Introduction to Visual Poetry
How the Art Gallery and the Internet Can Enrich Your Writing
Concrete poetry is only one way to convey the word through the eye. Here's a survey of visual traditions that can enhance your creativity as a poet.
What do medieval illuminated manuscripts, shape poems, paintings featuring words, and graffiti art have in common?
They can all be termed visual poetry, and if you are exploring new territory for your writing, this rich tradition is something to look into.
Although poetry was originally sung, the idea of making the word a feast for the eye as well as the ear may be as old as humanity. In medieval and Renaissance Europe, the decoration of sacred texts by monks was a religious tribute and helped to preserve these texts when much of the world was illiterate.
Writing in 1965, Beaty and Matchett (Poetry: From Statement to Meaning. New York, Oxford University Press) describe poems written for the eyes as “an interesting if eccentric tradition.” They observe that visual poetry pre-dates printing. Evidence is that the tradition has survived and is flowering in the electronic age.
Concrete Poetry
The modern name for poems dependent for their impact partly on how they look on the page is “concrete poetry.” An example popular as a way of introducing children to poetry is writing poems in shapes such as triangles. There are many other playful concrete poetry forms. One of these is the acrostic, in which the first or last letters of each line (or letters forming a diagonal across the page) form a word.
But poetry can also convey serious or complex messages in a visual way. For example, curator, artist and poet Gregory O’Brien in the exhibition Lunar and Arthur (at Bowen Galleries in Wellington, New Zealand in 2006) displayed artworks created through chopping up, remounting and illustrating his own poems. O’Brien has also collaborated with fashion creative Doris de Pont on a fusion of poetry and designer clothing.
Word-based graffiti art, known as “writing” and intending to communicate, could also be viewed as a manifestation of concrete poetry.
Collaboration Between Poets and Visual Artists
Visual poetry has often been the outcome of the mutual respect between “page” poets and visual artists. New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere collaborated with poet Hone Tuwhare to create works such as Three Banners with Poem, developed from Tuwhare’s famous Rain. Internationally known painter Colin McCahon was also close to the New Zealand literary community. The poet James K. Baxter is credited with persuading McCahon to study (although not adopt) Roman Catholicism, which proved an important influence on McCahon’s art.
McCahon also had an enduring friendship, described in Peter Simpson’s book Answering Hark (Nelson: Craig Potton Publishing, 2001) with poet John Caselberg. Two significant outcomes of their collaboration are McCahon’s epics The Wake and The Second Gate series. The Wake, with its sombre and spooky ambience, grew out of a poem Caselberg wrote after the death of his dog Thor. For The Second Gate, Caselberg provided words from Old Testament prophets to support McCahon’s apocalyptic warnings about nuclear warfare.
Digital Poetry
A recent development in visual poetry is the growth of digital poetry, where poems are transformed or created to take advantage of the opportunities offered by electronic media and the world-wide web. Poems can feature internal links to other poems, or be attached to audio or visual opportunities. The New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre has played an important role in fostering the growth of and disseminating digital poetry.
The work of writing poetry has traditionally required developing an aural memory, a knowledge and love of words and poetic tradition. The growth in visual poetry suggests that building up a visual memory is also emerging as an important skill for the developing poet.
