‘Tough on poetry, tough on the causes of poetry’

This magazine sounds amazing.

The brainchild of North London poet Tim Wells, Rising has been dishing up (free) sharp verse since 1994 and regularly puts a precisely aimed boot into such contemporary poetical nightmares as Slam! competitions. With the motto “tough on poetry, tough on the causes of poetry” and the odd cut ‘n’ pasted photo of a pin-up girl and a pint of beer inside, its aesthetic owes as much to Wilko Johnson as William Wordsworth. Cockroaches in caffs, the murdered Ipswich prostitutes and country music, for example, supply the inspiration for poems from Todd Moore, Gillian Bence-Jones and DH Lampitt. John Cooper Clarke, recently spied looking every millisecond his age in the Joy Division biopic Control, is on hand to prove that while the years (and heroin) can wither even an insect-thin frame, no one can best an old punk when it comes to four-letter versifying. And winding up things, in gory fashion, is a retelling of the Actaeon myth by Tim Turnball that transports the ancient Greeks to modern day Crooked Billet and sees blood being spilt on a Pierre Cardin jumper.

This sounds refreshing.

The contemporary poetry scene is full of dire stand-up comedy masquerading as poetry – what serious poets scornfully refer to as ‘poentertainment’.

This magazine sounds fantastic – a serious publication that publishes good, serious poetry and doesn’t even charge.

Where can I get a copy of this? Why can’t I find it on the web?

Update: Tim Wells, the editor of Rising has appeared in the comments box.

I edit Rising and have done for the past 14 years. The magazine is free and we do not have any website or the like.
You can get a copy by e-mailing me at timmywells@hotmail.com and then sending me an SAE.
The current issue (#46) has work from Heather Phillipson, Helen Mort, Ross Sutherland, Simon Barraclough, Tishani Doshi, Clare Pollard, Tim Turnbull and Adele Stripe amongst others.