1) AC EVANS
2) GEOFF STEVENS - LIFE IN 21st CENTURY BRITAIN
3) CHRISTOPHER BREWER
4) ERIC FERRIS - FALSE PROPHETS?
5) AERONWY DAFIES - THE RAGWORT RIDERS
6) STEVE SNEYD - for a highly negative review* click here! (scroll down the page).
7) DJ TYRER - WAR ON TERROR - for a highly positive review click here!
8) EDDIE HARRIMAN - A TALE OR TWO
9) JAN OSKAR HANSEN
10) DS DAVIDSON - THESE FORTEAN TIMES... - click here for a review
11) PAUL MURPHY - click here for a review.
12) LES MERTON - click here for a review.
13) DAVE WRIGHT - A ROUGH GUIDE TO GENESIS - click here for a review.
14) JOHN FRANCIS HAINES - OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK
15) CARDINAL COX - TIR NA nOGHAM - click here for a review.
16) PAUL CUTTING
17) BRYN FORTEY
18) DEBORAH TYLER-BENNETT - click here for a review (scroll down the page).
19) MICHAEL DUNDROW
20) E. JODI WOODWARD - TIME ZONES
21) SALLY RICHARDS
22) STEVE MANN
23) DAVE AUSTIN
New issues coming soon!
* Some people have asked me why I included this link when it is so negative. Read it and tell me if you can take the reviewer seriously. Negative reviews are part and parcel or writing and publishing (you can't please everyone) but this guy seems to have some sort of problem...
REVIEW OF THE BARDS 1, 2 AND 3
BY JOHN LIGHT
THE BARDS is a series of A4 folded sheets each presenting a selection of poems by one poet.
No. 1 has 8 poems by AC Evans. These describe the present as already nearly the future - at least, that's how it seems to me but perhaps that's because I live in Berwick-upon-Tweed where the present may still be the past, or maybe vice versa. The images in these poems are sharp, the language is urgent and in places uncomfortable: the author's world is not a cosy one - it is too much like the real one. This pamphlet is worth more than the ten pence plus SAE asked for it.
No. 2 contains 9 poems by Geoff Stevens. Enigmatic and ironic, sometimes angry, they illuminate life from the side and throw bits of it into unfamiliar relief. This is another selection that is well worth the money - never mind the length, luxuriate in the quality!
No. 3 has a beautiful cover by AC Evans and the 9 poems are from Chriistopher Brewer. the language of these is more straightforward than in the other two collections, the beauty of it is different to theirs and there is rhyme, an aspect of poetry now often derided, but when skilful and not forced, it makes the poems sing in a way that blank or free verse never can.
If you buy all three of these, it would cost you 30 pence (and only one stamp) and not only would you have an introduction to or reminder of three accomplished poets, but a miniature celebration of the diversity of contemporary poetry. More pamphlets are planned.