poetry chapbook of experimental poems
micro light dog
with some nice art
poetry chapbook of experimental poems
micro light dog
with some nice art
o
The experimental approach of sean g. meggeson's ta o/j is a welcome subversion of current or popular poetic conventions while also echoing a history of complex, sparse uses of the page and scripted sound. This collection of poems challenges readerly relationships with language and sense-making. And it ultimately yields a fresh and fruitful argument for poetry’s capacity to interrupt our complacency in everyday writing and speech.
The book invites comparisons to twentieth century descendants of Dada. But like those descendants, meggeson's poems are constructed with greater intention and curation than their forebears. The sharp typographical play on the page is reminiscent of avant-garde poets like N.H. Pritchard. The conscious endeavor to elicit readerly performance reminds one of poets like Bob Cobbing. One could point to any one of the more contemporary soundscape-minded or performance poets. But meggeson's work is special in its ability to conjure up clear images, movement, and thematic connections between utterances. These elements, along with the elegant brevity of each poem, suggests a fusion of anglophone avant-garde influences with those of image-focused, short-lyric forms like haiku and tanka. The poems are often surprising and revelatory in the associations they make between pieces, and the surprising and revelatory meeting of many poetic reference points surely fosters this effect.
There is purpose in the proximity of seemingly disparate words and spacing between individual letters. The key to comprehending the sheet music here is to read it out loud. Sometimes, the pieces create a clear sensory experience. Other times, the white space insists that the reader take or hold a breath mid-line, mid-word. In some places, strings of homophones, anagrams, and words linked via other (sometimes slanted) similarities unearth hidden connection. No matter which experiment meggeson attempts and no matter how the poet directs or opens our engagement with the page, each poem is individualistic as an event. And the reader-as-performer is conscious of their collaboration in this event, occasionally toward meaning, but more often toward impression or rattling or emotional awareness.
Reading meggeson's ta o/j is like alternately taking a breath of fresh air and welcoming a jolt of electricity. There are places where the collection gently prods a paradigm to shift. There are places where the poems jar us from our reliance on comfortable syntax and into something more exciting. But throughout the book, meggeson is consistent in making the reader an active contributor and collaborator in the poetic experiment. A must read for poets, performers, and lovers of literary complexity.