This is the kind of magazine I like: ambitious, adventurous, energetic, and packed with accomplished work by Joseph Lease, and others, but if I had to raise my hand for seconds, it would have to be for the art: eye-popping visuals abound from people like Boril Boshnakov (who he?), and Massimo Conti (ditto!). Highly recommended.

For subscription rates, etc.:

WWW.HENRYMILLER.ORG/PING_PONG.HTML

Though it advertises itself as “Poetry and Art,” think again if you’re looking for the earth to move. This is a rather traditional production, featuring writers like Sherman Alexi and Natasha Trethewey and other MFA program darlings, or wannabes. The “art” is just as conservative. Still, a good read and worth a mention. The only things missing are the word “Review” in the title and a slick cover. I recommend that the editors remedy these oversights immediately so that this magazine can take its place among the hundreds of others just like it.

www.cavewallpress.com

A convincing portrait of a stripper with a high I.Q. Some very good writing.

“As I leave the Love Shack, the rain begins. I’m pretty drunk, driving very carefully in my little white minivan. I am the original wound. Biologically, I can only receive. I’m not built to intrude, only to be intruded upon. Women, we want to take. We want to take back. Biologically we can only receive. The original sparkly wound.” (Pg. 66.)

Highly recommended.

Go to www.monkeypuzzleonline.com for more information.

The first page of Reed’s Zaum Alliterations (Dusie/ Nous-zot, 2009) looks like this:

blue

annunciation

*

silk’s quivering pulse

and goes on in the same nuanced manner in which word counterbalances silence.

More of this delicate weighing of words happens in the 92 pages of Gaze (Black Radish, 2010).

www.dusie.org
www.blackradishbooks.org

for more information. Jess

An energetic magazine of 214 pages full of new names. Translations, prose poems: an occasional keeper:

Sonnet for my Sister by Ben Fama

When you home die, I home die.
That whole cocky awkward end of winter.
That pleasant shaking beneath our coffee.
The actual crime. I dream I drive
to where you lie in bed, but wreck
before I arrive, but then borrow
a car, and wreck that too, and another,
then another.
This is supposed to be a poem where I
treat us as sisters. A space to re-imagine relations.
Sister please spit whatever you want into my
mouth. Together one day we shall kill someone.
May all creation burn under your feet.
May the sun spray delight all over your face.

Not bad until the author begins to tell us what this writing is supposed to be. Worst line. Next to worst (because predictable) begins “Together one day we shall…”

Still, this isn’t bad writing at all.

Correspondence informs us that it has a website.

My pet newt “Mr. E.” says, “If they grab you by the tail, just walk away and grow another.”

In light of recent developments, Ekleksographia will be funded by those chosen by Guest Curators to be published in each issue. A web-builder will be selected, the cost of building the issue will be determined, presented to the potential contributors, and the money paid directly to the web builder. Determining who pays and how much will be the job of the Guest Curator of each issue. Those who choose not to pay will not appear in the issue. Paying extra money does not mean that one gets extra work in any given issue, nor does offering to fund one’s work, if it does not pass the editorial eye of the Guest Curator and of Jesse Glass and Daniel Sendecki, mean publication.

This policy is common in Japanese poetry circles, and given the new economy, should not come as a surprise. This policy also obviates any attempt by any parties to impinge upon the absolute freedom of Ahadada Books to publish who and what it wishes to publish. We do not answer to anyone for our opinions, our editorial decisions, and our methods of presenting the best work that we can find.

Our new policy also extends to e-books from this date until further notice. Sincerely, Jesse Glass

An uneven collection that covers Pol Pot’s Cambodia. The stories are compelling. www.plainviewpress.net.

Jack Foley is an incredibly learned and generous man. Among his many gifts during our San Francisco stay was a copy of Lou Harrison’s “A Birthday Celebration” featuring Lou Harrison himself with the voices of Jack and Adelle performing “Strict Songs” One through Four followed immediately by the gamelan and orchestral version. Can’t stop listening! Jess

Walking Backwards to Santa Fe–info at www.pitchforkpoetryprojects.com
Skull Highway–La Alameda Press/ 9636 Guadalupe Trail NW/ Albuquerque, New Mexico 87114.

Here’s a good example of Lawrence Welsh’s word craft:

Norton Flats

i shout “for rent?”

just sand, yucca
rambler’s stone

a ‘38 chevrolet
to fleetline

the glide not gliding

the sun
the bullets

on blackened glass

Plain words, abbreviated language, but enough to give us a picture of movements in and around the Southwest.