NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW ON-LINE

At first I should perhaps point out that, while not a Christian, I'm not exactly an atheist either, and don't consider myself biased against religious poetry as such. I have often read and enjoyed poets with a more or less spiritual slant, such as George Herbert, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, and Thomas Merton.

In this neat little magazine several voices may be heard, mostly, I think, rather new and untried ones. A few of them have a pure and strong sound, however, sometimes strikingly original; these are well worth listening to.

Ruth Anderson reminds us in THE TRASH MAN that the service of performing humble but necessary tasks can be seen as holy. John L. W. Robinson in MAYTIME describes an encounter, clearly between two humans, that assumes an almost metaphysical dimension in memory. But there is also richly sensuous imagery here:

	. . . I shall recall amongst other things,
	China, green and gold, and glasses liquid-red.
 
	Music from Vienna and the praising of a bottle's shape.

	sharp as the sandfall in the turning glass,

	touched by the silver of a madcap moon

	... to die too soon

	angel whispers drifting by.

And there are memorable bits and pieces in contributions by Laurie Bates — a tilted egg-shell world — Susan Glyn, Paul Howe, Niall McGrath, and Kenny Parker. But many of the poets I have not mentioned tend towards the conventional and predictable, sometimes also in terms of style. Some expressions of no doubt sincere faith barely manage to work as poetry. In purely literary terms, enthusiasm isn't enough.

This little volume contains some excellent poetry, and why shouldn't it? Plenty of good poetry has been written by and for Christians, including much of the Bible. It is presumably the Bible which gives us the story of Tobit, which John Fry has turned into a fine poem, TOBIT'S TALE, written in an easy-going, assured style that is pure pleasure to read. From start to end the poem flows so smoothly that it doesn't seem possible to take any one bit of it out to quote.

MARTHA'S CONVERSION, by Pat Jourdan, skilfully takes us inside the mind of the biblical Martha, a woman who knows not only:

	...the feel of water and raw meat.
	the coils of peel, the scouring-out of pans.

	As a grain of rice in the salt,
	sliver of orange in the tea,
	yeast rising in the dough,
	so his ideas run through me.

	Hesitant as moon-walkers they traverse the day-room floor.
	A brief stumble by the door caused her grip to tighten,
	Practiced response to ward off a possible fall.
	The Via Dolorosa, the cross so heavy.
	Hard to tell who would reach Golgotha first.

All of the above poems would be at home in any modern poetry journal.

There is good writing in many of the other poems in this journal, but the writing might be put to better effect in prose, drama, or set to music, as hymns. Most of the writers appear to be driven by a desire to communicate their ideas, which is no bad thing for any writer. But the art of a poem often lies in what the writer has chosen not to say, and that is where many of the poems in THE POETRY CHURCH seem to be less successful.

The magazine is nicely produced. It is printed on good solid paper, has an attractive cover, and includes, in addition to the poems, an editorial, a selection of prayers and two pages of news items at the back.

The Poetry Church is a magazine which couldn't be accused of trying to hide its very specific agenda. From the title onwards, it's clear the magazine is as overt and earnest about its Christianity as others in the small-press poetry world are about their commitment to Feminist, Socialist or anti-war ideals. No doubt pretty much every group I've mentioned here will hate this comparison. But it is a fact that poetry magazines whose agendas extend beyond the simple wish to publish the best poems they receive — in that they seek to promote particular religious or political ideals — differ in a very fundamental way from other literary publications. A good poem must be rejected, if it happens to be theologically or ideologically . Just as a left wing magazine would never have published Larkin's HOMAGE TO A GOVERNMENT or Kipling's ULSTER 1912, a Christian magazine would presumably have returned Jacques Prevert's anti-religious masterpiece, PATER NOSTER, with not our sort of thing scrawled across the rejection-slip. Conversely, a mediocre poem on the right side of whatever the question happens to be, stands a far better chance in these magazines than it would in the mostly free and open market of the rest of the poetry publishing world. And in this issue of THE POETRY CHURCH mediocrity predominates. The best poems are those by Idris Caffrey and A.K. Whitehead, whose GETTING ANSWERS is particularly strong:

	Sometimes you answer before any chance
	even to ask the question and unmask
	the need or problem, as unimpeded
	as the prophet Isaiah prophesied.
	Yet now I am disendowed, repeating
	myself like a thesaurus and sighing
	as those persistent waves that rant and leave
	rippled evidence of their fragile grips.

	Today has gone but
	Tomorrow provides
	A second chance
	To be more wise.
	Moments in time
	I know can be spent
	In heartfelt peace
	And deep content.

	Out of culpable ignorance, Herod murdered the
	Jewish innocents,

	Out of selfishness, cowardice, thousands murder
	their own Holy Innocents.

	Out of selfishness, cowardice, thousands murder
	their own Holy Innocents

The Poetry Church is a small magazine of Christian poetry, nicely produced and with a couple of illustrations. The contents are made up of poems, prayers, listings and mini-reviews. The themes in this issue include: Christmas, remembrance, hope, old age and regeneration.

There is little that is new either poetically or theologically in this publication. However there are some poems of note. Marjorie Baker's IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER asks some interesting questions of the traditional Christmas story:

					... to suppose
	that Joseph, master carpenter, was poor, that shows
	poor sense of economics.

	it creeps sahara slowly under the utter sun

The Poetry Church is clearly not just a magazine of Christian poems. Contributors are told that their poems or prayers may be used gratis by parish magazines or other such publications. Indeed the United Christian broadcasters are noted as using some of the poems from The Poetry Church on a regular basis. This is where the publication is most valuable then, as a resource of new materials for Christian groups to use in meetings, other publications or broadcasts. Using this yardstick it can be seen to be successful.