The Montserrat Review, an infrequently published journal for poetry, fiction, interviews and literary criticism that began in 1998, held a release party for its sixth issue at Willow Glen's Divine Science Community Center on April 5.

About 30 people, including editors, contributors and local literati, showed up for the two and a half hour event, at which The Montserrat Review contributors read their work.

South Bay writer Michael J. Vaughn, who is also the Review's fiction editor, moderated the reading, which featured 11 contributors.

Originally, 13 readers were billed but one couldn't attend and another, the Review's editor, Calder Lowe, was sick that evening.

The event will be closely followed by the release of The Montserrat Review's seventh issue on May 10. Vaughn said that the issues are being released so close together because of an exceptionally high number of good submissions. It is unusual for the journal to release two issues back to back, but Lowe said it would help the Review "catch up" on its obligations to contributors.

The event's organizers said it was just coincidence that the Review had a release party in April, which the Academy of American Poets designated as National Poetry Month in 1996.

According to the academy it chose April because it's a month when schools are still in session and a time when "students and the educational audience can be reached most effectively." The month was also chosen because it didn't conflict with the winter holidays, with Black History Month in February or with Women's History Month in March.

Another reason the academy selected April is because it is in the midst of spring, a favorite theme for many poets.

Among the goals of National Poetry Month are "to highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets, to introduce more Americans to the pleasures of reading poetry" and "to bring poets and poetry to the public in immediate and innovative ways," according to the Academy of American Poets website.

Other reasons the site lists are "to make poetry a more important part of the school curriculum, to increase the attention paid to poetry by national and local media" and "to encourage increased publication, distribution and sales of poetry books."

Willow Glen poet Jean Emerson, 71, one of the Montserrat Review contributors who read at the event, says National Poetry Month is a good time for anyone to try his or her hand at poetry.

She adds that one doesn't need to be too familiar with poetry or meters or literary devices. Actually, she recommends the opposite. "You have to not train for it," she said. "I write simply because there's a certain joy in saying, 'Ah! Now it's said.' "

Montserrat Review Poetry Editor Robert Pesich says, "Don't worry about failure—we all fail all the time. Just keep chipping away at the big rock and don't worry about the little rocks poking you in the eye."

The international literary journal began in Willow Glen in the mid-1990s.

Vaughn mentioned in his opening remarks that he and Lowe began talking about creating a literary journal at the Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company in 1996.

"We were discussing how to go about it and I told her that she would need to put a personal imprint on it," Vaughn said. "You can't do this by committee because things that are done by committee turn into crap."

He added that Lowe has "impeccable taste in poetry" and that the contributors who read that night provided "fine examples" of excellent poetry.

The first reader, Cynthia W. Gentry, didn't read her poetry but instead read an excerpt from her novel in progress, "All Her Men," about a 30-year-old divorcee finding life again after a 10-year marriage.

Later, South Bay poet Ted Gehrke read a few of his short, occasionally political poems.

He opened with "Pentagon, 1967."

"Commies! / Pinkos! /Traitors! poor man, / here is / a rose, / to wipe your brain with."

First-time short-story writer William Emerson, 75, Jean's husband, read a mystery story called "The Paperclip Caper," whose protagonist is the Microsoft paperclip mascot who pops up to assist users during certain Microsoft Office applications.

Photograph by Sean Penello Self-Expression: William Emerson reads one of his short stories during an event The Montserrat Review held to celebrate the publication of its sixth issue. The April 5 party was held at the Divine Science Community Center in Willow Glen.

"Poetry is the way I sort out the world," she said. "It helps me make sense out of things that don't make sense, like how people treat others the way they do, and poetry helps to encourage people to think differently."

Emerson, who hosted a monthly open reading for several years at Willow Glen Books on Lincoln Avenue, offers some sound advice to beginning poets ready to share their work: "I think that if there are a lot of people reading it's a good idea to think about the audience and know that they can only take so much. So, please, be concise."

"I think poets should always remember they're giving a gift to the reader and to the audience," she added. "And the audience is giving a gift back to the poet" by listening.

That symbiotic relationship between poet and audience was almost strained when one reader during the first half of the reading spent 15 minutes recounting in a monotone how he arranged to send his father's ashes to be dispersed in a Scandinavian river.

But after a brief intermission San Jose poet Joe Miller delivered a showstopper set of short poems, accompanied by a soundtrack punctuated with upbeat dance music superimposed with military sounds such as machine guns, artillery and squad leaders barking orders through squawk boxes.

"There are words that have no meanings / I use them to talk to you."

"Can I borrow your insignificance? / I'll give it right back."

The release party for issue seven of "The Montserrat Review" will be held on May 10 at 7 p.m. at the Divine Science Community Center, 1540 Hicks Ave. in San Jose.

For more information about "The Montserrat Review," visit www.themontserratreview.com or contact Dragonfly Press Inc. at P.O. Box 391764, Mountain View, 94039-1764.