Where have you gone New E-Poetry?

This is a brief pause in our current dialogue to ponder the title question: Why aren't there any more recent e-poetry in the last few years?

Maybe this question is being truncated already by an underground effort to mainstream e-poetry? I'd like to think so, but the question keeps rising in my head when I look at collections of e-poetry with dates of 2004 or older.

I admit, I had some expectations for the e-poetry world. The concept seemed completely incredible and fascinating. It has real potential and many scholars believe this as well.

I decided to search through the net jungle and prove myself wrong. Yet, in the research I have completed for the blog itself… I want to say that Google search has some kind prank glitch, but this can't be the most recent or best matched listing.

And criticism or evaluation e-poetry can't be taking a break on this or this year

I think my argument is this: why isn't e-poetry much larger than a few well hidden links to a few authors. Perhaps this is just a transition phase. Is e-poetry acting out its teen rebellion by going underground?

Is there going to be an answer to all these questions?

No.

Or, not exactly; there is some current activity in the forefront for e-poetry: I [heart] E-Poetry

The Barcelona Festival is holding its 5^th annual festival to celebrate digital poetry.

The best way to showcase this event is with the 2007 E-poetry festival: [click me!]

As you can click-see the festival has been and will be extremely digital friendly. American and other foreign universities have contributed in terms of papers or works that will be presented. This year they had over 120 works submitted to the festival for presentation.

Yet, despite this festival, there is barely more current information than courses at universities or other works [why not have a digital poetry convention in many other countries?]

We can argue about the accessibility of internet and its resources. Yes, the whole world isn't necessarily connected.

Yet with other areas or art in the internet much more developed…

[Wait-I just need a minute to update my Twitter/Facebook page]

E-poetry has hit a drag.

Perhaps E-poetry isn't as easy as updating FaceBook, or requires some more HTML elegance than MySpace when creating it. It may just be easier to grab a pen, paper, coffee, a muse and write a poem than to open up Notepad and/or Photoshop to create a dazzling digital work of art.

 

 

 

 

 

Ever Wanted Prufrock to be Sugar High?

Now I know that such a question would raise some eyebrows.

Yes, we're still stalking hypertext poetry, but with a slightly different example. Actually you may be relieved by recognizing T.S Eliot's poem, "The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock". Yet this hypertext version of the poem has links to images, text, and audio. Just think of reading the demanding text without having to flit through pages and pages of references! It allows for a more consistent read; you wouldn't just guess or gloss parts you might not understand to finish the poem. The interaction with the poem is enhanced by hearing the poet's speech as well as access to textual reference within the poem.

This example of hypertext is more along the lines of innovative reading of traditional poetry. Yet, still an intriguing way to create a dialogue between the reader and the poet, as well as another audience. The individuals who created this hypertext version choose what kinds of images reflect the poem's meanings and intent.

 

 

One Foot in the Door...

and Let the Clicks lead the way…

Now that we have an idea of what hypertext is, we are now going to go click happy in Mary Hedger’s

Now, if you clicked at the bottom of the last entry on the link you might think “ooo…a guide post…. are you trying to be funny?”

I chose this example because not only are you driven insane by the all the links –I mean, it is a one of kind example of hypertext. It is user friendly. Why? She has placed on the right hand side information and her own analysis of each poem in the sign posts. This is not highly typical in hypertext, let alone traditional poetry [unless you’re reading an annotated text]. It lends a much more personal and organized approach to hypertext [no, really check this one out]. It is organized chaos.

Also the graphics of this piece are actually manually drawn; they’re not just programmed structure. It gives it a completely different feel than just typed text.

So…where do we start?

Click.

Looking at the guidepost in the middle the word: HYPERTEXT appears in the middle of directions [Simplicity, Humanity, Prison, and Patience]

Hypertext is a series of hypertext poems.

· Hard Drive Human

· Patience

· Excuse Me

· Layer Love

· Prison Detail

· Limit

· Truth Comic

But rather than start at the beginning; we’ll start at the end.

Truth Comic

Introduction: When you click on Truth Comic there is a blurb on the side from Hedger about Truth Comic.

What kind of analysis could this poem require, as it is also a visual and user interactive art? There is no sense of “ah, it’s an Elizabethan sonnet!” there are words, images in a certain pattern with the intent of expression.

Hedger states: “instructions: seven pages linked by the red, blue and green big dots and cross, click to change the page. find these dots and crosses and other mouseover links by sliding the mouse over the page. there is reason in this madness! hypertext rocks!”-from “About Truth Comic"

This is where you notice that although hypertext may seem to be purely hyperlinked text/images in a seemingly chaotic order, there is a lot to chew on with just one page.

So you may want to suspend your poetic convictions on traditional poetry to properly enjoy the artwork.

Once you find a way out of the first page, each page has a pattern in which you click to reveal writing, images or movement. There is an implication to each. Much like a graphic novel, only it moves [I can only compare this to the moving pictures in Harry Potter].

Let’s look at the first page ( Print outs are useless; you lose the intent and confusion):

By passing the mouse over the page different blocks with the colors red, white, and blue appear. Even passing over the written words changes the words themselves.

You may think “Oh good, there’s words.” But unlike normal poetry there are few words and we have to wonder how do they contribute to the theme of the poem, why are there colors and the ram [couldn’t that be a symbol of masculinity, and what would that have to do with a female author]? What does it mean when she writes: “Give yourself time to think when you need it”?

Life is conveyed as an abstract complexity.

My sense when I first went through the poem, and the subsequent pages of it, is that it appears like an adult writing on a kid’s notebook. Or a teenager who knows over and over what the rules are in “society” and has decided to distort them and put her own thoughts. There are themes of love and sexuality, and freedom to think and to some extent a sense of patriotism. You don’t get the same personal interaction with the author in this abstract manner with a traditional poem. There is a more microscopic approach to each article in the pages. Anything is up for game if you’re trying to deeply analyze it.

I can only imagine what Allen Ginsberg would hyperlink or move around in “Howl”.

And no, the text isn't on a sugar high.

 

 

[Although you may think so after seeing some samples of hypertext poetry.]

 

Our next step into the unknown-I mean e-poetry- is hypertext poetry.

 

Yeah, but really, what is it?

 

 

[BoRinG-Useful] Definition: It is text arranged on the screen in a certain order; it will include hyperlinks to other sites with visual/audio media or other pages that will enrich the meaning of the poem.

 

 

Hypertext is particularly fun. My first experience with hypertext [Millennium Buggery by Ernesto Sarezale) was filled with rainbow colored bars across the screen and completely random links to websites (some that don't exist anymore-a peeve!). I suppose the most exciting event is not a PowerPoint animation of text at 1 AM.

Riding the Meridian explores how hypertext is not only poetry and its effects[oh yes, there is more]. It is also a new medium for prose. But forget about prose. What hypertext has done to poetry is that is interactive; you don't just sit there and read, you have to click first. A writer in this medium is forced to much more selective in what content is displayed, and the reader taken for the ride.

 

But, enough talk: let's click!

 

[click me!]

 

[This will lead you to a hypertext site by Mary Hedger. Where you click on the letter spelling H-Y-P-E-R-T-E-X-T. On the left hand side you will be linked to the poem; on the right hand side you get a small blurb about the poem ]

 

In the next installment: Hypertext Poetry by Mary Hedger [We're going to click into the deep!] and other examples of hypertext poetry.