Most of the poems are either rhyming couplets or quatrains with an ABCB rhyme scheme; they typically utilise fairly free scansion. I would relish seeing the poets explore alternative forms. The subjects of the poems are mainstream, rarely challenging perceived wisdoms, and frequently, sometimes explicitly, point up a moral. My favourite poem is Heather Flood’s ‘If you let it’, whose title is also the final line of each of the three four-line stanzas; its cleverness rests on the move from negativity to positivity for the final verse. But my favourite line is from Heather’s Star Dust: “Scantily clad reason treads softly the day, with pathways uneven” which provokes a fascinating image.
The short stories frequently carry a clever twist at the end. Several of Tony's stories refer to immoral behaviour, sometimes of a sexual nature, including ‘Never take anything for granted’ which relies on a clever double meaning and made me laugh aloud. Several of Heather’s stories revolve around death and the afterlife. I particularly enjoyed ‘Heaven or Hell?’
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March 2020
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