Column088 — July/August 2008
Infraverbal Excitement
Small Press Review,
Volume 40, Numbers 7/8, July/August 2008
SCRAM BLEDS
By Richard Kostelanetz
2008; 40 pp; Pa; Luna Bisonte Prods,
137 Leland Ave., Columbus OH 43214. $10 ppd.
Endgames
By Marton Koppany
2008; 76 pp; Otoliths;
http://stores.lulu.com/l_m_young.
$25 plus postage and handling.
po-X-etera
Blogger: Bob Grumman. Daily. Free.
http://comprepoetica.com/newblog/blog01553.html
http://comprepoetica.com/newblog/blog01554.html
http://comprepoetica.com/newblog/blog01556.html
http://comprepoetica.com/newblog/blog01566.html
The indefatigable Richard Kostelanetz has another book out, this one called SCRAM BLEDS, with its title split between its front and back covers. Each of the pieces in SCRAM BLEDS repeats the game the title plays, except backwards–with, that is, the rear of each two-parter printed first. All but one of the pairs has two or more pages between its components, and several are less straight-forward than “scram/ bleds.” I was slow to figure out which one-syllable word went with another, but the clues are there for anyone not brain-dead, and all the combinations work without cheating. They seem to me among Kostelanetz’s more clever thing-a-mah-jigs. I don’t want to spoil the fun by solving too many here, but a representative one is “tail” . . . “men.” Very simple but something about the split, and the slight re-arrangement of the two words–with pages between them–made it tricky for me to solve. (As “ailment.”) A simpler one is “rant” “flag,” whose word of origin is simply cut in half, with the rear half first. One last specimen: “cad” “ear.”
The texts’ nicely-done multi-font design is by Aryeh Cohen-Wade, by the way. Naturally, I can’t leave them without considering them taxonomically. They present a problem: technically, they’re poems, since they are lineated. But they do so little for the senses, it’s hard to think of them as poems, with “rant/flag” an exception, because of the appropriate verbal noise connoted by “rant,” and visual noise connoted by “flag.” I finally concluded they are (mostly) infraverbal specimens of light verse. Which isn’t to slight them–they’re extremely good for what they are, and what they are is first-rate poetry, albeit almost purely conceptual.
Also infraverbal (for the most part) is Endgames, a new book out by the man I consider the king of punctuation marks, Marton Koppany (whose first name should have an accent mark over each a but I don’t know how to make them). 68 pages of poems, two of them dedicated to me, which–of course–makes this review of mine completely worthless. (Marton dedicates a lot of his poems to others.) I will continue with it, anyway. It’s in full color, so well worth its price. Excellent afterword on the back cover by Karl Young, too!
One of Marton’s endgames, “The Secret,” particularly appealed to me. “{([ )}]” is “The Secret” in full, except for the black frame around it. Three different kinds of brackets–but in an unexpected order that wonderfully suggests secrecy–to those of us who go for that sort of thing.
On the page facing “The Secret” is something called, “The Principle of Gradience.” It is a touristy picture of the Eiffel Tower against a pretty blue sky. The picture is cut down the center, with its right half raised an inch or two. At first I thought it was “only” a cleverly captioned illumage (or work of visual art). Later I finally noted the top of the exclamation point above it. Rather large dot under that top. . . . Some of the letters in its title are also raised a hair, which it took me even longer to observe. Anyway, the idea of a collection of steps, like the Eiffel Tower in effect is, itself making a step up some gradient appeals strongly to me. At the same time, the image is making a step up the art gradient, that starts at accurate representationalism. At least of equal importance is the emotional step the poem, and it is a poem, reminds us that the Eiffel Tower, and similar specimens of architectural lyricism, cause us to take, the emotional step into the sky!
Just about every piece in Endgame is at the level of these (although some I more extremely like, such as “The Secret,” than others). It is a must-have for anyone with a serious interest in conceptual art of any kind.
To finish this installment of my column, I want again to chat a little about my blog. It’s still getting only about 15 visits a day, which doesn’t say much for my drawing power, despite this column, which at least thirty people must read. One reason it’s worth visiting is that you can look at copies of “The Secret” and “The Principle of Gradience” at the second of the URL’s (i.e., Internet addresses) listed to the fore of this column. My blog has a fair amount of other works by Marton, with my comments, scattered through it, too—plus links to other sites concerning him and his work.
The first URL in my list of blog entries has three of my coinages, “culturateur,” “aberrateur” and “subsidiateur”–“one who contributes meaningfully to his culture,” “one who contribute aberrationally to his culture” (not me!), and one who contributes in a subordinate way–keeps a tradition alive, for instance, rather than inventing new ways of doing something. I mention this entry because it is a good example of one of the main nutty things I do at my blog.
I mention the third entry whose URL is on the list because I say some snazzy things about poetry with something in common with abstract-expressionist painting, and about the latter, too. As for the fnal entry whose URL is on the list, it has some highly intriguing things by another punctuconceptual poet like Marton, Endwar. It is also important for giving details about my first full-length collection of mathematical poems, April to the Power of the Quantity Pythagoras Times Now, which is available from the same publisher Endgames is, for the same price.