ISSUE 8


ISSUE #8

Editors note: 

This issue is designed after 2001 trip sequence. 

"Sometimes you just can't get rid of the bomb!" Remember when the last time i've said that Issue 7 is "last BNW for foreseeable future"? I was wrong! The very reason i decided to abandon this journal just vanished a bit later (in cosmic terms - it was "moments later") and i was left utterly perplexed. I feel stupid about that and I'm very sorry for causing needless fuss.

So - what happened? From August to some part of September i had a job at NGO and it was "so-so la-la" but well-paid and fitting my skills (writing stuff, etc.). I thought i could do it. But there were two problems. First - lack of any sort of task management. Everything was chaotic and i had no idea what is going on most of the time. The entire communication was based on Facebook Messenger which is counterproductive to say the least and there was no real system of tracking progress or keeping schedule intact. No Trello or Slack. But you can get behind the chaos if you want to. What you can't get behind is toxic environment. And boy, it was TOXIC. It was Chornobyl level of toxicity. Here's a thing - i can adapt to the collective. But it takes two for a tango and when the other side is not willing to embrace newbie - there is nothing to be done. After a while i was rejected and isolated simply because i wasn't one of them. That NGO-crowd were lawyers, graduates, PR-managers - all interested in one thing - politics and politics only. And they had no idea about anything. Anything!! They live in a parallel dimension. So when the writer comes to write stuff for them - their reaction was as if it full-on alien invasion. It seems like they don't really understand that some people may be different from them. And so they acted hostile and plain mean. It was disgusting. I was undermined at every point and had no chance to show what i'm capable of. That made very sad but i was willing to go on - because i'm not the one gives up. But they decided otherwise - and so I was out. I think it was a good thing after all - i nearly had a nervous breakdown because of the growing tensions (fun, fun, fun).

Now it's over - i'm back in the saddle and ready to rumble!

This issue is far more visual than the previous. The line-up is murderers row of talent of all walks. Whole lotta collage stuff in different styles from Guido Utermark and David Chirot, visual poetry from the Ruud Janssen and Mick Boyle. But there are also some texts - Miekal And's Also Spake Moby Dick is getting well-deserved spotlight. Probably the best piece of poetry ever posted on BNW. There are also very curious stuff from Russell Jaffe and Steve Timm. There's even a reunion of M58 crew - Andrew Taylor and Jez Noond! And there's stuff from legendary Valerij Scherstyanoi. Overall - i'm very proud of this issue. Probably the strongest of the bunch so far.

And as a teaser of sorts i want to mention one project that will involve whole lotta visual poetry. I hope it will go as planned.

.

***

Table of Contents:

  1. mIEKAL aND - Also Spake Moby Dick
  2. Giorgio Moio - Seven Visual Poems
  3. Russell Jaffe - Four Poems
  4. David Chirot - Ten Pieces
  5. Steve Timm - Five Poems
  6. Ruud Janssen - Six Pieces
  7. Guido Utermark - Seven collages
  8. Raul Reguera - Palimpsestos
  9. Mick Boyle - Seven visual poems
  10. Valerij Scherstyanoi - The train of autumn in the Puschkinallee
  11. Andrew Taylor - Three Visual Poems
  12. Jez Noond -  - -e--a- -a---i--- --/--/---- - --/--/----
  13. Francesco Aprile - Six Glitch Pieces
  14. Gregory Betts - Three visual pieces
  15. Logan K. Young - ɹoʇɐןnɔןɐɔ ɐ uo ǝdʎʇ uɐɔ 'ooʇ 'noʎ spɹoʍ 5341
  16. Jason Motsch - Five visual pieces