Concrete Poetry

The topic for today’s class is bodies and materialities. The suggested readings were by Claus Clüver, “Concrete Poetry and the New Performance Arts: Intersemiotic, Intermedial, Intercultural”, by Eduardo Ledesma, “Latin American Digital Poetry Animated Embodiment”, and by Lori Emerson, "Typewriter Concrete Poetry as Activist Media Poetics" from Reading Writing Interfaces: From the Digital to the Bookbound. After going over the assigned works and thinking about the materiality and body of the word and how it can be exploited for poetic purposes, I find myself still formulating my thoughts about the function of the word/s and specially in poetry.

            As a student never before exposed to Electronic Literature nor the concepts of clean or dirty concrete, concrete sound poetry, etc. I find myself amazed by the political weight and explorative sense of these poets. For these poets, poetry cannot exist in the traditional sense. Emerson cites Siegfried Zielinski who had a strong view about what art ought to be. He declared, “If art is only supposed to confirm what has been determined for as long as anyone can remember, then one doesn’t need it. Its role is to be a probe that is let down into the unknown” (92). Zielinski’s take on art is clearly exhibited in the works of Ana María Uribe, María Mencía, Kitasono Katue, Toru Takemitsu, Décio Pigmantari, and Belén Gache among others. These poets take poetry beyond the traditional sense. Some of them use sounds, movement, symbols, objects, images and electronic mechanism to give life to a new form of expression. Critics have many different takes on the works of these authors, but I find myself agreeing with those that see this type of poetry as a challenge to the established norms, infused with political meanings and as away to invite the reader to become an active participant of the creating, interpreting process. In a way, I find this poetry provoking and inviting for action.

             The poetry of some of these authors at times seems simplistic, however, it would be a mistake to label it as such. In some of these poems the materiality and body of the words are carefully selected, and it often happens that one word or letter is used to convey the message. However, these words are fully charged of meaning. One example is the work of Uribe, “Disciplina” where the words are militarized. These words in movement take the shape of humans marching. The political message here is obvious and the poet does not need the ornate vocabulary of the baroque to convey her message.

            The authors Clüver, Ledesma, and Emerson illustrate how poetry has evolved over time. The poets and artist they make references to are not interested in the “old” as a way of conformity, but as door that would open up to new ways of interpretation and meaning. Their poetry challenges the norms. At times it does not fallow the metrics nor is bombared with sophicticated vocabulary and, most importantly, it is not always found on print. These poets strive for new forms, new ways of creating meaning and engaging the reader.



Emerson, Lori. Reading Writing Interfaces: From the Digital to the Bookbound. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.