NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW ON-LINE

Side one of this 4-page newsletter consists of brief mentions of books and magazines.

Side two has seven poems by seven authors.

Giovanni Malito has Issac Newton in conversation with a snowball. It is the sort of poem that is both hilariously funny yet deadly serious at the same time. In fact the poem is so good compared to the other six that the best I can do is risk infringing the notion of fair-use and quote it in full:

	Newton's Ego

	I was not being flippant
	cried the snowball
	at the foot of the mountain
	I lost control but I have grown!

	Let the spring thaw begin
	shouted Mother Nature
	and the snowball, unhumbled
	actually tried to roll uphill.

	Newton perched on the top
	of that mountain screamed down
	Would you make a liar of me?
	and made no mention of Galileo.

	So the snowball had to melt
	as Mother Nature triumphed
	but Newton wondered
	What about anti-gravity?

The front side has the usual small press reviews and a photo of editor, John Francis Haines — which doesn't reproduce too well in print and is best seen at the Purple Patch 2001 Photogallery.

Eight poems grace the reverse. K.V. Bailey parodies Keats

	There was a curious physicist,
	A curious type was he,

	... I have fallen in love
	with Comet Hyakutake,
	and she is still waiting for me
	clothed in a bride dress.

	The Cosmos is
	the ultimate in packaging;
	all that universe,
	but only life on Earth.

Handshake is the newsletter of the Eight Hand Gang and is available from the editor for the price of a SAE. The editorial principle is to provide a forum for poets to advertise their books, to note upcoming festivals, and to provide some space for poets to share their work.

The recto is devoted to news items, short reviews of current publications and provides information on forthcoming events.

The verso of the page provides space for several poems: six on this sheet, which can be read in a few minutes. The poems are cramped for space in this format but none the less are of interest. There's a limerick by Sean Russell Friend, a longish allegorical poem by Douglas Forward, and an interesting imagistic poem by J. C. Hartley:

	Onto girllegs Magritte
	Meets Bosch evolution

	The sorcerer stands
	upon the mountaintop
	watching

	a child knew not those night lights
	as out-of-reach partners

To celebrate ten years and fifty issues, "The Newsletter of the Eight Hand Gang" has expanded to three pages, six sides, of A4. The first page contains the usual small press information, and the other five are devoted to the usual sort of science fiction/fantasy poetry by the usual suspects — Darlington, Friend, Malito, Light, Sneyd, etc. The poetry ranges from Andrew Darlington's lengthy perambulation on BUDDY HOLLY MUST DIE/AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY TIME-TRAVEL FANTASY to John Light's rather briefer GENETIC MODIFICATION:

    Alter genes,
    plant weapons,
    harvest death.

On first seeing the title of Heys Stuart Wolfenden's rhyming poem "LINES INSPIRED BY THE NIGHTSKY" I assumed it must refer to some obscure Russian sect, until I realised it is about astronomy. It's a good poem, but "Night Sky" should be two words.

The rest of this bumper issue is fun too. With HANDSHAKE you always get what it says on the tin. Congratulations to the editor, J.F. Haines, on reaching fifty issues, and let's hope he will go on to make his century.