Imagine that Shakespeare were alive now and was just
commencing his literary career. Would he stay with
poetry, that being his first and greatest love, or would
he quickly move into fiction, or possibly screenwriting
(both genres suitable for his dramatic instinct) in order
to make a good living and buy that little retirement
place on the Avon? Would he do all three, with an
occasional play thrown in just to satisfy his need for
greasepaint and applause? Would he even tackle the
Internet and the new art-form of multi-media, somehow
combining all his skills in a piece entitled, say, The
Cybernetics of Lear? Obviously, we can't know the
answers to these questions. All we can be certain of is
that Shakespeare's genius would pounce on the multitude
of creative possibilities and publishing opportunities
available to all writers at this cusp of the millennium
and do something totally unexpected.

This electronic journal is one such opportunity and the
poets on display are each, in their own way, exploring
the creative possibilities of our age. I do not intend to
tell you what you may find on the pages within this web-
site, as is normally done in an introduction; I leave that
up to you to discover. The first issue of Divan recorded
over 1000 hits per month, so there was obviously much
in that issue to interest, stimulate and delight many of
you. We are sure that this issue will be no different.

However, there is still something that is usually done,
and that is to thank all those involved in the production
of such a journal.

Firstly, our thanks go to Box Hill Institute for supporting
this venture and to the Professional Writing and Editing
course, specifically Carolyne Lee, its coordinator, for
overseeing the whole operation. Secondly, thanks are due
to the assistant editor, Terry Jaensch, and the production
editor, Stuart Sherwood, both of whom volunteered huge
amounts of time and energy, without which you would not
be clicking your way through our site.

Finally, our thanks go to you, our intrepid discoverers of
good poetry wherever it may be found. Most poets would be
lucky to have a circulation beyond the small print runs of
those literary magazines and small presses that still have
the vision and guts to publish and promote poetry. The
Internet is rapidly changing this. No more can anyone say,
as Geoffrey Cotterell is credited with saying,

In America only the successful writer is important,
in France all writers are important, in England no
writer is important,  in Australia you have to explain
what a writer is.

With the Internet, all writers are all these things, because,
effectively, they are simultaneously of all these countries,
as well as of another 100 or more. The fact that you can
be from any of these countries proves this, and the fact that
you are reading the poems presented here means you are
helping to define what is important.

Have fun.

Earl Livings
Editor

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