Handshake #75

Handshake is an irregular magazine normally consisting of a single sheet of A4 with notices and mini-reviews on one side and a selection of sf-related poetry on the other.

This issue is a special one and consists of 12 pages. There are more than fifty poems included from poets such as Cardinal Cox, Peter Day, Bryn Fortey, Bill West, John Light, Geoff Stevens and A C Evans.

My favorites are Paul Tristram's THE ALIENS HAVE LANDED - here's the middle verse

The aliens have landed
they are up on the moon.
They'd come down to Cornwall
but there isn't any room.
The siamese twins life
is sadly falling apart.
Her sister will not let her
give away their heart.

and Raymond Leonard's NIGHT IN CHINGLE HALL

...
Ghosts perched on posts made precarious hosts
while they gleamed and screamed for a fight.
Devils from high levels performed crazy revels
by swooping and looping like kites.
Ghouls on one-legged stools sat crying like fools
then twisted and misted with fright.
Wizards and lizards and spooks with no gizzards
beamed while we screamed for the light.
...

Editor, John Francis Haines, despite the eye problems that prevented him attending the recent Zimmercon event in Chester, is getting on well, using his all-seeing right eye. He tells me that the next bumper edition will be #100, although that'll be a few years in the future yet. I'm looking forward to it.

Handshake
5 Cross Farm
Station Road North
Fearnhead
Warrington
WA2 0QG
UK

available for sae

visit the information web page for Handshake

Read reviews of earlier issues on NHI Review OnLine.

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