PS 55 and 56 go to press

Two single sheet issues for the summer. There were effectively only three and a half pages
available beyond the Dedicated (Duo) Issue 56 (Maurice Lindsay and James Aitchison)
and the Summer Renga Issue 55, which contains the traditional summer renga as well
as three poems in tribute to Brian Patten. The editorial struggle was a tough one this time.
I had been intending an eight pager for the general issue but it felt right at four pages,
something to do with the renga and the shorter poems. Apologies to some contributors
who will have to wait for their poems to appear in the autumn. In Issue 56, Maurice
presents mainly sonnets, while James has some longer poems and sequences. 
These two poets have been friends for many years, and the work of both shows a blend
of the traditional and the modern.

Safely away at the printers, both these issues should reach you mid August, the right time
to remind you all about Callander Poetry Weekend.

Poetry Scotland 54 goes to bed.

Just slightly behind schedule. This is because we have published two windfalls this spring,
by Morelle Smith and Margaret Gillies Brown, and we have also been waiting for my long poem,
The Bees, to come back from the printers. This book, being landscape and illustrated by
Reinhard Behrens, was a step into new production territory both for ourselves and the
printer, so the plan for the rest of this year is: PS 54 April (possibly into May), summer
issues (55/56) July/August and autumn (57/58?) around November. And another 
windfall or two, perhaps.

Back to Issue 54. It went to StAnza, proofed with eight pages, including Elizabeth M.Rimmer's
long sequence Eurydice Rising, an exciting piece of work based on the northern European
Eurydice and Orpheus myths, a poem that takes up more than two PS pages. There were
spaces on some of the pages, which we proposed filling up with poems and "snap poems" from StAnza.

We had a good response to this project, spearheaded by the Poetry Scotland stand in the
Magazine Fair, run by  Meghan McAvoy & Richie McCaffery, young poets from Stirling  University.
So much so, that at almost the last minute the number of pages was increased to twelve (three sheets).
As well as the StAnza poems it contains translations by Morelle Smith of three French poets based
in Marseille, and many other goodies.

Martin Bates sent the following comment with his Snap poem in PS54. Look at it again when you read
the poem Where Seagulls are Hatching Lost Golfballs, in Issue 54.

I like the interaction between poetry spoken by many different kinds of poet and the shore-line
setting of St Andrews, close to the elements with memories of the past. I started this while walking
down to the harbour past elegant ruins and St Leonard’s school. Some images came there. There
was the woman at the school gate smoking furtively, the four-wheel drive tanks parked all over
the place waiting for their children. There was the wind and the light and seagulls. There was the
chat from other writers. And the roar of jet engines from Leuchars, which built up into an immense
boom that drilled into the skull, threatening to blot out all the other impressions. I tried to place the
latter beside the recital by Adrian Mitchell in the flesh now and in youth (on film Wholly Communion)
of his poem To Whom it may Concern. I started playing with these impressions and rhyme suggested
itself. Some of the rhymes seem a bit forced. Maybe I would end up dumping the rhymes, as Liz
Lochhead mentioned she sometimes does as part of the process. I also need to select and cut more.
This is difficult. Maybe there are separate poems here - the turbo-driven matrons, the war machines,
the seagulls hatching lost golf-balls.

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Issue 54

An Apology to Brian Patten.

Diehard and Poetry Scotland offers its profuse apology to Brian Patten for unintentionally printing
one of his poems under another person's name in Issue 54. There is no excuse for it. We did not recognise
the poem, all we saw was a very good poem and we accepted and published it.

This is an essay in the dangers of e-mail submission. It is all too easy to cut and paste. Poetry Scotland,
like most publishers, receives about a thousand e-mails per week. We did not notice yet another e-mail
coming in from the same source under the heading 'hi' stating "Dont use this it aint mine" ... which went
unopened and unread until the magazine was out to the subscribers. The fault, therefore, is entirely ours,
and we do apologise.

In future, the paper magazine will be very wary of accepting e-mail submissions.

We would like to thank Brian, and his agent, for their great kindness when our glaring mistake was realised,

Ian W King
Sally Evans.

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