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

I’m pleased to be associated with this issue of Dream Catcher magazine, especially as it promises to be something of a landmark in the series. This issue features the work of poets who have already established a reputation with pamphlets or book publications. While Dream Catcher will continue, in subsequent issues, to pursue its policy of introducing new poets, the writers included here all benefit from having their work represented in selection. With so many good things to recommend it to the reader of contemporary poetry, it’s difficult to isolate the highlights.

For me, though, the first in-depth interview with Seán Body is of particular interest. Over the last ten years Body has steadily enhanced his reputation as a poet who is as meticulous as he is uncompromising. The publication of his sequence, ‘Witness’, alongside the interview allows the reader to have access to the work discussed. A very different writer - the West Coast poet Fred Voss - has established a reputation for himself on both sides of the Atlantic and Dream Catcher is delighted to publish him here for the first time.

Nearer to home, both Milner Place and T F Griffin continue to produce work that is challenging and highly-charged. Place appears to be on the brink of changing direction once again, tackling the big issues of death and personal identity in a style that makes them accessible, even entertaining. Griffin is represented here by two recent elegies which do what all good elegies should do: take off from the subject in hand to encompass wider issues. Both Peter Lewin and William Park benefit from having a few poems printed together. Lewin has an engaging interest in narrative and anecdote while Park sustains an enigmatic quality, investing his work with mystery and psychological depth.

I also want to acknowledge Joolz Denby and Graham Mort who are published in Dream Catcher for first time. Both authors are nationally renown for their skill in the performance and in the writing of poetry.