Poems and a Review in PB$

The Poetry Bus
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I am very happy to have a poem, a haiku and a review published in the latest Poetry Bus, the 5th issue published by Peadar and Collette O'Donoghue. The Poetry Bus continues to be a very attractive magazine, with high production values and striking full colour imagery.

Its content is broad, but the work inside the Bus normally has quite an edge to it, in content or style- for better or worse. It reads more quick fire than meditative, but an attentive editorial eye has selected pieces that not only demand you chase them down the page but are crafted well enough to stay in and stimulate your mind.

From cover to cover the artwork is bold and intermissions the poetry just enough to avoid distraction either way. Though the images themselves are catching the quality of their reproduction in the magazine is not always up to standard, more likely due to the images supplied rather than the printers or editors fault. The continued presence of comic strips is good to see and I hope more comic writers come to see the Bus as a platform for their work.
The 'My Writing Life' section of the Bus gives writers carte blanche beyond the title which prompts indulgent and flowery lifestyling to honest reflection of the role writing plays in an author's life. Another article in this Bus tends towards more flowery indulgence- a vent against rejection letters which can be seen as an unnecessary feature in a magazine which, I imagine, has a backlog of work waiting to be published.


I feel the role of poetry journals and magazines to discuss the state of the art or the state of the scene it exists in and draws from is currently underplayed in the Bus. But I am optimistic that this role will be optimised in time, as its reputation grows and its understanding of itself increases.