Hard to believe this is the 21st issue of the magazine and nice to get an introduction or overview. There are many fine pieces of prose or poetry here and it would need more than a few readings to tease out their qualities. The ones that have most appeal are usually those that you can reference something to or admire for their craft and this magazine has both. "To the Grave" by Trish Delaney or "Edgehill" by John Prior for immediate interest and "Adaptation" by Bernie Crawford has a charm all its own. "After Dinner at Ornans, 1848" by Eamon McGuinness will send you on a reading that compares brushstrokes to pen. The prose section though has a quality all of its own and as I said earlier, "Outsider" by Shona Woods touches more than a few heartstrings, as does " A New Haircut" by Trisha McKinney and "Beacons" by Helen Simcox, and for different reasons. The problem with poetry is that often it cannot reach those depths. That said Anamaria Julia Dragomir's poem, "The Skerries Sea" which comes with a Romanian translation is as fine a piece of descriptive writing as you will find. The book retails at €8 and link to the right, "Boyne Berries" will get you a copy.
