Object Poem by Richard Canard (Carbondale, Illinois, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail art by Richard Canard (Carbondale, Illinois, USA)

March 22, 2015 - Richard Canard is an encyclopedia of avant forms and tropes that have traveled from numerous sources into the mail art network. He frequently puts theory into practice, and I am always interested in the results. For instance, I like to see how Richard does minimalism, or how Richard does vispo, or how Richard does erasure, etc. Thus I am very pleased to have received this object poem from my faithful correspondent in Carbondale, Illusion. 

In traditional poetry, an object poem is verse written about an object. Ekphrasis – a poem about a painting for instance – is a kind of object poetry. To the left of things, however, the object poem idea has become literal: The poem is a physical object. So I am adopting Dick Higgins’ view of object poetry. Furthermore, I contend that an effective object poem is not merely language inscribed upon an object; replacing paper with stone does not necessarily make adequate use of the possibilities of the form. Indeed, language need not even be present if the object conveys the “poetic,” however one might define that.

In a case where language is present in the object poem, the object must inherently contribute to the meaning of the poem and, thus, become part of its form. Richard Canard’s “MARASHINO” fulfills the criteria perfectly. The red circular tag, string and hole work with the minimalist text to create the poem. If any of these elements were removed, the poem would fall into total incoherence; disruption of representation is clearly not Richard Canard’s intention. Disruption of poetic tradition might be.

Thanks, as ever, to Richard Canard!

[De Villo Sloan]

Thx for the comment, DK. I agree.

[DKeys]

love this! playful, punny, subtle, classic RC