SOMETIMES poetry says it better. How about this as a magnificent dissection (in hardly more than 20 words) of the aching gulf between the grown up and the young:

Stuck

at a kitchen table

with two 16-year-old

teenagers

the room is large

and the conversation

is very small

Owen Roberts' little gem of a poem, entitled simply Youth, has the condensed power of a Japanese haiku.

The scene is perfectly set in the first stanza: and the yawning gulf in understanding between the generations precisely exposed in the second.

You can almost hear the embarrassed silence at that table.

Youth is one of two contributions the Canadian poet makes to the new issue of Aesthetica, the York arts and literature magazine that draws contributions from all around the world.

Edited by former York St John College postgraduate student Cherie Federico, the sixth issue of the magazine was launched on July 6 at The Golden Lion in Church Street. This latest issue combines poetry, prose and artwork from more than 15 countries.

There is a vivid poem about Beirut street children playing football amid the rubble of a bombed-out city that has all the graphic clarity of a war-photographer's snapshot; a wickedly-funny poem about friendly fire and the uneasy wartime alliance between Britain and the USA; and a tender account of the physical relationship between a woman and a man whose skin is racked by psoriasis, which speaks volumes about the ability to connect.

Like all such magazines of contemporary art, the quality of the contributions is variable - there is one page-long piece in the fiction section entitled Fragments Of A Day, for example, that is truly awful - but much of the poetry is genuinely fresh and sometimes surprising, and there is some decent artwork on the centre colour pages. And then, of course, there is that little masterpiece by Owen Roberts, for which I shall be eternally grateful.

A fascinating window on to what a new generation of poets, writers and artists are up to.

Aesthetica Issue 6 is available from Borders in York and Leeds or direct from the magazine's website at www.aestheticamagazine.com

Updated: 11:00 Wednesday, July 14, 2004