Sea Green Zines

Does This Count? Poetry From a Non Poet
Don Leach
12 pages
https://notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
https://www.instagram.com/notmovingpics/

‘Does This Count? Poetry From a Non Poet’ is a ~10cm x 14cm black and white zine of short poems written by a self-identified non-poet. (Does that make them non-poems?)

If you have followed me for a while, you will know the long and wary history I have with poetry. I know what I like, though I can’t often articulate why. I love a metaphor, but that doesn’t mean they are my forte. If you speak to my of meter, then my face may just go blank while I float off to my happy place. With that in mind, this zine had me smiling from the get go and completely into the idea of poetry from a non-poet. I feel like I could do the same.

We open up with a brief introduction from Don, in which he writes about not caring for poetry growing up but getting into writing lyrics as a teenager. These lyrics were never put to music, but then Don discovered spoken word, and things made sense… From there we delve into haiku – or rather, sort of haiku. I don’t know much about haiku, but I’m pretty sure there are rules about syllables. But it only fits that poems from a non-poet would be, well, not-haikus.

Each poem is given its own page an is accompanied by simple line art. Each poem is in its own font, which makes the part of me that took graphic communications wake up and feel both curious as well as confused. The poems range in subject matter, though many of them touch on relationships and interactions between people. As will pretty much every poetry zine I’ve read, some went over my head. Yet others struck me, making me ponder the words and their implications in my own life.

I’d state a favourite poem, but I think that might be giving away more than I care to about my current mindset.

All up, I quite like this zine. Something about ‘poems from a non poet’ helps me to relax and not feel like I have to understand everything that is going on in each piece. I also like the humour that goes with writing something like this. A sort of ‘I’m not sure if I’m doing this right’ feeling that I think we can all identify with. It made me smile and made me feel like trying my hand at writing poetry – or not-exactly-poetry – again, which makes it a win for me.

50 Ways to Protect Your Body Image, 70 Acts of Self-Care, 50 Journal Prompts for Self-Discovery
Kim Rounsefell
https://thankubody.au/collections/vendors?q=Kim%20Rounsefell
https://nourishandtreat.au/pages/about-kim
One-page tri-fold

50 Ways to Protect Your Body Image, 70 Acts of Self-Care, and 50 Journal Prompts for Self-Discovery are all ~11cm x 9.5cm full-colour, tri-fold zines full of prompts for the title subject.

I should note here that these were not packaged or listed as a set as such. There are enough similarities for me to want to review them together.

These three zines in gorgeous pastels (I love pastels) with cutie doodles on the covers are all list zines about the title topics. Whether you need some self-care time, some self-discovery time, to protect your body image, or all of the above – these minis are the zines for you! They open up in the traditional tri-fold fashion to reveal easy-to-read numbered lists that follow a quick little intro to the subject at hand.

As I mentioned, I love pastels. I also love lists and doodles, so these three zines are like a trifecta of awesomeness for me. None of these subjects are strengths of mine, so I am so happy to get help with ideas on all counts. Each zine held both ideas that I had heard before (but appreciate being reminded!) as well as completely new-to me ideas. You can pick them up for a quick scan for a few ideas or sit down and take the whole lot in. I love the size of these, too. How small they are in size as well as thickness makes it easy for me to tuck them into my planner.

As you can probably tell at this point, I really adore these little minis in every way. They are a cute, portable, friendly way to remind myself that that I don’t need to have it ‘all together’ because there are zines like these out there to help. Definitely check them out.