Follow-up to the essay posted recently at: http://www.logolalia.com/minimalistconcretepoetry/
RESPONSES TO COMMENTS AND CONCERNS FROM 03-22 03-26-06 By Karl Kempton Oceano, CA 03-26-06 Before I respond to the comments and concerns about my essay on visual poetry, I want to express my thanks and gratitude to Dan Waber and Karl Young. First to Dan for the initial questions about concrete and visual poetries leading to this outline, his observations and comments, proofing a dyslexic down to the final moment prior to the web posting, and lastly for the support of this effort and support of my visual poetry on his site. I want to thank Karl for his diligence in pointing out the pot holes I missed or inadvertently created along the path I was attempting to make, suggestions for expansion and contraction, information of which I was unawares (Is there anyone who knows this entire subject matter thoroughly?), and for his continued support of KALDRON and my work. I also would like to thank Bob Grumman, Marton Koppany and Carlos Luis for comments on the initial draft before it tripled in size. Again, I would like to begin with a thanks. And it goes to those who sent favorable responses. Given some of the potential controversial issues raised, these positive comments mean a lot. >From other comments I read on the Spidertangle list and those forwarded to me >by Dan, it seems an overriding concern centers on a statement in Karl Youngs >introduction about KALDRON being the first international publication devoted >solely to visual poetry. I have no ego investment in whether or not KALDRON >was the first journal or magazine to do so. While other publications were >mentioned, as far as I am aware they were not exclusively devoted to all >international visual poetries. The operative phrase here is, that strove to >include all modes of visual poetry. Other types of poetry were published such >as lexical, experimental lexical, concrete, sound poetry texts, etc. in these >other publications. Other publications of the 1970s in the USA publishing >visual poetry went unmentioned such as Assembling, Intermedia, Interstate, >Typewriter and West Coast Poetry Review. Unmentioned in Great Britain was Ian >Finlays poor.old.tired.horse. Unmentioned for Japan was Shi Shi, mainly a >concrete venture. In France besides Docks, was there not Le Lettriseme? And, >what about Germany? Of these which were exclusively devoted to all modes of >international visual poetry? To be exact about this concern, while KALDRON initially began as both a lyrical and visual poetry publication in 1976, it became exclusively an international journal of visual poetry in early 1979 upon publishing selections from my first curated international visual poetry exhibition, Visualog 1, co-curated with the able help and keen editing abilities of David and Patty Arnold. We also co-edited, with David and Patty designing, a special oversized issue of Cafe Solo that published other selections from the same exhibit. Prior that date, while I was publishing all modes regardless of group affiliation, which at that point was how visual poets generally were constellated, I was unsuccessful in reaching wide and deep into the various groupings. Visualog generated access to over a hundred visual poets. This permitted me to venture forth on my self assigned effort to provide the widest and deepest possible variety of quality visual poetry from all groups around the world. So, the working phrase is, that strove to include all modes of visual poetry. Perhaps this is the moment to put together a list and timeline of publications devoted 1) to concrete, 2) international visual poetry 3), hybrids of 1 and 2, 4) to various concrete and visual poetry groups, and 5) to all modes of visual poetry. The initial effort could be a collaboration amongst the special collection librarians associated with these lists. Once a draft has been completed it could be sent to the lists for additions and corrections. Then, there is the concern expressed by Lawrence Upton, Ill just point out that Cobbing continued using letters / words up to the last and that his earliest as far as I know surviving work dates from 1942 and it is wordless. This is commenting on where I wrote, I should point out that after the 1970s Cobbing moved out of Concrete Poetry into visual poetry and beyond to wordless compositions. I guess, Lawrence, that I was not careful nor clear enough when I wrote this and apologize for wasting your valuable time. All I was attempting to point out was that Cobbing did not remain a concrete poet and had moved on to compose in the wider fields of visual poetry. By pointing to composing wordless poems I was pointing out to those who did not think such work, wordless, was visual poetry. Further, you had a question regarding my limited overview of the Brits. I guess again I did not make myself clear enough but I wrote that I would leave coverage of each national group up to its native speakers. My overview of the USA scene was an illustration of what needs to be done for all national groups. A positive comment was made by Nico Vassilakis. He wants the next chapter on visual poetry from the 70s to the present moment. In an early draft of the essay I was preparing a list for the appendix of visual poets from the mid 60s to the present moment to illustrate the difficulty and complexity of covering international visual poetry over the time span he asks for. The list grew to over 260 individuals accompanied with the nation or nations in which they resided and composed. It was deleted mainly because such a list can never be compete and also insulting whoever inadvertently goes unmentioned. It has been passed on to a couple of interested individuals.
