Archive for June, 2019
I’ve stuffed my Shelf with loads of learned Lumber,
Like Kant, and can’t let sleeping dogmas slumber.
“A little Learning is a dangerous Thing”?
Not so! A cat can look upon a King.
If Indy Ana Jones has not the means—
Nor Wit nor Art—to be the Pope of zines,
The best that I can do will have to serve
And others must decide what I deserve.
Mike Gunderloy, in nineteen-eighty-two,
Decided he’d begin a Zine Review.
*And even now, in nineteen-ninety-eight,
*His Factsheet 5 is still around, still great
*(Though, Some would say, collapsing from its Weight).
They usually find something nice to say,
Or don’t condemn things outright, anyway.
Doug Holland‘s Zine World follows no such Rule;
Indeed, they’ve been accused of being cruel.
In my Opinion, Critics shouldn’t shrink
From telling Readers what they really think:
Forgiveness can be less Divine than Vain;
We shouldn’t err by being too Humane.
I’ve often Thought (but never well Expressed)
That this is so. Yet Action is the test.
And, as for That, quite frequently I find
It’s easier to be a Bit too kind.
So even if I think a Zine’s no good,
I’ll seldom say so clearly, as I should.
I haven’t got the Nerve for Zine World‘s Style
(Although, one time, I did call Pop Smear “vile”).
*The Reasons why aren’t very hard to see:
*I’d like to keep on getting Zines for free
*And do as I’d have Others do to me.
Since Everyone knows Everyone (the World of Zines is small),
And Nature‘s major Masterpiece is being there at all,
I must confess, quite frequently I’ve tried
To keep from hurting anybody’s Pride.
Here, in any Case, are some Reviews.
I hope you like ’em. Read The Ten Page News.
If we had time enough, and money,
This life of ours would just look funny.
We’d sit and plan each ample day:
How much to work, and when to play,
And who to talk with, what to see,
And where to spend eternity,
And which immortal works of art
To study till we’d learned by heart.
Then I could take, if i should choose
Ten years to make each Ten Page News.
But on my back a monkey hollers,
And nothing shuts him up, but dollars.
And so, I spend my too-short hours
In serving vast and unseen powers.
A job’s a grave and solemn duty;
Our need for cash outranks mere beauty.
Now, therefore, let us, while we might,
Unleash our zines, however slight.
The main thing is to get it made
So we’ll have something new to trade
And, if we never get it done
Quite right, still we’ll have had some fun.
the livingston review 