NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW ON-LINE

KRAX is a national institution, a national treasure, even. You always knew when summer comes because that's when Andy Robson's annual antidote to angst and apathy thuds through the letterbox.

Every page has something printed on it, yet despite this the magazine manages not to look cluttered. The result is good value for money that is difficult to beat.

The general preference is for work with a light touch to it, so humour, whimsy, barminess and the downright odd have the upper hand - you're as likely to encounter a limerick as a sonnet. Fragments such as ETERNAL OPTIMISM by Dileep Bagnall are typical

	I am not handsome
	in this dimension

	but somewhere....

	go into the hall biting
	my lip as I step through
	the moonfire that skitters
	across the bathroom, and
	why is Jerry Garcia's body
	laid out in our bathtub?

	The dead are smiling doggedly
	through their teeth
	and limbering up like dancers
	at a cold barre
	as they point their skinny legs
	like rakes into the untilled air.

No doubt there's a perfectly reasonable (or perfectly absurd, Da-da-ish or whimsical) explanation for the lack of page numbers — but like everything else about this magazine, it's there for enjoyment rather than explanation.

This is quite one of the best produced independent press magazines I have seen, even if they did forget to number the pages!

I was impressed by the selection and arrangement of the poetry. At the back of the publication at least twenty pages are dedicated to reviews of other independent press magazines, many of which have become affectionately familiar to me. Others like Gibraltar based Beetroot Publications' A DESCENT IN A LIFTSHAFT AND OTHER POEMS by Garbanzo de Bubu and Mariana Trench, are new to me, and might well be worth checking out. I had to admit to a moment's sadness when I saw FREEHAND mentioned at the very end of the review section. FREEHAND was an old stamping ground of mine when I was knee-high to an aspiring writer, and I was very sorry to see it cease publication.

KRAX's poetry is cosmopolitan. It's hard to pick out the very best, and it's subjective. I liked Guernica's opening poem, TRAVEL, with its short, sharp, succinct lines. Simon Fletcher's ALL PURPOSE LOVE POEM made me realise how much we have to thank Shakespeare for the good old iambic pentameter. Here, Simon cleverly invites the reader to Delete as appropriate Before I met you I was on my own/ I had been living on a desert island/ I was shunned by decent society. Agnes Stein's FALL OF THE YEAR is a beautiful poem about Autumn:

	Late afternoon
	gold slides through the fingers
	copper clashing in the trees
	and in another country
	long ago
	drum beats from the playing field
	leaves are smoking in the Indian summer air.

There is one short story entitled GHOST HOUR by Johnny Haelterman (Belgium), translated from the original SPOOKUUR by the author; plus an article entitled, VALLEYS OF THE PSYCHE about Gwyneth Lewis's work.

Perhaps one of the most poignant pieces is David Hillary's THE NIGHT CLUB:

	The thready pace
	of unseemly drums
	inspiring laughter
	and unnatural lust.
	Clearing the mist
	the pagan looms
	Priapic, horned,
	and without the vote.
	So guard against joy,
	attend no parties
	lest demons cavort
	inside your head
	and you end up
	in someone else's bed.

The second poem in this issue, Stuart R. MacDonald's ERECTIONS has lines like

	If you are here to be excited
		you will be disappointed
	If you are here to be titillated
		you will be disappointed
	If ...
		you will be disappointed

	Monday's child is hooked on crack.
	Tuesday's child is needleblack.
	Wednesday's child is bitter and blue.
	Thursday's child was fixed with glue.
	Friday's child is full of spite.
	Saturday's child popped E's all night...
	And the child that's born on the Sabbath Day
	Will trash his room and waste away.

	'fine weather'

	bellows a kindly
	if inept young man

	at an elderly
	hair-netted woman

	causing her to drop
	the bullion

	and leg it
	to a revving Merc.

Krax is an A5, card covered publication, containing poems, short stories, an interview, illustrations and a pull-out reviews section. There is no editorial. The poetry tends towards the funny with lots of puns and clever word play and including a number of limericks. In fact with the title Krax you would expect this, but some of the poems aren't at all funny — though that may be a case of different senses of humour! The wide ranging topics include cookery, hot flushes, alcoholism, office politics and airports. Few of the poems are memorable or particularly well written, however a couple are worth mentioning. Philip Catchtpole's JACKSON POLLOCK AND MY LIFE AS IT IS is an amusing comparison of life with Pollock's paintings, while Ric Adamson's THE TRAVEL AGENT'S EYES tells of visiting a travel agent whose:

	face            so dead
	in a sealed hermitage
	of boredom

The interview with small press poet, Ian Seed, is interesting and did make me want to read some more of his poetry (two poems were included in the interview).

Both the short stories in this issue of Krax (THE BOOK by David Ross Warrender and HOOK, LINE AND SINKER by Bill Close) were well plotted with humourous storylines and good endings. Though not great literature, both of them worked, which is often not the case with short stories.

The illustrations include amusing cartoons and photographs and line drawings of varying quality. The drawing on the front cover is an abstract human body that looks odd and doesn't seem to reflect the contents.

The pull-out reviews selection is very comprehensive, covering small press magazines, poetry collections and a couple of CDs. The back cover of the pull out is illustrated beautifully with an untitled line drawing by Margaret Balif-Simon. Underneath this picture is my favourite of the poems in this issue of Krax, Don Carter's TIME, which I quote in full below:

	Time
	Disappears
	Down a small hole
	Guarded by a cat
	Washing
	As if she had forever.