NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

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Minotaur
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Port Townsend
WA 98368
USA
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This page last updated: 14th December 2007. 		Minotaur #43

MINOTAUR is subtitled 'Poetry Port Townsend' and it is published in Washington State, USA. This issue contains work by thirty writers, predominantly from America, but with some contributions from authors in the UK. Of the seventy-two pages (four longer than a typical issue) twenty-eight comprise a special 'chapbook section' devoted to the work of a single individual. Given the overall scale of the journal, this a bold decision by the editor, but it is certainly one which can be rewarding for both writers and readers.

Within the journal's main section, there are quite a few poems which either begin or end especially well. For example, here are the first lines of Gerald Locklin's AT CARMEL: THE FINAL YEARS

	edward weston, at the onset of
	parkinson's disease, moved from the
	formalism of contours
	for which he had become famous
	to an implied lyricism, contemplation,
	humanism in photographic renderings of
	cypresses, sand, rocks, surf, caves,
	erosion and renewal,
And as a contrast, here is the opening of C.R. Paramesh's TIME SHALL FEIGN:
	I command thee, Time
	Show up slowly
	Rainbow-like
	A little latent
	With passing time
Marsha Campbell's LEAF-SHRIEKED (AFTER CELAN) both begins AND ends well. Here are the first and final stanzas:
	my call
	you may or may not understand
	how much I loved you
	trembling

	...

	and I am waiting
	for the trees to blossom
	for me
	a gesture from God
	if there is one
But like much of the writing in MINOTAUR, there is a slight unevenness in style even here, an uncertainty that effects the cohesion of many of the poems. Perhaps the chief exception is Sarah McMahan's STUFFED SQUASH, which has a very strong, individualized voice, a good concept of narrative timing, and an eye for the telling detail. Here is a sample:
	She enters slowly, big, lumbering, respectfully,
	waits to be invited to sit down.

	...
	The table is set.  We sit, I ask her to pray.
	She speaks to Wakan Tanka in Lakota.

	...
			Silence.
	My one son, he got murdered.
	I wait before speaking; this is how we do it here.
For this issue, the chapbook section is devoted to a selection of nineteen poems by Steve Sneyd, entitled, WE BROUGHT HER BACK FROM ANTARES. As much as I admire the daring of MINOTAUR'S editors for taking such a big chance on one author, I found very little to like in Sneyd's work. The poems strike me as wordy, sarcastic, and over-confident without displaying any special expertise or originality. Here is the opening stanza of a somewhat surreal piece entitled THE EXIT INTERVIEW:
	under his feet it walked
	a pigeon
	with human hands
	juggling stale chips like tears
	showing him how to live
	life as if it was free
And here is a part of OVER THE SKY IS OUT:
	we would take our homes with us
	brick by brick by brick
	to turn stone slabs under gas giants
	spiked dodecahedrons of methane icecream
	balls a spin of colours as mecca ballrooms
	under a twisty mobile of red blue yellow stars
	into even the slightest homely echo
	of suburbs that bore us that they bore us
	out of kicknscream
So overall, MINOTAUR is an interesting read, and a place where a variety of different styles can be found. Its pages are clearly set out with large bold type, generally one poem per page, with no advertising, and little additional editorial material (such as reviews, editorials, contributors' details and so on). If this issue is broadly typical, then I would say it is worth watching for both the small gems it contains, and the abiding possibility that the chapbook section will unearth an entire hoard.

reviewer: John Ballam.