The Peterborough Review

It’s the Water Issue. Lots of stuff about the power of water, the respect we should give water, the nourishment water gives us. This issue really tries to be about water. But it’s when water becomes incidental that things finally get good. Page 51: “I pulled into Dunford’s Landing/Leaving a pick-up with a buried trace/The northern clouds spilled like highway oil/Pure rain/From Coffee stains and cellophane/Into a shroud of frenetic grace.” There’s a story where some sea monkeys come back to kill a girl for revenge (sounds actually much cooler that it is). There’s a wonderful discussion about antique bottles on the bottom of lakes. A beautiful prose poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a River” which I won’t even try to tell you about, you’ll have to read it. PR seems to be trying to pretend to be one of those university journals, like Malahat or Fiddlehead. Fortunately, these guys haven’t quite got the formula down, so dotted throughout are little accidental joys. I don’t know if you’d want to spend 10 bucks, though, for some pretty lovely accidents. Maybe you can get it in the library.

literary journal / no known publisher / main creators: George Kirkpatrick, Julie Rouse (editors) / $10; $30/4 issues / P.O. Box 1684, Peterborough, ON, K9J 7S4

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