The New Concrete Poetry & Neo-Concrete Poetry

Cover of Interrupted Narrative: A Hypergraphic Novel by mIEKAL aND (West Lima, Wisconsin, USA) (Xerox Sutra Editions 2024)  (Image courtesy of the Asemic Front 2 Archive) Review of Interrupted Narrative: A Hypergraphic  Novel  by mIEKAL aND La Farge Wisconsin, USA:  Xerox Sutra Editions 2024 8 X 10 inches; 84 black & white plates Review by De Villo Sloan  I have just recently obtained a copy of mIEKAL aND’s  Interrupted Narrative: A Hypergraphic Novel published in 2024 by Xerox Sutra Editions in La Farge, Wisconsin, USA. I am enjoying perusing this excellent collection and want to register some observations in the official record of my reviews and commentary before at last saying a fond farewell to 2024. The creation of AI-assisted digital vispo (for which mIEKAL aND is receiving much praise) is opening new literary genres. We are witnessing the birth of patasemics, metasemics, conceptualism, quantum poetry, and numerous other new poetic forms and c...

  Cover of  The Autobiography of Ampersand X  by mIEKAL aND  (West Lima, Wisconsin, USA: Xerox Sutra  Editions  2025)   (Image courtesy of Asemic Front 2 Archive)   Review of  The Autobiography of Ampersand X      by mIEKAL aND      West Lima, Wisconsin, USA:      Xerox Sutra Editions 2025      4.5 X 7 inches; 60 color plates https://xexoxial.org/?fbclid=IwY2xjawLpPIdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFiVjlsRTVWSkdERXpOR04wAR54C9NgepS3p65GUNmzol7Sm9aTqt_Nj00rFPQaCJ6iSU7XVTAtyBwSgejCRg_aem_eW--rX3JJzMSJNNHMRtdnA      Review by De Villo Sloan From  The Autobiography of Ampersand X  by mIEKAL aND (West Lima, Wisconsin, USA: Xerox Sutra  Editions  2025)   (Image courtesy of Asemic Front 2 Archive) mIEKAL aND has released a new collection of work,  The Autobiography of Ampersand X,  published by his Xerox Sutra Editions, a major, historically signific...

Concrete sonnet collab by Christian Bok (Alberta, Canada)  & Gregory Betts ( Ontario, Canada).  (Photo courtesy of Christian Bok) New Concrete Poetry blog readers are no doubt aware I have a special interest in vispo and concrete experiments with the sonnet, which you can explore at your leisure in the blog archive.  Canadian visual poet Christian Bok recently collaborated with Gregory Betts to create an impressive new concrete poetry version of a piece from a crown of sonnets by Bok entitled, The Crown of Venom (included in his long poem Xenotext).  Traditionally, a crown is a series of seven intertwined sonnets using repeated lines, rhymes, and themes.  The colorful work above - "The Crown #1" - is the piece Gregory Betts created as a response to Bok's sonnet cycle. ________________ "In an explanation of the collab, Christian Bok writes, 'The Crown #1' by Gregory Betts uses colors to visualize all the syllables that rhyme in the first sonnet from my s...

  From  4 plus 3  by Karl Kempton (California, USA)  published  by Pete Spence in 1988 at Post Neo (Victoria, Australia)  Image courtesy of the New Concrete Archive Karl Kempton's 4 + 3 in Pete Spence's Post Neo Edition by De Villo Sloan Australian poet and publisher Pete Spence sent me this wonderful gift of a concrete poetry classic by Karl Kempton published by Post Neo in 1988. I am not exaggerating when I write Karl Kempton (based in California, USA) is one of the most widely recognized and praised concrete poets in the world today and has been for decades. Pete Spence’s edition of 4 plus 3 is a gathering of four poetic sequences by Kempton composed during a time of extraordinary creativity for the poet: 4 prism poems, 1984 Prism Poem 3, TO TIE A KNOT, 1982 THE WAIT/WEIGHT OF INSPIRATION, 1984 (for Loris Essary & Dan Raphael) THE UNKNOWN OCEANO OCTAVE, 1987 Cover of  4 plus 3 by Karl Kempton  published  by Pete Spence...

  Mail art visual poetry by Angela Caporaso (Caserta, Italy) (July 2025) (Photo courtesy of Asemic Front 2 Archives) Visual poetry and mail art go well together among friends. I want to extend my deepest thanks to Angela Caporaso in Caserta, Italy, for sending me this fabulous piece via snail mail. With the cost of postage and other challenges, a piece of genuine mail art today is a luxury and privilege. I certainly feel this way about Angela's missive.  Angela creates a distinct blend of asemic writing, concrete poetry, and visual poetry. I reviewed her book Wars on AF2.    https://asemicfront2.blogspot.com/2024/07/asemic-front-2-review-wars-by-angela.html?spref=tw I appreciate her concretism as well as her ability to create larger structures, which I explain in-depth in the review of Wars. Now I have another amazing vispo structure to ponder and enjoy. - De Villo Sloan July 8, 2025 Elbridge, New York, USA