The most interesting thing about this Japanese magazine of text and visual poetry is that the founder and former editor, Shin Tanabe, usually takes first place for the freshness of his visual pieces. This certainly holds true for the issue under discussion, which includes submissions from John M. Bennett, Scott Helmes, Richard Kostelanetz, Paolo Badini, and the absolute worst piece in the issue–a yawn-inspiring collage made of pornographic images by guy r. beining–the appeal of whose “visual poetry” continues to elude me. A photo of Fernando Aguiar up to his usual alphabetic high-jinks is of a bit more interest, as is work by Shohachiro Takahashi, Julien Blaine and Artemio Iglesias. As the visual poems are presented only in black and white reproductions, it may well be that color would add the extra dimension that is lacking in a great number of these pieces, (except beining’s). The abiding question is: Why do so many visual poets find a particular mannerism and stay with it, when it seems to me that continual experimentation is what is necessary to bring vitality to their work and to vispo in general? Is it a lack of imagination? A lack of boldness? I think Pound’s “Make it New!” certainly needs to be considered in this “poetic” field as well.

But then again, this is only my opinion and I could be wrong. For more information about this magazine e-mail Tanabe at g4shin[at]mac.com.