The intro to Issue 8 of this magazine mentioned Tory plans to re-open mines in the UK. Eleven days after the launch of the mag, 33 miners in Chile became trapped underground. 69 days later, on Margaret Thatcher’s birthday (also mentioned in the last intro, being the person held
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responsible for the closure of Britain’s mines), the miners were free. I’m not sure exactly what this means. I have reflected in the past that the life of a miner is without doubt a hazardous one, and the incident in Chile is certainly proof of that. And yet, if there had been a mine re-opened by the Tories, and something like this had happened, Cameron no doubt would be rubbing his hands in glee at the prospect of positive publicity. I would prefer not to dwell on any of that though, and just think about what a great, good news story it was, and what a fantastic achievement to rescue the miners.
The cover feature of this issue takes a look at another fantastic achievement, that of a young man by the name of Dave Duke. You may not yet have heard of the gentleman. But he certainly
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should be heralded as a hero, having recently completed a walk around the coast of Great Britain, in record time, in aid of bowel cancer. He also achieved the feat of drinking more pints of cider en route than anyone else, he told me, along with other things, in an interview printed elsewhere. Dave has also contributed a diary extract from his walk, and some unrelated, amusing photos of himself wearing pink underpants.
One remarkable thing about Dave is his exceptional humility and lack of ego. Egos seem to bounce around the place these days in a particularly unpleasant fashion. Get rid of them, I say! When it comes to writing, or any kind of creative endeavour, the quality of the output is surely the most important thing. After nine issues of running this magazine, I can’t exactly put my finger on what makes a good poem, but I try to keep what I consider to be the quality of the writing as being the most important thing when considering what is going to go in it. If a best friend sends
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me something crap, it’s just not going to make it! And similarly, with reviews, I, or the person writing the review, mostly tries to be honest. I’m all for giving people a chance, and would prefer to champion new or aspiring writers or publishers than established writers, but if even they are doing something we don’t like, we’ll say it. Or if we’re being ultra-cautious we won’t say anything and leave out the review altogether! But I’ve decided to keep Aisling Tempany’s critical review of Mulfran’s pamphlets in, despite the fact that I’m very much in favour of Mulfran’s attempts to start a new press in Cardiff.
One of Aisling’s poems is also included, along with a concrete poem about, erm concrete by popular performance poet, Martin Daws, a “found poem” by me about the Chilean miners (more
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like a stolen poem really, the details coming straight from a news site), and a whole host of other poetry. There is a short story by Valleys-based, Lynda Nash, and Square has been spreading its wings a bit lately, as we have more overseas contributors than ever, with another short story, this time from Australia-based Reg Bogaerts, and poetry by Mark Farrell from the Czech Republic, and Lance Nizami from the USA. Enjoy Issue 9!
Nick
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