Poetry journal, Alex Leslie (editor), issue 6, poetryisdead.ca, $12 (one year subscription)
If you doubted that sound poetry would ever find a home on the printed page, feast your eyes on Steve Giasson’s erasure composition, “Perfect Lovers (Gay Porn Story Removed (O’s Remain),” a two-page dedication to the letter O that’s a cross between a connect- the-dots puzzle and a long-drawn-out orgasm. It’s an ideal flag bearer for this queer-themed issue of Poetry Is Dead, an assortment of essays, poems, stories and art that more often than not — and probably by chance — reads like a sex- themed issue. As with any collection this varied in style, every reader will find a mix of hits and misses. If tantalizing, cut- up emails are up your alley, you can read the lengthy — and challenging — splattering of sentence fragments called “ff or letters to a fellow fluency” by Pam Dick and Oana Avasilichioaei. Readers looking for marginally traditional fare will fnd the collection is bookended by two compelling creations: a poem-essay about growing up God-fearing and gay by Lisa Foad (“Here Be Monsters”), and a charmingly confusing interview between issue editor Alex Leslie and writer bill bissett, in which bissett spends four pages pretending he’s a William Burroughs narrative. Poet bpNichol, in his ABC: the Aleph Beth book, neatly summed up Poetry Is Dead’s unspoken mantra: “… POETRY IS DEAD. HAVING ACCEPTED THIS FACT WE ARE FREE TO LIVE THE POEM.” First and foremost, this sixth issue presents a congregation of people living through their writing. (Scott Bryson)