Ten thousand copies of the Cleveland Reader fill two 5x5 forklift skids. That's what Mark Hopkins had delivered last month to the Algebra Tea House in Little Italy, which he says is the poetry tabloid's re-birthplace. That's where what he calls "the right people" - which in this case is Nick Agriesti, Mike Marcellino and Andy Curlowe, in addition to himself - finally came together to bring the long-dormant publication back into print. Hopkins talked about the project on his lunch hour at Karamu, where he teaches in the childcare program.

For anything in the poetry world, 10,000 is a startling number of copies. Most literary magazines or chapbook publishers or even university presses print poetry in runs of 500 or 1,000, and sell many fewer than that. But Hopkins wants poetry to be more accessible. He imagines people reading it while they wait in line for coffee.

"The intent was to bring poetry, fiction and art to the street level and make it available on a widespread basis," Hopkins says. "I know a lot of people who do chapbooks that sit on the shelf for years. I want it to be street-accessible."

So he distributes it free in bookstores, coffee shops, galleries and a few other places, in Tremont, Ohio City, Little Italy, Coventry and other neighborhoods. This year he says it will be bi-monthly, with the next issue due out this month in time for the Ingenuity Festival. By January, he hopes to be publishing monthly. He says printing and delivery for each issue costs about $1,200. He's paying for it out of pocket and selling ads, hoping to attract grants. The mag is not eligible for cigarette tax money yet, at least not for operating support.

Hopkins says he thinks of the Cleveland Reader in the tradition of d.a. levy's poetry publications, but it has more direct ancestry, too. Along with a few other poets and poetry promoters, Hopkins founded the Coventry Reader in 1988. It was a free poetry tab in the same black and white newsprint format Hopkins is using now. The paper survived a couple of years, bringing poetry to the people in a casual but active forum, but eventually, Hopkins says, editorial differences split the crew. He went his way, publishing the first Cleveland Reader in 1992. It lasted a few years.

Even if publishing the new version on the Internet would be substantially less expensive and offer the possibility of a much larger market, Hopkins is committed to presenting the written word in print. "You can carry it around with you and not worry if you drop it," he says. "You can tear something out if you like it and tack it up on your wall. I know it's against the grain, but I like the feel of it. It has a texture."

He is, however, using the Internet, specifically MySpace, as a promotional tool. Hopkins says he got about 100 submissions for the issue that's on the streets now and already has more than that for the issue due out later this month. Many of them have come through his MySpace page. The Cleveland Reader already has 80 MySpace friends.

The first issue has a stark black and white picture of the West Side Market tower on the cover. It has poetry by about 20 poets, including Ray McNiece, Mary Weems and artist Abe Olvido, prose, an interview with the late Daniel Thompson, and graphics. The next issue, Hopkins promises, will have information about college radio programming and a crossword puzzle.

Submit to the Cleveland Reader at 2136 Murray Hill Rd., Cleveland, 44106 or at myspace.com/theclevelandreader.