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MIPOesias Magazine ~  ISSN 1543-6063 Volume 15 ~ January to March 2004

Welcome to volume fifteen of MIPOesias Magazine, dedicated to literature and language, the inseparable dance partners. In a world where English is spoken in so many regions, regional preferences and creations have become the norm, not the exception, the slandered slang. For this language we use, fractured by distance and eclectic cultures, literature has become the glue, binding us together. Literature is the multiculturalism that political systems will never be able to create.

Therein lies MIPO’s power; the ability to draw in writers from around the world to share their unique human experiences and responses to life through a common basic language and a common craft.

Going through one of those “life” moments, I missed the grunt work for this issue and resurfaced at the end of the production just in time to see...well, to see what you’re seeing. I’m intrigued and excited by this volume.

Page 2 starts things off with a real bang. We have Angela Armitage’s interviews of Willie Perdomo, a New York City poet of growing stature and David Lehman, poet, professor and editor of The Best American Poetry. Their comments on poetics and publishing are well worth reading.

New in this issue is Jack Hughes, joining MiPo as the staff reviewer. This issue’s reviews are of John Eivaz, Ron Androla and Carol Muske-Dukes. Jack brings with him a wealth of knowledge about the process of poetry and writing and those people who are doing it on the www. If I were to think of a human research machine, it would be Jack. He knows how to dig for the facts. Always informative, quite often controversial, an internet critique forum which has Jack participating is never a dull place, so expect the same from Jack’s reviews in MiPo. You won’t be disappointed.

This issue’s poetry section has a very interesting concept, pairing poems on the page. Reading, you can find similarities in theme, in approach, but always in a unique and individual voice. I had a great time reading through this section, drawing my own conclusions from the pairings.

On Page 7, Deirdre Dore’s title, You Be The Girl, seemed such a great fit into Robert Bohm’s, Busted Cherry. On Page 8, Terry Lucas and A.D. Winans are taken in very different directions by the theme of the road. With page nine, Bradley Mason Hamlin and Robert Bohm share their thoughts on music and sex. Deirdre Dore and Steven Hoadly discuss ends and living with them on page ten. Laurence Overmire and Terry Boykie share a look at old Satan on page eleven. Page 12 has Terry Boykie and Fred Longworth looking at aspects of our now familiar friend, Mr. TV. Silvia A. Brandon-Perez and Laurence Overmire explore the concept of planet on Page 13. Cheryl Snell and John Eivaz on Page 14 discuss the seemingly inevitable. Page 15 has C. E. Laine and Janet I Buck sharing the theme of funerals, of endings. Ella McCrystle and Pris Campbell look at the hazards of relationships on page sixteen. Terry Lucas and Teresa White use legumes as a jump point for their poems on Page 17. And finally, on Page 18, Laurence Overmire and Karin Henderson look at miracles in quite different ways.

For the most part, I found the themes to be moody, dark. Rene Andersson’s artwork and Cheryl Townsend’s photography certainly add to this feeling. Most of the writers are also mature and there’s much about time, about change, about endings, about trying to define or explain experience.

In the short fiction section of this issue, although the three offerings by Richard Denner, Kay Sexton and Zan Nordlund are very different in approach, they share one common theme, a journey. The two speakers in Denner’s work talk through a drive in the old hood. Sexton’s protagonist takes a journey inward, slipping from past to present to future. Nordlund’s character takes a trip back to a past that has little appeal.

And that’s MiPo, Volume 15 — one language, one art, many interpretations, enjoy.