Vispo: Pessimism / How To Create A Visual Poem

Pessimism, RTomens, 2025

I'm not pessimistic by nature but...

...looking at the world one way...

...it's hard not to be pessimistic.

Then again, as I said to a friend the other day, we now look at the world through the online medium and potentially one can be dragged down a dark rabbit hole of doom! Whereas, pre-PC, we perhaps read a newspaper and not even the news, just the Sports pages, or the Arts (having only glanced at the headlines on the front page). We could choose because it was all contained within one manageable package and not the open-ended internet to which there is no end, no closure.

To avoid too much online news I make visual poetry. I would say it keeps me sane, but sometimes the act of creation can spark a kind of craziness. Mostly, though, it does keep me sane, except for the other day, when I started to lose my mind as it triggered my fingers on the keys of the typewriter. I was typing with no purpose. I was creating unsatisfactory work! Lots of it!

How could I get back on the right track?

Take a long break.

Think again.

Someone recently asked how I created the lines of text in a piece of work. I explained that a wide carriage typewriter was necessary to turn the A4 paper, thus getting the required angles. That was easy to answer. Someone once asked how visual poetry was made. Hmm...how could I answer that? I recall shrugging with a stupid grin on my face. 

Most people, understandably, don't even know what visual poetry is, never mind how it's made. That, dear reader, is why I have not got rich or made a living from visual poetry.

Any tool can be used to make visual poetry, from the humble pencil to software. Here I should say what visual poetry actually is, but that's almost as tricky as saying what Art is so I won't attempt a definitive answer, except to say that in my book visual poetry must feature letters or words. Don't laugh; I've seen quite a bit that doesn't, but is called visual poetry and even gets featured in books. 

All text can be deconstructed and all letters can be singular marks as opposed to forming words. Words can be played with, rearranged to make non and new sense. Visual poetry is ultimately playing with language and the components of language. I consider some of William Burroughs cut-ups to be a form of visual poetry. 

Recently I've been experimenting with a looser style involving marks made by pen or carbon, random lines and squiggles (see above). I've been making messier pieces. Not that I have ever been one for formal precision. This approach challenges the idea that a piece must be visually 'appealing'. Geometry, shapes, some colour, some bold forms all increase the chances of a piece appealing to the viewer. They help to create an impact. Since everyone is rapidly scrolling as opposed to standing in a gallery, to gain attention a piece of visual poetry needs to be eye-catching. If, that is, you want to maximise the chances of being properly seen and appreciated. But we know where that goes. 

Pandering to what one thinks the viewer wants is a trap I try to avoid. Why? Because life's too short (and getting shorter for me) to be worrying about what might get more 'likes', retweets etc. If I don't do what I want now, when will I? If I'm not free to do as I like now, when will I be free?

I didn't answer the question in the post header. I intended to before realising I had nothing to say about how to create a visual poem. 

Sorry 'bout that.

TTFN