Passion on the beach (doggy style) in The North

A man and a woman meet on a windswept Northumberland beach, but it’s their dogs that lock eyes and find passion!

My poem, Coitus at Bamburgh Beach, is one of  139 poems selected by guest editors Jonathan Davidson and Jackie Wills for inclusion in the latest issue of The North poetry magazine. Poets published in issue 52 include Paul Stephenson, Katrina Naomi, Alison Brackenbury, Caroline Smith, Holly Hopkins, Ian McMillan, Claire Booker, James Caruth and Matt Bryden.

At a handy £8, issue 52 must be among the best value ever for poetry-lovers, working out at the staggeringly good value of 6p per new poem. Plus there’s a fascinating discussion between Patience Agbabi and Ros Barber about their mould-breaking collections – respectively Telling Tales (Canongate Books) which re-envisions Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and The Marlowe Papers (Sceptre) a stunning verse novel which takes as its premise the idea that Marlowe actually wrote Shakespeare’s plays.

Issue 52 also has articles on whether poetry in the UK needs to become more international in scope; the harsh economics facing the poetry industry; and interviews with three fine artists about their experience of reading poetry as non-poets.  Plus 39 pages of poetry reviews!

To buy a copy of The North or to submit poetry, please visit: www.poetrybusiness.co.uk

Magma shakes it all up on the page!

Magma has gone pear-shaped . . . snail-shaped . . . every which way-shaped. Issue 57  is likely to  blow your mind, eyes and sense of balance.

Be ready to twirl your copy round and round as you read Simon Barraclough’s ‘Sun Blurbs‘, marvel at the tersely brilliant ‘Reconstruction‘ by Patience Agbabi (no it’s not a misprint!) and stand on mussel shells, looking across the river at night with Susan Connolley.

Those lucky enough to be at the Troubadour for Magma’s launch last week, were treated to amazing performances by contributors who brought the additional dimension of sound into the ‘shape’ equation. It was not a night for the faint-hearted. Enthusiastic audience participation for Paula Claire’s scorchmark poem ‘Magma‘ involved (among other things) my own copy of Magma  being flung across the stage to yells of Ma ma ma ma gggggma!

My poem ‘Mark (X) only once. Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?‘ was shaped like a railway line, with the Saltire trying to form and tipped its hat to Edward Thomas’ Adlestrop.

Contributors to issue 57 include Chris McCabe, Claire Booker, Richard Evans, Penelope Shuttle, Heidi Williamson, Andrew Pidoux, Helen Mort and Vona Groarke.

“You’ll find poems about shape, poems that use shape as a form of logic, poems that use shape as a joke, poems that use shape to  shadow or disrupt their rhythm . . .” promise editors Hannah Lowe and Ian McEwen in their foreword. “What we don’t have (we hope) are poems whose shape is mere decoration.”

Rest assured, they got it right.

To buy a copy of Magma (issue 57) The Shape of the Poem, or to submit your own poems for future issues, click: http://www.magmapoetry.com