Magma 59

When we decided on the theme of breaks for this issue, we knew some strong poems would arrive in the inbox.  Already familiar with powerful lines like Sylvia Plath’s “I break up in pieces and fly about like clubs” from Elm and Tennyson’s rending elegy Break, Break, Break, we were, all the same, surprised by the extraordinary range of tone and far-reaching subject matter. After poems of great delicacy and eggshells came others of metal and grind. Poems which could make us stride forward, unshakeable and unbreakable were contrasted with those that took us to intimate moments with broken loved ones, to worlds with brittle justice and breaking hearts.

In prose, the authors provide salve and stimulation for those who have ever felt broken. For Deryn Rees-Jones poetry is a matter of life and death, as her article deals unflinchingly with the role of writing and terminal illness. Elsewhere, Lorraine Mariner considers contemporary poems which chart the journeys of our broken hearts and break-up blues. John Humphrys draws on his time as a war reporter to revisit a poem from the First World War in this year of centenary commemoration, and Colette Bryce corresponds with a lesser known Northern Irish poet, Padraic Fiacc, in a new poem of her own militarized childhood.

Break this issue open and discover what’s inside.