The book is the result of a longtime collaboration between poet Dennis J Bernstein and designer Warren Lehrer, featuring over 200 type-based poems that span everything from Alzheimer’s to war and peace
Learn all about the art of visual poetry and how to craft your own!
by emmett williams (+) from the anthology of concrete poetry
by Brett Vogelsinger When it comes to concrete poetry, students are often impressed with its combination of simplicity and cleverness. And that's the thing about concrete poems: like masterful acrobats or skateboarders or dancers, they make artful maneuvers look easy. As some people work on movement to play with gravity, the concrete poet plays with negative space, the blank page, and the shape of words in original and sometimes humorous ways. One of my favorite concrete poets is Bob Raczka and his book Wet Cement contains a poem that will ring true to students and teachers everywhere. It is called "Clock" and the picture below comes from the Kindle preview on Amazon: Why not challenge your students to create a smiple clock poem that sets the hour and minute hands at a different time: wake-up time, lunch, bedtime, game time. Or you might challenge them to change the form and still write about time: a sundial, an hourglass, a digital clock, an iPhone. This quick introduction to a sub-genre of poetry in a shape that students of all ages and artistic abilities can handle may do more than just inspire them to create a concrete poem. Poetry is about moments, and this exercise moves them to think of a poemworthy moment. Maybe the following day in class, that same moment can be crafted into a poem with line breaks and stanzas. The writer's notebook awaits! Further Reading: Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School in Bucks County, PA. He has been starting class with a poem each day for the past six years and is the creator of the Go Poems blog to share poetry reading and writing ideas with teachers around the world. Find him on Twitter @theVogelman.
I recently came back to this fun way of writing after about 10 years. I loved creating slightly abstract poems in college by way of black out or cut out poetry, but somewhere along the way, it got lost. My wonderful friend Bee reminded me of it in one of her Patreon posts, and one evening after work, I spotted some books for free on somebody's wall. I took one home. I didn't want to read that book, but I did want to cut it up and make something of my own. I spent an evening cutting out any words that caught my eye, and then tried to piece them together into something resembling sense. I had an idea of what I wanted to create, but as I went along, the words found me and turned into something completely different. I've spent a good few more hours since then creating little bits of poetry and prose. Some of which have inspired stories. I kind of really like the ones that seem unfinished, too. It's such a lovely process, and I really encourage you to give it a go! • follow on: twitter • facebook • bloglovin'
»ART is THE END« by will ashford
If you're experiencing writer's block and not feeling as creative, then give blackout poetry a try. Discover how to combine new words in unique ways to write a poem.
There's art, there's word art, and then there's word art by Anatol Knotek. The Austrian visual artist has created unique handmade visual poetry (or concrete poetry) book called "Anachronism," with clever compositions:usually a book is just a copy - but not this one. every poem is individually written with my typewriter, so each single page is unique. out of about 50 poems i chose 16 for each book, therefore also the contents varies and is never the same.And finally, some cle...
It has been a massive journey to capture and define the legacy and influence of concrete poetry on current visual poetry” says Victoria Bean & Chris McCabe. The duo have just co-edited an anthology about the rise of concrete poetry in the digital age in a book that has been released by Hayward Publishing. Featuring artists like Jenny Holzer, Cerith Wyn Evans, John Giorno, Fiona Banner, and Sam Winston with new work from original concrete artists such as Augusto de Campos, Eugen Gomringer...
»language is not transparent« by mel bochner
visual-poetry: “point of view (eine frage des standpunkts)” by anatol knotek
WARNING: Collage poetry can be quite messy, and requires space. Collage poetry can also be addictive. Tools required: Paper/cardboard for background Double-sided tape/Glue Words – sourced from magazines, newspapers etc. There are a couple of different approaches to collage poetry and these can be swapped depending on your mood or aim in creating a collage poem. 1. FOUND POEM create a poem based on the words available to you scatter the words over the table, and allow the poem to emerge from the words. Consider the visual layout of the poem Collage poetry is not just about the text but about how the poem looks on the page. 1. THEMATIC Collect words along a similar theme and then use to create a poem. E.g ‘I said No’ – variations of the word ‘no’ were collected for weeks before the poem was created. Pregnant and paranoid just emerged when the word ‘pregnant’ kept showing up in my word collection. VISUAL PARAMETERS Construct your poem according to set visual parameters e.g The poem must be all black text. All red text. OTHER PARAMETERS Use text from only one source e.g one magazine, a pamphlet, a brochure. TECHNIQUE Have several poems on the go at the same time. If word doesn’t fit one poem, it may fit another. Play with the word order. Look for unusual word combinations Rearrange the layout a couple of times before you start committing the word to the background. Use good, strong, visual text Think about how it will reproduce if you photocopy it. Consider including images as part of your poem. MOST OF ALL, Have fun!