A review of Reach Poetry issue 266 This is the first Reach Poetry magazine I have read, so in that sense I suppose this is a review of not just this edition but Reach Poetry in general. The first thing I will say that even though I ordered it a while ago now, I remember how friendly the purchase was. Very welcoming and inviting, and that is the whole ethos of Indigo Dream Publishers, who produce it and the two siblings Sarasvati and The Dawntreader. I gather Indigo Dream Drea

This is a review of: Launching MPT (Modern Poetry in Translation) 'Clean Hands: Focus on the Pandemic in Europe'. Go to the MPT YouTube Channel . Getting the website (bobandpoetry.com) up, and running in a readable, presentable way, has been an experience, mostly an enjoyable one, but it has taken me away from my books and magazines in an unhealthy way. The knock on effect, though, has been to spend more time listening to poetry radio programmes, and watching poetry films / a

(Quote form the magazine introduction.) Magma Poetry 78: 'Collaborations' 16 April 2021 pp 1-25, 17 April 2021 pp 26-41 & 69-72 Collaborations in poetry? The whole concept of this was quiet alien to me, for what more solitary pursuit can there be than writing poetry? It is surprising what prejudices came tumbling out of me. Surely there was a dominant leader of the poem who was the real writer and the other/s just went along with that person's decisions? Surely the collaborat

14 April 2021 'Contains Mild Peril' Fran Lock pp83-84. The final part of the book is given over to a single poem 'dead / sea', a ten part 16 page poem, in which there is dark undertones of death, self harm, illness, drugs (maybe) and life out of control. Every time I read Fran Lock (and if I had started the website earlier this would be post 10) I experience something different, and this time there was a strong feeling of the flow of words experienced in mania. I am a reader

'Shakespeare For Every Day of the Year' edited by Allie Esiri MacMillan 2019 pp 146-159 So with the website to create and update, I had fallen considerably behind in the daily Shakespeare read. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I have my daily read books, whose main purpose is to get me started that day, and what better for the soul than a daily dose of Shakespeare? And yes, on the odd day, when the mind is not fully engaged, the Shakespeare seems pretty indecipherable, and

9th April 'Contains Mild Peril ' Fran Lock pp 76-82 Fran Lock's 'Contains Mild Peril'. Prior to starting the website I was reading this daily and had already reached p77, which is the second part of the book - an extended single poem. I am devouring Fran Lock books right now. I have read 'Dogtooth', followed by 'The Mystic and The Pig' in quick succession, and may have to go back to the beginning when this book is finished. 'The Mystic and the Pig' did have a strong narrati

9th April 2021 'Read Me A Poem a Day for the National Year of Reading.' Chosen by Gaby Morgan, pp 278-283. OK so why is a serious reader of poetry like me reading what looks like a children's book of daily poems. Well the answer is simple and quite clever. It is my doorway into starting reading. Some days, like today, I am just itching to read my next fill of Fran Lock poetry, but often I don't know where to begin, so I have my starter daily books. I began reading this book