Oi! / Well, well! / Hello, hello, hello!

This triumvirate of poetry volumes scared the crap out of me. When I received it, it was as if one of my old English profs had said, “Here, read the Norton Anthology of Poetry.” Totalling 122 pages of reader-submitted poetry, marks have to go to Timo for spreading the ideal of poetry and for offering poets a place to publish. Unfortunately though, I’m unsure if this is necessarily a good thing. As with many poetry collection zines, it doesn’t seem that there was much of a discerning edit after the pieces were collected. Sure, there are some standout pieces, and a number of strong poems-but there are also many poems that fall well below and should not have been included in the collection. Sometimes you just need to cull the herd-the bad will always drag down the good. Nice try, but next time, be more selective. (Jon Pressick)

Timo Palonen, poetry zine, US$6, Talvipaivanseisaus Prod., Timo Palonen, Ortitie 4 C 24, FIN-01200 VANTAA, Finland