The Vispo Bible on Display at U of O

photo by Claire Farley

as part of a graduate course given by Professor Robert Stacey. PhD student, publisher, poet and dear friend, Claire Farley interviewed me for the presentation and lovingly displayed my work as part of an exhibit on visual and concrete poetry at the university.

the conversation was fascinating and fun. i'm glad to see that students are being introduced to visual/concrete poetry. when i first heard of such, i was amazed. the possibilities are endless.

thanks to Claire for this great photo, for the wonderful display and for choosing my work as her subject.

i'm now working on the Book of  Leviticus, the third book in the Old Testament. I've finished Genesis, Exodus in the Old Testament, Revelation and Jude in the New. onward!

a star breaks wild (other vispo)

The Vispo Bible: Jude is published on h&

thanks to Ian Whistle for publishing my latest effort for the Vispo Bible: Jude, which is the second last book in the New Testament.

The Vispo Bible: Book of Revelation

the Book of Revelation in the New Testament has 22 chapters. I worked on Revelation from March to May, 2016. The Book is full of colour, texture, beasts, chaos, disaster and symmetry through numbers, particularly even numbers. These visual poetry pieces, which contain all the text from each chapter are attempts to render the above elements.

Note that the numbers in Revelation also have to do with the Golden Sequence of Phi, according to some mathematicians. This sequence appears in nature in nautilus  shells, sunflowers, peacocks tails and other phenomena of nature. These visual poems attempt to articulate similar shapes, using layering of even numbers of the text to recreate them. The image below is Revelation, Chapter 3.

Visual Poetry Exhibitions

My visual poetry has been exhibited three times so far. In Russia and Windsor, Ontario, as part of the Last Vispo Anthology and now in Brazil as part of Mirages: the XXIV Congresso Brasileiro de Poesia (XXIV Brazilian Congress of Poetry). The work was part of the collection of 152 visual poems from 44 countries on display from 13 untill 30 September 30, 2016, in the Fundação Casa das Artes (House of Arts Fundation) in Bento Gonçalves city,  Brazil.

I find it very exciting when  my work travels & rubs shoulders with the visual poetry of others. I was very pleased to be invited to participate. Thank you to the organizer, Tchello d’Barros.

Take a look at the pieces in the exhibit, which are on display over on FB. they're amazing!

10th anniversary of vispo

i'm not good at remembering hallmarks, anniversaries, etc, but looking thru my files, it seems i've been creating visual poetry for a decade. i love the whimsy of it, the close attention it requires, the way it makes my eye & mind & body learn a new language. it's taken me down some interesting paths, caused me to be introduced to a world of creative people i would never have met otherwise, both living & dead. i don't intend to stop playing around with vispo. watch this blog.

in the meantime, here's one of the first visual poetry series i ever had published. it was published in 2007 at UnlikelyStories.org & created in 2006. Entitled "Red."

The Vispo Bible: Exodus Completed

Exodus 40

I began Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament in January. It contains 40 chapters. I completed it today, August 31. As I was reading through Exodus, it began to occur to me that the content of the work could be reflected more in what I was creating. I started to think of the 10 Commandments, their creation from stone, their being smashed into pieces, distortion of text. The visual poetry evolved accordingly.

Now on to Leviticus, after a hiatus...

For those who haven't been following along, you can read more about this project, which i began in June, 2015 & plan to keep working on until I am no longer capable of doing so or until my demise, whichever comes first.

Vispo Bible - update on progress Exodus 14

I am on Exodus 14, the 2nd book of the Old Testament; i hope to finish all 40 chapters of Exodus by the end of the summer. I began Exodus in January, 2016. I completed The Book of Revelation from the New Testament (March - May, 2016). Genesis (June-October, 2015). 

The Vispo Bible: Genesis, now a little movie

The Vispo Bible: Genesis, now a little movie of all 50 chapters translated into visual poetry:

h& publishes one of my collages

a collage made in conjunction with firstwalks of the year (In/Words Press, 2016) now on line at h&. thanks Ian Whistle http://handandpoetry.blogspot.ca/2016/06/amanda-earl-firstwalks-of-year-three.html

Vintage Drunken Boat Selection

Drunken Boat is kindly highlighting two of my visual poetry pieces, published as part of a concrete and visual poetry feature curated by Sina Queyras in 2010. This comes as a lovely surprise.

Read what the DB 90 editors have to say here.
& do go back & take a look at the visual poetry in the issue & the video poems also.

This work is a precursor to my current project, the Vispo Bible.

Genesis 22-26 in Dreamland X, Spring 2016

 Thanks to Jeremy Stewart for publishing 5 pieces from the Vispo Bible, Genesis 22-26 in the latest issue of the Prince George publication, Dreamland Magazine.

Some gorgeous work in there, including a poem suite by Jason Christie & the artwork of Caton Diab.

Buy a copy of the issue for $7 or get a 4-issue subscription for $25. 

Those of you who follow along may remember that The Vispo Bible is a lifelong work in progress with the goal to render every book of the Bible, Old & New Testaments into visual poetry. in 2015 I completed Genesis; in 2016 i have begun Exodus & completed Revelation.

Pieces have been published in illiterature issue v. (Puddles of Sky Press, curated by Michael e. Casteels ); h& (curated by Ian Whistle); our teeth (curated by Kevin McPherson Eckhoff); Ustanga & Dreamland IX & X; a few pieces have also appeared on this blog.

Thanks to all the above publishers for the encouragement & support of this project. Such support is rare & vital.

collages: firstwalks of the year on h&

in conjunction with my chapbook "firstwalks of the year" from In/Words Press, 2016, i made collages.

the first of four is posted over at h& here

subsequent collages shall be posted on the site
June 23

July 28

and August 25.

thanks to Ian Whistle, the curator for h&.

file this under other oddities.

Chapter 4 of Exodus on h&

Chapter 4 of Exodus from the Vispo Bible published over at h&. thanks Ian Whistle!

Utsanga.it publishes four pieces from the Vispo Bible, Book 1 - Genesis

Thanks to the Italian online journal Utsanga for publishing the last four chapters of Genesis. Take a look here. I am in good company with visual and text based pieces by artists and writers from all over the world.

a few pieces from Exodus in h&

today is chapter 2.

March 3 is chapter 3

& April 3 is chapter 4.

thanks to Ian Whistle.

The Vispo Bible in Dreamland IX, Winter 2016

 I'm chuffed to  have excerpts from the Book of Genesis, from the Vispo Bible in the print magazine "Dreamland" published in Prince George, BC by Jeremy Stewart.

It's rare that my visual poetry is published in a print magazine and this is the first time in my memory that it's getting a full page spread.

There are some great poems in the issue and art as well. Subscriptions are available here & you can also order single issues.

Brick Books' Celebration of Canadian Visual / Concrete Poetry

In December I curated the above. 17 visual / concrete poets agreed to share their work and brief discussions of their influences and methods.

Part 1 includes Jordan Abel, Gary Barwin, Derek Beaulieu, Michael e. Casteels, Judith Copithorne, Helen Hajnoczky and Donato Mancini.
Part 2 includes Billy Mavreas, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, gustave morin,michèle provost, a rawlings, Shane Rhodes, Eric Schmaltz, Chris Turnbull and Eric Zboya.

Singular Vispo

Nico Vassilakis invites visual poets to discuss a specific visual poem that captivated their imaginations. So far there have been five parts. It's a great opportunity to gain insight into visual poetry and to read about some spectacular vispoets. I talk about Mary Ellen Solt's "Flowers in Concrete" in Part 5.

The Vispo Bible: Exodus 1

happy new year