Magma 61 hits the Street running

I’ve cracked and finally bought myself a two year subscription to Magma. It’s just too good a read to miss (use it or lose it!)

So what does issue 61 have in store for the eager reader? Well, some strong poetry for starters, including work by Simon Barraclough, Claire Booker, Lisa Kelly, Ian McEwan, Amali Rodrigo, Kathryn Simmonds, Paul Stephenson, Christine Webb, Kate White and David Wheatley among a host of other talents. Particular stand-outs for me include an extraordinary paeon to the ordinary – ‘World Away’ by Gram Joel Davies, and the precocious talent of teenager Daniella Cugini whose ‘mrs dalloway’s last white poppies’ is a mind-blower.

Co-editors Jon Sayers and Nick Sunderland serve up more delicacies with a test drive of Tamar Yoseloff’s ‘Walking London: An Audio Tour’ which takes you on a psychogeographical tour of the hidden parts of the capital and is available for £5.00 from The Poetry School website.

If that doesn’t get your creative juices flowing, then read the rib-tickling article on wit by Finuala Dowling. She’s embedded writing prompts throughout her piece. So how about writing a poem in which the title is longer than the poem itself, or listing ways of breaking up a marriage (careful!), or ending a poem with the line: ‘This is just a poem’?

Magma 61 launch – half-time and the wine flows

Plus Magma brings young voices into the mix with a fine crop of Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award winners (aged 11-17); the results of an online survey of what poetry means to the person in the street; and the usual quality reviews of poetry collections and pamphlets.

And should the summer turn out to be a damp squib – don’t complain. Read Simon Barraclough’s response to Byron’s poem ‘Darkness’ (published in full) and discover the dystopic nightmare of a never setting sun. I’ll take a few drops of rain any day.

Magma (issue 61 – The Street) is available at £8.60 for a single issue or as a one year subscription (3 issues) at £18.95.  If you’d like to buy a copy or submit your poetry (deadline for Magma 62 on the theme of ‘Conversation’ is May 31st) please visit:

— Magma Poetry

		— Magma Poetry The poetry magazine with a different editor every issue, appearing three times a year
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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