NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
THE BOOK OF HOPES AND DREAMS
edited by Dee Rimbaud
Bluechrome Publishing
PO Box 109
Portishead
Bristol
BS20 7ZJ
UK
ISBN 1 904781 89 6
£9.99
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This page last updated: 10th December 2007. 		THE BOOK OF HOPES AND DREAMS

The editor's introduction, tells the reader that the poetry in this handsome anthology has been selected in order to

lift us above the clouds ... show us the brightest visions ... fill us with hopes and dreams
Well, however laudable these intentions, they might be said to indicate a rather limited prosodic ambition — perhaps poetry that's a cross between Ella Wheeler Wilcox and Patience Strong? Glancing at the list of poets on the front cover quickly dispelled these misapprehensions. This anthology is bursting with poetry from some famous names — Carol Ann Duffy, Tony Harrison, Margaret Atwood, Elaine Feinstein, etc. There are many contributions from the less well known that in no way diminish the high standard the editor's selection achieves. A poet in the latter category, whom I have had cause to praise in the past, is Pat Jourdan whose OTHER ANNUNCIATIONS is a short but passionate hymn to the reproductive power of nature — despite, perhaps, the intervention of human profligacy?
	she says yes for all female animals,
	yes to the pushing heave, the racking pain,
	yes to birthing and all its trammels,
	yes to forever, again and again,
Another short poem, OLD POETS by Elaine Feinstein, celebrates past poets and laments their relative demotion within today's culture. It could be seen also (by implication) to echo the passion for nature exemplified by poets such as Coleridge and Wordsworth — a nature now in peril.
	even to stand in the cemeteries where they lay
	gave us a frisson of joy. We were so sure
	the words of their poems would last,
The book is teeming with fine poetry. Buy it and you will not only be buying a hundred and twenty pages of reading delight, but also, and more important, supporting a much needed charity.

The charity SPIRIT AID is devoted to aiding the isolated villages in the Baglan Province of North East Afghanistan who had gone nearly a quarter century without medical facilities of any kind.

reviewer: Michael Bangerter.