Bloom

Sparse, abrupt poetry scars the pages of these three issues of Sara C.’s collage zine. I love grouchy girls! And Sara and her friends are certainly not afraid to be ugly, angry and mean. Of course, it all somehow seems…well…adorable. Probably because of the funny cut ‘n’ paste covers featuring an odd mixture of muscle-builders, clouds and skeletons. Get a load of Hilary Peach’s poem, I Hate Joe and He Hates Me: “i’ve noticed he hates me more/ when i leave my hair unbrushed and wild/ and so i do (…) larry also hates joe/ because joe called him Inbred White Trash/ says he meets his girlfriends at family reunions”. How about Barbara Glar’s Love Poem and Train: “The train is prairie wailing,/ spilling tons of black tears/ across its face. Hear them. (…) The train wailing was me./ June 12, 1970, 1 a.m./ I was asleep, you seventeen,/ we hadn’t met yet, wouldn’t/ for another twenty years.” However, while the poetry may serve the purpose of being cathartic for its writers, it is not at all that kind of embarrassing gloop that you feel should stay in someone’s diary. No, Bloom’s contributors are completely in control of the information they are disclosing, and do so with comfort and ease. These are damn good poems! (EPW)

poetry zine, #1, 2 & 3, $1 plus postage, Sara Cassidy, 4496 Markham St, Victoria, BC, V8Z 5N3, [email protected]

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