This small literary journal must be one of the few which dares to foreground its political orientation on every page. As its subtitle declares, RED LAMP is 'A Journal of Realist, Socialist and Humanitarian Poetry'. But while its socialist and humanitarian agendas are clearly formulated and utilized throughout, the subject of its 'Realist' stance is somewhat more problematic. Judging from the work it includes, my reading of the term in this context is that the journal's editor, Brad Evans, aims to publish work that is unsparing in its assessment of the social conditions affecting the lives of real people, expressed as those people themselves experience them - often as raw, unadorned responses to perceived injustice.
To this end, RED LAMP includes more than fifty poems in a variety of styles, written by contributors drawn from an international readership from Australia to North America. Many of these poets have published widely - including some with several solo collections - but equally important in a journal of this kind, there is a generous amount of space given to newcomers and 'emerging talents'. Still, one of the most striking things about the poems here is that regardless of their source, all carry the obvious burden of a commitment to social reform (or at least a heightened awareness of social realities). This is characterized in many ways, including poems reflecting on political coercion, class war, the economic disenfranchisement of social groups, and many other topics dealing with the day-to-day realities of marginalized or disadvantaged people from many cultures. While this may sound like fairly intractable material as far as poetry is concerned, it is worth remembering how many of the most-celebrated poems in English were born of similar reflections - from Shakespeare's history plays, to Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind', to Pound's CANTOS and beyond. Some, like Pound, have been misguided in their aims, perhaps, but the sheer depth of emotion attached to such causes can invigorate authors as few comparable subjects can.
It is no surprise then that many of the poems in the pages of RED LAMP are adversarial in tone. Others subdue their anger, converting it to some powerful ironies, like these lines from Peter Bakowski's 'A letter to the general':
...
I have never understood power/
...
I only want to/
say something to the world:/
to describe /
a piano player/
building a beautiful frame/
for silence,...
Some reflect upon the experiences of the victims of repression, like these lines from Maurice Standgard's 'A Sane Man', recalling the 'true Hell' of a prisoner in solitary confinement:
