***
Först en deklaration (som jag inte tycker överensstämmer med verkligheten):
"The mandate of the magazine’s website is to provide a supplement to the print edition that connects readers with the literary community through author interviews, book reviews, news about Canadian writing and publishing events, and other information of interest to our readers, many of whom are writers themselves." Source: PRISM International
*
Sommarens pappersutgåva inleds med vinnardikten från en nyligen avslutad tävling. Dikten heter "The flood of '37" och är skriven av Kevin Shaw. Den är utan tvekan numrets höjdpunkt, men den är en aning lång. Jag tar istället med en tänkvärd dikt av Jan Zwicky. Överlag upplevde jag en rätt dyster, ja rent av destruktiv stämning i sommarnumrets texter.
Departure at dawn, by Jan Zwicky
(Published in PRISM International, Summer 2016.)
Bare rooms, the echo of white light.
The moon, I think,
is a white sail of pain.
The answer isn't love or furniture,
we're always on the move.
A satellite a hundred miles up
paces its slow curve. Landscape
glides beneath it. Scars.
***
"PRISM is the oldest literary magazine in western Canada. Here is a little of its history.
PRISM was established in 1959 as a journal of Canadian writing. PRISM was first born of a group of Vancouver writers, based out of UBC’s Creative Writing department. At the time, it was the only Canadian literary magazine west of Toronto. Under its first editor, Jan de Bruyn, the magazine published new writers at the time such as Margaret Laurence, Alden Nowlan and George Bowering." Source: PRISM International
*
Jag tyckte bättre om höstnumret. I det förekom ett par bekanta namn: Paisley Rekdal och Lisa Baird. Den sistnämnda, en intressant performance poet som jag säkert återkommer till, har ett riktigt fint (men väl långt) bidrag med i utgåvan.
För en gång skull fastnade jag för en prosadikt. Eve Joseph har fått med tre stycken och alla var knivskarpa betraktelser. Jag bifogar ett av de vackraste fotografier jag sett på gratistjänsten Pixabay.
(From PRISM International, Fall 2016. "Now that I live by the sea ...", by Eve Joseph.)
Now that I live by the sea, I am sure what the day will bring. Gulls stomp on the roof like heavy-footed prowlers causing me to wake in alarm. Broken shells litter the garden: clam, oyster and torn crab pincers serrated like nutcrackers. I'm standing at the window, drinking my morning coffee, when I see her. My mother is rowing against the current in the rain. I cup my hands and yell come in for a gin and tonic. It's not that awful rowing toward God, nothing that dramatic. It's just her, after all these years, the creak of oarlocks and a small wake trailing behind. Like the hapless Aeschylus I walk bareheaded, forgetting to look up at what might be hurtling toward me.
***
"PRISM takes pride in the diversity of our content and in our international readership. PRISM has published award-winning Canadian writers, such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Irving Layton, Evelyn Lau, and Robert Kroetsch; prominent international authors, such as Ted Hughes, Jorge Luis Borges, and Tennessee Williams; and the Nobel Prize winners Salvador Quasimodo, Vicente Aleixandre, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Seamus Heaney." Source: PRISM International
Den avslutande dikten är mer humoristisk än bra och författaren kommer nog aldrig bli en ny Sophie Hannah. Men efter de uppblåsta beskrivningarna ovan känns det kul att presentera följande dikttitel:
Plot for an episode of Scooby Doo, by Laura Farina
(Published in PRISM International, Fall 2016.)
A comet
hyped up
on Froot Loops
could not
outrun
those pesky
vampires.
The following things
are see-through -
ghosts,
Tupperware,
this statement -
I left something
in the van
you guys
go on ahead.
A map is found.
A floorboard creaks.
A cobweb is,
and then isn't.
Now there is nowhere
to go but down
and this darkness
has no
boring
pauses.
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