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Handshake 60, The Newsletter of the Eight Hand Gang, John F. Haines, 5 Cross Farm, Station Road North, Fearnhead, Warrington, Cheshire, WA2 0QG, United Kingdom. A brief newsletter usually consisting of short reviews of small press publications and other bric-a-brac on one side and poetry on the other side of A4 paper. Available for self-addressed envelope, but I think it would be polite to include an IRC.
I think every previous issue of _Handshake_ I have seen consisted of a single piece of paper printed on both sides, but this issue is twice as long. There are three pages of poetry instead of only one. John doesn't say why this issue is longer; it may be in celebration of having reached number 60. In any case, I like to review _Handshake_ every now and then for two reasons. First, there is always some very good poetry in the newsletter. As much as can be crammed into one-page (in this case three pages) is here. Second, the reviews seem to be of the most interesting obscure publications that John has come across since he put out the last issue. Most of the reviews are of chapbooks, but some are actually announcements of conventions or reviews of periodicals. The reviews are not all of UK publications, although the conventions all take place in the United Kingdom.
I really like _Handshake_ best for the poetry. This issue is very distinctly themed. The first two pages of poems are all about life and death, ghosts, and similar subjects. The last page consists of poems inspired by or related to the cosmos. Here is a sample:
_You red eyed proffessors staring through telescopes
Trapped in Saturnalia,
Mind debris escape_
From "HD70642," about a recently discovered extrasolar planet not too much larger than Jupiter, poem by Jacqueline Jones. And here is a little piece of a poem by Andrew Darlington; I omit the very long title:
_listen, it's 13:56 again,
my watch becomes timeless,
I'm watching time solidify_
I could say more, but it would not really be justified for a four-page newsletter. But let me say just this: _Handshake_ is definitely worth the trouble.
I think every previous issue of _Handshake_ I have seen consisted of a single piece of paper printed on both sides, but this issue is twice as long. There are three pages of poetry instead of only one. John doesn't say why this issue is longer; it may be in celebration of having reached number 60. In any case, I like to review _Handshake_ every now and then for two reasons. First, there is always some very good poetry in the newsletter. As much as can be crammed into one-page (in this case three pages) is here. Second, the reviews seem to be of the most interesting obscure publications that John has come across since he put out the last issue. Most of the reviews are of chapbooks, but some are actually announcements of conventions or reviews of periodicals. The reviews are not all of UK publications, although the conventions all take place in the United Kingdom.
I really like _Handshake_ best for the poetry. This issue is very distinctly themed. The first two pages of poems are all about life and death, ghosts, and similar subjects. The last page consists of poems inspired by or related to the cosmos. Here is a sample:
_You red eyed proffessors staring through telescopes
Trapped in Saturnalia,
Mind debris escape_
From "HD70642," about a recently discovered extrasolar planet not too much larger than Jupiter, poem by Jacqueline Jones. And here is a little piece of a poem by Andrew Darlington; I omit the very long title:
_listen, it's 13:56 again,
my watch becomes timeless,
I'm watching time solidify_
I could say more, but it would not really be justified for a four-page newsletter. But let me say just this: _Handshake_ is definitely worth the trouble.
