AF2 Exclusive: New visual poetry & prose collaborations by Jim Leftwich & Jeff Crouch

 

"We" by Jim Leftwich & Jeff Crouch

Jeff Crouch

The margin[alia] aesthetic. It's not Derrida. It's not pansemic, and it's not asemic. It's not the marginalized, the minimal, the minority. It's not trash and tatters. It can comprise all of these things, but it also includes the esoterica of the off-hand, the overly educated, and the arcane. This aesthetic marries the tails of the Gaussian distribution, but it's not a marriage to the middle so much as to the edge of a different plane. It's a tie-in rather than a knot. It's the margin/ on and off.

 

Jim Leftwich

The last time I saw a sea moose - it was late last winter, in Death Valley - she was rising like a noctilucent fossil from the floor of the Ubehebe Crater. The last time I ingested a sacred plant was in the last year of the last millennium.

I often dream of reading. I assume you do too. Early one morning as I was waking up I dreamed I was reading a book by William James, Varieties of Asemous Experience. 

"A Sea Moose" by Jim Leftwich & Jeff Crouch

"Shenandoah" by Jim Leftwich & Jeff Crouch

AF2 collaboration by Joey Patrickt & De Villo Sloan

 

By Joey Patrickt (California, USA) & De Villo Sloan (New York, USA)

Asemic visual poetry collabs by Princess Olivia Mooncake & De Villo Sloan

By Princess Olivia Mooncake  (Image courtesy of Borderline Grafix)

By Princess Olivia Mooncake & De Villo Sloan

By Princess Olivia Mooncake & De Villo Sloan

By Princess Olivia Mooncake & De Villo Sloan

By Princess Olivia Mooncake & De Villo Sloan

Gothic asemics by Maxima Strange

Gothic asemic vispo by Maxima Strange (Bradner, Ohio, USA)

I am very pleased to welcome Maxima Strange. This is her first appearance on Asemic Front 2 & her first contribution to the Asemic Front project. 

Maxima Strange is a new member of the IUOMA-Ning asemic writing group, which is producing some excellent work these days as well as providing a place for new asemic writers to develop. She has been making correspondence art in the gothic mode & is now applying that to asemics & image-text. 

AF2 readers know gothic asemic art is one of the themes I am exploring in the project, so I am very excited to feature work by Maxima Strange. I hope we can look forward to more!

- De Villo Sloan

By Maxima Strange

New asemic vispo by Chris Wells

 Asemic vispo by Chris Wells (Ohio, USA)

Asemic Front regular contributor Chris Wells shared this piece with the project via the IUOMA-Ning asemic writing group. We have seen some exciting activity at that location recently. I am thrilled to be able to share the piece with you on AF2. 

In various ways, Chris Wells has been engaged in recent AF2 discussions & themes concerning copy art-derived vispo, distortion & concrete poetry elements in contemporary asemics. We have also had some interesting discussions about geographic clusters of visual poets & the evolution of styles. 

In this piece, Chris makes notable use of the modes mentioned above in his style that is growing increasingly unique & recognizable. Deepest thanks to Chris Wells for ongoing participation in Asemic Front.

- De Villo Sloan

Glitched asemic vispo by Kristine Snodgrass

 

Glitched asemic vispo by Kristine Snodgrass (Florida, USA)

By Kristine Snodgrass

By Kristine Snodgrass

By Kristine Snodgrass

By Kristine Snodgrass

A glimpse into the asemic journal of Carien van Hest (Netherlands)

Asemic writing by Carien van Hest (Zutphen, Netherlands)

I am very pleased to welcome Carien van Hest of the Netherlands to the Asemic Front project.

She has recently joined the Asemic Writing for Mail Artists group at IUOMA-Ning where she is sharing pages from an asemic journal she has begun keeping. This post presents the pages to the larger AF2 audience. The asemic writing group is an ideal place for this kind of experimentation. 

Surely many asemic writers & artists keep journals of their work, but I cannot claim to have seen many excerpts online or in print. Perhaps asemic journals are an overlooked genre? 

Carien van Hest is developing her asemic style & these pages document an ongoing process & evolution. The concept of organic, process-oriented asemics is intriguing & evident in Carien's work. I hope she continues to keep the journal & share these exciting entries with us.

Once, as an aside, I heard the poet & critic Hayden Carruth lament, "All those journals we [poets] keep - what happens to them? We scribble & scribble inspirations but most often they are lost. Where do they go?" I've always thought that was an interesting point. We are fascinated by glimpses into the originally private journals of writers & artists when they are available. Certainly asemic journals hold a similar allure. I hope AF2 can help preserve them.

- De Villo Sloan

Asemic journal entries by Carien van Hest