zine picks

May zine of the month

Some Poems by People I Like

poetry chapbook, Sandra Alland 61 Kensington Ave Toronto, ON M5T 2K2 Sandra@blissfultimes.ca

Alland has collected works by Chrystos, Naila Keleta Mae, Jorge Lara Rivera, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha and Andra Simons in this anthology. These are solid poems that hit you hard with their unabashed anger and joy. It’s especially a treat to see some of Chrystos’ work collected as most, if not all, of her books are out of print and often tricky to find. In “Trailer Park at Dawn,” Chrystos writes “Here in the trailer park we don’t have BBQ gatherings / or bowling teams or borrowed sugar / Just a vast sky raining on us / exactly the way she touches the rich / and their endless gravel drives.” These poets address lifetimes of struggle against violence through poverty, racism, abuse – giving strong narratives of walking through fire and lessons learned. There’s fierce beauty here.

Highlights include new work by Piepzna-Samarasinha, telling stories of navigating love in the midst of homelands at war, where prayers mesh with the horror of international news reports and minutia of daily events in meditations on survival and strength. Whether it's chain-smoking indignantly while ranting about an ex-lover's new partner's lack of an ass, or delicately describing moving through pain together while watching the headlines on Al Jazeera, her poems are vivid, physical, full of sweat and passion. In the final stanza of "After 31 years of loving in the war years," she writes "I think I [�] should be an expert at this / should know how to kiss away every trauma / how 31 years into loving in the war years / I still don�t know how to do this / but we cross this water / together / still alive."

If you're feeling politically apathetic, this collection's a swift elbow to the gut, and if you're struggling in the thick of things, it will be a welcome balm. Well done, and highly recommended.

Sarah Pinder

April zine of the month

Brainscan: Irreconcilable Differences

Perzine, Alex Wrekk, issue 21, $3.00 US, Alex Wrekk, 809 N Shaver St., Portland OR 97227, USA, alex@smallworldbuttons.com

Perzines can be tricky. The author has to figure out which parts of his or her soul would be interesting to a stranger. The best zines in this genre are written on universal themes and cause the reader to relate to the experience of the author. Alex Wrekk does just that in her meditation on the death and destruction of her marriage, mapping out the last throes of a relationship based around power struggle and manipulation. It’s a ragged, honest, searing journey, and may prove to be painful to those that have been there before.

The saving grace of this issue of Brainscan is that it never becomes about condemning Wrekk’s ex outright. She takes the time to analyze his character, to give him the benefit of the doubt, and in the process she illustrates not only how many ways there are to excuse this kind of behaviour, but also how easy it is to fall into it yourself. She goes as far as asking the readers to take a step back and make sure they’re not just as guilty as he was.

Her main misstep is going on for too long and in too great detail. Near the end, when she shares with the reader her psychoanalyst’s brilliant assessment of her trembling lower lip, you may start to wonder if this is simply more personal information than the story needs. This problem aside, Irreconcilable Differences is a searching, haunting and enlightening zine with more than enough truth and pathos to recommend it to everyone, from the hurting to the merely curious.

(J. Blackmore)