Taking Shape—How Concrete Poetry Is Made

A concrete poem may borrow lines not from another poem but an object—the curve of an apple or the spread of a shrub. It may find a way to give form to wind, or silence. Thoroughly international in its movement and reach, concrete poetry has traveled across continents, languages, and writing systems. In this seminar, we’ll look closely at the construction of concrete poems—with words and lines, yes, but also shapes, patterns, architectures, and spaces. How do language and image blur into one another? How might sound and motion become material? Through lecture and discussion we’ll examine how these poems are made, and we’ll try various exercises to make our own marks in concrete.