THE ENIGMATIST edited by MIKE and JOYCE GULLICKSON

EILEEN TABIOS Engages

THE ENIGMATIST, Vol. 11, 2016, poetry journal edited by Mike and Joyce Gullickson

I can’t recall how many years have passed since my first publication in The Enigmatist, a chap-format poetry journal edited by Mike and Joyce Gullickson. I note the years as The Enigmatist is an example of folks creating a poetry community with grass-roots efforts like a modestly-formatted journal. But in this latest issue featuring 52 poets—and I mention the number of poets as, again, it attests to community—there is nothing modest about the poetry.

The chap opens with a lovely and evocative poem “Plantings” by Elizabeth Raby:

And the chap unfolds with zest from there. A variety of topics, sure, but also of forms and attentiveness to form.  A narratively straight-forward poem like, for example, “Resurrecting in Little Bear Canyon” by Tom Keene—

—cohabits The Enigmatist’s space with the typographically experimental “un just” by Jim LaVilla-Havelin (dedicated aptly “for e e”) and the punctuation-sensitized “KIND OF GONE” by Dr. Charles A. Stone. For transparency, this issue also includes one of my poems, “There Were Warriors and Monsters, Heros and Dragons,” which was written while reading through a Kickstarter fundraising effort. The editors don’t shy from presenting the multiplicity of poetry, and the journal is enervated as a result. Naturally, as the saying goes, there’s something for everyone.

Modest but impact-ful projects like The Enigmatist bring an appropriate warmth to the poetry world. May the Gullickson’s journal continue to thrive for more years.


*****

Eileen Tabios does not let her books be reviewed by Galatea Resurrects because she's its editor (the exception would be books that focus on other poets as well).  She is pleased, though, to point you elsewhere to recent reviews of her work: THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS was reviewed by Joey Madia for New Mystics Reviews, Book Masons and Literary Aficionado; and EXCAVATING THE FILIPINO IN ME was reviewed by Aileen Ibardaloza for "Filipina American Literature: Reading Recommendations" (Barbara Jane Reyes Blog). She released three books and two chaps in 2016, and is scheduled to release at least three publications in 2017. More info at http://eileenrtabios.com