I like the way this magazine's evolved - lots of poets and good poems, some reviews and the odd story. What caught my eye in the issue was that
- in general I preferred the ordinary magazine poems to the competition winners. Sally Festing's commended poem interested me, because it was entitled "What Wikipedia Doesn't Say About My Father" and begins stanzas with "That these were the days of lobotomy", "That it wasn't long before his brother", "That he didn't pretend to be perfect", etc. These stanzas could have begun with "These were the days of lobotomy", "It wasn't long before his brother", "He didn't pretend to be perfect", etc. The printed version feels gimmicky to me, though such repetition's a common enough ploy. Maybe I'll use it one day.
- I liked Julian Dobson's poems.
- Martin Malone's review of the Faber New Poets pamphlets copes well with a demanding brief.
- Though I'm glad there are stories, I can imagine them being shouldered out sooner or later. There's room for only one or two of them, a shrinking habitat which puts them under more pressure.
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