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

I've been goin' nowhere fast
Runnin' out of time and gas-
                                       oline
Waiting for the light to turn green
I'll be damned if I'll grow old
Waitin' for these wheels to roll,
                                     not me

Gretchen Peters

I’d like to thank all of you readers of FIRE who’ve written with positive, or critical, responses to the last few issues - particularly the last one. If I haven’t managed to reply personally to all of you, I take this chance to express my appreciation. What is especially pleasing is that you all pick out different writers, or combinations of writers, for particular mention. One comment stood out though, as it summarised in a few words everything I believe in about poetry, and why I continue to run FIRE, so I’ll print it here, (anonymously) - the first magazine I’ve read for a long time where I felt that the poets represented were actually saying something, instead of saying nothing elaborately. Another respondent thought he’d discovered the theme of no.8 - grief & death! In that case the theme of this issue, as far as there is one, should cheer you all up travel, foreign & distant places, the strange & unusual world we live in & how we respond to it.

This issue also sees my first venture into publishing writing by children, a feature of FIRE which I hope to expand. Shona Marshall and Katherine Davidson are both aged 12 (Katherine’s poem written when she was 11). In Issue no.11 there will be a number of poems by 16-18 year olds, and each issue after that I intend to publish writing by children and teenagers, if I get work sent me that is good enough, so please encourage any young poets you know to give FIRE a try.

Finally, if any of you readers can help me locate the much-neglected and undervalued north of England poet WILLIAM CORNER CLARKE, I’d be very grateful. He lived in Keswick & Lancaster in the 1980s, and originally came from the north-east I believe. I’ve been unable to establish his whereabouts in the 1990s, nor have I seen any recent work of his published. He really is too good a poet to disappear without trace, and I intend to publish some of his work in either no.10 or no.11. I have some wonderful poems of his from the early 1980s published in a Cumbria-based mag called RAVEN, but I’d prefer to publish a wider spread of his work, and if he reads this, or if anybody can give me his address, I hope he’ll agree to this idea.

Errata from no.8 - p.67 para.3, first word should, of course, read fragmentation. Two writers had their names misspelt in places - RAFAEL DRINOT SILVA and EAMER O’KEEFFE are the correct spellings.

Acknowledgements - Andrew Parker’s poem KEENE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, has appeared in Penniless Press.

Cora Greenhill’s UNDER MT SHASTA was published in Poems:18 (A collection of prize-winning verse from the Lancaster Literature Festival 1995).

The first of Brad Evans’ 2 poems has been published in Konfluence.

Katherine Davidson’s poem CREATION was published by the Scripture Union in a collection of prizewinning children’s poems.

John Sugden’s SAMBRE-OISE CANAL, 1918, was published in the anthology of the E.Yorkshire Libraries Competition 1998.

Books recently published to note:-

CARL RAKOSI - THE OLD POET’S TALE – etruscan books 24a Fore St Buckfastleigh Devon TQ11 0AA

NORMAN JOPE - TERRA FABULOSA - £5.00 Phlebas Press 2 The Stables Oxenholme Cumbria LA9 7RE

ANNE BORN - PLANTING LIGHT - £6.95 Headland Publications 38 York Avenue West Kirby Wirral Merseyside L48 3JF

JOHN MANSELL - KAKEMONOS - £3.50 from John Mansell 42 Trowbridge Rd Haughton Green Denton Manchester M34 7HZ (don’t be put off that this is self-published. Poet with a vivid imagination, worth getting hold of. Was in FIRE no.6)

ELIZABETH BLETSOE - PHARMACOPOEIA - £2.95 Odyssey poets + Terrible Workpress Coleridge Cottage Nether Stowey Somerset (botanical poems & the first from this poet since 1994) Also from Odyssey, VERSIONS by HARRY GUEST (translations from many European poets) £4.95 From Redbeck Press 24 Aireville Road Frizinghall Bradford BD9 4HH

ALAN DENT - CORKER - £7.95

CHRISTOPHER PILLING - IN THE PINK - £6.95

JIM BURNS - AS GOOD A REASON AS ANY - £6.95

KEVIN BORMAN - INSIDE THE NEW MAP - £6.95 From Maquette Press 3 South Street Sheepwash Beaworthy Devon EX21 5LZ

HENRY SHUKMAN - LEAVING EL DORADO - £3.00

PETER HUGHES - KEITH TIPPETT PLAYS TONIGHT - £2-50

ANDY BROWN - DEVON APPLES - £1.50

Magazines - Brobdingnagian Times No.12 Gerald Locklin W.S.Mayo (both USA) Yannis Varvéris (Greece) and others 50p from 96 Albert Road Cork Ireland

The Coffee House no.1 inc. John Lucas Mary Mestecky Emma Hooper Mahendra Solanki Deborah Tyler-Bennett Martin Booth Anthony Piccione (USA) £2.50 (£4.50 2 issue subs) from Deborah Tyler-Bennett c/o Charnwood Arts Fearon Hall Loughborough Leicestershire LEll lPL

OASIS no.97 inc. Nathaniel Tarn Toby Olson (both USA) Jennifer Compton (Australia) Charles Hadfield Alistair Noon £1.50 (£5.00 6-issue subs) 12 Stevenage Road London SW6 6ES

OBSESSED WITH PIPEWORK no.8 inc. Mike Barlow Miranda Tite (wonderful poem!) Michael Henry Joanna Watson Graham High Emma-Jane Arkady £3.50 (£12.00 4-issue subs) Flarestack Publishing Redditch Library 15 Market Place Redditch Worcestershire B98 8AR

PENNINE INK no.20 inc. Don Anunons JPV Stewart Hilary Tinsley Giovanni Malito Laura Sheridan Helen Clare Christopher Barnes £3.00 from MidPennine Arts Yorke St Burnley Lancs BB11 1HD

POETRY QUARTERLY REVIEW no.12 reviews and listings plus featured poet Barry MacSweeney £1.75 (£6.00 4-issue subs) from Odyssey Press Coleridge Cott. Nether Stowey Somerset TA5 1NQ

POETRY SCOTLAND no.8 inc. Michael Hamburger Martin Bates Morelle Smith Giovanni Malito Colin Donati Irene Evans Elizabeth Burns Paula Jennings RL Cook £1.00 from 3 Spittal Street Edinburgh EH3 9DY

RUSTIC RUB no.10 - the last issue and the best yet inc. Ken Edwards Penelope Shuttle Charles Hadfield Yann Lovelock Kim Taplin Christopher Allan Richard Edgley Steve Urwin Albert Huffstickler Howard Wright Mark Goodwin Venie Holmgren Kenneth C Steven Patrick Gasperini Jenny Adamthwaite and Albainian poets in translation - £4.00 from Jay Woodman 7 Copse End Fleet Hampshire GU13 8EQ

SCINTILLA no.3 features many essays (inc. one on the rediscovery of the works of Thomas Traherne) & strong poetry by Seamus Heaney, editor Anne Cluysenaar, Kim Taplin, a wonderful long poem by Janet Dubé, & versions from Chinese & Japanese poetry by Graham Hartill, Hilary Llewellyn-Williams & Marianne Jones. £7.50 from Anne Cluysennar, Little Wentwood Farm, Llantrisant, Usk, Gwent NP5 1ND.

SWANSEA REVIEW no.18 much good poetry and several interesting essays inc. interpretations of Robert Lowell & Peter Redgrove and John Greening on The Mystic Path of Modern English Poetry - £3.00, Glyn Pursglove, Dept. of English, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP.