NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

This is a new A4-size literary journal edited by Tom Jenks which has a straightforward no-fuss layout of poetry, prose, reviews (chosen but not submitted), and brief contributor biogs, in that order, 44 pages long. The editor is definite about it having no manifesto

we don't know what we like until we see it.

Although some contributors have repeat items, the magazine has, for a first issue, a commendable lot of talent within its 51 poems and four prose articles. Some of the four reviews were less satisfying, being delivered in emotional rather than more dispassionate wordage. It is not clear whether the magazine will continue to select its own book reviews or encourage books to be sent in for a review selection. Probably the reviews given were intended to show that a review section will exist and that any publisher is welcome to send in books.

I was sensible of many poems which had quality within lines I could not quite get my brain round, which may be self-deficiency, such as RULES OF ENGAGEMENENT (Alan Dunnet) possibly allusive reference to the Iraq war:

	. . . New rules seem impossible. Crescent
	abuse, I see, sits concealed in a gift
	of sweetness. . .

	lunchbreaks are measured heavens of grass and crisps

	the shallow electric light treads his teeth in a minor key

	In all talk of Bronze Age sites
	and solar henge, they never mentioned once
	the ritual of the trees, the hawthorn maid,
	the sacred oak, the sacrifice.
	With all their carbon dating, chain saws, winches,
	reconstruction,
	they've clearly missed the point.

I liked all the prose articles, especially GETTING TO KNOW YOU (Paul Brownsey) in which a gay and straight couple are staying in a holiday residence. The latter believe they have found a good like-minded friendship with the former, but at the end of the stay, the gays cut off the invitation to continue the relationship. Its all very subtly told. THE CELESTIAL BUREAUCRAT is not fiction and poses the puzzle of this as the Chinese name for The Plough constellation in the sky. Room for research here.

If I recommended this magazine to a friend, their first question would be "how much did it cost (so I can get my own copy)?". What kind of answer is "well, you'll have to see the website"? Of course, the next question would be "what's the website address?" and the answer? "Well, I don't know either. It wasn't given in the magazine." Buying poetry magazines is an obstacle course as it is: they're not in your local bookshop, you take a risk you've made payment to the right person and that the postal service delivers. So I don't understand why some magazines make it even harder: don't they want readers? Not everyone has internet access and the information ought to be contained within the magazine's pages.

PARAMETER MAGAZINE is dominated by poetry and this issue had three short stories, five essays and reviews plus a showcase of writing from Manchester Metropolitan University's Creative Writing course, including Adam Irving's A GLASS OF WATER:

	A story is told to me

	A man arrives in a back garden
	and asks for a glass of water
	as he is very thirsty

	I know how stories go through,
	details are warped and changed
	things are forgotten and filled in
	with sketched facts

	Weeks later I hear the real story
	It wasn't a man at all
	that asked for the water
	but a butterfly

	Here life is slow, I see a landscape
	brushed with red dust.
	Thinking of where you are now
	passes the time.
	The chicken struts, eating
	the crumbs about my sandaled feet -
	lunch's leftovers.
	I draw your portrait, just
	to pass time. The chicken
	was fine.

In the main magazine, Adam Zdrodowski's translation of Grzegorz Wroblewski's AN ARAB FRUIT SELLER AND OLD EULOGISTS OF DEATH:

	Though his whole family was wiped out, he's happy because of every orange sold.
	Look at him carefully and then
	Pray to the Lord to make him change your martyred characters...
	While you are here just for a while, don't pester me with death.
	We'll have enough of it when it asks for us.

Linda Chase's BEACH STORY:

	Her blue dress is still running on the beach.
	Gold help it! If I only could scoop it into my arms
	without the awful moment of knowing it's empty.

	Cotton, sleeveless, it holds the shape of a girl
	only by the grace of the meagre breeze
	and a few misguided grains of tossed sand.

	By evening, there's no wind left anywhere
	along the shore. The horizon is truly flat
	and the tide makes its final choice of change.

	Her moon face and her moon head float
	skyward into the waiting painted arms 
	of her one-eyed, beautiful bridegroom.

	Children, this is the story of Nina
	running on the beach. Nina, running
	for life, Nina running for love.

PARAMETER MAGAZINE is worth checking out as it is attracting quality poetry. However, it does need to make it easier for people to subscribe to if it wants to last.

This issue contains a POETRY SOCCER SIX OFFICIAL STICKER ALBUM which is a good fun read. Furthermore, this issue marks the magazine's first birthday. As to the content, once you get past the well-written foreword, there is poetry, fiction, and articles:

	The woman in the blue raincoat bargains
	with anyone who will listen,
	"My daughter promised to come. Maybe
	she missed the connection, took the wrong train."

	I remember waiting for a daughter,
	the temperature charts, blood tests,
	fertility drugs, how I needed a miracle,
	swore to be good, but nothing changed.

In this issue, there is an article on Lavinia Greenlaw's poem MINSK, by David Harrolsson. He dissects the poem and this is always a useful exercise for readers. The issue contains a variety of material and I leave you with an interesting extract from THE MOUSETRAP by Nell Grey:

It's late, and the chill of denied sleep is creeping through my bones. The carriage stops and starts and stops again. The jolts make puppets of us. You say nothing. It's my fault and you're not speaking. Maybe you'll never speak to me again. I lean my face against the cold glass and watch the streams of light as we gather speed. I can see the inside of the carriage in the reflection. An alternative reality. Another dimension where everything is reversed. I study your doppelganger. Eyes shuttered, mouth a hyphen, He's withdrawn, escaped into a mockery of sleep, but I know him too well to be deceived.