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

It could be a poisoned chalice reviewing poetry magazines for another poetry magazine. There could also be something vaguely incestuous about it. But they are the life-blood of the practising poet, the poet not sponsored by the larger publishing houses, how else can their word be spread? Magazines also suffer from hype: would that the advert that advocates ‘it does exactly what it says on the tin’ could be extended to the blurb that is written on poetry magazines and books–and what does the word ‘new’ mean when applied to either poetry or writing?

Lamport Court Issue 2

New Writing. Poetry-Prose-Art. It costs £3.00 (£4.00 inc p&p) cheque payable to Adrian Slatcher, Flat 60 or 63 Lamport Court, Manchester M1 7EG (£10.00 for a three-issue subscription). And what do you get for your money? You get 17 poems some short, some long; two pieces of prose, i.e., one short story and one first chapter of a novel and five pieces of art (that is, black and white photocopies of the original art work).

The editorial is one paragraph long and each issue will have a different editor. I’m not normally aggressive when I read poetry magazines so I can only assume that my copy had a faulty staple that caused it to fall apart.

The poetry ranged from interesting and good, to not very interesting and needing to be worked on. The short story worked well and was a good read, but the first chapter of the novel in progress did not make me want to read the rest. For the most part I found that the art work, didn’t. I put this down to the reproduction used in the  magazine and not the art itself. Overall the ‘New Writing’ appears to relate to recently completed work as opposed to experimental work. A real bonus for me was the 184-line ranting poem by Tim Jones ‘He is the New Improved Me!’ Any magazine that can include long poems like this is well worth the subscription fee.

The Frogmore Papers Number 63

£3.50 an issue but subscriptions are £7.00 for a year (March and September) or £12.00 for a two-year subscription. An excellent cover illustrated by Dee Rimbaud advertised 41 contributors. There were 46 poems, a prose poem, two short stories, two cartoons and nine reviews. My copy is dog-eared and this is not a reflection of the quality of materials used in this magazine but more an indication of the quality of its content. I’m still rereading some of the poems. Sure, there are some I don’t connect with, but this does not make them bad poems. I really enjoyed Paul Groves’ ‘Dutch Senior Citizen  Porno’; Rachel Playforth’s take on William Carlos Williams ‘This is Just to Say’ and Geoff Stevens’s disturbing ‘Looking for Infection’. I did not find either of the short stories were a compelling read but would argue the case for including short stories in small magazines to help keep the art alive and kicking. The two cartoons were excellent black and white line drawings that were both thoughtful and humorous. I also thoroughly enjoyed the reviews, which exhibited an economy of style whilst still getting the message across about those poets and poetry collections we do not usually read about. If you want quality work then this magazine delivers.

Weyfarers 95

£2.50 a single copy. Annual subscription £6.00 ( three editions per year). 45 poems by 35 poets and 14 reviews. This magazine packs them in, sometimes a little too closely but then, the content is good and it’s cover to cover poetry (even the reviews at the end are concerned with poetry and they are informative and positive, covering a wide spectrum of the poetry world from magazines through home-grown small presses to new talents from around the world). I was taken with the opening poem by Dylan Pugh ‘Mother’s Heartbeat’ –the title could be worked on but the poem itself was well crafted, exhibiting good control over language. Denise Bennett’s ‘Hands On’ was a new take on sculptures, and the last poem in the book by K.V. Skene ‘Nothing Matters but the Laughter’ also hit the spot for me.

Acumen 49
£4.50 single copy post free.Year’s subscription (3 issues) £12.50. 52 poems by 47 poets, six prose pieces, 12 reviews, letters, editorial and poetry comment. Even when you have 120 pages some poems have to be continued over the turned page, more an observation than a criticism. All the poetry is well crafted, I personally enjoyed Moira Clark’s ‘Clandestine’ and Roy Davids’ ‘Fish’ with the standout poem ‘Genesis 19’ by Joan Sheridan Smith. I was spookily in tune with Ian Caws’s Reader’s Corner 2, and Danny Abse’s contribution was whimsical, but I couldn’t help feeling the rest of the prose pieces could have been replaced by more poems or short stories.

The reviews covered 26 pages–five pages for Lowell’s latest and 3 pages for W S Graham with the remaining 10 ‘living’ writers reviewed sharing 18 pages. This might be considered strange given that the magazine states it is interested in new, fresh talent. The editorial gave further insight into the way the editor thought about poetry, which is invaluable for new submissions, but the poetry comment turned out to be more reviews - and I thought: why not keep the reviews together and use the comment to say something different?

Acumen is good value but I’m not certain it does exactly what it says on its cover.