Magazine Moment ~ Reach Poetry at 15 Years Old (and issue 180)

I have got a bit behind on this site, so in the hope that I will eventually catch up with myself by filling in the gaps, here is a new post.

I have been a subscriber to Reach Poetry since the days when Shelagh Nugent was editor and the poetry publication was known simply as Reach. This eclectic and well-loved poetry magazine has been under the aegis of Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling of Indigo Dreams Publishing for some years now. It has just celebrated its 15th birthday with its 180th issue, which sports a magnificent avian creature from the editors' new homeland of Devon, as you will discover if you take out a subscription for yourself.

So what is *so* special about this poetry magazine? 

I will list my Top Ten answers - in no particular order.

Reach Poetry ...

• is more like an ever-expanding writers' circle. Well-known names in the poetry world sit comfortably alongside those of newcomers.
• is a monthly poetry magazine, one of the few in the UK.
• is eclectic in style and tone. You will find a healthy mixture of e.g. formal Shakespearean Sonnets and free verse poems. You will encounter poems for every mood: there are fine contributions that are elegiac in tone and there are humorous poems to make you smile.
• is eclectic in its subject matter. The current issue contains poems concerning a samovar, a long shadow and a ride on a feather, to name but three examples. I never cease to be excited and/or moved by the editorial choice, which often results in serendipitous connections for the reader. 
• has a monthly pair of book-end poems, one by Ronnie and one by Dawn. Judging by the reader comments, we all look forward to enjoying these. 
• is a magazine that takes feedback seriously. Each month the readers are invited to offer comments and to cast votes for their favourite pieces. There is a £50 prize (which can be shared), and the top four poems are elevated to 'The Box' which appears in the following issue.
• is a magazine with a perfect blend of the 'professional' and the 'personal'. 
• is a publication with stunning photographic covers, designed by Ronnie. 
• is perfect bound and feels good to handle.

• Oh, and I mustn't forget to mention (as if I would) that each month brings the new challenge of spotting a photo of Soxx, the resident Border Collie, who will doubtless be hiding somewhere on the cover. 

I hope that you will be able to enjoy the latest cover photo for yourself. I will end this post with a couple of pictures of my own - no prizes for guessing what my poem in #180 is about ... and, incidentally, I read this poem out at our monthly Poetry Cafe at Arlington's last night.

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

* * *

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.  

* * *

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 . . .

Magazine Moment (27): Australia

Dartmoor Pony

We have been so busy moving house (an ongoing process) that my writing time has temporarily diminished. However, I received a package today from NSW, Australia, containing FreeXpresSion for September 2011, Vol. XVII - Issue No.9, ed. Peter F. Pike. The magazine incorporates the International Poetry Xpressions column prepared by Catherine Lee Clarke. This issue contains six of my poems ...

• Elegy for Idris Davies [55/2001]  
• Monte Testaccio: Mound of Potsherds [ 53/2003] 
• Weddell Seal at the Ice Edge  [29/2010]
• Isabella Tiger Moth greets the Woolly Bear Caterpillar [42/2009] 
• Dartmoor: the Call of the Wild [10/2000] 
• Velvet Shadows in Venice: 'The Stonemason's Yard' [1727-8] by Canaletto [2/2004]

I have now had poems published in UK, Romania, USA, India and Australia.

Magazine Moment (26): Dolphins in Danger

In contrast to Bottlenose Dolphins in some other places, these are free to enjoy life off the Scottish coast, 2011

My poem about the plight of some Bottlenose Dolphins has just been published in issue 156 of Reach Poetry (ed. Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling, Indigo Dreams Publishing Ltd).

You can find more here about dolphins in peril.

You can see more 'happy' dolphins here. 

I apologise for the recent intermittent nature of my posts. We are in the (slow but busy) process of moving house ...

Magazine Moment (26): Reach Poetry Surprise

West Country Light

I was delighted today to learn that my Glosa, 'A Softer Beauty', had taken First Prize in the Reach Poetry readers' votes for issue 154. Thank you very much, Ronnie and Dawn, for the cheque!

My poem builds around a quatrain by the eccentric West Country cleric, the Reverend R.S. Hawker, Vicar of Morwenstow, who wrote from a cliff-side driftwood hut, now in the care of the National Trust.

It was also a surprise to find a mention of my 'Turkish Delight' Tercet Ghazal in the Purple Patch review section (issue no.129), so thank you Geoff.

Magazine Moment (25): The Ghazal Page

You will find my Tercet Ghazal on 'change' here on The Ghazal Page (editor Gino Peregrini). I hope you enjoy it!

Apologies for a long absence ... life seems to have been very busy recently!

Magazine Moment (22): The Dawntreader

Mount Grace, Yorkshire, daffodil season

We always enjoy a visit to Mount Grace when we are in the area. The Priory is fascinating in itself, but I am particularly drawn to the wildlife in this beautiful setting. We have just returned from another wonderful visit. I was even tempted to pull out my pocket watercolours ...

We found a frog in a Medieval water course at the back of one of the reconstructed cells. I kept a sharp eye out for wasps' nests, as I had seen one on a previous occasion. My waspish Sonnet, 'Matriarch at Mount Grace', has just been published in The Dawntreader (p.9, issue 14, Spring 2011, ed. Dawn Bauling, IDP).
 

Wasp nest, Mount Grace, April 2011

Magazine Moment (19) : Cultural Horizon Magazine, Romania

Congratulations to editor-in-chief, Daniel Dragomirescu, in Bucharest for bringing out the latest edition of 'Orizont Literar Comtemporan' / 'Contemporary Literary Horizon' so speedily after the recent 'Antologia'.

Atlas may struggle to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders (on the red and yellow card in front of the magazine), but the world of 'Orizont Literar Comtemporan' is a welcoming, buoyant and cosmopolitan cosmos of its own that propels its reader into new realms of art, literature and the vibrant exchange of ideas. The undergirding of Atlas, however, reminds us that there is a sense in which the reader finds him or herself peering forward towards ever widening horizons, 'standing on the shoulders' of those literary giants who have begun to pave the way.

The issue opens with USA writer, Peggy Landsman's witty piece, 'Daniel's Cosmic Suitcase', about the magazine's editor, who reaches for the stars. I have alluded to this in a previous post. Some features are more earth-bound, such as 'All Things Mothering' by Terra Trevor (USA), subtitled, 'Braiding Native American Heritage Month with Thanksgiving: A Native American Mother's Perspective'. This account begins with an evocative opening:

'Wind, smelling of woodsmoke, rattles the yellow leaves off the peach tree ...'

But all has not always been well in the garden, for Katerina Kostaki's poem (in Greek with English translation) is about 'The Apple of Discord'.  

The magazine features a substantial excerpt from Daniel Dragomirescu's novel, 'Cronica Teodoreştilor / Chronicle of a Lost World'. Thanks to the translation by Loredana Andreea Matei, a second year student on the MTTLC course at the University of Bucharest, I am able to enjoy the narrative, 'Chained by Law', about Stelian Teodoescu, 'a former inspector of the Cooperation Institute' who 

'headed backwards to the other side of the yard, 

where a barn was under construction, 

filled with memories...'

Carole St-Aubin takes us back (or moves us forward) to Christmas - in the kitchen 'where love is the ingredient in every feast'. Khem Guragain from Nepal adds an oriental flavour with his book review of an autobiographical novel, 'The English Teacher' by N.K. Narayan. The protagonist, apparently, experiences an understandable sense of bitterness when he finds that he is required to 'stuff the students' at Albert Mission College' with Shakespeare, Milton and Carlyle. (Aside: I would very much hope that Shakespeare and Milton would feature on the school syllabus in England today, but I would be pleasantly surprised to find a mention of Carlyle!). 

The thought-provoking poetry of Roxana Drăguşin has a wistful philosophical air about it in places. Roxana has provided her own translation in English, and I was particularly struck by this phrase from 'Călătorii' / 'Travellers':

'We pick up smiles, flowers, butterflies ...'

Wales is not forgotten! My interview with Gillian Drake explores the realm of writing for children and adults in terms of the joys and responsibilities of creating 'another world' or bringing to light 'another dimension of this one'. My sincere thanks to Gillian for being in the 'Dialoguri Galeze' spotlight on this occasion.

* * *

If you would like to take out a subscription to the magazine, you will find details below:

• MAGAZINE PRICE: 12 EUROS | 15 DOLLARS PER COPY (SHIPPING INCLUDED). PayPal: details to the right of the magazine page if you click here.
• Antologia Revistei Orizont Literar Contemporan (ed. Daniel Drogmirescu, Bucharest, Romania): PRICE PER COPY: 40 EUROS | 50 DOLLARS PER COPY Via PayPal: details to the right of the magazine page if you click here.   

Recent contributors:

• Kristina Kostaki's blog. Kristina, a contributor to the magazine, lives in Greece. She has written a post about the 'Orizont Literar Contemporan' anthology here. 
• M. Denise C's blog, here 
• French painter, Hélène Glehen 

Magazine Moment (19) : TIPS for Writers 81

'the nimble acrobat'

'How like the nimble acrobat he springs

from branch to branch ...'

from BLUE TIT by Bernard M. Jackson, p.25

~

MANY HAPPY RETURNS, TIPS FOR WRITERS MAGAZINE!

2011 marks the 10th anniversary of 'TIPS for Writers', the magazine of Norfolk Poets and Writers, edited by Wendy Webb. I would like to congratulate Wendy on the success of this unique publication. It has gone from strength to strength over the years, reaching out to many new writers with poetic aspirations. Its pages have been graced by the work of more established writers, too - Sophie Hannah and Alison Chisholm, to name but a couple. Bernard M. Jackson and Norman Bissett have been of great assistance: they are the authors of many of the reviews that have appeared in the magazine over the years.

Wendy's competitions have challenged us all. Her new poetry forms, such as the Davidian, the Echotain and the Andropian, have caused us to flex our poetic muscles on numerous occasions. TIPS poets have met with success in national and international competitions: Claire Knight, for example, won the Haiku section in the International Poetry Competition of the New Zealand Poetry Society in 2009. Her Haiku (俳句) have appeared on the prestigious Snapshot Press Haiku calendar.

Many pay to subscribe to Wendy's magazine, which comes out 6x a year and costs £3 an issue. Others prefer to receive the free electronic journal, eTIPS, in their inbox. TIPS, I believe, began as a kind of postal writing circle, appealing particularly to those who - for various reasons - did not find it easy to meet up with other poets. I, for one, have valued this particular ethos, and have made new 'writing friends' as a result. 

The latest edition has a crisp kingfisher-blue cover. It contains details of forthcoming competitions in celebration of the anniversary. The poems in this issue are very varied in style and theme. 'The Cell Phone' by Kay Weeks from Maryland is a Sestina. David Norris-Kay's contribution is a Tanka. The Terza Rima and Haiku put in an appearance alongside other crafted poems that have no formal name.

Not surprisingly for a number that comes out in January, several poems have winter themes. Anne Smith's 'Snow' evokes a compelling winter world in ten short lines. Wendy's sparrows 'twitter on bare twigs' ('Winter'), while Bernard's garden visitor 'sings on trembled stems' ('Blue Tit'). Blue is 'my' colour, so I was naturally drawn to 'Still Vibrating Blue' by Roger Elkin, in which he paints that distinctive Adriatic shade for us, in a disconcerting quivering tone, somewhere 'between aquamarine and turquoise'. The poems range in length from the Sestina down to Diana Mendel's three-word nutshell, '3 Rs' (which is part of a sequence).

Wendy's latest book in her 'Mermaid' series is reviewed by Bernard M. Jackson. Wendy interviews fellow editor, Ronnie Goodyer of Indigo Dreams, about his forthcoming anthology, 'Soul Feathers', in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. You can read more about this project here in a report in The Eastern Evening News.

Happy Birthday, TIPS for Writers - and here's to the next decade!

If you are interested in joining the TIPS community, you might like to find Wendy on Facebook. Do take a look at Wendy's sites:

• Norfolk Poets and Writers
• Poetry Forms ~ New for Old
• TIPS for Writers

Magazine Moment (10): Reach Poetry: Loch Coruisk

The brooding waters of Loch Coruisk

My poem, 'Turner's Loch Coruisk, Skye' has been published in Reach Poetry, issue 141, June 2010 (Indigo Dreams Publishing, editors Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling).

You may be amused to hear that Wendy Webb's poem about my last visit to Loch Coruisk appears in her volume, A Mermaid's Tale (Wendy Webb Books 2010). You can read more here on my Land&Lit blog.

Magazine Moment (10): Quill and Parchment (USA) - Featured Photographer

I am grateful to editor, Sharmagne Leland-St. John, for inviting me to join her as her fellow 'Featured Photographer' for the June issue of the subscription online magazine, Quill and Parchment.

If you would like to see my photographs of Wales in the magazine, you are invited to follow the link here, and type the following Guest Passwords into the box that will appear when you click on Sharmagne's cover photograph of Tynemouth Castle (a site I know well from my years in Newcastle):

NAME: june
PASSWORD: lake

I hope you enjoy the issue!

Magazine Moment (5): Wendy Webb's TIPS for Writers

Dylan's Writing Shed, Laugharne, Wales, UK

The Dylan Thomas Boat House, Laugharne

The estuary

Laugharne Castle

My copy of the winter edition of TIPS for Writers (ed. Wendy Webb) arrived last week. I am delighted to mention that the magazine has received an award for 'best UK poetry magazine' from the Writers' Grand Circle Awards 2009. Congratulations to Wendy!

The latest issue of TIPS (issue 73, Winter 2009) is dedicated to the memory of Dylan's daughter, the poet Aeronwy Thomas Ellis. The cover sports an image of Aeronwy's last book, 'Shadows and Shades: Selected Poems', which is available from Poetry Monthly Press (ed. Martin Holroyd).

TIPS 73 contains the text of an interview with Aeronwy, shortly before her death. The original TIPS TOP 20 questions were devised by Norman Bissett, and I adapted them for Aeronwy. You will not be surprised to learn that Aeronwy's 'Laugharne years' - 1946-1953 - are mentioned.

Congratulations not only to Wendy, but to Peter Davies, Norman Bissett and Bernard Jackson, who shared the readers' vote for their poems in TIPS 72. Many congratulations to James Knox Whittet for his clean sweep in the Pamphlet Competition.

It is good to have the chance to re-read Part I of 'Surface Trilogy', a Folding Mirror poem by the creator of the form, Dr Marc Latham. It is a very visual poem, packed with possums, blossoms, sharks, damselflies, coral and vipers!

I am particularly interested to find details of Wendy's new Brentor Sonnet form, with its split lines [6/7 and 13/14] 'for visual and sound effect'. Brentor, 'a hill transfigured in the mist' on the edge of Dartmoor has a chapel perched on the top of it, and was a favourite haunt of some of my Tavistock-based relations in the early 1900s.

Geoff Stevens (ed. of Purple Patch) is due to adjudicate the current Norfolk Poets and Writers' TIPS Pamphlet Competition. The closing date is 31 October 2009. The specified styles are (a) blank verse, (b) max. 2 verses of tetractys poems - and (c) simple rhyming quatrains. Further details of the competition and all TIPS activities and opportunities can be sought from Wendy via the email on her TIPS for Writers blog - here.

P.S. I have just been reading the Anniversary Issue of The Pages online magazine, which also mentions Wendy's competition and Marc's Folding Mirror Poetry. Do have a look at this enterprise from Wales: the link is here.

Magazine Moment (5): Cerise Press

I have been sent the url for a brand new online international literary review, based in the USA and France, Cerise Press. Do take a look.

The editors are Fiona Sze-Lorrain (Greta Aart) Sally Molini and Karen Rigby. The magazine is packed with literature and art. I particularly enjoyed the feature entitled 'A Life in Poetry: Ted Kooser' by Sally Molini and Ted Kooser.

The editors write,

'contributors (poetry) for this issue include Tess Gallagher, Eleanor Wilner, Robert Kelly, Ray Gonzalez, Laura Kasischke, Patricia Fargnoli, Natasha Sajé, James Harms, Karen An-Hwei Lee, Diane Gilliam, Forrest Ganders, Ted Kooser, Thomas Lux, etc.

Translations include works by Akhmatova, Madelshtam, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Apollinare, Hai Zi, Abdelwahab Meddeb and Pura Lopez-Colomé. We also feature photography, art, essays, reviews and fiction.

Please feel free to spread the word to fellow friends, writers, photographers and artists.

Our 2nd issue will feature on 1st November. We are currently reading for Spring 2010 issue.'

I think I was sent the details because my poem, 'Stranger', appears in the same anthology, Empty Shoes (ed. Patrick T. Randolph, Popcorn Press 2009), as Greta's poem, 'Petit Déjeuner'.

Magazine Moment (3): C&LH (Romania)

Do take a look at the new blog for the Romanian journal, C&LH (Contemporary and Literary Horizon/Contemporan Orizont Literar).

I am very grateful to editor-in-chief, Daniel Dragomirescu, for deciding to publish a few of my poems. I am indebted to Alina-Olimpia Miron for translating these poems for the June edition. You can read the Romanian titles here:

• 'A Stone Romance' / 'O idilă pietroasă'
• 'Boat House Cat' / 'Pisica din hangar'
  
• 'Manifesto for the Red Kite' / 'Manifest pentru Zmeul Roşu'
• 'Preseli Blue' / 'Albastru de Preseli'
  
• 'Show me the Colour of Pain' / 'Arată-mi culorea durerii'

You can read about 'The Romanian Connection' on Peggy Landsman's Red Room pages.

Magazine Moment (2): A Parcel from India

This interesting package dropped through my door a couple of days ago, all the way from India. It contained a copy of Metverse Muse, edited by Dr H. Tulsi. The March issue is, in fact, the Silver Jubilee number, and it is packed with poems, articles and reviews. The contributors come from places as diverse as Kazakhstan, Japan and Nigeria; India, Ireland and the USA; Australia, Russia and Brazil. I wonder if I am the only contributor from Wales. There is a feature on the Virelai: no prizes for guessing which form I may try next! You can read a reverse-Davidian by Dr Tulsi on PoemHunter. The Davidian form was invented by Wendy Webb of Norfolk Poets and Writers.

Magazine Moment (1): The Seventh Quarry

Laugharne, South Wales
© David Gill 2009

I was delighted to receive my copy of the winter issue of The Seventh Quarry (9) this last week. As usual it is beautifully produced with a good quality cover and a cornucopia of poems from most corners of the globe (from Wales to America; from China to Catalonia and beyond). The international flavour permeates the pages: there is, for example, an interview with Dr Rita Malhotra, a mathematician (and poet) from the University of Delhi. Poems that particularly caught my eye in this issue include Punta Los Lopos, Carmel Bay, California by Aeronwy Thomas, At our Backyard Birdfeeder by Frane L. Helner and the catchy and witty Sing Along by Jean Salkilld, to name but three.

Peter Thabit Jones (Wales) is the editor and Vince Clemente (America) is the Consultant Editor. The Seventh Quarry casts its net wide in geographical terms and consequently provides the reader with an eclectic and colourful selection of contemporary poetry. Peter's passion for craft shines through the pages. The magazine comes out twice a year and has recently 'become a cooperating partner with Cross-Cultural Communications Publishers, New York'. The magazine is peppered with a carefully chosen selection of advertisements, including one for a recent (and recommended) publication from Rack Press, Cuffs by Byron Beynon. If you are not familiar with The Seventh Quarry, why not forego that cappuccino and treat yourself instead to a sample issue for £3.50/$10 (£7/$20 for a year's subscription).