birth of :: issues 1 - 3

Back to the Machine-Gun in full-dimensioned magazine mode was first conceived of in the early summer of 2004 in the scenic beer garden of Ye Cracke, a Liverpool pub famous for its scenic beer garden and the presence of J.Lennon's arse every so often before he became famous enough to exit Liverpool and get himself assasinated by CIA brainwash victim Mark David Chapman. Already we are up to our cuff-links in history.

[1 [[2 [3-(a little below)] [4-in yellow] [5-pale, flower, below] & [7]x2]]]

1^st Edition - September 2004 (Bukowski quote inside cover) -* ‘Ceasefire’ (3 short poems by MP) * ‘don’t stand up in the middle of a room’ (insane angry Biblical rant by AH) * ‘Opposite Dew’ (poem by AJ) * ‘Johnny Cash’ (poem by KM) * ‘The Symphonic Democratic Violation Bomb - Part One (1945 - 73)’ (poem by SG) * ‘Alchemy of the Word’ (Rimbaud translation by KM) * ‘The Blade’s Sloppy Kiss’ (poem by AJ) * (Four untitled short poems by MP - begins: “There’s no hope of utopia”) * ‘Sub-Central’ (short prose by AJ)- (the dead socialist graffiti-photography project on back cover / distorted) -

2^nd Edition - November 2004 - * ‘A Cheap Box of Oranges’ (poem by AJ) * ‘Vincent’ (poem by JS - Janette Stowell) * ‘Saint Hood’ (4 short poems by MP) * ‘Shit on the seafront’ (underlined first line of poem as title (?) - poem by SG) * ‘Strange Re-Union’ (poem by NJ - Nathan A Jones) * ‘adventure story for boys’ (short story by AH) * ‘Vagina’ (poem by JS) * ‘The Symphonic Democratic Violation Bomb - Part Two (1964 - 01)’ (poem by SG) * ‘Drive’ (poem by AJ) * ‘The writer + his Annihilation Part 1’ (writers manifesto by MP) * ‘The Squeezed Juice of Midnight’ (poem by AJ) * ‘Go rimbaud, go go rimbaud’ (poem by KM) - (Rimbaud’s last letter inside back cover) - - (the dead socialist graffiti-photography project on back cover / distorted) -

3^rd Edition - the schoolgirl issue - June 2005 (1^st editorial / cut up / inside cover) - * ‘It’s True’ (Michel Houellebecq translation by AJ) * ‘War’ (4 poems by SG) * ‘A small glow’ (poem by GS - Gary Smillie) * ‘Haiku’ (by AJ) * ‘Bitter Bites Lemon, Boy’ (another prose rant by AH) * ‘On the Napkin’ (shorts from Everyman by JS and KM) * ‘The Opposite of a Date’ (poem by AJ) * ‘Two Saint Poems (10, 15)’ (by MP) * ‘Synopsis Seurre Noir’ (poem by JS) - * ‘still life’ (poem by MP) * ‘Adequate Rope’ (poem by KM) * ‘The Dissection of an Argument (How to win)’ (theoretical nonsense essay by AH) - * ‘Contemporary fiction’ (poem by AJ) - (the dead socialist graffiti-photography project on back cover / distorted) -

What seems like an ending may turn into a rebirth. As of now, Back to the Machine Gun is in an uncertain flux. Member have moved, to different cities, to different continents. All sorts of things always get in the way. It becomes hard to see what has been achieved despite all the push and pull, not only of the usual demands of life, but also of distance, of mistook words, of resentments and callous egos, the common turmoil of anything really.

more poems will be linked in the future
&
a more casual overview of all issues here →