The genre of the Irish literary journal continues to thrive, and in addition to the established titles, several new ones are now also appearing. One which has been around for a long time is Poetry Ireland Review (PIR), whose editors change annually; the present editor is Mark Roper. The current edition has a special feature on contemporary Welsh poetry: some of the poets in this section are John Barnie, Paul Henry, and Menna Elfyn.
There's also an interview by Edna Wyley with Gillian Clarke, whose work is on the A-level syllabus; an essay about contemporary Welsh women poets by lecturer Katie Gramich; and one about the "Welsh language poetic scene" by John Rowlands, Professor of Welsh at the University of Wales.
In the editorial, Roper says that PIR will be marking the millennium by inviting submission of very short poems, with a December deadline. He has published a couple in this edition as a taster, including a perfect three-word poem by Oliver Dunne, entitled Dusty Springfield (1965). It goes:
Beehive skirt - honey
The current resurrection of Icarus, the TCD magazine, is in a square format with good colour photographic reproductions on glossy paper, and would pass for a catalogue in an art exhibition. The editors of Issue 108 are Simon Geraghty and Lukas Tchalenko.
Icarus doesn't have a lot of material in it, but what's there is good, as one would expect of a magazine with the contacts available to Trinity. There's an extract from Marina Carr's forthcoming play with Druid, On Raferty's Hill; a posthumously-published poem from Ted McNulty; a poem by Sara Berkeley; and intriguing, spooky photographs from someone called Lothar, coyly described in the biographical notes as "not a real name".
Icarus is an impressive production, but does itself no favours with its silly, narcissistic biogs: photographer Nino Tropiano, we're told simply "is never happy". Frankly, do we care? Much more irritating, however, is the confusing absence of contributors' names from the pages on which their writing and graphics appear; the reader has to turn back to the contents page to check who has done what.
Metre, which is published in association with Lilliput Press, has been around for a couple of years now and markets itself as "a magazine of international poetry", wisely leaving PIR to focus on home territory.
Editors Justin Quinn and David Wheatley are both poets and academics, and the essays, interviews, and reviews in Metre consistently include many high-profile contributors, which has helped to establish the journal as an exciting and well-respected one.
The current issue includes an interview with Robert Pinsky, the American Poet Laureate; poems by Lavinia Greenlaw, Sean Lysaght, Michael Longley, and Carol Rumens. There are also reviews by Edna Longley on Geoffrey Hill's The Triumph of Love, Christopher Miller of Yale on Jorie Graham's The Errancy, and Patrick Crotty on Paul Muldoon's Hay.
However, not for the first time, some Metre reviews tell us far more about the size of the reviewer's own ego - and its editorial policy - than offering constructive, incisive reviewing to aid the reader's understanding of the work being reviewed.
Peter McDonald's five-page review of Eavan Boland's (no relation) The Lost Land, which is entitled "Extreme Prejudice", is an example of this. McDonald hates the book - fair enough. He explains why he hates the book - fair enough: "almost all of the book is `literary' only in the most stifling and tedious sense".
But to continue in this vein - to which he admits himself is a "hostile reading" - for close on five pages is quite unnecessary. Every writer gets the boot put into them at some stage, but this is over-the-top jackboot stuff which goes on for pages. Overstatement is always boring, and in this particular case, it's also brutal.
Cyphers, edited by Leland Bardwell, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Pearse Hutchinson, and Macdara Woods has been around for many years, with its trademark triskel cover and irregular appearances. However, compared with the production standard of many other journals on offer, it's definitely looking tired at this stage in its long career. It is, however, only £2. This is a journal which can have too much work by its poet editors. But this issue includes poems by Robert Welch and Christine McNeill, a story by Pat Kaufman, Dermot Healy's review of Gerard Reidy's Pictures from a Reservation and poems in Irish by Cathal Poirteir and Greagoir o Duill.
Poetry Ireland Review No 62, £5.99; Icarus No 108, £2; Metre 6, £5; Cyphers No 46, £2; should all be available at independent bookshops and the larger chains