Karen's+UFG+Reflection

My unfamiliar genre project was on concrete poetry. I really enjoyed working in it, and it actually did help improve my knowledge and understanding of poetry.

One of the main characteristics of concrete poetry is the connection between the written and visual. Initially, I overlooked the written part and focused more on the visual elements. I thought more about what it was going to look like in the end than the written part of the poem. I struggled to figure out “what” to write but had no troubling choosing a shape or arrangement. The more I worked in the genre though, the more I realized that the written poem provided the meaning and message and the visual part worked to support and stabilize the whole piece. If the text was removed, it wouldn’t be as successful but for the most part it could function on its own.

The most demanding mode of writing for this piece would be free verse. Like most forms of poetry, complete sentences and even punctuation is not always necessary. Concrete poetry can be written in fragments or small pieces. The writing doesn’t have to be completely unified or cohesive because the visual part unifies it. I had always thought of poetry as very descriptive, and it was difficult to have to focus more on a framework than on descriptive detail. Too much detail would take away from or eliminate the need for a visual component and I would have failed to recognize the primary characteristic of the genre.

Concrete poetry is distinguished from other genres by the use of visuals. A successful concrete poem finds a balance between written and visual – the two parts are interconnected. The visual elements do not have to be completely separate shapes or designs. I had a hard time realizing this too. I was focused on having definite pictures, shapes, and outlines. The words themselves can form the picture/shape. I think if I had more time to work I would explore this more.

After working in the genre, I believe the conventions of the genre are open to manipulation. They are not set in stone. If the writer wanted the reader to have a more active and imaginative role, they might minimize the picture-like elements. Vague word-formed shapes without outlines, monochromatic colors, a static font/size are all things a writer could use to achieve this desired effect. On the other side of the spectrum, if I writer wanted to emphasize the visual part the picture could be more dramatic to overshadow the words. The written part may be shortened or minimized. Another interesting twist would be to use a set rhyme scheme instead of free verse. This could be a nice contrast between structure and form.

I think having more time to dabble in this genre would help me further develop my poetry. I wrote seven different poems and they all turned out slightly different because the genre is really very open to interpretation without a lot of set rules. My favorite is //Break Up Letter to a Man// because I think it is more emotional and allows the reader to connect more deeply. The others are more superficial. //Standards of Female Beauty// is my favorite visually, but I think it could have been more written to make it more unified. I also think having the right kind of software would help so I’m not limited in how a poem is presented or forced to draw it.