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Reviews
Alan provides feedback to the Reader's Award pages of Orbis Quarterly International Literary Journal. This involves selecting
four favourites from the latest edition. Those comments published in the journal are reproduced here.
Issue #139, Winter 2006
#4 Don Ammons's Next of Kin is slightly disconcerting and a real attention-grabber.
#3 Myra Schneider's mini-epic Eurydice's Version has a consistent rhythm and has now definitely been heard.
#2 I won't pretend to understand all the content of Michael O'Siadhail's Behind, but that writing seems to be high quality,
particularly the compensating ebb and flow tending towards a restrained crescendo.
#1 Considering the competition, deciding on my number one is not easy, but even after five readings, I continue to be
captivated by Geraldine Green's Pinned Flower.
There is a brave attempt at some imagery in Marion Ashton's Breakdown, but it's a little too obvious.
Barbara Bridger's The rules of the real came close but the ending took away the beauty and certainty of it all.
The last two lines of Sing, Heavenly Neurons by Chris Sparkes seem incongruous and made me uneasy, but I enjoyed his Blackbird
Music, which would have made my top four if it wasn't for Don Ammons's prose.
At the lowest point of my positives-negatives scale, Paul Birtill's efforts take some explaining, at best, mismeasured,
or maybe misguided, but in reality I suspect they are just plain misbelief.
Issue #138, Autumn 2006
Gol McAdam's 'Post-War Baby Rap' reminds us of the wider influence of the mental scars of war. The combination of a disciplined
rhythm along with carefully placed alliteration certainly demands attention.
'The Demise of Eloise Insane Asylum' by Carol Carpenter seemed the most readable poem; well structured too.
'The Drunkard' by Thomas Land hld my attention, but I thought 'Only A Girl' ended strangely - maybe he has a rebellious
streak.
Best of all, I enjoyed Mark Terrill's stream of consciousness 'The Time Time Takes'.
You have done me a big favour. Words are flowing.
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