NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
LES MERTON: THE BARDS #12
Atlantean Publishing
38 Pierrot Steps
71 Kursaal Way
Southend on Sea
Essex
SS1 2UY
UK
10p

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LES MERTON: THE BARDS #12

The Bards is a one-sheet flyer series published by Atlantean Press, edited by D. J. Tyrer. Each issue showcases the work of individual poets. Number 12 in the series, features the work of Les Merton, a familiar Cornish voice in the world of poetry. Beyond poetry, Merton's prolific drive is associated with broadcasting, festivals and many other writing interests.

This A4 flyer features nine of Merton's pieces, agreeable for the narrative snippets of his native Cornwall, and his viewpoint that extends beyond the Cornish shores.

Merton's laconic voice in THE HIPPY, a wickedly ironic look at the lifestyle of an ageing self-styled hippy:

	He still believes in Flower Power,
	under the auspices of Cornwall Wildlife Trust.
Merton's two viewpoints on the Prohibition era of early 1930s America are interesting for the contrast pre and post prohibition. SCARFACE reflects on Al Capone's involvement and the difference between merchandise and hospitality. Merton points out that:
	Maybe one type of logic
	ran foul of another that came
	with a name borrowed from India:
	the Untouchables.
What helps to illuminate Merton's meaning in SCARFACE, is the poem that follows this; AND THEN IT WAS LEGAL, with the lifting of prohibition in the US celebrated by:
	A legal foamy flood
	with giant waves of celebration
Merton comments that the upside to allowing people to drink legally again was:
	Those behind the scenes
	were gushing as they speculated
	on the income from extra taxes
And the upshot on Americans is rephrased nicely in the last stanza as a take on the old expression; fooling most of the people, some of the time:
	the psycologists
	who studied the effects on the people
	who thought they were having a good time.
By and large, this A4 Bards series format serves nicely as an inexpensive introduction to poetry. These flyers would be an excellent inexpensive idea for poetry readings: encouraging people to read a poet's work, and if they were interested, in acquiring more.

reviewer: Barbara Smith.