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Daily Notes on Poetry



19 September 2004. Excerpt from a Taxonomical Essay on Visio-Textual Art, Part 3

Things start becoming taxonomically sticky with the next poem, which is by bpNichol:


In most respects ,this is an example of the entirely verbal kind of poetry I call "infraverbal" poetry because of its focus on the innards of words (mostly letters). "Oh, the sun-- rising," it exclaims, under-adding that this is taking place at the horizon. It is also a litagraph, however--by virtue of its o-as-sun's being visually shown behind the horizon (in effect), then becoming part of it.


Which leads nicely to Shaunt Basmajian's wonderful flight above. This is unquestionably a litagraph of the first degree, for it teems with juxtaphors. One is "oh" as fireworks, or comet. Another is "0" as sun, hanging with the lightness, the buoyancy, of a vowel, above plantlife only it can make articulate. And/Or the poem represents the "oh" of spring as a text, as a poem, spreading silent delight everywhere as it ascends.




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