Thanks for publicizing our anthology, Ron. The price is $10, ppd. (From the Runaway Spoon Press, 1708 Hayworth Road, Port Charlotte FL 33952.)
A few comments. First is that I'm sure Geof would have used one or more of the pwoermds you showcased if he'd know about them. Assuming they're untitled. One of our hopes is that this anthology will prod people into bringing our attention to the many good examples of such poems we're unaware of. Geof missed the ones in your entry, I suspect, because he doesn't associate language poets with the form.
Thanks for liking my own "lighf." That it, and many of the poems in the anthology "perform the same trick" seems a poor criticism of them, though: all poems perform the same trick or tricks. Not being too alert to visuality, though, you (apparently) missed the second trick my poem performed: the use of a substitute letter that is only slightly different from the one it replaces. Hence, we have the visiophor (I'm a serious theorist of visual poetry, too) of light turning into life. A similar, better, visiophor is the basis of Geof's wonderful "shadowl," another work in the anthology. My poem is also an allusion to Saroyan's "lighght," which is there, too. My "leaghf," not in the anthology, is--in turn--an allusion to my "lighf". . . (And to "lighght.")
Your suggestion that if the anthology had a table of contents, one would, in reading it, have read the whole book, seems to me a striking piece of evidence that you have not used your eyes on it, Ron. The negative space (except for an author's name) of each page the pwoermds are on is visually an enormous part of the aesthetic value of those poems. Cor van den Heuvel's famous "tundra" proves this point most clearly: it is best described not as a one-word poem but as a one-page poem.
I could argue with several other things you said, but am rushed. Besides, I sincerely appreciate your thoughtful and mostly insightful piece, so don't want to seem TOO ungrateful. I agree with more that you said than I disagree with, too.
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