Home > assh > kunapipi > Vol. 16 (1994) > Iss. 2
Abstract
The nine word works included in this issue of Kunapipi are examples of my explorations in what is sometimes called 'visual poetry' to indicate that the way the poem is embodied is essential to its meaning. It is, after all, being looked at on the page, not listened to per se, and this provides an opportunity for the poet to ask the eye to dance, leaving the ear at the wall. My own written poetry, in contrast, is lyrical, diverse in style as well as aim, and meant to be heard, at least on the readers' inner ear if not spoken out loud. In the case of these to-be-voiced poems, line arrangement is an indication of the rhythms of oral delivery and has meaning as a kind of enforced hesitation. If you say: 'the form restricts and forms so you fit my body when we love like never any other' in the same bland monotonal run-on you might use to read someone a sentence from a technical manual, you have missed much of the poem. The linebreaks encourage rehearing with a slower point of view. I've included 'The Poem Considered as a Lover' because it's a poem about poetry, as well as an 'illustrated poem' which (and this may confuse you) is different from a purely 'visual poem' because it can live without the picture.
Recommended Citation
Tipping, Richard Kelly, Subvertising: Word Works, Kunapipi, 16(2), 1994.
Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol16/iss2/6
