent one of the thousands of others available on the subject. you pays your money you takes your choice.

Jumpsongs by norm moser, $3.00. gar press box 4793, austin, tx 78765. bumper mimeo collection of sparks & flashes with moser high on innumerable horses. rocks along.

The Ladder to the Moon by dick higgins. $3.45. unpublished editions. box H, barton, vt 05822. "a lyric theatre construction", the score for a vast neo-dada event using multi-multi media. its complex indeed and perhaps would make for better reading if the event itself had been seen.

Lord of the Village by francois dodat. $2.50.west coast poetry review. 1127 codel way, reno, nevada 89503. dual french and english text, with translations by bert and odette meyers. gem like animal & insect poems. good meat.

The Last Fair Deal Going Down by david rhodes. $6.95. little, brown, new york. this is a chronicle about a family named sledge: luke, whose tall-tale frontier beginnings end in a deadly drinking contest; john, a bootlegger hanged for the shotgun murder of his wife; wait, a street fighter; will, a compulsive voyeur; nellie, a victim of rape & blindness; & reuben, poor bastard, who tries to understand them all. the action takes place in des moines, iowa, beneath which there is another, underground city, both a geographic & psychic inferno where poor old reuben must venture & confront the baddies. if it sounds like sub-tennessee williams crossed with chandler / hammett, you may be right. good for a first novel, though. today there's terrific work being done even in the second division of us fiction. but reading it, & much else reeking of the old & new sickness of america, i can easily believe they are quite capable of building a doomsday machine. ugh! jt.

Love Cry by franklin w. hamilton. $3.00. walden press. 423 s frankfin ave, flint, michigan 48503. 180 page paperback, 152 poems. a mass of work by a midstream poet who seems to have ideas worth working on but not enough of the control needed to express them fully.

luna by david meltzer. unpriced. black sparrow press, los angeles. "luna" means silver used in alchemy, but most of these poems, as the title suggests, are to do with the "lunar" of moon & menstrual period, moon-lunacy, nights of the full moon, crescents & constellations, tidal movements etc. potentially big images that fall flat on their ass from overblown pretentiousness. the author's not a technical astronomer but an optimistic ex-newsstand vendor & sounds like it. he says luna "sang" thru him (like a girl he once knew? oh no, nothing as banal as that), & offers these songs as notes towards "illustrating the evolving process of creation, how inner symbols take shape." he aims to examine & clarify things, but makes a poetic shambles of such wanton obscurity that silence should be recommended as soon as poss. meaningless terms like self-diving, soul's resurrection, demolition of old faces, new masks, tell us we've been here before, too many times. "impossible to get out of oneself," he writes, which shakespeare to tennessee wms have been telling us & he didn't need to write this travesty about what we all know already. it's been done by far better hands than his, even the loving bits. a piece of bunkum, & very definitely not my cup of coffee, despite usual superb black sparrow turnout (how can that printing-house back such crap & bilge from time to time?). jt.

Manroot (8) $1.50. paul mariah. box 982, south san francisco, ca 94080. again over 100 pages, bound and readable. not as good as the last issue, which was certainly a bombshell, concentrating on lesser knowns, tagett / oppen / foss / colby / etc etc. good stuff nonetheless.
no 9 back on top form again with this issue, good use of multiple typewriter faces for the text, and a very broad selection of poetry with a strong leaning to both kinds of gay lib and the perverse. cocteau / genet / congdon / allen ginsberg / robert duncan / alta / potamitis / & many more.

Margins (6) 75c. tom montag. 2912 N Hackett, milwaukee, wi 53211. "a review of little mags and small press books", and it does it with a sense of involvement, a certain excitement. would have taken the place of the failing small press review but for the fact that the last two issues of that mag have picked up a hell of a lot. this issue of margins features long & short reviews, editors talking about their methods, the new zealand scene, etc etc.
no 8 red indian small presses / lesbian publishing / kostelanetz on little mags as a whole / etc.

The Martyrology - books 1 & 2 by b.p.nichol. $6.00 set. coach house press. 401 (rear) huron st, toronto 181. the martyrology appears to be the central and never ending work of nichol at the moment. a good deal of the more or less straight poetry deals with elaborate puns on the names and ideas of saints, the rest is autobiographical material written in an almost liverpool poets style. basically it doesnt work. nichol can do far better than this. images are soft, loose - construction is arbitrary & often false while language itself is not used as inventively as it could be. a sad state of affairs for nichol is capable of powerful things. production and design is done with painstaking care & to devastating effect by jerry ofo making this set one of the best production jobs i have ever seen. a pity the work is not better.

Measures by tom montag. 50c. harpoon press. box 5494, milwaukee, wisconsin 53211. a small booklet of 5 poems, a terseness of image & an autobiographical flow.

Michigan Hot Apples edited by gay rubin. po box 238, bloomfield hills, michigan, 48013. they have this problem of regionalism in literature in usa too, certain areas feel they are not getting their share of the limelight while certain high powered publications are thought to concentrate too heavily on one region of writers rather than another. this well designed and sturdy paperback sets to level balances - its a new & modern mixture of mainly poetry with the odd short story & graphic thrown in. its uneven but does carry a certain excitement and no literary blinkers whatsoever. contributors include hugh fox / james tipton / john woods / barbara drake / jay mccormick / & many others.
michigan hot apples 2 under the editorship of gay rubin again proves success, its thicker and with roughly the same mix of writers, manages to be better. the project is now established as an annual event.

midwatch by keith wilson. $2.45. sumac press, po box 39, fremont, michigan 49412. midwatch is the watch on ship between midnight & 0400, which sailors reckon is always a "haunted" time at sea. the author chose the title 'cos the book's about nightmares in the mind and the public nightmares of yank politics. nothing special, not bad or good, belonging like so many others in a second division (lower reaches) of semi-talented mediocrity. jt.

The Mill of Particulars by robert kelly. black sparrow press. available thru books, 84 woodhouse lane, leeds. one of the strong men of the caterpillar crowd - usually a journalistic (journal keeper) poet of huge & lengthy output. here we have kelly on his shorter rides. i found myself  brimming with excitement & discovery as i dug my way through. its a fine fine book right in the black sparrow tradition.

The Miscellany (Vol 8 no 2) $4.00. robert bolick. box 696, davidson, north carolina 28036.a large traditional letterpress magazine, running new writers in the fields of poetry & the short story. nothing too exciting yet nothing bad either. roth / trakl / hugh fox / griffin / &c.

mockingbird wish me luck by charles bukowski. unpriced (why don't black sparrow print cost on some of their stuff?). black sparrow press, po box 25603, los angeles, calif. 90025. here's another feast from the high priest of the disinherited. this latest bukowski is packed with good, fast things ("a day at the oak street meet" is a zipper of a prose-poem). if the brave, unacademic future historian wants to know how it was on the west coast in 73 & where the good & bad action was at when the states were sliding into fudge, this old mucky turmoiling poet could be one of his best guides, turds & warts & all. the ferocity, humanity & wise-old-bull humour burst the pages. i read the hundred pieces in one sitting (he must type a poem a day), carried along helplessly on the switchback, by the sheer zest, verve & attack of this articulate buffalo renegade who tries to live up to the hilt. his debt to hemingway continues to be heavy (but so are many others'), especially the economy & tough-cover on sensitivity, but his stamp's on almost everything, & the rushing style does its job as usual. most of the poems are very short yarns & anecdotes, self-contained units in themselves, like postcards from l.a. written by a gutsy barroom bard who's been in lonely rooms & whorehouses & on racetracks & skid row instead of in seminars & tutorials. lots of bawdy humour, & huge delight & melancholy on body-functions with much laying, toolwork, quimdigging, belching, farting, & defeated suckhunting. bukowski is significant because he's an accurate chronicler of a social segment that's much larger than people think it is. also because he never puts a lid on his feelings or wears his heart outside his sweaty t-shirt, unlike the arid microscope-men in the poetry labs. of america who write psycho-based lit. theses on overdone poets like dylan thos. with ludicrous titles like "randy dandy in the cave of spleen". somebody once brightly referred to bukowski's process of "de-disneyfication,  kicking the mickey mouse out of our heads" & showing us what we all are under the skin anyway in the words of his own titles, these are longshot poems for broke players who run with the hunted & the cold dogs in the courtyard; confessions of a man insane enough to live with beasts, who's been at terror street & agony way; notes of a dirty old man, erections, ejaculations, exhibitions & general tales of ordinary madness on the days that run away like wild horses over the hills. buy it. jt.

Nada (O) "special issue 22.23 of The Smith". $2.00. harry smith. 5 beekman st, new york, 10038. small press media mag where the whole approach gets a work out thru article & lengthy book review. unusual typography, good print & binding. another second aeon
award winner.

Neil Young by tom clark. $3.50. coach house press. 401 (rear) huron st, toronto. minimal clark again in a 130 page paperback. 5 poem sequences complete with strange clark illustrations. the title poem is an arrangement of the lyrics of an old buffalo springfield song, one line per page with clark intervention on the facing page. much paper wastage going on here.

The Newsletter 5 beekman street, nyc 10038. has sent two packages recently. neither of which means too much to me: a badge bearing the inscription "beef with honor" (a gay lib slogan) and a half burnt bag marked "F.B.I. burn bag". the newsletter itself continues with its mixture of politics & new york literary gossip.

Nola Express (136) 35c. box 2342, new orleans, la 70116. a long lived literary based paper running reports on the 1973 cosmep conference together with small press reviews and items of political & general interest.

obscenities by michael casey. $1.75 paper, $5 cloth. yale univ press, new haven, conn. this won yale younger poets comp. its a collection of humorous & quite powerful poems on experiences in vietnam, using slang of american gi, exploring relations between soldier, comrades, officers, viet people. unique in style & substance, carey's invented a new poetic idiom out of gi lingo, for which he's got a matchless ear like a human tape. in the middle of hell & nightmare of the ricefields he never loses his cool. has pace & excitement of first-rate fiction, except you know it's based on sickening fact, complete cast of mad characters straight out of "mash". also available in this fine series from yale are lugging vegetables to nantucket (great title) by peter klappert, which is nothing like lowell's "quaker graveyard" but good enough; & collecting evidence by hugh seidman. jt.

On Site (vol 2 no1) alison sky. 60 greene st, new york, 10012. "the publication on the visual environment" - a glossy new architecture style mag with a definite littlemag feel to it. this issue is devoted, almost exclusively, to the results of their competition. a typical american plaza / square complete with typical "furniture" in the shape of benches, flag pole, small art sculpture, &c was photographed and readers were asked to suggest a better type of "furniture" and to send in collaged photos of their suggestions. i found the whole thing great fun to read and even stimulating. search this mag out.

Only Just Above The Ground by stuart z. perkoff. smith special issue 28. $1.00. 5 beekman st, nyc 10038. a sort of post beat city poetry, worded well, and yours if you like that style.

Osiris (2) $1.50. andrea moorhead. 1065 university place, schenectady, new york 12308. offset international poetry & arts with work in english, french, italian, german etc. high standard.

Out of Sight (second series) james mechem, box 8006, wichita 67208. this small spirit mimeo 8 pager is normally king rip off, reprinting poems that catch the editor eye, however some recent issues have carried original new work
no 36 "british scene" guest edited by steve sneyd: darlington / grubb / connors / carr / &c.
no 37 7 poems by steve sneyd.
no 29 gloria kenison issue. for the third time.
no39  "for darlene" kenison / watt / james / murphy / peggy garrison / &c.
no 32 "for sydney" kenison / fanny howe / david calder / george barker / &c.
no 35 "carl sandburg plays trucks in my back yard" walt phillips / paul blackburn / montgomery / &c.
no 38 kenison / michael joseph phillips / kunitz / petty / &c.
no 53 bly / macbeth / hugo williams / sexton / & dehn

Panache (12) $1.00. david lenson. princeton, nj 08540. a special all poetry issue including david black /  koethe / sobin / rosen / moyer / edwin brock / & many others.

Panjandrum (2&3) $2.50. dennis koran. 99 sanchez st, san francisco, ca 94114. some mags are streets ahead. this one, in effect 2 issues old, is a killer. its huge, graphically good, poetically solid and exciting, new, different, all you could ask for. the bulk of the mag is made up of powerful stuff from such as rene char / michael mcclure / jim rosenburg / fixel / ferlinghetti / codrescu / gluck / weiss / norse / mariah / & thousands of others. a special supplement, edited by bruce boone, features frank o'hara by way of his poetry, tribute articles & a cartoon strip.this mag is a winner.

Penumbra (12) $1.00. charles haseloff. box 1501, new york 10001. "life after death" issue with numerous funnies, collages & quotes. poems from haseloff / zeigler / flook / walsh / riIke / quitt /&c.

Personae Non Gratae by paul mariah. shameless hussy press. box 424, san lorenzo, ca 94580. mariah's prison poems in a small booklet. no match for wantling's gut rip style but still manages to be moving enough to bring the book off. paperplate litho.

Planning Escape by alan zeigler. release press. 478 seventh st, nyc 11215. sharp styled city poems from the co-editor of "some" magazine. reasonable enough but not far enough out of the ordinary to have any lasting effect.

Ploughshares 75p. james randall. box 529, cambridge, mass 02139. midstream and typically american neat print, spine bound mag of poetry, fiction and odds & ends.
no 3 kelly / rexroth / cornish / wieners / irby / geoffrey clark interviewing richard yates / &c.
no 4 hugo / reed / ryan / lebowitz / doreski / frielich / knott / sears / &c.

Poems $3.00. wcpr. 1127 codel way, reno, nevada 89503. an anthology showing off the work of 3 (unconnected) poets: gera1d costanzo / gordon massman / & bruce mcallister.

Poetry Newsletter (24) richard o'connell. dept of english. temple univ., philadelphia, pa.22 mimeo sheets stapled on one corner. this issue runs the editors long poem "world-mesh 1950 AD" together with an index to previous issues of the magazine. a bound edition of the last 12 issues of the magazine are offered at $3.00 (which is very cheap indeed).

Poetry Out Loud (7) $3.00. 39 ridgetop drive, st louis, missouri 63117. the only magazine i know of that takes the form of a 12 inch long playing record. it would appear to be a superb venture. it isnt. the magazine / record is based around the work of 4 people, the harlemans, tony cowran & klyd watkins who perform poetry & noises around missouri. their performances are terrible, the poetry has no guts, no form, the reading is hysterical, inaudible, badly recorded,  and they only seem to have 3 ideas: echo, shuffle noises and screaming. its really a total waste of time and money. all this lp is devoted to the horrible work of the editors with the exception of two fine tracks by bernard heidsieck, and i mean fine. yet these two tracks are very carefully placed so the listener has to wade thru the muck before getting to them. poetry out loud shut up.

Post Office by charles bukowski. black sparrow press, los angeles. uk distribution @ around £2.00 by books, 84 woodhouse lane, leeds. black sparrow, one of the usa's leading smaller presses has done it again with this very tasteful edition of buk's novel about the troubles and times of a man employed in the speeding of the mails. its typical buk, rough shoed, drunk, spitting and alive. its funny and its sad. its the kind of novel that ought to be in cheap paper-back, it would sell in its thousands. this, however, is not the way bukowski wants it.

A Problem of High Water by greg kuzma. $2.00. wcpr. 1127 codel way, reno, nevada 89503. open air poems, streams, rivers, hills and the rest.

Pot Hooks & Hangers (1) $1.25 j.richard patton & joshua brand. box 718, old chelsea station, nyc 10011. a lot of thought has gone into the design & content of the new mag and it works very well on both scores... its a joy to hold something well made that has a content to match. rosenbaum / berry wallenstein / linda stern / hugh seidman / carolyn kraemer / & others.

The Projector by m. vaughn-james. coach house press. 401 (rear) huron st, toronto 181, at first glance this very large, heavy bound book appears to be some kind of delux underbround comic. and on one level it is just that. vaughn-james has spent two years brilliantly drawing what he calls a "visual-novel", an extended form of comic strip with the squares much enlarged and carrying much greater detail. the story here is surrealistic to the end, so strange that it becomes both compelling and unsettling. a book that anyone interested in the new directions of what was once called literature should get hold of. and the jacket note tells us that vaughn-james is now working on another - an event not to be missed.

Proteus (vol 1 no 2) $1.00. cathy gatling. 225 e. mason eve, alexandria, virginia 22301. a small and neatly printed poetry / fiction / photographs mag so typical of america, although this one has a definite "english" feel about its old fashioned design (or lack of design). featured poet w.a.gardiner plus robert lax / zelenka / puckett / gary stein / sasiene / mailo / &c.
no 3 a much better issue: lax / jim evrhard / john pauker / zelenka / mckinney / etc.

Puerto Del Sol (Vol 12 no 2) $1.00. new mexico state univ, box 3E, las cruces, new mexico, 88003. the magazine of the university creative writing centre. a high quality, solid design, typical us university magazine. its content is not so typical - its mainly good. the graphics are very exciting with a lot of care taken, the fiction readable and the poetry often working: natachu / lopez / hadley / crews / brower / noyes / momaday & more.

Rat Jelly by michael ondaatje. coach house press. 401 (rear) huron st, toronto 181, typical fine crafted production for this, ondaatje's 4th book of poems, its good, solid readable stuff, not falling into the mainstream american style either. and i'll agree with the blurb where it says "poems so delicately fashioned that their power source is almost invisible."

Ring Piece by Geoff Hendricks. $1.95. something else press. box 26, west glover, vt 05875. a small pocket book from the leading publisher of the avant garde. it details the 12 hours the author spent in silence while sitting on a pile of earth and other artifacts during the 8th annual new york avante garde festival. it sounds boring describing it like that, but it isnt.

Signs of Life by tamio wakayama. coach house press. 401 (rear) huron st, toronto 181. a collection of photographs, hard bound, by a japanese living in canada. the range is broad but all linking in with the title, from a tour of the southern american states to photos of rocks & old statues. the man works his camera well. good jacket design using trick photography.

Small Press Review $1.00. len fulton. dustbooks. 5218 scottswood rd, paradise. ca 95969. the spin off magazine from the publishers of the "directory of little magazines" & "small press record" continues. somehow it has lost much of the bite & interest it had in its earlier issues. it comes out frequently and perhaps this has got something to do with it. its original intention was to be a "trade" mag to small publishers, surveying the scene, reviewing a bit of it, featuring countries and areas, handing out small press hints. it still does this to a certain extent but seems to concentrate more and more of its space to direct and lengthy reviews of single books. preaching to the converted perhaps? i dont know. there is still much of interest in any event, and hopefully libraries subscribe and the librarians read the mag.
vol 4 no 2 kostelanetz on assembling / montreal writers co-op / misc reviews.
vol 4 no 3 all canada issue, with features and reviews of small presses & little magazines.
vol 5 no 1 back on form with a bang, a powerful and interesting general issue here: blazek reviews at length / fanzines / harry smith tribute / film mags / comix / & much more.
vol 5 no2 cosmep conference report / elizabeth press books / numerous detailed reviews / etc.

small press review (16) on charles bukowski. $1. len fulton, dustbooks, 5218 scottswood rd, paradise, ca 95969. the man in the gap, 53-yr-old stormy grizzlybear bukowski, gets the full treatment in this issue, guest-edited by tony quagliano. often referred to as the most prolific break-out, follow-on poet from the beats with his arm-waving, fist-crunching, drunken, panting, yelling, rip-roaring, gut-smashing, life-banging attack. the one true authentic super-meatbard of los angeles & the whole of the crummy urban garbage experience, anywhere. here, in a valuable brilliant package, we have pieces on bukowski by fulton, norse (who was with him in penguin mod poets), packard; parody by pollak, who harbours severe reservations about him; checklist by dorbin; & some pretty frank blunt stuff from bukowski's girlfriend, linda king, which sticks out like a fully-erected tool - hot intimate report on a knockdown-dragout affair. bukowski himself occupies a long shattering centrepiece, a bit heavily hemingwayed but still drilling away at all the unbearable dogturds, henshit, birdcrap & assorted horsemanure, the mountains of corrupting dung deep-frozen by the clinical icemen & grey-flannel finks. the fetters snapped for bukowski long ago, & he must now bestride his narrow underworld like a west coast colossus. i suspect that he gave two fingers to gentility when he was still in his cradle. is he past it? who cares? least of all bukowski, probably. give him his beer & a bet on the ponies, a buxom bird, a sheet of paper & pencil, & the man needs nothing more. unless he's acquired a taste for local fame & autographs, which is doubtful, according to his own testimony. anyway, this issue of spr is great stuff - open, honest, intelligent, sensitive, gutsy, perceptive, shocking, stunning, ass-kicking, or any bilge-words of lit. crit. you can dig up. needless to say, i liked it, muchly - like a long beer on a stuffy night. stay with it, bukowski. jt.

Smalltalk by irving molbach. $1.00. bandage publications. 1411 divisadero 2, san francisco, ca 94115. quirky phrases, lopsided print, the odd drawing. goes nowhere yet appears to.

The Smith (special issue 17) $1.00. harry smith. 5 beekman st, nyc 10038. i like the crazy variety of harry smith's products as well as their layout and typography which is certainly on the unusual side. the content never lets you down. this one is a general poetry mag including harold witt / kutzin / dozier / edelman / peters / etc. one thing american small mags can do that their uk equivalents cant is to keep on coming up, issue after issue, with a whole roster of new names.

Some (4) $1.00. alan zeigler. 311 west 91 st, new york 10024. high standard poetry mag now following the new tradition of printing a booklet of poems in its centre. this issue has bill knott as the pamphlet man plus james tate / bly / major / simic / planz / &c.

Something Else Yearbook 1974 ed: jan herman. $3.95. something else press, vermont. uk dist by mcbride & broadley, wood cottage, nash rd, bletchley, bucks. this 235 page paperback comes like a well bred yet very avant garde magazine. its a collection of a multitude of new works and new ideas by many people connected with the press. often an idea isnt large enough to have a book built around it, a piece of work doesnt quite fit into an anthology. this is what the year book is for. i found it stimulating. works are offset from the original mss. schwitters / ishii / marcus / niikuni / vostell / hausemann / heidsieck / higgins / bukowski / coolidge / & many others.

Splendor and Death of Joaquin Murieta by pablo neruda. $2.45. neruda set his poetic drama of racial prejudice in california in the days of the gold rush, using the chilean bandit murieta as an embodiment of the courage & sufferings of all latin americans in the us. neruda described

Riverside Quarterly (vol 5 no 4) 60c. leland sapiro. box 40, univ station, regina, canada. this long lived & fine quality cross between a fanzine & a literary mag devoted to science fiction comes out again with another well structured issue. features on j.g.ballard's "the crystal world", kurt vonnegut's "cats cradel", reviews, letters, a vast miscellany of notes & news, poems from robert plank offutt, & others, a neat word collage by the editor plus the (now) traditional supplement "the sasquatck saskatchewanian", the magazine for those hunting large polar apes. all in all a good bunch of stuff for 60c.
vol 6 no 1 editor's guide to better english / mullen on rice burroughs & rider haggard / & more

Salt Lick (vol 2 no1 & 2) james haining. box 1064, quincy, ill 62301. when it comes to publishing a magazine as an object in itself in addition to high grade content then this issue of salt lick is the best since crab grass. the whole concept and energy is admirable, many a uk small mag could look long in this direction. the magazine begins with a large silkscreened multi colour envelope, this contains what appears to a regular magazine plus other objects. the "regular mag" is regular only so far, within its centre is a well produced pull-out poem chapbook of high quality "boccherini's minuet" by gerald burns, elsewhere there are poems, articles, neo-articles, jokes, collages & poems again - james haining, ann darr, ron silliman, bruce andrews, and more - exciting stuff non stop. with the part of the magazine that looks like a magazine comes: a red broadside, handwritten poem and eco-cycle drawing, a genuine microbook - all its pages as big as a letter in 8 point type, plus an art supplement in the form of a project: a giant painting was cut into squares, an original square is included, plus a scale reproduction of the original in black and white (cross numbered so each original square can be placed) plus a colour slide of the original plus the story of the project and its problems. salt lick should certainly have the second aeon award for most original and exciting magazine of the year.

Selected Poems by raymond souster. oberson press, canada. uk distribution @ £1.00 by dobson books, 80 kensington church street, london w8. a very well designed book tracing sousters poetic works from the forties thru 120 pages to today. michael macklem's detailed, fine introduction titles souster as a square, but more than that. its about right. the poems are steady, yet not bogged by tradition. easy sometimes, too easy perhaps. city poems, a town scape narrative, women, travels, politics, its all here, the full span of a man's life.

self-interviews by james dickey. $2.25. delta books, 750 third ave, new york 10017. through a series of informal tape interviews, dickey, winner of usa national book award & author of best-seller "deliverance" which was made into a shrieking movie, expresses his thoughts in a way far more revealing than in a conventional gas. nearly half of them are devoted to his lit. career & observations, describing a young poet's slow self-discovery, his meteoric rise to success, & the rest on his work, craft of verse, candid portrait of himself. he's one of the foremost americans of our time. jt.

Serendipity of 1790 shattuck ave, berkeley, ca 94709 issue two new catalogues "distribution" being their check list of books & magazines resold on a regular basis plus "catalogue 31" being their list on op items, collectors signed editions and the like. if you cant get it in compendium bookshop then serendipity is a place to try.

Shantih irving gottesman & john friedman. box 125, bay ridge station, brooklyn, ny 11220. "a quarterly of international writings', from all over, gut stuff, delicate stuff and almost no rubbish at all. a very varied magazine dealing with the whole of literature plus its offshoots format is somewhat like Oz magazine, a different "feel" from most mags.
vol 1 no 4 / vol 2 no 1 $1.50. chinese symbolist poets / dick higgins word collage / padgett / an in-depth interview with film maker emile de antonio / kupferberg / anais nin interview / don mclean (the singer)  poems / tony williams discography / reviews / cartoons / &c. much goodly reading matter.
vol 2 no 2 ferlinghetti / lettrist theaturgy by gloria orenstein / a feature on five new cuban poets / robbe-grillet interview / modern hindi literature / theatre and revolution / poet & novelist solyurick interview / brownstein /ornette coleman discography / & much much more
vol 2 no 4 $1.25. large modern dutch literature section introduced by e.m.beekman with peter nijmeijer doing much of the translation work - quite an array of dutch talent too from a poet like gerrit kouwenaar to gust gils fiction pieces, superb issue all through.

The Shipwright's Log by robert bringhurst. $2.00. kanchenjunga press. route 3, spencer, indiana 47460. more classics, steady arm, crisp vision, clear production, illustrated.

Shore Review (11) $1.50. kenn kwint. 2931 So 57th st, milwaukee, wis 53219. a well blended little, of poems, article & review: ackerson / kostelanetz / lifshin / levertov / james tate / & others. the work as not only a tragedy but "also intended as a melodrama, opera. pantomime - directors can invent situations & props to their own liking." but the translator here has rewritten the speeches of the gringo villains - a mindless, brutal mob - into mod. hollywood westernese, thus making them all sound like outlaws in a bad tv b-movie on Sunday afternoon. despite this flagrant tampering, the play is still powerful, retaining formidable images & originality. jt.

Standing Back by robert hogg. coach house press. 401 (rear) huron street, toronto 181.typical coach house delux production, and how. poems are very open ended and not obscure all that often. hogg studied with olson at buffalo and has taken certain stylistic devises from that quarter.

Star West (vol 1 no 6) life subscription: 10 irc coupons. leon spiro. box 731, sausalito, ca 94965. offshoot (and sometimes replacement for) the sb gazette, and much the same format. a multilingual poetry newspaper, multi type face with prints of foreign stamps, small drawings and misc spiro craziness. spike milligan / spiro / pierre esperbe / liliane hammar / & others.

Stations (1) $1.50. karl young. membrane press. box 5431, shorewood, milwaukee, wis 53211. a different style of mag this, a small group of poets all well shown and each allowed to write at length about his writing, his problems. worthwhile and workable. david kherdian / peter anastas / martin rosenblum / joshua kesselman / hilary ayer / karl young himself.

Swallow Tails Gather These Stones by kerry shawn keys. $2.00. Kanchenjunga press. 22 rio vista lane, red bluff, ca 96080. mid-stream america with touches of the absurd.

Symphony by anthony j. gnazzo is a series of sheets containing notations in letter & word form for various musical and tape pieces interesting but not too original, but then again i have only read and not heard. available from 3005 dana st, berkeley, ca 94705.

Thoreau on the art of writing by franklin w. hamilton. $2.00. walden press. 423 south franklin ave, flint, michigan 48503. critical pamphlet.

TITmOUse (3) $1.00. 3152 west 7th ave, vancouver 8, bc. this neat pocket size mag must now be the world's leading neo-dada venture in the poetry field, dada is messy normally. this mag isnt. there is a truth here somewhere. i enjoyed the whole thing, quiz styled intro, visuals, comments, opal nations / codrescu / nolan / fix / tyhurst / mcnamara / mechem / colonel smith / &c.

TNMV of 616 south 6th st, phila, pa 19147 are putting out a kind of dada junk mail that appears to advertize but in fact doesnt. back to that book with blank pages and the superb gesture of a newspaper that went ahead and reviewed it.

to leave / this place by tom montag. $1.00. monday morning press 2629 n. bremen, milwaukee, wi 53212. a well flowing poem abt the place the poet lives in v the place he was born.

The Trashing of America by charles plymell. $1.50. tuvoti books box 439, california, penn 15419. collages, poems & prose. old beat with a new voice. trashing is the operative word. its a killer of a book.

Truck (2) $1.50. david wilk. box 10, enosburg falls, vt 05450, a goodly new mag, well bound and unusually high standard of content. mine had a few maps, pages of drawings of twigs amongst other things plus fine lashings of poetry for adults and fiction for those that can read. its a welcome change to lay hand on a mag like this: paul khan / chuck stein / richard grossinger / nathaniel tarn / lindy hough / bruce mcclelland / & more.

Tuatara (10) $1.00. mike doyle. 758 helvetia cres, victoria, bc. more readable than most, accent on translations this time: beltrametti / bonnefoy / rene char / tim longville / robert fox / ds long / holderlin / liddy / cox / niccolai / spatola / mambrino / john riley / & more.

Twelve Poems by tom montag. 30c. monday morning press. 2629 n.bremen, milwaukee, wi 53212. fold out broadside of shorter poems, nature orientated, & crisp.

23 Modern British Poets edited by john matthias. the swallow press. 1139 s. wabash ave, chicago, il 60605. with the intention of showing american poetry readers that british poetry has guts, experiment, form, vitality and is in fact a very much alive thing this 338 page anthology turns out to be one of the best sets of uk poetry i've ever seen together at the same time. matthias has selected from the newer poets and added a set of older poets who he feels have not yet had a fair crack of the whip. its a marvellous anthology, a large run of poetry from each poet and a beautifully catholic selection running the whole field of possibilities (ian hamilton finlay is represented by colour photographs of some of his sculptural poems for example). a detailed introduction by peter jay leads into david jones / hugh macdiarmid / basil bunting / ted hughes / harry guest / christopher middleton / charles tomlinson / turnbull / logue / roy fisher / bantock / raworth / harwood / d. m.thomas / macbeth / hollo / & others. for copyright reasons the anthology can not be on sale in the uk but this doesnt stop individuals from being able to buy copies direct. get to it.

Typewriter (4) $1.50. robert caldwell. po box 409, iowa city, Iowa 52240. best issue yet of this visual poetry mag. strong british flavour with a vast array of pull outs, fold-ins, colour work and a flimsy 6 1/2 minute stereo record, with amazingly good reproduction of bob cobbings "e colony" featuring peter finch on jews harp. david mayor / hugh fox / mike gibbs / cinicolo / riddell / peter mayor / adler / Lquibble / zimmerman / oshel / &c. first class issue, solid value.

Unmuzzled Ox (vol 2 no 1 & 2) michael andre. box 374, planetarium sta., new york 10024. in addition to presenting, in good form, a large selection of new american poets including enslin / kelly / brownstein / levy / eluard / snyder / major / ingatow / berge / micheline / & many others this issue devotes half of its numerous pages to gregory corso by way of interview, critical article, poem, photo, & a selection of corso's drawings.