lesabres in unlesbares ubersetzen by Claus Bremer (1963). Translated from German.
Concrete poetry is writing with physical aspects. Concrete poetry happens when the physical qualities of words take on a meaning in addition to the meaning of words themselves. The word “concrete” here refers to that physical quality, not the stuff that paves the sidewalk. Concrete poetry goes by many names, and it is defined differently by those who create it. It is also known as shape poetry, visual poetry, letterism, and so on.
In many cases, the appearance of the words overpowers the literal meaning of the words themselves. What you have, then, is an abstract form, more like expressionism than like cubism. The opinion here is that the structure of the words should augment their meaning, but that opinion isn’t necessarily the only one.
Examples of Concrete Poetry
Although it can be difficult to get a book of concrete poetry out of the public library, the internet provides many examples. The examples below are chosen to illustrate the opinion above, but there are many other examples out there. This list should be enough to get you well on your way to enjoying this interesting art form.
Mary Ellen Solt’s introduction to concrete poetry mentions “three types of concrete poetry: visual (or optic), phonetic (or sound) and kinetic (moving in a visual succession).” There’s a fourth type nowadays: interactive (or “multimedia” or whatever you want to call it.) Here are some examples of concrete poetry.
“denied!” by J. Michael Mollohan. From the Minimalist Concrete Poetry Archive.
A. No.A. by Jeremy Adler. From The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry.
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“U.S.S. Pacific Ocean” by Ake Hodell. From Text-Sound Compositions 1, published by UBUWEB.
Portuguese audiovisual adaptation of five concrete poems ” Cinco” (by Jose Lino Grunewald, 1964), ” Velocidade” (by Ronald Azeredo, 1957), ” Cidade” (by Augustus De Campos, 1963), ” Pêndulo” (by E.M of Melo and Castro, 1961/62) and ” The Organismo” (by Décio Pignatari, 1960). Direction: Christian Caselli.
