I have often said that I think all poetry is visual, or can be, in that there is an experience of seeing text on a page in juxtaposition with blank space, that is part of how/what a poem means. The same can be said for the aural dimensions of poetry. In this broad view, I am very different from my co-editor Bob Grumman, who has a very specific and narrow definition of what is or is not visual poetry. In his introduction, for example, he talks about visual poetry vs. “textual design,” and in other contexts he has designated probably dozens of different categories and sub-categories of poetry and visual poetry, and things that others might see as poetry or visual poetry that he does not. This taxonomic endeavor can certainly be useful, and I admire his efforts in that regard, as they can help illuminate different techniques and approaches.

          That said, I think it is also useful to adopt an all-inclusive viewpoint on aesthetic activities involving language and to see them as a dynamic, interrelated whole, with connections and influences going in all directions. Visual poetry, broadly conceived, is enjoying something of a boom right now, and I feel that any kind of categorization can only be valid for a single stopped moment, a moment that doesn’t really exist. Nothing “stops” really. Think of visual poetry as a wildly frothing ocean with currents and waves going in all directions and intersecting everywhere. Think of other cultures, such as that of the ancient Maya, who had a written language that was highly visual in nature, in some respects essentially visual (that is, it required being seen to be understood), and who thus were, in my view, creating a kind of visual poetry.

          In a nutshell, though I tend to think that all poetry involves a visual experience (in the case of poetry in Braille, the visuality would be experienced indirectly), I do make a very general, practical distinction between strongly textual poetry and poetry that very clearly incorporates graphic or visual elements. There is an enormous variety of work in this second category, using any techniques/methods/materials you can imagine (and probably some you cannot until you see it!). It is work of this type that is included here.

          In spite of the different theoretical approaches of the two editors, however, we were in surprisingly close agreement on the choices for this small selection and in complete agreement that there was much work equally deserving of inclusion we could not include due to space limitations. Perhaps this suggests that our theorizing is somehow missing the point! But I am very pleased, then, that we will be able to post much more of the work submitted on two other electronic resources, which will greatly expand on the selection shown here. More on that when those selections are organized and made available. For now I can say it has been a pleasure indeed to work on this fascinating project, and I am grateful to John Amen for providing this forum.

John M. Bennett has published over three hundred books and chapbooks of poetry and other materials. Among the most recent are rOlling COMBers, Mailer Leaves Ham, Loose Watch, Chac Prostibulario (with Ivan Arguelles), The Peel, Glue, Lap Gun Cut (with F. A. Nettelbeck), Instruction Book, la M al, Cantar Del Huff, Sound Dirt (with Jim Leftwich), Backwords, D Rain Bloom (with Scott Helmes (ed)), ChangeDents, L Entes, NOS, Spitting Dreams, Onda (with Tom Cassidy, 30 Dialologos Sonoros (with Martín Gubbins), Banging the Stone (with Jim Leftwich), and Reves. He has published, exhibited, and performed his word art worldwide in thousands of publications and venues. He was editor and publisher of Lost and Found Times (1975-2005) and is Curator of the Avant Writing Collection at The Ohio State University Libraries. Richard Kostelanetz has called him “the seminal American poet of my generation.”