Published in Issue 25 of Visionary Tongue, Winter 2008.
The friendly covering letter that came with this issue of Labour of Love mentioned the excellence of the black and white artwork in this issue, and I can only concur, consisting as it does of pictures of stone gargoyles and graven angelic faces. Hats off to the photographer Laurell Weiman, and remarkable portfolio of work.
Labour of Love is just that. Considerable care has been taken to make this an interesting and professional poetry publication, which fits firmly into the footsteps of small press magazines of a decade ago, much like VT. The problem here is that there sheer wealth of poetry included means that at times, the quality of the verse wavers. There are many bright spots though; with some poems that I didn’t agree with politically or felt wouldn’t have been far off what ‘The Watchtower’ would have accepted. Something other then the artwork would have been welcome to break these submissions up giving this magazine much needed diversity.
You cannot escape the fact however, that Labour of Love is just that – so long may it remain.