Week 2's Blog (e-poetry sites)

http://epc.buffalo.edu
While at first glance, this site was not very aesthetically pleasing, it turned out to be a vast resource that was quite easy to navigate.
My first task was to find an explanation of e-poetry. After clicking the e-poetry link, I went to Glazier’s link under “About E-Poetry”. There I found a digital version of what appeared to be a print manuscript titled Digital Poetics: The Making of E-Poetries. In his introduction while talking about how and why e-poetry came to be, he states, “new materials alter what constitutes writing.” Well, this only makes since. Poetry has changed a lot in the last century so the invention and popular acceptance of a new medium that allows so many artistic variations logically leads to a new format. I love the notion that e-poetry exists within a cooperative community on-line that transcends geographical boundaries is what seems to be the ideal artistic society. He explains this new mode of writing very well: “digital work (is not) an extension of the printed poem, but the idea of the digital poem as the process of thinking through this new medium, think through making.” This is where my understanding was breaking down. I thought e-poetry was simply embellishing written pieces with sounds and images from the web, but it is actually expressing the emotions and ideas in poetry through sounds and images available on the web.
This site also contains quite an impressive list of links to actual examples of e-poetry, links to reviews of and essays about e-poetry, e-poets’ web-sites, blogs of e-poets, and portals to resources helpful to creating e-poetry. After perusing through the examples found here, I think I appreciate this new genre even more. As the risk of sounding trite, it’s so poetic.

Deena Larsen’s Quick Buzz around the Universe of Electronic Poetry
http://orelitrev.startlogic.com/v1n1/HistoryE-Poetry.htm
Larsen’s site is not really a database filled with links to e-poetry sites, but is really summed up by her title. Her goal seems to really be breaking down e-poetry into definitions and its components. This site is useful for novices like me that are interested in exploring this genre of poetry and trying their hands at actually writing it but with no idea of how or where to get started.
In her definition she explains that e-poetry takes poetry from “a two-dimensional plane on paper to multi-dimensional universes on the computer.” Well put! She goes on to explain that poetry in its print forms is still being defined and constantly evolving so it should be no surprise that e-poetry is difficult to confine to a simple definition. I think this is why she focuses more on exploring the components and examples of e-poetry and allowing her readers to come up with their own working definitions.
She first discusses poetry in images. Here she explains that most e-poetry incorporates color, images, and fonts that can’t be captured on the printed page. These elements, however, are not just meant to be visually appealing but are essential to convey the meaning the poet intends. She uses Robert Kendalls’ A Study in Shades as a beautiful example of how the changing images and appearing words work together to create a powerful meaning, but neither would be complete without the other component. The example ~Water~Water~Water~ is a beautiful piece of art /poetry.
She goes on to discuss sound in poetry. While some made me want to grab my bongos and grow back the goatee that my wife hates, I was confused how others, like Jim Andrew’s Nio were considered poetry. His piece just sounded like a great experiment with jazz music. He explains that it expresses thoughts that can’t be said in words, but I still don’t see what classifies it as poetry rather than music. Then again, I teach songs as poetry set to music. I guess if I go with that approach, maybe dance is poetic as well.
This segues into her discussion of poetry that switches genres. Looking through these examples, I begin to wonder where the lines blur between what is defined as modern and abstract art, and e-poetry; which she conveniently goes on to discuss: why does it have to be either/or?
Larsen also explores poetry communities on-line some of which connect poets to each other and various events, while others use the community of poets to create the poem. She also discusses the freedoms of time and space that technology offers and the future of computer generate poetry.

http://www.wordcircuits.com/
This site opens with the following: This is a place for poetry and fiction born to pixels rather than the page--writing that's digital down to its bones. That about sums it up.
Word circuits is a site designed to help those interested in creating hypertext poetry, both those experienced in this form and beginners.
A gallery is offered to display current work and to serve as an example of what this form looks like. Here I explored Jackie Craven’s In the Changing Room, a fascinating piece that interconnects characters and themes through hyperlinks within the text. What a great literary expression. I also wanted to explore Deena Larson’s Stained Word Window after finding her other site so useful. She uses hypertext to reveal what appears to either be small poems or stanzas thematically linked to the hypertext.
For a quick tour of the website, the gallery was most helpful. The other links would be very helpful in creating my own hypertext poetry which I am interested in experimenting with.