This Issue
In November of last year, Poetry magazine devoted a section to “Visual Poets”, which includes Concrete Poetry, rubber-stamp poems, collage poems, computer-generated manipulation of words, and many other types. They do not “function as poems do,” says Geof Huth in his introduction, but they are “always poetic, always compelling the reader forward into the transformative power of language.
Robert King
This February Poetry featured a portfolio of visual work responding to Hurricane Katrina by artist and poet Tony Fitzpatrick, single words pasted on a dazzling and complicated background. To find these images go to www.poetryfoundation.org/, click on current or past issues under “Poetry Magazine”. You could also check the Poets and Writers site: www.pw.org/content/six_video_poems.
In this issue, E-Words begins a series of interviews with Colorado poets who combine poetry (or language) with visual art and other arts.
M. D. Friedman uses computer-generated effects with language to produce what he calls digital poems, and Stephen Beal, poet and fiber artist, embroiders scenes with text.
On a different note, we interview Robert Cooperman on his latest book of narrative poetry, an Irish tale entitled A Tiny Ship Upon the Sea.
How to Use the CPC Site
You may think you know what’s on the CPC site – the material you sent in for your own pages, the same poems, etc. But the site is more active.
For one thing, all issues of E-Words are archived, with a link on the homepage. Although you see only the numbers of issues, placing the cursor on the number will reveal the contents, Hover over Issue #2, for example, and you see “Dave Keplinger Interview,” “Poets Writing Opera,” and “Katherine West and the Green Fuse Community”
The “Awards” link on the homepage will tell you that L. Luis Lopez of Grand Junction recently won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for his new book, Each Month I Sing (Farolito Press, 2008). Although we focus on Colorado, other items are also presented, such as the news last year of Mark Doty winning the National Book Award, who was going to read the Inaugural Poem, and, currently the four finalists for the National Book Critics Circle award in poetry, the winner of which will be announced March 12.
“Announcements” contains a variety of items including calls for submission of poems, like The Mark Fischer Poetry Prize from the Telluride Council for the Arts, a call from Green Fuse Poetic Arts, and a announcement of the ACC Writers Studio Literary Contest.
“Writing News” is a reporting of books, chapbooks, interviews, and single poems, by, just scrolling down the first page right now, Jeff Bahr, Dan Beachy-Quick, Jim Ciletti, Robert Cooperman, David Feela, Jeff Franklin, M. D. Friedman, Michelle Harvey. Joe Hutchison, Jane Hilberry, Katie Kingston, Juan Morales, Veronica Patterson, Jared Smith, Wendy Videlock, Kathryn Winograd, and Lisa Zimmerman.
We encourage everyone on the site to let us know of such writing activity, making the Colorado poetry community richer. Check out in the site more for more information.
For comments of suggestions for E-Words, contact Bob King at: franklinbeth1309@gmail.com
