South 45

South 45, edited by Maggie Sawkins and Richard Williams

The cover photograph is usually among the best things about South and the picture of Brighton's West Pier by Brent Jones on number 45 is no exception. The production values of the magazine are peerless, the tone friendly and encouraging, the reviews generous and thus it deserves its long-established place in the poetry community.

I'm not sure how long it has been the case that the selectors of each issue nominate two of the poems for consideration for the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem but I'd think it as unlikely as Steeple Sinderby Wanderers winning the F.A. Cup that any poem from South were ever to win that. For the most part the poems here are sincere, well-intended, personal and free of irony and if those are sometimes regarded as strengths then they are also limitations.

There are poems to like here and a few to admire, which makes it no different in those ratios to almost every other poetry magazine but these are devoted amateur poets in a community somewhat removed from the professional classes of household name poets and the Faber, Carcanet or other well-known lists.

Sharpnosed Fish by Chris Preddle immediately seemed to me more adventurous and interesting than the rest of the magazine and almost doesn't belong in it. Among a few poems that take paintings as their reference point, Willesden Sunset by Terry Quinn was the one I returned to to check if it was as good as I thought at first reading and I think it still was. Jill Sharp's Christchurch Bay takes on a form that wouldn't work for everyone and is successful with it and the featured poet here Finola Holiday has poems in her set that are worth a look. It remains one of South's best features that it gives so much space to a featured poet. The number of poems used would represent a booklet for someone with such frugal output as me but for the more prolific, it is a useful showcase and no poet can be understood in only one poem. It is a shame that out of three poems submitted by most contributors, South doesn't often use more than one and are prepared to say as much. I'd prefer it wasn't done like that.

I'm in this, which is why I have a copy but I'm buying another to send to Japan so I hope I'm supporting the cause. My magazine subscriptions have dwindled to a shameful nil in recent years because collections of poets one likes or wants to read provide better value. But in the very unlikely event of my poem being submitted to the Forward judges, I'd prefer to let someone else be selected. I don't feel as if I want to be in that league and such minor celebrity would be less comfortable than being no celebrity at all.