NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW ON-LINE

Sometimes I really wonder about the names of publications. Why are they called what they are called? Well, in this case, the name, INDEFINITE SPACE, is incredibly appropriate. This is not a mainstream journal, nor is it an avant garde one, but rather, it spans the space in between these two limiting definitions, and does so very nicely. The production is neat and the pages are uncrowded. And yet, somehow, I would not describe this journal as being eclectic. The selection seems to not have been a random one. At one end are the visual poems of Fernando Aguiar and Christian Burgaud. A transition occurs via the experimental texts of writers like Richard Kostelanetz, Bruna Mori and John M. Bennett, through to others a little more accessible, like Miriam A. Cohen, Peter deRous, Jeffery Skeate, and lan Haight. Then there are poems that approach the mainstream, from recognisable names like Simon Perchik, Alan Catlin, Michael Estabrook, and B.Z. Niditch. The remaining pages are aptly filled in by several good poets, and some artwork from Wendy Lu.

Overall, this issue is a good mix, and one representative of what is going on in small press writing today. There is no workshop stuff in here, and it is clear that the writers published are also readers.

The poems in the magazine INDEFINITE SPACE do just that: create a feeling of indefinite space around them for the reader to explore. The cover immediately intrigues with its black and white photo of an ancient empty passageway by Matthew Joy.

Most of the poems are unusual and interesting, and are given space on the page to breathe and allow readers to use their own imagination (an exception to this was Carlotta Abrams' fine AT LIBERTY CITY SCHOOL, a longer poem cramped by a tiny font).

Lines from the poems tend to linger and echo with a strange beauty, and ask to be experienced rather than merely understood as, from HOW TO MOVE IN THE SHAPE OF A CRUCIFIX by Rob Cook:

	I learned the sun falls a million ways on a mountain
	trail, so each becomes a different trail 

	I learned if I dressed like a folding chair I'd never
	be alone

	the monotony

	of every day
	existence grief
	comes as a respite
	and a scratch
	embellishes
	  an empty face

In this collection several names are familiar to me, while others are unknown. The poems stand by their own merits. There are no supportive guides; no preface, acknowledgments, bios, nor back cover blurbs. Andrew Topol's cover design has a variety of black shapes, words and letters on a grey/white background. Then there's the intriguing title, Indefinite Space, with its vistas of sky, fields of stars and distant planets.

From the pens of poets whose work is known to me: John M. Bennett, Guy R. Beining, B. Z. Niditch, Marcia Arrieta, and others, we may expect good things, and we get them in this volume.

John M. Bennett's poem FEED SHIMMER, for example, is a long list of words. How the reader interprets them and splices them together to make sense of them will depend on the reader's experience, knowledge and familiarity with words:

	deed, crust damper, slope, clamper
	seethes, shadow, mylar infarction, chub

	on page of april

	light falls

	from parchment,

	baring truculent text,

	your absent gaze
	in the tiny snapshot

Marcia Arrieta's poem is untitled: words dotted about on the page. What readers take from it comes from surface words that have to be thought about separately until they resonate with one another.

There are two poems by Alex Migliore, PROLAPSE and RHAPSODY, which are more traditional in style. From RHAPSODY, this enchanting description of a fox:

	The fox, removing its shadow
	from the pavement, crosses
	the bridle path

The collection is full of esoteric work, some poems more traditional in style than others; many are more complex.

An A5 booklet that is issued once a year. A coffee-time light read, but some of the subject matter is quite heavy. The centre pages are visuals. A favourite piece is Nathan Parker's

	SOULSCAPE WITH A SHRINKING CRAYON

	intensity
	broke out of the canvas boundaries
	absorbing our senses
	blended paint flow
	crawling colors on the loose