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38 Pwllcarn Terrace

Blaengarw

Bridgend

South Wales

CF32 8AS

UK

The Journal receives no public funds, depends entirely on sales and subscriptions.

{To check out previous issues of The Journal go to the Poetry Library http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/index.asp?id=90 Or to receive a free sample copy of The Journal (a previous issue) please send a self-addressed A4 envelope along with sufficient stamps to cover postage up to 250grams. UK only}

to submit

editorial policy is '...to try to publish those poems — from wheresoever they may come — written with thought to what the poem is saying and to how it is being said. Also welcomed are poems that can travel, that can cross boundaries, that do not assume in their readers a shared knowledge nor a shared set of beliefs. And it will be a rare day when I take a poem about being a poet or about the writing of poems. Also, because my aim is to keep The Journal secular, any poem containing religious terminology will not be considered for publication....'

* poems in English please, or translations into English (about 6 at a time)

* also welcome are interviews with poets, reviews, appreciations or appraisals of current poetry scenes

* if, within UK, a reply is desired, enclose SAE.

* payment will be one complimentary copy to each author

* copyright will remain with author

* from outside UK enclose 2xIRCs, or submit by email .

* But before submitting work from outside the UK please be aware of the following - In 2012 the Royal Mail failed to deliver #36 The Journal to overseas subscribers and contributors for more than two months after posting, and this despite my having had Post Office counter staff weigh and price every envelope containing a copy of #36. This failure caused not only disappointment, but also some bad feeling. The Journal is a labour of love, and I don't need to even feel accused of bad faith. So from #38 on I will no longer send contributor's copies abroad via the Royal Mail, nor accept any subscriptions from outside the UK. I will, however, send to those who still wish to contribute from outside the UK a pdf file of the relevant issue as an email attachment. And I will of course endeavour to meet all outstanding obligations, but please don't blame me if the Royal Mail fails again to deliver.

email - asamsmith@hotmail.com

J.S. Fink's' front cover poem for #61

Consider the Frog (Matter)

Stretched and pinned, unstrung on its zinc table,

a sign not of impotent protest or something worse,

limp resignation,

The carcass won’t flinch at the needle’s cold probe, no,

Prepared, organ by organ

it invites investigation

into its expressed nature.

Kidneys polluted with the dregs of dirty blood

Lungs desiccated to mere raisins

Muscles worn down to thready straw bundles

Plasma dust in the blue-lobed liver,

Each future of putrefaction and breakdown

to chemical residue was decided

in the instant

its stubborn web of frogspawn claimed an inch of pond.

Work backwards from this formalin hallucination,

Reverse his future, give him back

His straight white teeth and heavy redbrown hair,

Tighten his flesh, smooth his crosshatched skin,

Shrink his prostate, rescue his kidneys,

Bolster his heart to

Look again for the source and flower of his nature

among these sieving, pumping organs,

Quid erat, he will observe

his inborn variety makes him

Indistinguishable from the next specimen.

see also -

http://samsmithbooks.weebly.com

http://www.thesamsmith.simplesite.com