December 1999

Edited by Michael Hulse & John Kinsella

School of English, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT.

Digest, 187 pp, £4.75 or £16/4

The December 1999 issue of Stand Magazine features much commentary on contemporary poetry, and some actual poetry is scattered through its 187 pages, written mainly by the people who've written the reviews and essays, but some by people whose work is reviewed in the magazine. Most of it is the kind that was never explained to me during school English lessons, and try as I might, I get little or nothing from it.

After a rambling editorial, the issue is divided into three sections. The first, called 'America Goes to the Ball', is concerned with American poetry, with reviews of work by John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, Susan Howe, Louis Zukofsky and Charles Bernstein. There's also a review by Rod Mengham of an anthology of younger American poets.

The second section, 'The Commonwealth and Overseas Trust', begins with James Woodall's 'What Mick Jagger Read in the Bath' -- a comprehensive overview of the life and work of Jorge Luis Borges, centred on new translations of his stories and poems. This I found engaging, as I have read some Borges, and the review is nothing if not thorough, with examples of different translations and comments on their relative merits.

Then comes John Tranter's 'In Paris' -- what I would describe as alternative fiction, or maybe stream-of- consciousness journalism. John Tranter then interviews Stand co-editor John Kinsella, who also edits an on- line literary journal called Jacket. Kinsella's own efforts, as described in this interview, seem weird and experimental in the extreme.

Two poems by Andrea Brady are rhythmic and rich in texture, but conveyed little else to me. Nigel Wheale reviews J. H. Prynne's Poems, and clearly reveres him. Peter Larkin's 'A Fragment Striates' is a fascinating juxtaposition of words that sound good together -- and that seems to be the only reason they are together. A poem by Drew Milne, comprising 36 short lines with no capitals, or other punctuation apart from a couple of commas, and titled 'the foggiest', drew the obvious reaction from me.

'Gospel Oak', by John Hartley Williams, seems entirely out of place in this company. It's a poem about a schoolboy in detention for not wearing his cap out of school, and it's actually understandable. David Grubb's 'Hide and Seek for Kenneth Koch', seems to be saying 'it takes all sorts'. It sounds good, as does Grubb's 'The Oh My God! Bird', which could be a metaphor for all those amazing revelations of childhood.

I'm deeply suspicious of David Kennedy's review of Peter Reading's Ob. Amongst the careful analysis, he seems to be hinting that the work might be pretentious rubbish.

In the middle of this section comes 'The Hair Opera', a piece of fiction by Brenda Walker. This is a slow, atmospheric story of separated lovers, told mostly from the point of view of the woman, a projectionist at a library showing Japanese films. It's well written, and welcome relief from the highbrow.

Then come more short poems and learned essays, including one by Andrew Duncan, in which he seems to be saying that a lot of contemporary poetry is incomprehensible, and therefore, possibly meaningless.

At last we reach the final section of the magazine - - the winners of the Stand Fiction Competition. Given what has gone before, I approached the three published winners with trepidation, but was pleasantly surprised. We have here three fine stories, beautifully written, with fully realised characters, and not a hint of the highbrow.

Rosalind Brackenbury's 'Instead of the Revolution' tells of a woman taking her 30-year-old unmarried daughter to Paris on the anniversary of the May 1968 student-worker revolts. It's sensitively done, and probably autobiographical. 'Lazarus' by Sinclair James is the story of a love affair. The unconventional representation of dialogue gives it a restrained, detached quality entirely suited to the tenor of the story. In Tony D'Souza's 'Something's Got to Happen', two bored couples go to a bar, get drunk, and leave without paying. One couple break into a boat, raid the fridge, and cast the vessel adrift. Not much does happen, but it's told in a compelling style.

This issue of Stand concentrates on contemporary poetry, some of it in translation, and offers a host of scholarly analyses. Most of these went over my head, but the small amount of fiction is of such high quality that I'm convinced the magazine is a worthy organ. In these proportions I wouldn't buy it just for the fiction, but if poetry is your thing, Stand is surely a valuable resource.

Copyright © 2000 Paul S. Jenkins

Note: This review originally appeared in Zene: The Definitive Guide to the World's Independent Press.