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From au462@cleveland.Freenet.EduMon Aug 21 11:09:07 1995
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 10:33:49 -0500
From: Robert Drake <au462@cleveland.Freenet.Edu>
To: au462@cleveland.Freenet.Edu
Subject: TRee #6a--zines
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Issue #6.0, section a: zines 2/95
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TapRoot is a quarterly publication of Independent, Underground,
and Experimental language-centered arts. Over the past 10 years,
we have published 40+ collections of poetry, writing, and visio-
verbal art in a variety of formats. In the August of 1992, we
began publish TapRoot Reviews, featuring a wide range of "Micro-
Press" publications, primarily language-oriented. This posting
is the first section of our 6th full electronic issue, containing
most of the short ZINE reviews; the second section contains most
of the chapbook reviews. We provide this information in the hope
that netters do not limit their reading to E-mail & BBSs.
Please e-mail your feedback to the editor, Luigi-Bob Drake, at:
au462@cleveland.freenet.edu
Requests for e-mail subscriptions should be sent to the same
address--they are free, please indicate what you are requesting--
(a short but human message; this is not an automated listserve).
The archive site for back issues is the Electronic Poetry Center
at SUNY Buffalo: gopher to: <wings.buffalo.edu/11/internet/
library/e-journals/ub/rift>. Our thanks to Loss Glazier et al
for maintaining this resource.
The paper version of TapRoot Reviews contain additional review
material--in issue #6: survey of recent anthologies and local
poetry newsletters, features on work by Richard Kostelanetz,
Michael McClure, Bern Porter, Harvey Pecar/Joyce Brabner, and
excerpts from _Chain_, _Synaesthetic_, and _The Al Ackerman
Omnibus_. Plus more. TapRoot Reviews intends to survey the
boundaries of "literature", and provide access to work that
stretches those boundaries. It is available from:
Burning Press,
PO Box 585,
Lakewood OH 44107--
$2.50 pp.
Both the print & electronic versions of TapRoot are copyright
1995 by Burning Press, Cleveland. Burning Press is a non-profit
educational corporation. Permission granted to reproduce
this material FOR NON-COMMERCIAL PURPOSES, provided that THE CONTENTS ARE NOT EDITED OR ALTERED IN ANY WAY, and provided that THIS INTRODUCTORY NOTICE IS INCLUDED. Burning Press is supported, in
part, with funds from the Ohio Arts Council.
Reviewers are identified by their initials at the end of each
review: Michael Basinski, John M. Bennett, Jake Berry,
Luigi-Bob Drake, R.R. Lee Etzwiler, Bob Grumman, Susan
Smith Nash, Oberc, Andrew Russ, Gregory Vincent St.
Thomasino, Mark Weber, Thomas Willoch, and Karl Young.
Additional contributors are welcome: drop an e-note or send SASE.
*** Many thanx to all of our contributors. ***
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ZINES:
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1 CENT--(#299, February 1994), 1357 Lansdowne Ave., Toronto
Ontario, CANADA, M6H 3Z9. 2 pp. Nice verbo-visually-augmented
haiku-like winter scene by jw curry.--bg
1 CENT--(#300, March 1994), 1357 Lansdowne Ave., Toronto Ontario,
CANADA, M6H 3Z9. 36 pp. Special anniversary collection of 36
"kernular poems." Each page a different size and coming out of a
different part of the binding. Wide variety of poems like one by
Brian David Johnston that's called just "A Poem": "Art is long./
Life is short./ Brian is heavily medicated." There are other,
seriouser, equally good ones in the batch.--bg
1 CENT--(#301, March 1994), 1357 Lansdowne Ave., Toronto Ontario,
CANADA, M6H 3Z9. 1 pp. A single visual poem called "New Age
Blues" by Stephen Cain that makes a pinwheelish game of the word
"naive."--bg
1 CENT--(#302, April 1994), 1357 Lansdowne Ave., Toronto Ontario,
CANADA, M6H 3Z9. 2 pp. A one-paged poem, or set of 3 poems, by
bp Nichol that includes the lines, "'Your poetry is so tight/ it
squeaks.'" This issue was dispersed the afternoon of April 30th,
1994, at Toronto's newly christened "bp Nichol Lane."--bg
1 CENT--(May 1994), 1357 Lansdowne Ave., Toronto Ontario, CANADA,
M6H 3Z9. 8 pp. Some excellent reviews of otherstream material
by publisher jw curry, including a visual poetry anthology from
Germany. Great quote attributed to MB Duggan in one review that
exactly, parodically states what makes so many published haiku
very bad: "Nature is nice./ Civilization is evil. Suffering is to
be pointed out and pitied." Also scatter poems and graphics,
including the anonymously-rendered "Connect the Dot" puzzle.
Yes, it's just one dot.--bg
6IX--(Vol. 3 #2, 1994), 427 W. Carpenter Lane, Philadelphia PA,
19119. 36 pp., $4.00. (914 Leisz's Bridge Rd., Reading PA
19605??) Graced by Gil Ott's subtle cover collage of a Japanese-
calligraphied whale swimming in a steno-pad of fluid handwriting,
this beautifully edited issue features a selection from Elena
Rivera's "Wale: or, the Corse," inspired by Melville's Moby Dick
and Charles Olson's "Call Me Ishmael", as well as the way
"whale" disintegrated in the echo to "wale," which are welts that
rise up after a lash. Jenny Gough's "two poems" resonates, with
"what better way to underscore the/ flower than allow the blister
to appear in the light of stamps."--ssn
ABACUS--(#85, October 1994), 181 Edgemont Ave., Elmwood CT,
06110. 18 pp., $4.00. A text by Carla Harryman to be used in a
film by Abigail Child assembled from the work of three writers.
The premise of the film, in Harryman's words, is "to challenge
the concepts of private and public space by creating a melodrama
in which domestic life is filmed outside, much of it in a house
without walls." Lots of politics, and the characters have names
like "Technique," Fulcrum," and "Property," but the dialogue is
jauntily natural-sounding and flows. Makes me eager to see the
Child film, which is called "Rubble".--bg
ABUSE--(Summer 1994), PO Box 1242, Allston MA, 02134. 104 pp.,
$4.00. Every once in awhile I run across a project I have to
part of because it's so damn good. ABUSE is one of those. It's
theme this issue: DEATH AND DYING. This reads like a strange
cross-section of America, with students and academics, artists,
writers, psychopaths, comic publishers and drawers, all smashing
together in a jam-packed euphoric worship of the dying process.
There is sadness, anger, and satire, as well as a strange
acceptance of the inevitable, but what stands out is the way all
these different perspectives seem to blend together and form a
strange logical cohesion.--o
ALIEN RELAY--(August 1994), c/o Jake, PO Box 11407, Shorewood WI,
53211. 24 pp., $1.00 (?). This reminds me of the mid-'80s when
zines were new and fresh, and there was a combination of anger
and innocence in the small presses. However, we're running into
the mid-'90s with only an illusion of being in control, and the
Slacker mentality has overgrown its DIY roots, and I don't know,
maybe I've lost touch with the youth of today, or maybe I just
wish that more zines today carried a little bit of fight instead
of a passive acceptance.--o
ALTERNATIVE PRESS REVIEW--(#3, Spring/Summer 1994), PO Box 1446,
Columbia MO, 65205. 82 pp., $4.00. This issue includes a
moderately interesting short history of fanzine publishing by
Michelle Rau that seems a work of genius next to TIME's September
5th discovery of the genre. APR continues to slight the art wing
of the "alternative press" (in my admittedly biased opinion), but
this issue does have a number of articles worth reading,
including Leora Tannenbaum's "Sex, Fear, and Feminism On Campus,"
which argues against the position that rape is whatever causes a
woman to feel violated.--bg
ANT, ANT, ANT, ANT, ANT--(#1), PO Box 16177, Oakland CA, 94610.
48 pp., $3.00. "A journal of haiku, small poetry, and minute
experimentalia" such as editor Chris Gordon's "the house darkens
into the rain i hold her approximation." Three poems by
Robert Creeley, and some fine unattributed graphics including a
terrific misfocused photo of a cat turned Franz-Marc-sculptural
as it boldly starts downward into some mysterious somewhere.--bg
Mostly haiku, but also some non-haiku, a couple longer
pieces (some of which are like haiku sequences), and some photos
and drawings. A lot for $3. And a lot of it is very good. I
especially like editor Crhis gordon's one-liners (e.g. "desire
blossoom sinside me the teeth of an atrocity"), but there's a lot
of creative nuggets in here. The best parts come from the
authors i hadn't heard of before, such as this (by a. daigu):
approximate space
of a haiku conceived and
later forgotten
--ar
ARTHUR'S COUSIN--(Vol. 2 #2, Summer 1994), c/o Joshua, 2501
Wickersham Ln. #2132, Austin TX, 78741. 14 pp., $1 and one 29
stamp. I still love to drift through zines, because they often
carry information and writing that takes chances, and isn't
concerned so much with social acceptance as challenging society
itself. In this issue Joshua takes on BARNEY, demanding his
immediate destruction so children can be freed from television's
corrupting effect. He also takes on 90210, criticizing the
unrealistic representation of heroin addiction, large breasted
simple minded women, pregnant sluts, etc. But then I looked on
the next page, and there was an ad for The Rollins Band's Weight
CD, and I got this ugly feeling that I was in one of the tv shows
that were getting criticized. Overall I really like this zine
because it asks a lot of questions, and brings up issues that
most people would never think of because they are too busy
following, not thinking, or questioning the world around them.--o
AVALON RISING--(#25, June 1994), PO Box 1983, Cincinnati OH,
45201. 24 pp., $1.00. Two or three texts from four different
poets and a series of True-Romance-dictioned excerpts from
Michael Estabrook's grandmother's diary (that seem authentic but
I think are not), followed by a poem by Estabrook about her
suicide after being caught by her husband with another man in
1932. Among other contributors, poets John M. Bennett and Lyn
Lifshin celebrate language, while Robert Howington and Errol
Miller story. Good mix.--bg
AVEC--(#7, 1984), PO Box 1059, Penngrove CA, 94951. 150 pp.,
$7.50. Strong, challenging work that requires active and erudite
reading--at least a nodding acquaintance w/ Dante, f'rinstance,
would be helpful, as well as more than a bit of PoMo literary
theory. Several pieces usefully cross genre boundaries:
collaborative dance/spoken work from Ney Fonseca & Aaron Shurin;
a graphic improvisational score written for the ROVA sax quartet
by Bruce Ackely; and writing to & thru graphics (Susan Gevirtz
responding to photos by Kristine Larwen; Micheal Palmer to
drawings by Micala Henich). David Levi Strauss also combines
word & image in "Odile and Odette", a series of letters from
Berlin; there's also another section from Nathaniel Mackey's
ongoing epistletory fiction "From A Broken Bottle Traces of
Perfume Still Emanate." Kevin Killian, Margy Sloan, and Dodie
Bellamy are all given a chance to stretch out for more than a
couple of pages, while Leslie Scalapino, Kevin Magee, Jean Day,
Myung Mi Kim, Susan Clark, Ben Hollander and Laura Moriarty have
longer works excerpted--leaving one to wish for more.--lbd
Editor Cydney Chadwick has done a consistentland a concluding
tercet. Amazing that in this age of free form or form
manipulation creation, form being an extension of content, etc.
form, that there would be 62 pages of sestinas out and about in
poetry world. But herein collected they are with their end words
patterned: 123456, 615243, 364125 etc. More amazing the list of
those who are included herein: Ted Berrigan & Ron Padgett, Anne
Waldman, Clayton Eshleman, Maxine Chernoff, Kevin Lillian, Susan
Wheeler, Nina Zivancevic. A unique, innovative editorial twist.
This issue obviously has a program of writing. Let's end with
tercet pattern: 2,5; 4,3; 6,1.--mb opera" by Nathaniel Mackey--
not Mackey's best work, but still well done, with a salutary
sense of humor. Mei Mei Bersenbrugge--excellent, as usual.
Edmond Jabes's "Dante's Hell"--one of the most engrossing, and
unusual, of Jabes's meditations in the ongoing series of
translations by Rosmarie Waldrop.--ky
B-CITY--(#8), 517 North Fourth St., DeKalb IL, 60115. Special
Sestina Issue. The traditional sestina is a 39-line poem written
in six sextets and a concluding tercet. Amazing that in this age
of free form or form manipulation creation, form being an
extension of content, etc. form, that there would be 62 pages of
sestinas out and about in poetry world. But herein collected
they are with their end words patterned: 123456, 615243, 364125
etc. More amazing the list of those who are included herein: Ted
Berrigan & Ron Padgett, Anne Waldman, Clayton Eshleman, Maxine
Chernoff, Kevin Lillian, Susan Wheeler, Nina Zivancevic. A
unique, innovative editorial twist. This issue obviously has a
program of writing. Let's end with tercet pattern: 2,5; 4,3;
6,1.--mb
BAD NEWS BINGO!--PO Box 33388, Austin TX, 78764. 34 pp., $3.00.
I don't know very many people who had a decent childhood, so it's
no surprise to see so much viciousness and psychological scarring
in the latest issue of BAD NEWS BINGO!, who's theme is family.
You get photos of Charlie Manson's bald headed family women,
juvenile arrests, the death of one's mother to cancer, and so
much confessional turf you read on out of curiosity, while
feeling guilty, like you overheard somebody's words while they
were talking to a priest. There is truth here, and a lot of it
is ugly.--o
BALLPEEN--(#4, 1994), PO Box 55892, Fondren, Jackson MS, 39296.
55 pp., $4.00. A stimulating art zine, engaging to the eye as
well as to the intellect. Genuinely learned essays. Witty
fiction, expert poems, graphics and eidetics. A
deconstructionist-cum-conceptualist point of view less the all-
to-common juvenile butt-head logic. William Whallon's "Greek
Cognates of the Vilest Words in English" is rewarding. Michael
Kirby's "Melodrama Manifesto of Structuralism" is useful for
students of film theory and comp. lit. Artfully produced by Mr.
A. di Michele.--gvst
BANGTALE INTERNATIONAL--(1994), PO Box 83984, Phoenix AZ, 85078-
3984. 40 pp., $5.50. Rod Farmer has poetry here, as does John
M. Bennett, B.Z. Niditch, and Lyn Lifshin. Pure emotionally
direct poetry, sometimes experimental, other times tight and
dynamic. "I smoked the near finished Silk Cuts/ of another man's
dream." There is a world-weary feel here, as if it's all been
done before and now all that's left is the echo of polytonality
and taut white flesh. "We've built fairy bridges/ of balsa wood
and cellophane..."--rrle
BASEBALL AND THE 1,000 THINGS--(Vol. 1, #1-#3), 3016 French St.,
Erie PA, 16504. 4 pp.@, SASE. Edited by Rick Lopez. Lots of
off-beat information and opinion, much of it about baseball, or
about something else with baseball spliced in--for instance, a
quotations about infinitesimal in math that Lopez uses to
illustrate the diminishing powers of the baseball commissioner.
Among the non-baseball material, this quotation from Pound's
Cantos: "'You damn sadist.' said mr. cummings,/ 'you try to make
people think.'" These 3 issues contain just one poem and nothing
I'd call otherstream (unless you count the plug for Harper's),
but it's lots of (intelligent) fun.--bg
BASURA--(#1, October 1994), PO Box 3232, Aurora IL, 60504.
20 pp., $1.00. It's good when you see a debut issue that has
some decent planning behind it, and with Cheryl Townsend, Paul
Weinman, Todd Moore, Lyn Lifshin, John M. Bennett, Eric E. Scott,
and others on board, you got a crew that is trained and ready for
an all-out assault. Lifshin's "The President's Forfinger" is
"intent as a penis/it has a mind of its/ own..."; Moore's "Jerry"
wasn't supposed "to have his old man's/sawed off..."; Townsend's
"It Was Like" "butter he said..."; and an interview with Weinman
are just a sampling of this fine first effort leaving scars.--o
BEET--(#9, Summer 1994), c/o Joe Maynard, 372 Fifth Ave.,
Brooklyn NY, 11215. 28 pp. (with a 28 pp. insert), $3.00.
I wish I had hooked into more of the local action when I lived in
Trenton NJ, especially after reading BEET. You got kids having
kids committing suicide (Allison Goodwin's "Photosynthesies"),
coming of age realizations (Steven Sipes' "Our Hitlers,
Ourselves"), and a great insert that documents a performance
including Sparrow and Carl Watson, previous Chicago trickster.
There are graphics that carry one liners that evolve into a
lasting curiosity, and the realization you have been to new
places you might want to visit again, only next time you'll be
prepared and have the weapons to defend yourself.--o
BLACK BREAD--(#3, 1993), 100 Magazine St., Cambridge MA, 02139.
78 pp., $5.00. Edited by Jessica Lowenthal and Sianne Ngai. The
fourth moral of Lyn Hejinian's "A Fable," presented herein,
reads: "Various women writer's will take up the philosophical
quest for uncertainty." It would be wildly speculative, and
gender-biased, to suggest that women are more likely to quest for
and embrace the real, uncertain, world--while men are apt to try
to impose their own limiting, ossified vision of how things are &
ever shall be. I would never suggest that. But the nine women
contributors to this magazine do seem to gracefully evoke a
vision of a world in flux, fragmented and flimsy and alive (and,
therefore, dying). I've read writers who seem dismayed by the
imprecision of memory and language, or fight against their "lost"
author-ity over text. Compare them to Laynie Brown's fertilizing
insect: "A bee gathers/ They absorb the world through their
senses/ Everything is in a ferment."--lbd
BLADES--(#31, 1994), 182 Orchard Rd., Newark DE, 19711. Edited
by JoAnn Balangit and Francis Poole. A small and quite personal
publication, BLADES has been appearing for many years and always
contains material of great interest, not to be found elsewhere.
Each issue includes poems and drawings, interspersed with found
texts, some quite strange and exotic. This issue includes a poem
or letter by Nistina, a 19th century Algonquin woman, and some
translations of 12th century Andalusian poems. One of the
issues' high points is a long poem by JoAnn Balangit, "Dreams,
Night of the Eclipse," of which part 3 follows:
my sister's arm was straight
as she handed me half a snake.
She kept the half with the head.
I pulled the body through my fist,
squeezed tight, tail first,
Wet slices of the snake
slapped against the tile floor.
There is not a dull moment in these pages, which also include
work by "Goya", D.P., Bukowski, P.J. Cooper, Francis Poole, as
well as found and anonymous texts.--jmb
BLANK GUN SILENCER--(#9), BGS Press, 1240 William St., Racine WI,
53402. 52 pp., $3.00. Nielson is on of those editors I'd hate
to get in a fight with--This fucker has some bad literary
backing. The issue leads off with a Bukowski poem that captures
the cynical bitter outlook of a man who found little use for
humanity, then leaps immediately into a Gerald Locklin poem about
a homeless man catching on fire and starting a blaze that
destroyed fifty luxury homes. Mark Weber captures an Albuquerque
morning in just the way I remember them back in 1974. Cheryl
Townsend drags us through an angry confused teenaged abortion;
Jay Marvin has those she done left me blues; and Michael
Estabrook captures that married man confusion when a young girl
flirts with a condom. Bite sized slabs of reality, not all of
them pretty, but all of them so real you can't help but to nod
your head in recognition.--o
CAFE REVIEW--(Vol. 5, #2), 20 Danforth St., Portland ME, 04101.
$6.00. Wonderful poetry of deep observation here by Helene
Swarts, and an image rich piece by Tom Clark, but the heart of
this issue is an interview and new poems by Michael McClure, and
Jack Foley's "Exile". These two act as a scatological quasi-
hallucinatory dose to the soul rendering almost anything else in
the mag as adornment by comparison. McClure's vitality and
authentic voice combined with Foley's polyspirit manifestations
shed stark light on even the darkest corners of the psyche and
inspire us to do the same. Great issue.--jb
CHAIN--(#1, Spring/Summer 1994), 107 14th Ave., Buffalo NY,
14213. 282 pp., $7.95. Central to the whole project that is
Language Poetry is the refusal to take for granted the tyranny of
meaning, a questioning of the authority of language. Even given
this stated "resistance to the established power structure," it's
still welcome surprise how strong a presence women seem to have in
the "second generation" coming out of (or against) the LangPo
traditions. It's a singular occurrence in the avant guard, as
in the mainstream. This presence is reflected in sheer numbers
of women editing important publications in & around the movement:
Rosmarie Waldrop at Burning Deck, Jessica Grim & Melanie Nelson's Big
Allis, Lee Ann Brown at Tender Buttons, Susan Smith Nash's Texture
Press, Cydney Chadwick's Avec, Black Box's Jessica Lowenthal & Sianne
Ngai, Jennifer Moxely's The Impercipient... and now, CHAIN,
edited by Jena Osman & Juliana Spahr. This debut issue takes one
further step, from questioning the authority of language to
questioning editorial authority, the filtering mechanisms that
come between writer & reader in the form of editor/publishers.
Most of the above-mentioned editors contribute to the discussion
on Gender and Editing, as well as folks as diverse as Andrea Juno
(RE/Search's "Angry Women" issue), Heather Findlay (On Our
Backs), and Holly Laird (Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature).
Their experiences as women editors are both diverse & similarly
informed by an awareness of issues of power--issues that one
hopes (but somehow doubts) is shared equally by their male
counterparts. The second half is devoted to another kind of
discussion, actual Chains of correspondences between several
writers, chain letter poems, with one writer re-sounding/
responding to the instigations of another, resulting in linked
energies and exchanges that are generous & engaged/engaging.
Here at TRR, I've avoided the usual "editor's picks" or "top ten
lists", but I guess I'll be a man about it and put this one
toward the top of my list of faves. Issue #2 will address
"Documentary," & the editorial "we" will be looking forward to
it.--lbd
CHIP'S CLOSET CLEANER--(#11, Fall 1994), 826 Aspen St. NW,
Washington DC, 20012. 24 pp., $4.00. Chip Rowe's "personal
zine" deals in "Pop Culture, Humor, Trivia, Fun." In this issue
he reviews various books and periodicals he's read, perceptively
discusses the value of cuss-words, presents a quite thorough
report on the eight-track tape scene, and reprints items he
likes, or thinks absurd--like, 50 euphemisms for "masturbation."
--bg
CHIRON REVIEW--(Vol. XIII #2, Summer 1994), Rt. 2 Box 111, St.
John KS, 67576. 32 pp., $3.00. Editor: Michael Hathaway. A
poetry tabloid that's been going for 39 issues now. The poetry is
mostly plaintext stuff about the day-to-day, like one by C.S.
Fuqua about calling a girl he's interested in only to find out
she's about to get married--strong & agreeable in voice but not
adventurous. Good selection here, too, of work by featured (&
interviewed) poet Gerald Locklin--including one about "the new
male", whose sperm-count is reportedly dropping: "hypotheses
include environmental/ pollution and snug undergarments;//
private investigator locklin suspects/ feminist intimidations."
Also in the issue: a short story, a few dozen micro-
review/announcements, and photographs.--bg
CHIRON REVIEW--(Vol. XIII #3, Fall 1994), Rt. 2 Box 111, St. John
KS, 67576. 32 pp., $3.00. Editor: Michael Hathaway. If I had
to list a hierarchy of publishers that were true to their ideals
and truly serious about their love of literature, Michael
Hathaway would be at the top--he's got a rock solid stance on
poetry and fiction. Some great in depth interviews with Ron
Androla, John Bennett and Dan Nielsen in this issue. And when I
read Kristine Sanders' poem "Hit While Running", her lines "when
I see the bullets skimming towards/ your face I think of skillets
burning/ eggs hissing in a pan, your eyes/ as shiny as potatoes
cut in little squares" slapped me back in time to greasy-spoon
breakfast hangovers after a wild night of love. Throw in an
excellent essay on Ron Androla by Todd Moore, long insightful
reviews of poetry chaps that actually give you an idea of the
poetry, and updates on literary events--this is what it's all
about.--o
COTTON GIN--(Vol. 1 #2, Fall 1994), 1605 Wright Ave., Greensboro
NC, 27403. 28 pp., $2.00. Nice mix of what I call "plaintext
poetry" and more experimental stuff. A story by Kevin Keck
called "In a Waffle House With Jesus" (a Bruce-Jay-Friedman-sort
of jest, but funny in fresh ways) shares one page with a Paul
Weinman/White boy analysis of beer commercials. Very nice full-
color illustration by Laura Dawn Roberson on the front cover,
too. It's labeled "special" and consists mainly of 42 solid blue
circles surrounded by white, arranged to form a rectangle--not
very exciting-sounding but oddly absorbing.--bg
Like a garage band on the verge of breaking out. What's
special about COTTON GIN is that, amongst other things, they
publish song lyrics--how many zines are doing that? What's
special about song lyrics is that they tell a story, and when the
lyricist is a Southerner that story's likely to teach a life
lesson, a life lesson with universal relevance. Such is the case
with Chip McKenzie's "Dear Amelia" and Tami L. Conner's "Angels
in Bluejeans" is, simply, perfect.--gvstat's at once susceptible
and vulnerable. Laura Dawn Roberson's "Collage 59" uses excerpts
from I Corinthians, lauding honesty in love. And Tami L.
Conner's "Angels in Bluejeans" is, simply, perfect.--gvst
CROTON BUG--(# 3), PO Box 11166, Milwaukee WI, 53211. 76 pp.,
$8.00.. Bob Harrison, editor. Contributors include: Anne
Tardos, Clemente Padin, Gil Ott, Ron Silliman, Franz Kamin,
George Quasha, Paul Dutton, Jackson Mac Low, Juliana Spahr,
Richard Kostelanetz, Eva Festa, Ge(of Huth), Sheila Spargur, Jeff
Poniewaz, Marina Pillar Gipps, Bruce Andrews, John M. Bennett,
Kimberly Lyons, among others. If you find the contributors
interesting already, the present works won't let you down. If
they don't interest you, this magazine probably won't do much to
change your mind. A major feature of this issue is the close and
sagacious integration of work with a semantic base with work
based in visual principles. Spanish language work sometimes
includes English translation; sometimes, as in the case of work
by the Uruguayan mail artist and visual poet Clemente Padin,
translation isn't necessary. CROTON BUG has been consistently
worth reading through its first three issues--a pretty good
record for any new zine. Poetry well chosen. Not only a zine to
check out now, but to watch in the future.--ky
DIE YOUNG--(#7, Aug. 1994), PO Drawer 44691, University of
Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette LA, 70504. $3.00. Editors
Skip Fox and Jesse Glass have assembled their strongest issue to
date. DIE YOUNG #7 is a lucky one. Those within: Stephen
Petoff, Stephen Ellis, Stephen Thomas, Susan Smith Nash and Susan
Best and Spencer Selby. Also the poetry of Kevin Killian and
Kenneth Warren marks what words as art can form. And there is a
chapbook supplement and translations from Finnish, Polish and
Spanish. Yes, all good fish in a dish and nothing much more to
wish. The poet Robert Gregory, first from Pittsburgh and last I
heard from South Florida (who by the way is one of the ones who
will last) kinda sums this issue No. 7 up: "although people are
standing still, the wind tastes like milk/ and the world is
dancing inside itself as always."--mb
DREAM WHIP--(#1, 1994), PO Box 53832, Lubbock TX, 79453. 24 pp.,
$2.00 (?). This is an interesting chap filled with scraps of
dreams. It runs the gamut of nightmares, astral projection to
other lands, fears of losing all control in situations where
you're a pawn, contemplations on death, earthquakes and tornadoes
and other natural disasters, and infatuations that seem to avoid
becoming real situations. This short publication really does
feel like the world of dreams, with those short jerky awareness
that you tell yourself to remember, but can't seem to hold onto
in the morning. Send them your dreams and see if things start to
happen.--o
DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES--(#43, 1994), 1300 Kicker Rd., Tuscaloosa
Al, 35404. 20 pp., $2.00. Urgency balled up into a package of
fantasy and surreal poetry. The mood here is melancholic,
desperate, coming full steam from the dark core of the brain,
bubbling up from the brain stem: sorceresses, wolves,
transmogrification, atonement, broken flesh, urchinesses, savage
sub-species, solar winds, worm webs, succubi, and resurrection
are just a few of the horrors found here. What is created is a
chilly acute publication with an oddly internalized focus and
sense of pressure. The shorter pieces are honed to a taut and
dynamic edge. This zine cuts to the Gothic quick.--rrle
DREAMTIME TALKINGMAIL--(#6, Summer 1994), Rt. 2 Box 242W, Viola
WI, 54664. 40 pp., $3.00. Miekal And, Liz Was, & Patrick
Mullins, editors. Not a poem in this magazine but this is the
map of poetry (perma) culture. Where progressive imaginations
exist, like Dreamtime Village, art is all things. Soul sings.
Being involved in place, merging with the natural, living in the
nature of it all: it is all a poetics. Be free. Anarchism has
always been a part of part (look it up: Jackson Mac Low, Robert
Duncan). So to Utopianism: Walden Pond. Don't get drunk on the
Paris Commune or lost in Shelley and Byron: We have got it here.
Wake up. Support. Get with the program--this ain't Shake &
Bake.--mb
Life as experiment as art as documented here. Theory,
correspondence, discussion of how we might sustain ourselves
creatively and without damage to the environment. Articles here
by Hakim Bey on social disintegration and the possible details
thereof, and Liz Was on learning from illness, color, number and
generally the magic of being alive and knowing it, continue the
work the Xexoxial folks have been doing now for twenty years.
There are also reviews, events and much else. By living beyond
the normal delusions and abstractions the inhabitants of
Dreamtime Village suggest what might be possible if we pursue an
ethic of self-reliance and life as experiment as art asx--jb
DRIVER'S SIDE AIRBAG--(#13, Summer, 1994), PO Box 25760, Los
Angeles CA, 90025. 24 pp., $1.70. I don't think I've ever seen
a small press reach so far, and build such a strong foundation,
in such a short period of time. But Mike has pulled it off,
grabbing writers that count into his PO Box so fast you'd think
there was a creative suction device sucking all of this energy in
his direction. How else could he get the likes of Terry Everton,
Lyn Lifshin, Cynthia Hendershot, Ana Christy, Todd Moore,
Howington, Androla, Weinman, and C.C. Russell into one envelope
without a dozen injuries. This is one of those presses that
makes you know what is going on, whether you want to know or
not.--o
DRIVER'S SIDE AIRBAG--(#14, Summer 1994), c/o Mike, PO Box 25760,
Los Angeles CA, 90025. 32 pp., $2.25. Mike keeps coming back
for more, tearing up the streets of LA with a publication that
has some of the best sucker punches ever thrown by Todd Moore,
Mark Weber and Ron Androla. Even Ana Christy's "post office"
strikes home, with lines like "i'm a poet in drag and what about
my nails?" and "but they hired me a woman (i wanna bitch)". The
excerpt from Cynthia Hendershot's upcoming novel "Body" makes me
want to tie her up, tight, and tell her about the things that
make me happy. This is a fine read, filled with the things you
expect to find from some of the best small press writers
around.--o
DRIVER'S SIDE AIRBAG--(#15, Fall 1994), UBP, c/o Mike, PO Box
25760, Los Angeles CA, 90025. 30 pp., $2.50. I remember reading
a contributor's column in a lit mag years ago that said when Lyn
Lifshin is good, she is damn good, and in "Falling Not Far From
the Tree" we get "My dad,/ the loins of my fruit,/ divorced his
wife, my mother,/the fruit basket,/ and married a big-screen TV".
Kurt Nimmo screams at us from the shadows of America, capturing
the fucked up aspects of a world gone so wrong it can't do no
more wrong no more, and C.C. Russell's "Red Mustang, Gravel Dust"
("We haven't talked/ in over a month/ so I call you up/ and say/
'If we can't talk,/ can I at least have my clothes back?'")
brought back experiences I would have rather done withou. With
Todd Moore, Paul Weinman, John M. Bennett, and even Howington,
this is real entertainment and a read that won't easily go
away.--o
DROP FORGE--(#3, 1994), 13450 Mahogany Dr., Reno NV, 89511.
32 pp., $2.50. (e-mail--seanw@shadow.scs.unr.edu) A well paced
mix of prose, poetry, collage, drawings, and computer visuals.
The writing is often delightfully scatological bordering on
magical. Often the prose is at least as inventive as the poetry.
Keil Winchester's hysterical invention of a summit of best-
selling authors in Transylvania to critique the late Bukowski has
the whole crowd mumbling glossolaic poesis that actually is a
vast improvement over what any of them have written. This is a
great otherstream mag. Check it out.--jb
DUSTY DOG REVIEWS--(#18, Summer 1994), 1904-A Gladden, Gallup NM,
87301. 15 pp., $2.00. Twenty-one quirky, sometimes runaway but
always interesting reviews of small and micro-press poetry. The
taste of its sole reviewer, David Castleman, runs to dominant-
mode poetry, but he does not neglect otherstream material, and
fully engages everything he writes about. And he always fairly
quotes from what he reviews, to give us a chance to judge it for
ourselves. Here's the first line from his review of Steve
Richmond's Demon Country: "Mr. Richmond sends onward another of
his delightful and very casual, insistently iconoclastic memoirs
chockful of rambling poeticalities many of which might easily be
honed into close dense poems, which he will not do."--bg
EAT POOP!--(#23, Summer 1994), 193 N. 5th Street #A, San Jose CA,
95112. 36 pp., $3.00. Nathan Nothin', editor. Bell's cover art
of Bukowski made me a lover of this zine immediately. Then, as I
slowly wandered into its pages and saw the likes of Howington ("A
guy sat at the bar and he told me he didn't have a gun so I gave
him one of my guns."), Nate's "We're All Gonna Die In The End",
bootlegged photos of Buk lifting weights (all of fifteen pounds
worth), and obnoxious music reviewz and comix, I knew I was on
familiar ground.--o
ELECTRIC REXROTH--(#2), Tetsuya Taguchi, 8-35-314, Tsuchiyama-
cho, Nada-ku, Kobe, Japan, 657. 142 pp., $25.00. Journals
devoted to important literati usually contain scholarly articles,
biographical notes, etc. on the figure after whom they are named.
This one has very little commentary on Rexroth. A bibliography
of Rexroth studies since 1982 by Morgan Gibson contains only 22
entries. Rexroth was not the kind of poet who left a lot for the
mills of academe to grind out, as did, say, Pound or Zukofsky.
The result in this instance is a miscellaneous collection of
beats, neo-beats, & near minimalists, often presented in
bilingual format. For me, Sharon Dubiago turns in the best
poetry, though others might prefer contributions by Robert Bly,
Cid Corman, John Solt, Ira Cohen, James Laughlin, Nina
Zivancevic, or a dozen other poets. Perhaps this nicely
designed, small format magazine does a better job of paying
tribute to Rexroth than a scholarly journal could do. It would
do better if it weren't so outrageously priced.--ky
EXPERIODDICIST--(1994), PO Box 3112, Florence AL, 35630. 4 pp.
An issue devoted to BREATHPOINTS by Shiela E. Murphy, as part of
the lively ongoing broadside series edited by Jake Berry. These
eight formally varied poems are an illuminated meditation on
domesticity, and are remarkable in the strength with which they
reveal a sense of self in its place--to such an extent that that
place seems connect to all other places, or to "place" itself.
The language is resonant, luminous, and charged:
Neighbors
I like about them cotton colors and their soft, engaging
smiles. One woman tells me about falling (after I have
fallen). Pool water in another season is young blue. We
live in desert town all five of us by heart. Is there much
custom (tantalize). First run envy sequences a falderol
that I accept of me. We mirror as we can. Some beauty,
some sandpaper. And release the muscles of the hand.
--jmb
EXPERIODDICIST--(June 1994), PO Box 3112, Florence AL, 35630.
4 pp. "Malok's Tissue Issue." Includes another stanza of
Malok's famed "Fuck Dirge" that begins "Fuck well all the
whatevers," plus other inimitable poems, drawings and tabloidy
lyrico-loony collages by the Waukau Hermit. All kinds of mega-
yucks in the collages like these arrangements of found texts:
"our big NOTHING Beyond beans" and "ENJOY grief: mental health
with a grin, mental health, pink and pudgy."--bg
EXPERIODDICIST--(May 1994), PO Box 3112, Florence AL, 35630.
4 pp. This issue contains a first-rate set of poems by John M.
Bennett but--to my disappointment--no author's statements of the
kind other issues of this zine have featured, and which I hoped
might become its special contribution to the field. None of
Bennett's formidable talent in illumagery is on view here,
either, but, hey, the poetry makes up for any lacks--like where's
"Where's tall-lurched doubting's yearned!"'s at the bottom of the
last page.--bg
FACE THE DEMON--(#1 July/August 1994), 3077 Gardner Creek Rd.,
Dickson TN, 37055. 28pp. D. Madgalene, editor. A lot of faith
and a lot of fantasy here. Starts off with a couple of poems
praising God, and then does a 180 degree reversal to poems
centered on Gen-X pro-suicide, prison, go-go bars, the atom bomb,
sixties revivals... even a poem about a tractor pull. This is a
mixed bag, sometimes intense, sometimes fuzzy, always shifting
focus. Rod Farmer and Tom House have poetry here, in their work
the reader can feel the intensity, the spontaneity, of the poem.
Overall, this publication is effective in a passive/aggressive
sort of way. And I suppose I can ignore the rough sketch of the
masturbating Republican elephants in the centerfold.--rrle
FACTSHEET 5--(#53, 1994), PO Box 170099, San Francisco CA, 94117.
134 pp., $3.95. Seth has finally given up on the Herculean task
of promising to review every-fuckin'-thing that comes in, and
that's probably necessary for him to survive &/or keep his
sanity. And he's come under attack lately for reviews that miss
the mark--the inevitable result when you go for breadth of
coverage rather than depth. But no other publication comes close
to matching the broad reach of zines that FACTSHEET 5 covers,
from anarchy to Zen (and Bob, Bondage, Comix, Girlzzz, Punk,
Queer, SciFi... etc. in between)--with particularly strong
coverage of quirky, fall-between-th-cracks kind of stuff.
Still an indispensable, if not-quite-"definitive", guide to the
zine revolution.--lbd
FEEDBACK--(#17, Summer 1994), PO Box 2, Gibbon NE, 68840.
14 pp., $1.00. On the surface you'd think this was a fanzine,
but after a few paragraphs you realize that there is an
intelligent conscientious woman taking on the world here. And
tho this is DIY made to look slick, under all the veneer is one
of the strongest editors I've seen in a long time. Tho it's a
one (wo)man show, contributors from all over the place, and it
has a vicious free-wheeling love of controversy. At the same
time, it's so real and rational that I felt like I'd just dropped
into a party of old friends, instead of being tossed into a room
filled with strangers. If you want fiction, articles, poetry and
reviews of music and books, this is a down home great place to
be.--o
FEH!--(#17), 200 East Tenth Street #603, New York NY, 10003.
$3.00. There's been a shakedown at FEH! Namely Simieon and
Morgana, the editors, have split, so I suspect this may be this
last issue in the current form. But knowing Simeon, who will
remain as sole editor, things will only worsen--with FEH!, this
is a good thing. The high & noble herald of all that is odious
and profane, this issue turns in some real gems in the garden of
foul delights. Al Ackerman's "Lamentable Haircut" suggests a
"linguini wig"; "Leper's Orgy" by Ian Ayers reminds us that if
you're a leper you'll likely attend only one; and the holy script
of "GOB" comics is a mutant of pure offense. This stuff will
pervert every decent impulse you ever had. You'll become rude,
obnoxious, the bane of your family and friends. I recommend it
highly, and soon!--jb
FIRST INTENSITY--(#3, 1994), PO Box 140713, . , $9.00. This
magazine presents a gathering of solid poem work. No trash.
No self-serving ego get ahead show boat editorial I publish your
poem and you will write me a blurb junk. No ass kissing. No
sleep with me I slept with Walt Whitman bull poetics. Unafraid
the red giant stars shine with the twinkle twinkles. Writers
have batches of work. Within No. 3: John Yau (writing fiction),
Robert Kelly, Theodore Enslin, Diane di Prima, and Susan Smith
Nash, Clark Collidge, Will Alexander. A community of writing.
See great poetry on Michael Boughn, Leonard Schwartz, George
Albon pages.--mb
FOUND STREET--(Vol. 3, Summer 1994), 2260 S. Ferdinand Ave.,
Monterey Park CA, 91754. 26 pp., $3.00. The usual wide range of
otherstream material including one of Cliff Dweller's found-
headline poems, which includes the following three lines: "Angels
handcuff/ themselves to trees,/ knowing when to be gracious", and
Crag Hill's resonant pwoermd "Travellled." Also, a couple of
collages by Steven Hartman--in one, a man (whose head is a
partially cut-open... squash?) seems deep in thought in front of
a greatly-enlarged cut-away section of epidermal tissue, while a
sphere out of a solid-geometry textbook hangs in the sky above--
the combination speaking eloquently if mysteriously about the
flesh and (Platonic?) abstraction.--bg
FROZEN HYPNOSIS--(#9), c/o Malok, Box 41, Waukau WI, 54980. (or
c/o Bern Porter, 22 Salmond, Belfast ME 04915). free or trade.
FROZEN HYPNOSISis an ongoing collage collaboration between two of
the genre's finest. They do to media essentially what media does
to us--they rip it to shreds and reassemble the pieces, in the
process allowing us to see how images are connected to produce
desired results. As the title suggests, what we have here is a
snapshot of indoctrination in process. It does nothing less than
gives us an opportunity to reconsider what is happening and maybe
reassess what we do with what we are asked to swallow. More
liberating in a few pages than any politician could manage in a
lifetime. --jb
FUEL--(#7, Spring 1994), PO Box 146640, Chicago IL, 60614.
66 pp., #3.00. Andy (that's Ms. Andy for those of you who don't
know) Lowry's back with another, and I should say the damn best
yet, issue of FUEL. David McCord (San Francisco's sweetheart)
kicks us in the reproductive organs with a story that, well,
makes a married man wonder if he can trust his wife. Kurt Nimmo
strikes with a story that brings the hard times to your door, and
leaves the footsteps bouncing against the inside of your head.
Dan Grzeca's graphics are, as always, powerful, and the whole
issue leaves you with that existential confusion you get on
Monday morning, knowing what the next five days will do to the
little sanity you got left. This is real writing from people
who've been through it all, and survived intact.--o
FUEL--(#8, Summer 1994), PO Box 146640, Chicago IL, 60614.
46 pp., #3.00. There are only a small handful of lit mags that
incorporate visual layout with text in a balance that'd make the
professionals scream out in jealousy, and FUEL is certainly at
the top of that list. Andy edits with a sharp clean eye that
captures some of the best poetry and fiction around the country,
then sets the words against a visual backdrop that puts layers
beneath the writing. In this issue Vincent Zandri's murderous
adventures of a writer in search of a story slams the senses
against a wall; Lisa Manning takes a boy, a knife, a city bus,
and an apology, and makes it work just right; Michael Shores'
illustrations make dreams into reality with edges you can almost
touch; and John Goldfine takes McDonald's shattered economic
dreams into a family scene that has become all too real today.
That's just a glimpse, and there is so much in every issue you
could almost write a review as long as the magazine. This is the
stuff that dreams, and nightmares, thrive on.--o
GLOBAL MAIL--(September--December, 1994), PO Box 597996, Chicago,
IL, 60659. 8 pp., 2 stamps. Another in Ashley Parker Owen's
dizzyingly thorough listing (400+ entries from 39 countries in
this issue) of "all kinds of art projects, collaborations, and
mail-art events." For instance, you can send your mail-art
images to an address in France and they'll be shown on French
television. Somebody at another address wants the names of all
those voted most likely to whatever from you high school
yearbook. Fun browsing for almost anyone--but an indispensable
resource for mail-artists.--bg
GOD'S BAR: UN*PLUGGED--(Vol. 1 #3, March 1994), 112 Dover
Parkway, Stewart Manor NY, 11530. 32 pp., $1.50. According to
the credit's page, GOD'S BAR is "originated by disenfranchised
computer bulletin board poets. Don't know how that happened, but
there is some fine work here, beginning with editor Virgil
Hervey's piece on two paintings of Li, the early Chinese poet,
and a Chinese woman's response to one of them. Then there's Paul
Weinman's "Vegetable Sex" for which I will allow you to use your
imagination and almost guarantee you you'll be wrong. For the
most part confessional, beat influenced poetry & an excellent
additon to the genre.--jb
GREEN FUSE--(#28, Spring/Summer 1994), 3365 Holland Dr., Santa
Rosa CA, 95404. 52 pp., $5.00. Ecologically cynical, mildly
satirical, liberal-activist-oriented work which includes a large
range of PC subjects: the homeless, gun control, exploitation of
living things and the earth itself, species extinction road
kills, trapping, war, Jesse Helms, homophobia and the media...
even an eulogy for Wiley Coyote. The poetry here is often
obsessed, pastoral, and charmingly bitchy. But, it's also
intense and mournful as incendiary emotions are balanced against
poetic form. Honest verse with a bracing message, as in David
Austin's poem "Dear Jesse": "In this poem/ no crucifixes are/
submerged in/ my own piss/ ..no men are/ urinating into/ other
men's mouths/ In this poem/ there are no smiling/ naked
children," which goes on to provide the reader with an artistic
victory over the arch-conservative. Hard-edged and tight-skinned
eco-poetry for the people.--rrle
HEAVEN BONE--(#11), PO Box 486, Chester NY, 10918. $6.00. The
great value of HEAVEN BONE is how, with poems, stories, articles
and graphics, and pieces that contain elements of some or all of
these, it opens the door into the other world. We are so
accustomed to degenerated commodity that passionately open
imagination seems almost insane. But HB provides exquisite
evidence to the contrary. By publishing material such as the
interview here with Akhter Ahsen (who understands the
psychological and political implications of imagination unbound),
the translation and discussion of Rene Dumal, the divinely
organic photographs of Paul Winternitz, as well as recent high
poetic script by Belinda Subraman, Michael McClure, Dan Raphael,
Diane DiPrima, among many other visionaries, the light breaks
cleanly through the contemporary illusion of fear and malaise,
revealing what lies beneath and beyond our paralysis. A shamanic
device, a Sufi oracle, a blast of authentic ecstatics, HEAVEN
BONE is the transfiguration of the species as it happens.--jb
HOME PLANET NEWS--(#37, Summer 1994), PO Box 415, Stuyvesant
Sta., New York NY, 10009. 24 pp., $2.00. There are times I want
to write NYC off and hope that my aunt in New Jersey is right
about there being a planetary shift that will wipe out California
and flood the east coast all to shit. But then a new issue of
HOME PLANET NEWS comes out and I think, yeah, none of us live
forever, but let's put that planetary shift off a few more years.
After all, there's a great interview with my favorite dirty old
man, Gerald Locklin, poetry by a poet that is so prolific (Lyn
Lifshin, who else?) you know there'll be mail flying with her
name on it long after that dreaded shift takes places, and a
stack of reviews that made me pick up my checkbook and order a
handful of pubs hoping they'd send them to me before the checks
began to bounce. This sat on the radiator across from my toilet
for three days as I read every word--pretty good, considering
most publications get a day and a half at best.--o
HOUSE ORGAN--(#7, Summer 1994), 1250 Belle Ave., Lakewood OH,
44107. 16 pp., $1.00?. Editor: Kenneth Warren. Work herein by
Joe Napora, Richard Peabody, Peter Ganick, Gary Sullivan, Johanna
Drucker and more. And also herein a critical review of Kerouac's
"Old Angel Midnight" by Kenneth Warren. This is not a review
from a passionate knight defender of the great Beat King. It is
a frank encounter and there should be more of this in the Beat
Kerouac world. Also collected herein this issue a review of Todd
Moore's "Dillinger; Books I and II" by Gerald Burns. He trashes
old "Toad" with an intellectual ugly stick-pen and leaves him
crushed, maybe hushed, with his poetic guts fading in an acid
pool of critical ink.--mb
Due to the editorial selections HOUSE ORGAN has a somewhat
different feel from most other mags. Experimental and more
mainstream poetry follow one another on the page, and there are
always interesting essays. This time for instance, Eva
Shaderowsky's "The Serpent of Chaos," and "Kerouac's Heavy Load"
by editor Kenneth Warren. In selecting the poetry Warren has a
good ear for what works well together. He manages to do it
without coming off pedantic. Always a good read.--jb
HYPHEN--(#9, Summer, 1994), 330 South Green St., PO Box 516,
Somonauk IL, 60552. 72 pp., $3.95. Out of all of the local
Chicago magazines, HYPHEN is the only one that dances across
the creative arenas and consistently introduces me to new turf I
would have run after sooner if I had only known that it was
there. Nat Krieger's "Dying for Culture in Sarajevo" gives us
the arts striving for survival amid an evolving madness. If you
want to see photos of Chicago's notorious slam poets (Marc Smith,
Tony Fitzpatrick, etc.) and catch up on the latest news, this is
the place to catch the action. Plus plenty of damn good fiction,
poetry and art (I'm still staring at Helen R. Klebesadel's
watercolor with a bad case of jealousy).--o
I AM A CHILD: Poetry After Robert Duncan And Bruce Andrews--
Tailspin Press, 418 Richmond Avenue #2, Buffalo NY, 14222.
1171 pp., $8.50. A new journal (and a hefty one) edited by
William Howe. As you can hear from the sub-title it is a far
gazing and inquisitive magazine. Work by Susan Howe, Robert
Creeley, Charles Bernstein, John Clarke, Duncan, and Andrews.
And combined in these diverse literary roots Jeff Gburek, Ben
Friedlander, Pat Reed, Juliana Sphar, Rod Smith, Joel Kuszai and
Miekal And. And there are many others, and there is an
information here, a program of writing. Here is a spectrum of
representation. This Poem is your Poem. This Poem is my Poem.
From California to the New York island. Beautifully orchestrated
and mechanically splendid. One of the brilliant and hard songs
on the jewel path poemtree.--mb
THE IMPERCIPIENT--(#5, May 1994), 61 East Manning St., Providence
RI, 02906. 48 pp., $5.00. "Divide the world from yourself and
you die. See. Separation equals contempt."--Joe Ross, from
"Equations = equals."
What kind of fin de siecle decadence is possible after a century
of excesses--excesses of technology, violence, and alienation?
Optimistically, the end of this century might be marked instead
by a re-engagement with the world--and excellent work presented
in THE IMPERCIPIENT ("silent pillow of a generation") would seem
to bolster that optimism. Strong opening pieces from Jessica
Lowenthal ("I am a Deist"), Peter Gizzi ("Imitation of Life: A
mini series"), and Lisa Jarnot ("Diary of a Rough Trade Angel")
confront various aspects of power (power of belief, brute force)
and individual response/responsibility. Lee Ann Brown and
Magdalena Zurawski reclaim body and passion from both
sentimentality and cynicism. Throughout, the poems are carefully
wrought, crafted in order to communicate (rather than merely
obscure, or impress).--lbd
IMPLODING TIED-DYED TOUPEE--(#3, Summer 1994), 100 Courtland Dr.,
Columbia SC, 29223. 32 pp., $4.00. Fine collages like the front
cover by Michael Shore and fine poems like "The Sirenes"; an
infra-verbal gem by Gregory St. Thomasino worth quoting in full:
aweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
and away into
and some first-rate M. Kettner compositions, one a haiku whose
last line speaks of "head: light as a lawn chair."--bg
INDELIBLE INK--(Seventh Edition, Fall 1994), c/o Lauren Salmi,
3142 West Belden, Chicago IL, 60647. 50 pp., $3.00 (?). Every
time I get ready to write the Chicago literary scene off another
magazine comes along that forces me to change my mind. INDELIBLE
INK is one of these miracles, with poems that run the gambit from
academic workshop to hard core vicious street. My favorite piece
was "War and Marriage" (perhaps because I could identify with the
subject matter) by Michael H. Brownstein, which captured the
conflicts with lines like: "She followed him spouting out anger
like launched hand grenades. The more she yelled, the more
insane he knew she was." Tina Dugay-Khan captures the poetry slam
world in "The Contest": "We were lined up/ like rival gang
members/ Our 3 minute poems were like/ drive-by shootings/ The
words were hot as bullets/ No truce-this time/ Let's rumble"; and
Kurt Eisenlohr's EAT showed just how important a good meal is
before you die.--o
INTERTEK--(Vol. 3.5), 13 Daffodil Lane, San Carlos CA, 94070.
$4. (e-mail: tek@well.sf.ca.us). One can always rely on
INTERTEKfor intelligent stimulation regarding things
digital/cyber. This issue consists of two excellent articles
that meet that standard. Editor Steve Steinberg discourses on
"The Ontogeny of RISC" and Alex Cohen "On The Origin of
Artificial Life--Some Assembly Required". In the first article
word maps illustrate the "evolution" from CISC architecture to
RISC and the manipulation of industry and market to achieve this
end. In the second we see how the criteria for what life is
might be changed by machines who build other machines, etc. etc.
until we are defined by something that is entirely other to what
we now consider to be ourselves. Stimulating stuff whether you
agree or not. Guaranteed to keep you on your toes (at least
while you have them).--jb
JOEY AND THE BLACK BOOTS--(#1, Summer 1994), 718 Lewis St.,
Laramie WY, 82070-3236. 16 pp., $1.00 (?). C.A. Miller, editor.
For a first issue this reads like something edited by someone
who's been around the block a few times. Cari grabs the likes of
Lyn Lifshin, C.C. Russell, C.F. Roberts and Cheryl Townsend, and
let's you know up front that this is just the beginning of what
is going to be a great relationship. Get in on the ground
floor.--o
JOEY AND THE BLACK BOOTS MONTHLY--(#3, September 1994), 2143
Garfield #5, Laramie WY, 82070-4342. 20 pp., $1.00. I enjoy
poetry publications that carry the feel of a zine, but pack the
wallop of a semi out of control. In this issue, Janet Kuypers
grabs us with lines like "I wanted to feel the sold sharp rocks/
cutting into my face/ and slicing my skin./ I wanted pain to feel
good again.", while C.C. Russell's "Lover" touches the heart with
"Somewhere along the way/ it began to feel/ like a catheter
tube;/ pain on the way in/ at the end/ but in between,/ just an
uncomfortable/ release." When you add in the likes of Howington,
Townsend, Lifshin, and comix by Phil Labrie, you got a mix that
can only do you right.--o
JOEY AND THE BLACK BOOTS--(#4, October 1994), 2143 Garfield #5,
Laramie WY, 82070-4342. 16 pp., $1.00 (?). C.A. Miller, editor.
Cheryl Townsend is one of those erotic writers that has to leave
a wet spot on every seat she writes a poem at, and between the
lust of friends and lovers her poems continue to explore the
sensual world of female sexuality. And she's here in full force,
along with Lyn Lifshin, C.C. Russell, Mark Hartenbach, and a
feastful of others, all redefining human existence, and making
those who don't know wonder what the hell is going on. This is a
small magazine, but one that carries the guts and strength you
need for your everyday survival.--o
JUBAL--(Spring 1994), 2 Garden Lane, New Orleans LA, 70124.
40 pp., $3.00. A "Literary Magazine"... with poetry, short
stories, an essay (on Unknowing), comix by Trippin Cat, and
plenty of b&w full page sketches which seem to dominate this
intense yet diverse publication. Going solely to a digital
format in 1995. Prowling the edges of romantic obsession is
Colette Bennet's poem "Nightfuck," one example of the startling
turbulence found here: "Silk against my skin/ the moon likes to
fuck../ it's only a couple of times a year/ when the sun climbs
on her..." On the other hand, in Kyle Cassady's "Plague Diary":
"You're/ giving me/ AZT and you say that smoking/ would be bad
for me?" Here is an impulsive energy, repeatedly jolting and
yet, very accessible.--rrle
JUXTA--(#1, 1994), 977 Seminole Trail No. 33l, Charlottesville
VA, 22901. $4.50. Editors: Ken Harris and Jim Leftwich. The
inaugural issue of an ambitions and impressive new journal of
innovative writing, one in which innovation is widely enough
conceived to include a broad spectrum of differing styles and
approaches. If future issues are as well-edited and inclusive as
this one, JUXTA will become a major forum for the best and
liveliest of American poetry. The magazine is neatly and cleanly
produced, perfect-bound, and includes textual and visual poetry,
and some criticism: Susan Smith Nash's article on Language Poetry
is one of the clearest and most balanced discussion of that
phenomenon I've read. The contributors are many, but just to
give an idea of the variety here, include Sheila E. Murphy,
Cheryl Townsend, Hugh Fox, Marcia Arrietta, Jake Berry, Bob
Grumman, Crag Hill, Spencer Selby, Harry Burris, Mark DuCharme,
Peter Gannick, Nico Vassilakis, Linsay Hill, M. Kettner, John
Byrum, Thomas Lowe Taylor... and many others. Highly
recommended.--jmb
An absolutely astonishing first issue. The poets and work
assembled here are some of the most provocative current. The
tone of the manifesto intensity of the essays is one hungry for
blood and consummating inspiration. The poetry has all the
authenticity and organism of Beat as well as the revelry of
Blake's prophecies or Breton's automatism. JUXTA is one of a
handful of mags now wise to the rising storm of poetry yearning
to be restored to its essential impetus while not divorcing
itself from the brink of the contemporary world abyss whereon we
must dance to survive with vitality. As with Heaven Bone, Poetry
USA, Lost And Found Times, and a few others, it holds the promise
of what might be if we'll shed the scales and drink the sky
raw.--jb
JUXTA comes roaring out of the wilds without the look of a
virgin, and with the feel of practiced flesh. They studied the
field, grabbed the right writers (Sheila E. Murphy, John M.
Bennett, Jake Berry, Hugh Fox, etc.), and kicked out an issue so
strong I'm still trying to work my way through it, having read
every page to make sure I missed nothing going on. This isn't
your usual poetic verse, but rather an exploration of breaking
all the rules with language shifts that rip electrical discharges
out of brain cells that aren't used to being tugged. Lines leap
at you with sporadic bursts of: "It's hangers and bones it's
sticks and stones/ The weather is the handsome tarp of God"
(Lindsay Hill's "The Method of Steepest Descents"); "It is women
in a place where nerves converge in a central system" (Nico
Vassilakis' "She Looks Up Mythology"); and "gripped by the part
shriek fast/ got sweat strip and into book sheer/ roar a long
breaklanding only slow" (Peter deRous' "Desired Trope"). You'll
be confused, and delighted, for a hundred hours or more.--o
Here is something new and unknown. Ambergris floating in
the sea of tired magazines. And it is a g
oooood magazine. A
thing like this needed. Reminds me of the first issue of Jon
Edgar Webb's THE OUTSIDER: A wonderful magazine of the 1960s that
published Olson next to Bukowski. It is good to see that the
editors drink wide the map of poetry. The juxtapositioning
includes: Spencer Selby, Cheryl Townsend, John Byrum, Hugh Fox,
Crag Hill, Rod Smith. If Santa Claus wanted to give poets a
present it would be more mags like JUXTA. The Easter Bunny would
do the same. And the Ground Hog. And Venus.--mb
KIOSK--(#7), English Department, 306 Clemens Hall, SUNY, Buffalo
NY, 14260. An annual of "new writing" that actually emphasizes
the experimental. This journal looks like most academic literary
journals: a piece of art and a title on the front, the names of
the contributors on the back. But a number of the names on the
back might be familiar to the readers of TRR (but not to many
readers of academic journals): Jake Berry, John Byrum, John M.
Bennett, Sheila E. Murphy, Tom Beckett, Amy Sparks. Not every
work is experimental, and not every experiment works, but there's
enough good work to make it worthwhile. I liked some of the
fiction the best: Mark Jacobs's "The Albino Pheasant", Daniel
Kanyandekwe's excerpt from "The Last Writer", Susan Shaio's
"Heels", and Frank Green's resonating "Scarlet Letters: Part One
(The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale talks about AIDS)". Poems by
John M. Bennett and Amy Sparks also stand out.--ar
The poetry/literature schools at SUNY are not at all what
one would usually finds in academia, at least judging from the
material they publish, KIOSK being a fine example. This issue
contains mostly experimental, or at the very least innovative
work. Some Language poetry, but not bound to that as criteria.
Charles Bernstein is here, but also John M. Bennett, Lyn Lifshin,
but also Sheila E. Murphy. This combination of poets could
cudgel imagination from the rock in a heartbeat. Very
encouraging to know that education and inspiration do
occasionally intermingle.--jb
LAUGHING HORSE BROADSIDE--PO Box 2328, Norman OK, 73070. $1.00.
Cydney Chadwick's "Noun Descending a Fire Escape" explores the
perversity of gender role-constructed bondage, as a woman becomes
disenchanted with her snoring lover, "especially after you
discover a whole wad of money stashed away in his shoe box."
A tableau-vivant that reminds one of French new-wave cinema,
Godard's "Breatheless", or Louis Malle's more recent incest-
insinuations in "Damage".--ssn
LETTER eX--(August/September, 1994), PO Box 476920, Chicago IL,
60647. 20 pp., $2.00 (?). What do you do with a tabloid that
has too many pictures of Lydia Tomkiw on the cover? Inside
LETTER eX, however, it's another story, and Chicago's performance
art poetry sweetheart gets quickly lost in the shuffle. There's
an excellent overview of local poetry publications and events,
and a slobbering great review of a really bad poetry collection
(Chicago Cherry: Wicker Park Erotica), and a decent overview of
Allen Ginsberg's latest romp through the Loop. This is the place
to go if you're a poet wanting to know where to go in Chicago.--o
LETTERBOX--(#3, May 1994), 3791 Latimer Pl., Oakland CA, 94609.
52 pp., $4.50. Scott Bentley, editor. Another in the recent
crop of publications cross-pollinating between various
aesthetics. Stephen Ratcliffe opens w/ 8 sections from
"SOUND/system", delicately problematizing issues of identity (of
author or subject)--slam up against Errol Miller's self-assured
"God Almighty, we're/ human-size, avant-garde individuals/
snaking through the timestream, students/ of an ideal world..."
Arethusa Stevens' romantic surrealisms contrast w/ John M.
Bennett's hard-edged surreality; Michael Sylvester's tale of
graverobbers at Robert Frost's tomb bumps hard up against
Pasquale Verdicchio's lyric travelogue of Beuyes in Italy. It's
a fine gray-area between eclectic & scattered--fortunately, the
unifying factor here is the consistently high quality of the
various works. Praps appropriate that the binding is a fairly
fragile scratch-pad glue.--lbd
LILLIPUT REVIEW--(#56), 207 S. Millvale Ave. #3, Pittsburgh PA,
15224. 16 pp., $1.00. Petite pamphlet which could, in a steamy
laundromat situation, be mistaken for a religious tract. But
this is no you-are-not-alone reinforcer of existential
abandonment: Jim Cory's "232-9212/Tight Ass" is a warm reminder
of the power of advertising; Scarecrow's "nothing heals" is a 4-
line whisper into a corpse's ear. A neat little packet,
punctuated with Rorschach graphics reproducing the experience of
being interrogated in a windowless room by a psychiatrist gone
ragged-in-the-mind.--ssn
LILLIPUT REVIEW--(#57), 207 S. Millvale Ave. #3, Pittsburgh PA,
15224. 16 pp., $1.00. A tiny booklet packed with kernular
poems, some as short as tolek's hilarious "/more/," which
consists of just the line: "perfect, belittled"; or the even
shorter "NowHere" of Richard Kostelanetz. Then there's my
favorite contribution to the issue, Ficus strangulensis's 7-step
transformation of a handwritten "Be" to "blank"--a visusual
treatment of the original by John M. Bennett. Most of the other
poems are longer and fairly conventional, but generally enjoyable.--bg
LILLIPUT REVIEW--(#60, Summer 1994), 207 S. Millvale Ave. #3,
Pittsburgh PA, 15224. 8 pp., $1.00. David Wentworth, editor.
This publication is an act of love, incredible dedication, and
touches on what poetry always talks about being, but so rarely
is. Wentworth's eye for poems that are precise and filled with
emotion is one of the finest in the small presses, and he can
coax the best out of any poet, and give it to the world on a
golden platter. In this issue Cheryl Townsend takes on the Pro-
Lifers, Weinman throws white racism against a wall, C.C. Russell
gives us Mother paranoia, Ana Christy hands us a haiku kid on
dope. You get the feeling that all of these poets have been the
places they're writing about, welcoming us into their worlds with
a light touch of words inside our head.--o
LOGODAEDLUS--(#7, Summer 1994), PO Box 13193, Harrisburg PA,
17104. 30 pp., $7.50. An unbound collection of verbo-visual
pieces, several in full color, by such artists a John Byrum,
Spencer Selby and Karl Kempton. One example: Guy R. Beining's
"Beige Copy: Post-Text," a collage with annotations (e.g.,
"cerebrum" and "cephalic") in varied colors around two
rectangles, one containing a geisha in blue with a two-tiered
red parasol, the other using the first's red and blue--and
circles--with an x-ray of a wrist, and young-girl images...
all to suggest fascinating things about brain function, waking,
and dreaming.--bg
MEGAZINE--(#13, Spring 1994), PO Box 86803, Phoenix AZ, 85080-
6803. 8 pp., $1.00. This is a wonderful ranting piece of pure
hatred, with a prison poem by Weinman, a poem from Frank ('s
Depression) about greyhound bus travel so close to life that my
butt hurt from the long ride, and other scraps of anger and
madness. Sometimes bordering on the pointless though--to be so
vicious without a target that deserves it.--o
MESHUGGAH--(#10, June 1994), 200 E. 10th St., New York NY, 10003.
56 pp., $2.00. A "special religion issue" that features this
quote from Tammy Faye Bakker: "I take Him shopping with me.
I say, 'OK, Jesus, help me find a bargain.'" Also includes
serious material, such as a little-known essay on Christianity by
Robinson Jeffers, a caustic slam on religion by Bob Black, and an
even deeper piece by Dr. Al Ackerman called "The Gospel According
to Peanut Butter."--bg
MILK--c/o The Poetry Project at St. Marks, 131 E. 10th St, New
York NY, 10001. 18 pp., $3.00. "Signed sealed & delivered: the
letters issue", an assemblage of correspondence to & from various
including Bernadette Mayer, Ted Greenwald, Richard Hell, Jill
Rapaport, Ted Berrigan (circa 1971)... more than a little
muttering on the difficulty of the poet life, but mostly a
miscellany & no noticeable theme. A bit of a Cleveland
connection, w/ Frank Green on tour with his Scarlet Letters
performance, Lola Rodriguez dissing the town she can't seem to
leave, and several from or to expatriot Mike Decapite. An
equally random index picks out "crush," "God," "Alice Notley,"
"people," "poems," "smile," "streets," and "Wordsworth" as worth
multiple citations.--lbd
MISSIONARY STEW--(Vol. 2 #3, May 1994), 100 Courtland Dr.,
Columbia SC, 29223. 6 pp., $4.00. Fifteen 2-word poems, some
illustrated (as Gerald Burns's "canned poem" and Harlod Dinkel's
"elementary drowning"), the rest typographically or in some other
way illumagistically-enhanced, sometimes to the verge of visual
poetry as in John M. Bennett's scriggly-rural rendition of "corn
belt." A fun collection for people with a taste for minimalistic
poetry.--bg
MONDO HUNKAMOOGA--(#8, July 1994), Box 141, Station F, Toronto
Ontario, Canada, M4Y 2L4. 4 pp., $2.00. A revival of Stuart
Ross's much-missed (for 6 years!) newsletter of the cutting-edge
literary scene in Toronto, and linked areas elsewhere. Some
excellent short reviews of books Ross picked up at the Toronto
Small Press Book Fair, and a wonderfully-casual but pin-pointedly
informative discussion by jw curry of an exhibit of illumagery
and visual poems by bill bissett. Also, an ad for a movie called
"The Four Horsemen Go To Mars" (with "actual Hollywood poets!",
among them Leonard Nimoy, Richard Thomas, and Suzanne
Sommers).--bg
MYSTERIOUS WYSTERIA--(#6, Summer, 1994), 335 East Erie, Lorain
OH, 44052. 38 pp., $1.00. Ironically I often find the best
writers and publications come out of the most unexpected places,
and while most people would look to either coast for writing with
an edge, there are people in the midwest and even, yep, Ohio, who
draw blood when you touch their pages. Here's one such, with a
Scott Holstad poem about a stripper and dreams of rescue; Erroll
Miller observing a sex craved female looking for another fuck
without obligation: Weinman striking a few sexual notes, and a
Lifshin poem I actually liked.--o
MYSTERIOUS WYSTERIA--(#7, Fall 1994), 335 East Erie, Lorain OH,
44052. 34 pp., $1.00. Eric Scott, editor. In the latest issue
of MYSTERIOUS WYSTERIA you get prison fiction by Jon R. Campbell,
a sex poem by Lyn Lifshin ("Like The Floor/ I want you/ there
waiting/ for me spread/ out, no bitching/ if I walk all/ over
you..."), a story by Terence Bishop about that strange lust you
have for people you can't have, and Paul Weinman ripping apart
another piece of our reality. Eric captures the best that he can
find in each issue, and often it's the best that can be found.--o
NEW BRAND--(#6, Summer 1994), PO Box 184, Vinton VA, 24179.
40 pp., $1.00. When you toss great band interviews (Youth
Brigade, Rhythm Collision), huge romantic notions by Thomas Wells
who takes on controversial subjects like what the hell is gay
pride and do we really need it, White Boy Poems (come on Paul,
kill the motherfucker before I do) by Weinman, and music reviews,
you get a damn good read by a wildman in Virginia who isn't
afraid to throw the first punch, even if someone else started the
fight.--o
NEW BRAND--(#7, September 1994), PO Box 184, Vinton VA, 24179.
33 pp., $3.00 (?). Music reviews, interviews with bands, a weird
fucking letter columns from people you hope you'll never meet in
person, zine reviews that call something shit when it is shit,
and poetry from Weinman and other wired out illuminated souls.
This is the perfect bath-tub read, a fun thing to mix it all up
in just the right doses.--o
NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW--(Vol. 17 #4, 1994), 20 Werneth
Ave., Gee Cross, Hyde, Cheshire, U.K., SK14 5NL. 36 pp., 2
Pounds/$5.00. Poetry without borders from poets residing in
mostly England, but also Canada, Mexico, Austria, Spain, Brazil,
Bulgaria, the USA... even the Vatican. Belinda Subraman is here,
as one of two representing the USA. Translations and original
script, churning ambient soundscape with tantalizing
possibilities. It retains some diffuse poetic grandeur, as perhaps
only an English editor can channel it--often too floating
and sacred for me. "These are the eyes that never fit/ and this
is the mouth that can't forget." chants Peter Howard in his
mantra voice. Still, the world needs more international vehicles
for poetry.--rrle
THE NEW RENAISSANCE--(#27, Fall 1994), 9 Heath Rd., Arlington MA,
02174. 181 pp., $7.00. A beautifully-packaged collection of
fiction, non-fiction, illumagery and poetry from the middle
outlook of our culture, but which includes a breakthrough article
by David Impastato on the nature and failings of "dominant-mode
poetry. Also a worth-the-price-of-admission set of reproductions
of the neo-Boschian unmiddle-outlook paintings by Samuel Bak (b.
1933).--bg
NO LONGER A FANzine--(#5, Summer 1994), 142 Frankford Ave.,
Blackwood NJ, 08012. 54 pp., $2.00. Joseph A. Gervasi, editor.
When someone takes on the world without flinching, and gets
interviews with William T. Vollman (author of THE RAINBOW
DIARIES), Randall Phillip (editor of FUCK), and even talked to
Dennis Cooper in the last issue, you know you're dealing with
somebody who isn't afraid to take on the crazies. This is what
fanzines dream of being--independent, xeroxed, DIY--but almost
never achieve because there isn't the intelligence and gall in
most people to pull this thing off right. This is the stuff, the
place, the thing you got to see, like talking to somebody you
really want to know.--o
O!! ZONE--(#12), 1266 Fountain View Dr., Houston TX, 77057.
48 pp., #4.00. A highlight of this issue is a grittily anti-
sentimental but moving elegy for Bukowski by Robert Peters.
Representing the opposite end of the overt-passion scale is C.L.
Champion's "poema cocci," which consists of four scattered
rectangles. In the middle of one is the word "cloud"; in another
is a "c"; and "clod" is in a third. The fourth is empty. Earth,
sea and sky... and mystery.--bg
O!! ZONE--(#13), 1266 Fountain View Dr., Houston TX, 77057.
48 pp., $5.00. Harry Burrus, editor-Publisher. Thirteen, what a
pleasant number, but not bad luck--good luck for Harry Burrus.
Here's one that is moving it along. Writers from about the round
orb on which we live (some of us at any rate). Represented
writers from: Papatoetoe, West Yorks, Berlin, Aukland and
Baltimore! Well, we are all poets and here is this maga going
all about it. It communicates: A phone call of poetry with a
free package of gum. Fine cut-up collages too. A Fine mix of
poetry forms and no arrogance. Obviously no one in this maga has
a polo pony. Some tributes to poetry of Anna Leonessa and some
nude shots. Some visual poems and some confessions. Names in
the news: Crag Hill, Bob Grumman, Ergee, Trish, Hergo and fine
work from these: Zauta, Bertola, Akmakjian, Weslowski. Sing
these names and get more poetry. Poetry-o. Poetry-ski. Us the
word fine a lot.--mb
ONE HUNDRED SUNS--(#2, Spring 1994), PO Box 30186, Long Beach CA,
90853. 68 pp., $5.00. This enticing zine has included so many
well-known micropress poets I can't mention them all. Suffice it
to say that this publication is an exploration of the spirit of
poetry in the '90s, represented in almost 40 poems, plus b&w
collages, two-tone photographs, reviews and even three comix
sketches. Amid the clarity of well-worked verse and reliable
voices is a sense of mission; to present tasteful but not tame
poetry; to create something enjoyable and lasting. For example,
Todd Kalineki attempts to paint, "& made a few random attempts at
the abstract./ Fuck this, i thought--/ nature's more powerful..."
Todd Moore interacts with his father: "he grabbed/ my hand &/
made me/ touch the/ pulse going/ up & down/ on his wrist..."
vivid images abound. Elsewhere, Cheryl Townsend contemplates
age, "...someone let the air out/ of my tires..." Poetry by
poets with focus and confidence.--rrle
OPEN 24 HOURS--(# 10, 1994), PO Box 50376, Washington DC, 20091.
$3.00. Buck Downs, editor. Twenty-four contributors include
Alice Notely, Bruce Andrews, Robert Fitterman, A.L. Nielsen, John
Elsberg, Mark Wallace, Keith Higginbotham and Spenser Selby,
among others--this should give an idea of the great variety of
styles presented. What holds them all together is a lively
concern with innovative or intensely engaged language as the
essence of poetry. There is very little in the way of merely
formal exercise here, however; all of these selections reflect an
immersion in human experience and an active engagement with it:
an American's
an American's
lacy way around
attire a frozen rule
misled stance of lessening value
a take charge kind
of sick, surrogate winds we got
a situation here dismissive
shipment of over-
designed blouses the forever
shift, all grunt, gamely
a linked-up way about him from first
to third in no time
--Robert Fitterman
An excellent compilation.--jmb
OXYGEN--(Summer, 1994), 535 Geary St. #1010, San Francisco CA,
94102. 50 pp., $3.00. Richard Hack, editor. This is one of San
Francisco's serious literary pubs, and you feel a fine tooth edge
in its editing. With one of Arthur Winfield Knight's better
short stories about a run in with the traffic legal system, a
poem about Victor Martinez's hatred of the street and hatred of
responsibilities that keep you from the alleys, and a cynical
bite of surrealistic reality from Richard Hack, you know you're
on to something. It carries an edge, and an academic touch--
proof there are still people outside of the margin that know what
all of this is supposed to be about.--o
PEARL--(#20, Spring 1994), 3030 E. Second St., Long Beach CA,
90803. 96 pp., $6.00. Some literary magazines are so tightly
structured they read more like a well edited fine tuned
anthology, than just a small press magazine. PEARL is one of
these, tearing along like a wild out-of-control car looking for
new speed limits to break, while, at the same time, running so
smooth you forget there are flashing blue lights trailing in the
distance. In this issue we get some of the best stars of the
literary presses including poetry by Laurel Speer, Tolek, Mark
Weber, Dan Nielsen, and Robert Peters. You also get great
illustrations by Ann Menebroker and Daryl Rogers, among a cast of
thousands. Add into this mixture of flammable fumes a chapbook,
CODE GREEN, by Donna Hilbert (tasty lines like "The pain is dark
green/ I feel it in my bask when I sleep", "I loved the flat
sassy/ bodies of my paper dolls", and "Because I can't breathe,/
i try to sleep/ on the drive up the mountain"), plus Tolek,
Laurel Speer, Ron Androla, Mark Weber, Gerald Locklin... well,
you know you're going to be in for quite a ride.--o
PHOBIA--(#8, Summer 1994), PO Box 23194, Seattle WA, 98102.
44 pp., $4. Edited by Ezra Mark. Near the end of this
collection of otherstream collages, poems, fictions and related
utterances are two sideways white zeros by Andrew Klimek that
join each other against a black background. One is larger and
slightly higher off the ground that the other. It takes their
title to make one realize that they form "infinity, skewed."
Minimal, to be sure--but full of hints of nothing/something out
of darkness, of chains, of the elegant exactness of mathematics
gone pathological in the subtlest of ways, of the universe in
process... Much else here is of similar bent & quality.--bg
PIEDMONT LITERARY REVIEW--(Vol. XVII, #4, Fall 1994), c/o
Piedmont Literary Society, Bluebird Lane, Rt. #1, Box 1014,
Forest VA, 24551. 44 pp., $3.00. There are times I get tired of
the anger and hysteria, and want to read something that gets bask
to the basics. When I get philosophical I read _The Art Of War_,
but when I want thoughtful poetry I go to an issue of PIEDMONT
LITERARY REVIEW. Bruce Thomas Boehrer is the first poet to
capture what Kevin Cosgriff, a friend of mine in KY, called a
diet ("eat less food, drink more beer") in the form of poetry.
Kathleen Thomas' poem, "The Typest", scared me half to death when
she wrote "Speed, accuracy, and diffidence/ Account for her
precise movements/ And bland face./ None of the executives detect
the rage...". A lot of these poems are, on the other hand,
gentle, thoughtful, and bring that strange smile you can't take
off your face when you're walking down the street and remember a
moment only you would understand.--o
PINK PAGES--(#5, Summer 1994), c/o Joe Maynard, 372 Fifth Ave,
Brooklyn NY, 11215. 28 pp., $2.00. Where else would you find
explicit digitized sexual illustrations of bondage, venereal
diseases, sexual confessionary fictions that would moisten the
driest surfaces, poems that would provoke the gentlest feminist
to military action, and creative individuals who have no mercy,
coming back for more, over and over again, until the edges are so
rough they feel like they're on fire. Where else, but the PINK
PAGES? Who else would have this kind of fun?--o
POETIC BRIEFS--(#17, August/September 1994), 31 Parkwood St. #3,
Albany, NY, 12208. 16 pp., $10/6 issues. Starts with a sensible
article by editor Jefferson Hanson against the Language poetry
bashing currently going on. Ends with an epigramful short essay
by John de Wit including such as: "keeping understanding in mind
makes a poet a part-time teacher, a noncommissioned officer of
the artistic forces" (which I like a lot, tho I'd add, double-
ahem, that keeping understanding ALWAYS out of mind makes a poet
a lieutenant-colonel of the anti-artistic forces...). Much in
between that is equally fun to reflect on, into, or away
from.--bg
RALPH--(#19, July 1994), PO Box 505-1288 Broughton St., Vancouver
BC, Canada, V6G 2B5. 4 pp., $1.00. I found this in a coffee
shop, and Ralph must travel a lot because he covers San Francisco
this time with a bit of Punk history, a Jennifer Joseph reading,
a trip to North Beach and City Lights, and a poem that almost
makes fun of poetry. There's also a list of Ralph's latest
reads, and a feeling in this short publication comes from the
heart and travels of a man who wants to know what life is all
about.--o
SCHISM--(Vol. 3 #11-#24, 1985-89), PO Box 2977, Iowa City IA,
52242. 8pp. @, $10.00 (cash). A collector's packet of back
issues a zine edited by JanetJanet. In "Up the Garden Path", she
sez of it: "SCHISM was never intended to be a serious art
movement; it was a rather slight joke. A humorous way of
exposing the stupidity of organized art movements." Nonetheless,
the 14 issues here are full of manipulations of text and visual,
and other moves that any otherstream artist could learn from.--bg
SEATTLE SMALL PRESS POETRY REVIEW--(June 1994), 6226 1/2 Stanley,
Seattle WA, 98108. 4 pp., $??. Three verbo-visual works each by
Trudy Mercer, Ezra Mark, and Joe Keppler, with critical
commentary by yours truly. A full range of "vizlature," from a
textless jumble of scribbling by Mark from which one or two
letters might be emerging, to a piece by Keppler that is all
text--the word "err" repeated enough times to form a large
rectangle, to something by Mercer that looks like a diagram of
sub-atomic events somehow concerned with the origin of language
in the half-text/half-graphic middle of the range. A short
survey of vizlature, and introduction to what's going on in the
Seattle otherstream.--bg
SEMIQUASI REVIEW--(#1, Summer 1994), Box 55892 Fondren Station,
Jackson MS, 39296. 12 pp., SASE. Good long reviews of
otherstream fiction (if Avital Ronell's The Telephone Book, $35
from the University of Nebraska Press, qualifies as otherstream).
Lots of deconstructive insight--and extra helpfulnesses such as a
note that there's an interview of Ronell in RE/Search #13 for
those interested. Halfway through a sequence of highly
idiosyncratic langpo/haiku responses to a ballet competition
begins a flourish of improvisational riffs on various artworks
and who knows what else that are good reading but not
illumination as criticism, if that is what they were intended to
be.--bg
SHEILA NA GIG--(#9, 1994), 23106 Kent Ave.,, Torrance CA, 90505.
100 pp., $6.00. This yearly publication can be counted on to
yield high-energy poetry every time. In this issue, along with
poetry by Charles Webb, Gerald Locklin, Lynn Lifshin and others,
we have three poetry contest winners with two representative
poems from each. Plenty of conscious space in this publication,
and each word is boiled down to it's essential nucleus. When
Ilie Ruby tells of her sister in one poem called "Triple Slut,"
"Sister had a way/ of peeling the sun from the sky/ with a
word..." we can feel her torment, see the sibling rivalry. Most
of these poems are earnest and piercing; for example, Candace
Moore tells us of her personal abuse; "I'm willing/ to be beaten.
Your bruises are like/ trophies..." No sappy innocence here, a
verbal alchemy of free verse resides on each page.--rrle
SHIT DIARY--(#12), USF #3182, 4202 East Fowler Ave., Tampa FL,
33620-3182. 44 pp., $1.00. Setting the tone for this issue are
a black-comedy tale by Andrew Urbanus about a wack who is
literally shit on (and into) at some kind of sadistic
fraternity's night of entertainment, and a nutty story by Tom
Lavignino about a guy who gets his kicks sneaking into a woman's
apartment and leaving his unflushed turds in her toilet.--bg
SHIT DIARY--(#14), USF #3182, 4202 East Fowler Ave., Tampa FL,
33620-3182. $1.00. Editor Surllama has had a bit of address
trouble lately, so you might try sending any funds or queries to
Surllama, c/o Kevin D. Kelly, just to make sure it reaches him.
This issue is yet another howling fine bowl full, including a
delightful pic of child turds described as, "Two Californias and
the Panhandle of Texas." Now where else are you going to find
something like that? There's a couple of steaming wonders by
Willie Smith including a murderer who drowns his victim in a
toilet and goes on to become a preacher. "The Dervish Unwinds"
by Bill Kaul-puta is a tale of grisly science with roadkill.
After that the mag gets weird. SHIT DIARY has become a very
unique place to be, very tasty--like giving your lover head and
he or she farts in your mouth and you cum instantly. It's just
that intense. An enema for the soul.--jb
SHOCKBOX--(#10, Summer 1994), PO Box 7226, Nashua NH, 03060.
58 pp., $3.00. Editor: C.F. Roberts. Some of the small press'
most vicious psychopaths (Cynthia Hendershot, Robert W.
Howington, Blair Wilson, Gerald Locklin, Paul Weinman, and
another thirty or more equally dangerous souls) flying at you, in
page after page of rabid euphoric hysteria. Alfred Vitale's
fight between his parents (YOU JAB ME???WITH A KNIFE???FUCKIN'
CUNT.. .I'LL") reminded me of the fights I never saw as a kid,
and even Chicago poets like Batya Goldman get to fart and go to
Heaven in this world. This is writing from the edge--the knife
edge, not the artsy avant-garde.--o
SHORT FUSE--(#58, Summer 1994), PO Box 90436, Santa Barbara CA,
93190. 24 pp., $1.00. One of those electro-dynamic every-
square-inch-crammed free-on-the-streets poetry & graphix
publications. Mostly dark, as inna poem by Edward Mycue whose
lonely protagonist should spend the night at a motel but can't
bring himself "to fill/ any empty room/ between two sets/ of
lovers." Good otherstream work by the usuals (Jake Berry, Guy R.
Beining) too.--bg
SILENT BUT DEADLY--(#4, August 1994), USF #3182, 4202 East Fowler
Ave., Tampa FL, 33620-3182. 24 pp., $1.00. More critiques by
subscribers to this equivalent of a poet's workshop. The poets
whose work is treated this time are E.E. Cummings, John Be.
Denson, C. Mulrooney, and Jake Berry. Lots of hilariously dumb
critiques, plus a worth-th-price-of-the-issue spoof of High
Literary Seriousness by Eel Leonard (aka Dr. Al Ackerman). Great
reading for those with a sense of humor who enjoy reading about
literature.--bg
SILENT BUT DEADLY--(#5, October 1994), USF #3182, 4202 East
Fowler Ave., Tampa FL, 33620-3182. 28 pp., $1.00. Poets
critiqued in this issue: John M. Bennett, Gabriel Monteleone
Neruda, Tom "Tearaway" Schulte, and yours truly. C. Mulrooney
claims he hasn't gotten any poems to criticize, "just a bunch of
bric-a-brac junkmail, because the editor can't tell the
difference"; he proceeds to "criticize" the poems with poems of
his own & others. Robert Peters calls Bennett's poem "horrible,
horrible." And like that. The usual much fun; and tho I enjoyed
being the victim of critique, I was disappointed that Bennett got
it worse than I did.--bg
SITUATION--(#7), 10402 Ewell Ave., Kensington MD, 20895. 16 pp.,
$2.00. A simple but cleanly produced compilation of poetry and
texts by eight writers, all of which (according to editor Mark
Wallace) address the "possibility of identity" in "formally
innovative" ways. The innovative strategies here are largely of
the neo-Language type, to use a term of less stylistic than
associational meaning. The selection of texts is excellent,
showing a wide variety of approaches, from Sterling Plumpp's
incantational "Mfua's Song," to Ron Silliman's obliquely related
prose paragraphs, to A.L. Nelsen's elusivly framed examination of
character, to Kevin Killian's dialogic invocations of popular
culture and language.--jmb
Includes Ron Silliman's "Under," a section of his long
project _The Alphabet: all the high fizz of surrealism and jump-
cut langpo--and even lyric grace at times, as in: "The trees at
first catch, then amplify, sounds of the storm. Baby at the
stage when he can pull himself up but not take a step without
support." A funny short play about Barbara Hutton by Kevin
Killian--strikes me how far the Language poets swerve from
newsprint for diction, tho to it for subject matter. The other
good items here once again confirm the position of SITUATION
among the best outlets for langpo and related materials
going.--bg
SMALL PRESS REVIEW--(Vol. 26 #7, July-August 1994), PO Box 100,
Paradise CA, 95969. 40 pp., $5.00. The annual double issue,
edited by Laurel Speer, devoted to the observations of a handful
of small press (never micropress) editors. These people always
say the same kind of things, but I always enjoy reading them--for
that matter, I always say the same kinds of things myself when
asked to comment on my experiences as a publisher).--bg
SPIKE--(#4, 1994), PO Box 20183, Boulder CO, 80308. 90 pp.,
$8.90. Peter Lamborn Wilson's essay "The Wild Man," identifying
the American myth of white man turning into a "savage" Indian as
central to our cultural psyche, appears half-way thru this
collection, and it seems relevant to other of the work here--
Coyote, & various western/wilderness settings, show up in more
than a couple of poems; while Adrian Louis's "Ancient Acid
Flashing Back" poems extend the psychedelic generation's claim on
an LSD/shaman connection. Several pieces each from a dozen
contributors, including Charlie Mehrhoff, Jack Collom, and Bruce
Barrows. LA performance poet Akilah Oliver successfully
translates her impressionistic word collages to print. And Tom
Cooper's longish "Ides of March Poem" is upstaged by the
preceding series of four photographs--in the first three, he's
holding signs that read, serially: "Hello," "I have AIDS," "Now
you see me..." & of course, in the final frame he is gone.--lbd
SUBTEXT--(#1, Summer 1994), PO Box 23194, Seattle WA, 98102.
44 pp., $3. One particularly nice thing about this magazine is
that it includes statements about their craft by most of it's
(Seattle-based) contributors--through not by Kirby Olson, whose
entire contribution, in quotes, is "POETICS: hatred disguised as
gentle comedy; gentle comedy disguised as hatred." The poems and
fictions are wide-ranging and risk-taking, as in this excerpt of
an excerpt of Tom Malone's "Puget Safe," "by wind structed/ obser
light/ rapid light brances/ on shore up"; excerpts from Ezra
Mark's NARTHEX; and John Olson's "Fluorescent Frontier," which
begins with a "laryngeal jalopy."--bg
SYNAESTHETIC: A JOURNAL OF POETRY, PROSE, AND MEDIA ARTS--(#1,
Spring 1994), 178-10 Wexford Terrace, Apt. 3D, Jamaica NY, 11432.
$7.00. Alex Cigale, editor. The debut issue of a literary
journal devoted to "found forms found text" (this issue includes
some photography, which raises the question of whether or not all
photography is "found" art). Most of the texts are presented as
poems, and involve some degree of manipulation and/or selection
by the artist. In some cases the source of the material is
indicated by a note, but in others there is no such information:
in the latter cases the texts often sound rather flat, which
suggest that the detailed knowledge of a poem's "foundness" plays
a major role in its aesthetic success. In spite of the
occasional dull moment, however, there are many excellent and
stimulating contributions here--for example, the work of Rochelle
Lynn Holt, Tony D'Arpino, Sesshu Foster, Halvard Johnson, Bennett
Capers, Jesse Glass, Gary Aspenberg and John Bradley. This
journal is an important contribution to the literary scene in its
focus on found technique as a serious process in contemporary
writing. It is professionally produced in large format, typeset,
perfectbound, with well-reproduced photographs. I look forward
to future issues.--jmb
TAGGERZINE--(#5.5, Spring 1994), PO Box 632952, San Diego CA,
92163-2952. 28 pp., $2.00 (?). I love the layout of this
magazine, with clean white space offsetting the words and art.
There's a conscientiousness to it, with a touch of love and
dedication. Weinman's playful gory rabbit killer poem showed his
taking on new territory, which renews my respect for his creative
tendencies going another eight steps up the road. Adrienne
Droogas' piece, "I Was Raped Today," was so powerful, so
spontaneous, that lines like: "I washed and I washed and have yet
to cleanse myself with tears", "I don't want to hear your voice
and taste you in my mouth", "I don't want this smell in my room
anymore", still echo in my head. Frank B. Hobbs' "Achey Breaky
Dreams" capture bits and pieces that create a gestalt of the
senses, and the graphics compliment, don't over-ride the words.
This is a balance that most publications should learn: that anger
tempered with insight and well written words rips apart the
senses more than anger overwhelmed by noise.--o
TALISMAN--(#12, Spring 1994), PO Box 1117, Hoboken NJ, 07030.
262 pp., $6.00. A central publication for American poetry. Each
issue features a wide and deep selection of various new poetries,
and also showcases an individual well-known poet with samples of
his work, critical commentary on it, and an interview with the
poet--this time around featuring Theodore Enslin. Also here, a
large selection of contemporary Chinese poetry in translation.
TALISMAN may not quite have caught up with the latest
pluraesthetic and infra-verbal poetry but it's not ignoring it,
and it's first-rate on everything else I know about in
contemporary poetry.--bg
:THAT:--(#18, February 1994), PO Box 85, Peacham VT, 05862.
10 pp., $1.50. Feature: Daniel Zimmerman's "Tattoo's for
Proteus," a lyrical festival of intonation, symbol-making, and
forms as fibrous as crystals shattering in the screech of dawn.
"Lisa's Rag Doll Devil" toys with the monsters of the unconscious
that say hey-I-won't-be-tamed: "my mother prays St. Anthony/ no.
it's just as well." Light-hearted juxtapositions of Greek myth,
20th-century culture, and philosophical inquiry. Strangely
moving.--ssn
:THAT:--(#24, Aug 1994), PO Box 85, Peacham VT, 05862. 24 pp.,
$1.50. Stephen Dignazio & Stephen Ellis, editors. Issue No. 24
is a set of work, writing, poems by Robert Grenier. They are
notebook poems--not poems from a notebook. Grenier's most recent
work uses the note book page(s) as a unit of composition. The
pages are unlined so that the words as material locate themselves
in a wide variety of fashion: some approaching the non-verbal and
the completely visual yet maintaining a link with an alphabet,
which is a concept that is also stretched in this poetry. :THAT:
is always farther and for-word. Issues 19-23 (all published in
1994) featured: Kenneth Irby, Patrick Dowd, Stephen Jonas,
CLayton Eshleman, Halliday Dresser, Bruce Andrews, Ray DiPalma,
and Nathaniel Tarn.--mb
THIRTEEN POETRY MAGAZINE--(Vol. XIII, October 1994), PO Box 392,
Portlandville NY, 13834-0392. 52 pp., $4,00 (?). It's always
sad when a great literary magazine comes to the end, and THIRTEEN
was one of those publications you hoped would go on forever.
There was always a gentle touch, an almost sensitive approach to
editing, and while I tend to lean in the direction of vicious
psychopathic outlaw writing, there was always a beam of light that
caught my eye as I drifted through the poems. Often I had no
idea of who the writers were, confused by all of the names I had
never heard of, but there were gems shining in each issue, and an
awareness that there is more than blood and guts and sweat to
writing. This issue is packed to the gills, and is a decent
finale for a magazine that I will truly miss.--o
THORNY LOCUST--(#3, Summer 1994), PO Box 32631, Kansas City MO,
64171. 36 pp., $4.00. Rigorous poetry, prose, line art and b&w
photos. Often warm, and sensual, even humorous, at other times
cerebral and self-conscious ranging to the dark and extreme: from
lies we tell our children to serial cannibalism with a lot of
fragments in between. Not exactly focused but provocative
anyway. "She begs for another jolt,/ her body strapped down
safely,/ electrodes sizzling forgetfulness," Robert Cooperman
whispers to us, while Carl Bettis contemplates the infamous
serial killer: "Jeffery Dahmer's/ Grown no calmer."--rrle
TIGHT--(Vol. 5, # 3), PO Box 1591, Guerneville CA, 95446. $4.50.
Editor: Ann Erickson. For several years now a crossroads of the
underground poetry scene, TIGHT collects in every issue an
assortment of almost all kinds of poetry currently appearing.
This issue begins with an excellent, considered piece by Crag
Hill, "At The Louve"--the second verse: "Safe art is a damnable
confession,/ that kneeling figure on the fact,/ for the state can
conceive of us." And what follows ranges from confessional, to
descriptive, to experiment, to sentiment. This is like a poetry
menagerie shaped without intrusions by the editor's keen
sensitivity for the broad diversity of poetic voice.--jb
TO--(Vol. 2 #3/4, Spring 1994), PO Box 121, Narberth PA, 19072.
320 pp., $10.00. Very high-grade production values with a neat
cartoony painting by Philip Guston of a ghost-sheeted, cigar-
smoking painter painting a self-portrait of himself on the cover.
Within is a section devoted to Guston that contains 16
reproductions of his paintings followed by one poem on each
painting by Clark Coolidge, followed in turn by commentary on
Coolidge's poems by Debra Balken, a memoir of Guston by William
Corbett, and other Guston-related material. All kinds of other
interesting poetry and prose, including some "sonnets" by Jenny
Gough that do fascinating things in and about their 14 lines--
their 14 literal (plane-geometry) lines.--bg
TRANSMOG--(#13, summer 1994), Rt. 6 Box 138, Charleston WV,
25311. 24 pp., $1.00. Ficus Strangulensis, editor. Although
this is in a zine format, and carries that edge you'd expect,
there are some damn good pieces amid the sloppy layout, which you
wouldn't know are there unless you really dig. There are tons of
"found" poems, utterances from the insane, short insightful
bursts from Sparrow, poetry by Weinman, surrealistic word combos
from John M. Bennett, a Bob Z poem, strange disorienting
graphics, and a friendly feel that makes you read through
everything again just in case you missed something the first time
through.--o
TRANSMOG--(#14, May 1994), Rt. 6 Box 138, Charleston WV, 25311.
22 pp. More talents new to me, like Ehel--one of whose two
illumages comprises 25 fouled-up renderings of rectangles
stamped, always incompletely, with phrase, "FIRST-CLASS MAIL."
Perhaps the centerpiece here is "The Invaders," a plaintext poem
by Robert Kelly that takes up six columns. It begins as a
discussion of language as "an invasion/ from outer space"--each
word being an alien that has move into our brains. It ends with
the speaker having found them after many vain attempts to. It is
"a kind of shapely pouting silence/ a bunch of words beyond my
grasp/ all I could do was say them so I did."--bg
TRANSMOG--(#15, Fall 1994), Rt. 6 Box 138, Charleston WV, 25311.
28 pp. There's something about a one staple lit mag that brings
me back to my Boston days when Bob Z's BAD NEWZ used to haunt my
mailbox. Lyn Lifshin, Sheila Murphy, John M. Bennett, Sparrow,
Paul Weinman, Jake Berry, Lainie Duro, Alan Catlan, John Grey,
Paul Weinman, and a mailing list fly at you like a thousand
sucker punches gone astray, making me wonder how the hell Ficus
managed to throw so many fiercely individualistic poets together
without having the pages shred themselves.--o
Just crammed with sparkletic visual and verbal items: the
best buy around for otherstreamers. One happy specimen of the
contents is a story by Don Webb that features sentences
discussing themselves and the text they're in. Example: "This
sentence believes that no one will read this far, and so
occasionally goes out for coffee." New this issue (I think) is a
short review section by editor strangulensis.--bg
U-DIRECT--(#1, August 1994), PO Box 476617, Chicago IL, 60647.
42 pp., $4.00. Produced by Mary Kuntz Press, in conjunction with
this summer's Underground Publishing Conference at DePaul
University. Hence, it has a few pages on the conference itself--
but the bulk of it consists of strong articles whose titles tell
it all: "Don't Let State Artists Become the State of the Arts,"
by conference organizer Batya Goldman; Merritt Clifton's "20
Years of Collating"; Mike Basinki's "White Boy and the World of
Poetry"; or Stuart McCarrell's "On the Five Types of Poets"--this
last item from 1966 and thus amusingly "wrong" about the then-
just-starting Language poets, but still pertinent food-for-
thought.--bg
VEINS--(#2, Summer 1994), c/o T. Bishop, 2220 Walnut St. #402,
Philadelphia PA, 19103. 34 pp., $3.00. Editor Terrence Bishop's
piece, "Tales From The Workplace," captures a dance club monotony
with such clean precise lines you can feel the garbage ooze over
your fingers as he writes about dragging the trash outside. Mel
C. Thompson's CARRYING THE TORCH carries intensity to an extreme
with lines like: "You wanna' hear some bullshit?/ I still love
your plump, junkie ass,/how you keep (almost) dyin' young--your
scratchy, nervous whiskey talk." Throw in some Nicole Panter (my
favorite real life nasty girl), and you are on the road to a
place so vicious that your best weapons won't keep away the
dreams.--o
VISIBLE LANGUAGE--(Vol. 27, #4), Rhode Island School of Design,
Graphic Design Dept., 2 College St., Providence RI, 02903. 112
pp., $10.00. Special issue: VISUAL POETRY: AN INTERNATIONAL
ANTHOLOGY. This collection came about as a result of discussions
held at the Third International Biennial of Visual Poetry in
Mexico City, 1990. The general editor for the collection is
Harry Polkinhorn, who also edited the section for U.S. poets and
translated the commentaries of the other editors. The other
editors are: Philadelpho Menezes (Brazil), Pedro Juan Gutierrez
(Cuba), Enzo Minarelli (Italy), Cesar Espinosa (Mexico), Fernando
Aguiar (Portugal), and Clemente Padin (Uruguay). This is not a
block buster anthology like those of Solt or Williams in the
'60s. Because of its sketchiness, the collection tends to be
more suggestive than definitive. This is a distinct advantage
because visual poetry in all countries has moved away from
classic concrete into new approaches and new media, including
computer and video poems, which can't be summarized or
simplified. One of the advantages of local editors is the
capacity of several of them to be sharply critical of visual
poetry in their countries in a way that an outsider could not be.
As a suggestive venture, this collection is a good place to work
from, whether for readers or editors.--ky
WHOLE NOTES--(Vol. 10, #1, Spring 1994), PO Box 1374, Las Cruces
NM, 88004. 28 pp., $3.00. Contented poetry with a feeling tone,
emotional honesty rising above mere cage-rattling. This is not
technique for technique's sake poetry. This tenth anniversary
issue is richly textured and bracing: includes a German
translation of a pseudo-haiku by Karl Lubomirski, "So many
storms//and now/ ivy." Rhymes when necessary, plus the
obligatory Lifshin poem.--rrle
WORD OUTA BUFFALO--264 Summer St., Buffalo NY, 14222. $1.00.
Ah, yes, from the turf that was once the home of Charles Olson
and Mark Twain we have this new magazine: WORD OUTA BUFFALO.
This fresh magazine, now in its second issue, has as its program
the multiplicity of poetic voices that make their home in
Buffalo. This is not a magazine simply cloistered at "the
University" or restricted to friends. Without pomp, camp, or
bias a good sounding of all types of poetry spawned in this old
time eastern city by Lake Erie. Snow will not stop the Word Outa
Buffalo. No, the writing is not restricted to the street and
schooly poets of Western New York. There's a healthy batch of
others with words that then bellow from Buffalo, among them: Nava
Fadae, Michael Tritto, Michael Millay, and Heather Griffiths.--mb
X-RAY--(Vol. 1, #3), PO Box 170011, San Francisco CA, 94117.
$15.00?. Edited by Johnny Brewton. Probably the most elegant,
physically and visually pleasing assembling-type magazine I've
ever seen. A fat, 7 x 8.5" nicely bound compilation of visual,
conceptual, and literary pieces, some of them hand-made; in fact,
most of the pages have been produced by the artists themselves,
who have been chosen or invited by the editor. Included are
several beautifully printed small booklets inserted in envelopes
tipped into the issue. There is really not a dull moment in this
production, which includes work by, among others, Alice Borealis,
Charles Bukowski, Neeli Cherkovskky, Jack Foley, G. Huth, and Ray
Johnson. Among my personal favorites are a collage by Eysekutz,
a booklet of skeletons by Generic Mike, Foley's poem, a letter
from India (in an airmail envelope) by Arun Lele, and Brewton's
own found poem "Pharmacy." X-RAY is a labor of love and great
beauty and is fast becoming a collector's item. Don't miss
it.--jmb
XIB--(#6, Summer 1994), PO Box 262112, San Diego CA, 262112.
68 pp., $5.00. I always welcome Tolek's clear focus. Here you
got Keith A. Dodson's lines related to wearing his daughter's
underwear and getting caught by his wife; then Wayne Hogan's
insightful perceptive justifications for killing his wife;
Patrick McKinnon's "Poem for Gramma Lavis"; and Lyn Lifshin's
poem about things getting blown up and ugly. This is one of
those lit mags that rip open psychological scars: the brutal
realities that are here now, and the ones you thought had healed
over.--o
YOUR DAD IS...--(#1, 1994), PO Box 3756, Erie PA, 16508. 8 pp.,
$2.00. Jam-packed with abraded realism where confession and
personal perspectives converge at an eccentric depth. We have
Lifshin, Huffstickler, Kollnski, Kuypers, Nichols, Androla, and
others; including almost a dozen of Paul Weinman's short but
intense "White Boy" poems. In this publication we are talking
explicit rogue poetry, poems which have escaped from authority
and tradition. As Robert Nichols exhorts: "reality-based poetry/
that stretches the imagination & aggravates America/ to anarchy,
to sexual anarchy..." Yes, well this might be the definitive
point. Hard poetry for hard people and hard times. Whatever the
point is, this is not poetry for the weak.--rrle
ZYZZYVA--(Vol. X, No. 3; Fall, 1994), 41 Sutter Street, Suite
1400, San Francisco CA, 94104. 160 pp., $9.00. Howard Junker,
editor. Many high points in this issue: "First Time In Print"
section, something more zines should try--of the three presented
here, Colleen Sullivan is someone to watch, though the others
should not be ignored; self-portraits by local artists, many of
them funny, most intentionally so; Karl Kempton's "Om Suite", one
of the first, if not the first, publication of Kempton glyphs
since he went from typewriter to computer, and in the process set
aside the x-y grid in most of his visual poetry to date for more
fluid forms; and Sherman Alexie's "The Writer's Notebook": loose
and free graphic and textual interaction.--ky
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Issue #6.0, section a: zines
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