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abraxas press

Note on The Big Issue

This is of course also the name of the ‘news and current affairs magazine written by professional journalists and sold on the streets by homeless vendors. … It aims to: enable homeless people to earn an income through self-help; invest profits to benefit homeless people; provide homeless people with a voice in the media; produce a quality magazine which interests and informs readers; provide an example of a socially responsible business’.  (The quote is from its site on the Internet.)  The poem asks why it is so difficult to love those beyond the family circle.  I’ve been writing poems about Max since he was born in 1998, but very few about other children.

Alan Marshfield

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