Magazine Moment (28): Shabdaguchha, Reach Poetry and Orizont Literar Contemporan

Shabdaguchha is under the editorship of Bangladesh-born, New York-based poet, novelist, critic and translator, Hassanal Abdullah. You can reads a feature about him here. 

Issue 53/54 includes a section prepared by Peter Thabit Jones (editor of The Seventh Quarry magazine) and dedicated to the work in English of 'Welsh Poets'. It is always a pleasure (though a rare one) to find that David (Gill) and I have poetry in the same volume! Our first joint appearance in the poetry press was, I believe, in the Pairs Issue of Purple Patch, edited by Geoff Stevens, whose recent death (see below) brought shockwaves of sadness to the poetry fraternity. Our paired poems on that occasion were - not surprisingly - on the archaeology and topography of Greece. Our Shabdaguchha pieces have been published alongside poems by Peter Thabit Jones, Aeronwy Thomas (d.2009), Jean Salkilld (leader of Swansea's Tuesday Poetry group) and Lynn Hopkins.

In addition to the Welsh poetry, the current magazine includes sections in Bengali and English. A poem called 'No Cats on the Yangtze' by Stanley H. Barkan, editor of Cross-Cultural Communications in New York, particularly caught my eye. My thanks to Hassanal Abdullah - and many congratulations on the 14th anniversary of the magazine. 

Details of how to purchase a hard copy of the magazine can be found by clicking here. Issue 53/54 Vol. 14, no.1-2, July-Dec 2011 of Shabdaguchha contains the following poems by the Gills ...

Caroline

• Elegy for Idris Davies
• Preseli Blue
• Swansong

David

• Standing Alone
• From Syracuse to Manhattan
• Gloucestershire in the Negev

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REACH POETRY, INDIGO DREAMS PUBLISHING, UK

I was delighted to receive my copy of the March edition of Reach Poetry (162) yesterday. The beautiful cover shows a pony (perhaps a grey mare?) at sunset. Editor, Ronnie Goodyer, has included a fitting tribute to small press poet-publisher extraordinaire, Geoff Stevens. Geoff will be much missed.

My poem, 'Harmony in Fragmentation', inspired by Seurat's Pointillist work, 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte', took Second Place in the readers' votes for February, so thank you to all who voted.  

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ORIZONT LITERAR CONTEMPORAN, BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

And finally, I have just noticed that the new edition of the Romanian literary magazine, Orizont Literar Contemporan, will be coming out soon, thanks to editor-in-chief, Daniel Dragomirescu from Bucharest. You might just recognise a certain person on the cover . . .