Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Saturday 21 October 2017

"Brittle Star (Issue 39)"

The Winter 2016 issue, containing about 90 pages of poetry, stories, articles and reviews, stylishly presented with graphics (bookcovers, headshots and adverts). Authors include Richie McCaffery, Graham Mort, Wayne Burrows, etc. My favourite pieces were by Jenny Booth.

In this issue's articles there's a focus on structure/form both in poetry and prose. The range of works is wide. One review ends with "it is uncynical, a little old-fashioned and warm-hearted: in short, rather charming". In contrast there are also rather experimental poems like Rodney Woods', which begins with

dandelions gone mad / tulips were brutal / I expected an invasion
the lawn neglected / untouched / dandelions gone mad / tulips were brutal
the lawn neglected / untouched / I expected an invasion

and Edd Ravn's dialogues (between red and wet, between blue and bright). There's attractive, more mainstream imagery too - e.g. Michael W Thomas' poem includes "the pines are shadows that once thought in green".

No comments:

Post a Comment