A Compendium of Voices: DVQ, Issue 8, Vol.3

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Disclaimer: Although my story “FindYourMate.com” appeared in a previous issue of Diverse Voices Quarterly, I do believe my views here are impartial. You are more than welcome to leave a comment at the end of this review.
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Diverse Voices Quarterly, Issue 8, begins with Antonia Crane’s “Pleasures,” a first person narrative about dying and tempting fate. The narrator avoids the inevitable: a road trip home to see her terminally ill mother, opting instead to perform on a “rusty metal pole” inside a strip club. She knows she can’t compete with the younger dancers who have “legs like blades of Texas Blue Grass and slim pointy ankles,” but doesn’t seem to mind attracting an odd assortment of older gentlemen for their money.

In Gene McCormick’s “Horace Reads the Wall Street Journal,” Horace isn’t reading the newspaper at all because Emma—presumably his wife?—unintentionally elevates household chores to an enticing, yet subtle, strip-tease: Bending over, pushing, pulling, reaching.

It isn’t until A. Frank Bower’s wedding anniversary story “White Lies,” where two married couples argue inside a family restaurant, that we suffer our first repulsive gut shot of tasteless porn-dialogue. Perhaps in choosing this story, the editor of DVQ wants to showcase a wide-range of sexual tension between an array of fictional characters. If so, I’m not sure this piece fits.

Thankfully, the next two poems serve as romantic-interludes, alleviating or toning-down this tension:

Roger Perez Jr.’s “Any Thing Left”: Tulips injected into the granite / with little soil, whisper and remind / me of our first stare, and Raina Lauren Fields “love as a flipbook”: of curiously fondled covers, of slow-turned / pages, until he & i are no longer sipping / warm wine from plastic cups.

Interestingly enough, K.W. Taylor’s flash fiction piece “Phlegmatic” resolves a boyfriend / girlfriend conflict of epic proportion but does so with civility and understanding; whereas Janet Thornburg’s “Musical Tables” (my personal favorite) demonstrates the complexities involved in a platonic relationship where the narrator’s true feelings are symbolically revealed at the closing of her 40-year class reunion.

Relationships, authentic feelings, near the end of DVQ, Issue 8, shift gears, having turned mechanical with Adam Crittenden’s two poems: “A Moment in the Life of the Tin Man’s Girlfriend” and “Zombie.” From the first poem: But you are sterile, you’ve always been, / and I am left with the mess / and an oil can. From the second: he lays down / with lazy eyes he remembers / what she had said earlier / it seems like we are going / through the motions. The emotional impact of these words, although held in check, pack more wallop in the closing pages and heighten the awareness of each piece.

Overall, the placement of each story and each poem in DVQ, Issue 8, makes for an interesting read and is one of the editor’s best efforts yet of displaying a good cross-section of diverse voices and tolerances. As for the digital layout, DVQ, is comparable to other e-journals but lacks an interactive table of contents. I found myself having to bookmark my favorites, which, if you really think about it, isn’t such a bad thing. I would highly recommend this free e-journal to anyone interested in poetry and/or fiction. Fire-up your e-readers. Here’s the link: Diverse Voices Quarterly, Issue 8

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*Note to self: With spring just around the corner, I will be posting more poetry—new & old. You've been warned.