Raw Nervz

Dive in anywhere. Come back up for air. Dive in again. Put it away. Read it again. Keep it on your desk. Open it at any page. Get yourself aligned with the random beauty the poems in RN are trying to capture through their carefully placed images. If you enjoy the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) cast of a good haiku, you’re bound to find something you like in RN. Over 100 contributors in this issue. Some of the stuff isn’t strictly haiku. Some of it isn’t even nearly haiku. But most of it’s good. There are clever haiku: “shore leave/the midshipman downs/a sub.” There are moving haiku: “god’s face reflects in/stagnant gray puddles/standing by my child’s fresh grave.” There are poems too long to be haiku, and some too short. There are concrete poems, graphics and even a couple of very short prose pieces. If you don’t like one, flip the page and read another. (KS)

lit zine, vol. IV, #4, 51 pages / main creator: Dorothy Howard (editor) / publisher: proof press / $6, 4 for $20 / 67 Court St., Aylmer, QC, J9H 4M1

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