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ISSN: 1094-2726

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Bonfire
Edited by Carrie Berry and Jim Maddocks
Reviewed by Tom Hartman

	Bonfire Edited by Carrie Berry and Jim Maddocks bonfire@jordanhill.prestel.co.uk

According to editors Carrie Berry and Jim Maddocks, UK-based Bonfire is intended as "a supply or source of aid or support; something resorted to in time of need." "It is our pledge," they write, "to provide information which can be used by writers of many levels of experience. No source will be considered out of bounds. If you need it, and we can find it, we will try to provide it."

To clarify, Bonfire is another hybrid site, a combo 'zine and writer's resource that features a mix of links, tools, how-to articles, poetry and prose — the collective purpose of which is to inspire and inform burgeoning writers or those who find themselves writing in a comparative vacuum, without the benefit of feedback from peers, a mentor, or a workshop environment in which to hone their craft.

This is a fairly ambitious project, and clearly it's one that runs the risk of serving no one as it tries to serve all. In all candor, while the site includes several advice and how-to articles that may be of use to beginners (all reached by clicking "publishing"), the resources and tools collected here — all links to other sites — are nothing special: a far less comprehensive listing overall than what visitors will find at Zuzu's Petals or About.com's writing or poetry pages.

What sets Bonfire apart and makes it worth investigating is the site's poetry section, where each poem is accompanied by commentary from the author. The underlying assumption here is that after the benefit of a guided tour of sorts through the poetic process, readers will be able to return to their own work with fresh insights as to craft and possible strategies for revision. Although not by any means an original idea (several excellent anthologies of poets discussing their work can be had at the local Barnes and Noble), it's a novel one as far as Web 'zines go.

Of course, what insight or inspiration visitors gain from the accompanying commentary will only be as good as the poems themselves. (How valuable is it to read about the various processes that led to a bad poem?) Thankfully, there is some worthwhile verse here, most notably, Anne Forrest's pantoum series Eight Pieces of Brocade, which includes the following, "Eight pieces of brocade —experimental pantoum I":

Eight pieces of brocade
cover seven deadly sins,
seven illnesses, eight injuries,
unto seventy-seven times.
Cover seven deadly sins,
flame-trio, sanjiao corset!
Up to seventy-seven spins
reflect from sterile lancet.
Flame-trio, sanjiao corset,
chakras in a tangled mixture
reflect from sterile lancet
—a tapestry of mingled texture.
Chakras in a tangled mixture,
seven illnesses, eight injuries
weave tapestries of mingled texture—
eight pieces of brocade.

While some commentaries (there are 30 in all) are fairly brief — indeed, some seem like afterthoughts rather than concerted efforts at providing insight into the poems they accompany — others are lengthy and thoughtful. Forrest, for instance, carefully guides us through several poems and drafts in her "Eight Pieces of Brocade" series and comments extensively on imagery, form and the inspiration behind the work, the T'ai Chi chi-kung of the same name:

The name "Eight Pieces of Brocade" seemed to me to be incredibly poetic, and I began to obsess upon the whole concept as I practiced these movements in my small cleared circle on the hillside near my home. I had difficulty remembering them all, so I scribbled pictogram cues on the end of my staff. It occurred to me that I might try to write eight poems using this subject as core material.

Forrest also lays out for us the thoughts and goals behind her revisions; the inclusion of both finished and early versions of her various poems does indeed allow us to witness the poetic process at work.

Unlike Forrest's, however, other pieces are throwaways. For example, Janis Wiley, in her commentary on "Notes from the Third Grade," admits to having been "blocked" as she set about the task of guiding readers through her verse, some of which, like the breathless "St. Louis Zoo Birdhouse, 1999" is worth seeking out:

soaking wet twenty two of us
file in Darion rushes to hold the door
the lady in front doesn't
say thank you these are rare birds
I explain there were once hundreds but
now there are just a few we're destroying
their habitat Destinee chimes in and now
there's no place for them to live
in peace Lawrence watches as they watch
I can see his heart through
the hole in his shirt

Unfortunately, all Wiley can muster by way of commentary are fairly trite generalizations about the "kindness" and "fierce loyalty" of the children who populate her poems (all students at an inner-city St. Louis, MO school) and the environment in which she has taught and which has inspired her to write. "Drug Free, Gun Free signs line our streets," she writes. "Few people venture out after dark. Still there is beauty."

With the how-to articles and the poetry section, Bonfire's editors have given readers some interesting — even valuable — content. One hopes, however, that in the future we will be spared well intentioned but ultimately insignificant commentaries like Wiley's in favor of pieces like Forrest's lengthy and thorough dissection.

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A graduate of Columbia University and The University of Pennsylvania, life-long New Jerseyan and New York Mets fan, Tom Hartman now lives in Philadelphia where he's an Associate Poetry Editor at Painted Bride Quarterly. Over the years his writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Photo Review, City Paper (Philadelphia), and Philadelphia Weekly. When he's not writing he spends far too much time hating the Atlanta Braves.