The Poker 4

One of my favorite literary magazine sections was the "Reviews and Noticings" in Clayton Eshleman's Sulfur. Though it included the regular reviews commonly found at the back of poetry journals, it also presented more casual responses to readings, as well as commentary (the section was titled "Commentary" in later issues) on poetic goings-on of the day (or, sometimes, of the "New American Po" heyday) by the editor, contributing editors, and readers. Another favorite was "The Free Speech Corner" in Larry Smith's Caliban: instead of bios, contributors were given space to speak their mind: you might have Rachel Loden writing about her surprising experience with a Down syndrome child, or, as in the first issue, Ron Silliman considering the question, "How does a poem constitute its audience?" directly followed by Raymond Carver listing the books he had recently read. Then there was Exquisite Corpse, which, though printed on higher-quality paper, was the closest thing I've seen to a poetry newspaper; lively responses to the poetry scene(s) were scattered throughout its pages. I had imagined that the "End Notes" section of The End Review would become one of these places, and maybe it would have, had I shown the fortitude necessary for independent publishing.

With its fourth issue, The Poker introduces "what is projected to be a regular feature," a section manned by Steve Evans called Field Notes. The gist is that his essays will cover "the interlude between [issues of] Poker" with respect to the poetry world, especially its relation to, and situation in, the larger social and geo-political realm. Though one voice, Evans approaches his subject in a variety of ways, with the result that it almost seems more than a sole perspective—this is the main reason The Poker has me remembering Sulfur's Noticings. Among the issues Evans touches on: the hyperproduction of poetry (measured in books published), the allocation of prize money and awards (including a profile of the ideal winner, and the portion for established avant-garde poets), the make-up of an "independent" publisher, the zeitgeist (by way of a "kaleidoscopic account of the past eight or nine months" similar to a prose poem), and the value of numerous recent poetry volumes (via constellations, mini-capsule reviews, and a pure list of books reviewed in four prominent publications).

Good as Field Notes is, its place is augmented by the dialogue occurring in the rest of the magazine, which begins with a letter responding to an interview in Poker 3. Next is a short essay by Juliana Spahr also responding to the previous issue. And there are two reviews and an interview—normally I'm not a big fan of interviews, but this one with Ange Mlinko was the perfect length, and even made me want to get off my ass and write.

And, of course, there's poetry. Rachel Blau DuPlessis has perhaps the most striking piece, "Draft 63: Dialogue of self and soul", which covers six pages. Here's a taste: "I yearn to see the moon, to have clouds / break apart. Instead they close. / No metaphor. All flatness. No results." And later, "You say you want to see / what you do not see [. .. .. ] / Vision's blocked at every turn. / Accept it. This failure is the vision."

There are also new translations of Giuseppe Ungaretti, sections from Nathaniel Tarn's War Poems Yet Again, four poems by Hoa Nguyen, and impressive work by some I hadn't read before, such as Anna Moschovakis ("Because the couple felt Platonic that day / they tiptoed around the perimeter / and yelled at each other"), and Elizabeth Marie Young ("You pump the gas, / Blood rushes to my head. / Move over, numinous, this thing's on automatic.").

The Poker 4 is 92 pages and costs $10. There are other good magazines that give you more pages for the same price (i.e. Fence 13, 187 pages; Court Green 1, 168 pages; The Canary 3, 127 pages), but The Poker is 99% lean. On top of that, a three-issue subscription means only $8 per issue. And I'll even give it this stock phrase of praise: If you order one magazine this year, make it The Poker (well, or Skanky Possum).