Dom Sylvester Houedard: The Eyeverse & Concrete Poetry / Concrete Poem: How Could I think Like That? (5)

RTomens, 2020

'Concrete poetry communicates its own structure: is an object in & by itself. Its material: word (sound, visual shape, semantical charge); its problem: the function & relation of this material; factors: nearness & similarity - gestalt psychology; rhythm: relational force. Like cybernetics; the poem as self-regulating machine. Concrete poems can be dull amusing grand satirical playful sad - anything except epic. 'Help serious thought & mind play; concrete poet: play - expert making speech - rules' (Gomringer: independently of Wittgenstein?). The constructed poem attracts: it is human, friendly, makes words move on the page - they move as quick as the eye the poem attracts. Eyeverse is not 'read' - it creates an impression through the gestalt shape of the whole toy-tool, architected, poem - through each word as the eye wanders over them in any order.'
         - Dom Sylvester Houedard, Concrete Poetry & Ian Hamilton Finlay, Typographica 8, 1963

My concrete poem, freshly constructed today, is a combination of four works. The title: How Could I Think Like That?(5) seems appropriate in relation to both the thought process(s) required to appreciate concrete poetry (how does the viewer think?) and the creator's process of 'thinking' which leads to the poem. This piece could also be said to reflect our frequently mixed up thoughts, or the 'collage' thought process in the absence of clarity.