Digital Poetry

## Introduction

The article of "Poetry Beyond Text" debates on if Digital Poetry can be electronic literature or not. The reading of this article gives information about what digital poetry can be and what it can't be. 'Digital Poetry can be many things the examples that it can be is art, free of speech, and songs.' The things that digital poetry sometimes can't be is a novel or story."' Bachlitner debates on what digital poetry can be and what can be revolved around digital poetry." (Kristin Williams)

Digital Poetry spans across into many categories. The website Assignment Point lists some of the major features of digital poetry like: interactive poetry, experimental video, sound, holographic poetry, hypertext, computer-generated poetry, and much more! The interesting possiblities of digital poetry is that it combines art and literature together by fusing visual components, sound, and physical interaction into a singular piece. Thus, this breaks the mold of that poetry can do. It offers an abundance of options for not only poets to work with, but also offers much for the readers to experience. (Taylor McCord)

Digital poetry is a newer form of literature, mostly produced since the 1990’s.  It allows the poet to communicate his thoughts and feelings, not just through words, but through visual representation as well.  Since this type of poetry has its roots in technology, it exhibits an ever-changing nature.  Katherine Hayles observes, “Just as the history of print literature is deeply bound up with the evolution of book technology as it built on wave after wave of technical innovations, so the history of electronic literature is entwined with the evolution of digital computers”.  As computers improved, poets were able to add graphics and sound to improve the experience of their poetry. (Jacob Hubele)

Digital Poetry isn't just one form of poetry, it is made of many different features and ways for readers to interact. According to Christopher Funkhouser, "Digital poetry is a new genre of literary, visual, and sonic art launched by poets who experimented with computers in the late 1950s." There are many things digital poetry can do for readers but it could also be a bad thing. Handwritten poetry is forever, it won't disappear because it was handwritten. Digital Poetry however, could be deleted in an instant, whether by accident or on purpose it would be gone before anyone could read it. (Sydney Cline)

## Faith (Kristin Williams)

Digital poetry incorporates performance and sound poetry in its meaning.[4] Digital poetry can be in games and virtual reality shows that does catch people attention. [5] The reading of Faith by Robert Kendall uses a good example of what digital poetry can be with sounds and how words can be free.

[6] What I mean by free in the reading is how the words just pop up and stand out on their own. Faith gives an example of what digital poetry represents. Faith represents that is has no organization and its a free base poem and art. That's the definition of what digital poetry. Digital poetry is basically a new art and a new theme to literature.[7] Faith gives us how unique digital poetry is. How you can just play with the words and sometimes it does make since and sometimes it does not make since. Our mind how to incorporate what the words mean and what the story about. Faith gives us some answers but not all answers in the reading. [8] The art of Faith is free of mind, free of thought, and free of the words. That is an example of digital poetry because digital poetry is free literature and its based on the mind and the art work of the artist. [9] The common features of Faith that lets me know that it is digital poetry is based on the literature and how there is no straight forward sentences. [10] Robert Kendall the author of Faith let us think what is our own definition of Faith and what Faith can be [11] There is no answer what digital poetry can or what it cannot be .[12] Digital poetry came in the 1990s and that is how digital poetry got started. [13]

Faith really makes you use your mind and really think deep of how Robert Kendall thinks. The colors and how the words would be sideways makes you think of how he even thought that or how he did that. Faith does have sound that makes your mind just go every where. It is unique and amazing how Kendall gave me and showed me how and what digital poetry is. The art that he used was color, free of mind, and just free of everything. In Faith there was just some things that were not answered in the reading. What did he think of Faith? How did he come up with this free of mind? How come he did not give answers? Some things did not make since but at some things did make since. When Robert Kendall was talking about all-but-bottom less [14]in the reading. There was not definition what that word all-but-bottom less meant. You really have to follow this poem because if you do not follow you will get lost. This is a reading that you have to read more than once to understand. Faith gives the thought about what the deeper world is like and how there is much visionary that is given to us. [15] This makes our mind gives the perspective of what we have faith in and how strong is our faith.

## Why Do You Stay Up So Late? (Taylor McCord)

What separates digital poetry from concrete poetry is that it isn't simply poetry distributed on the internet; instead it uses the digital mediums of the web to further its meaning.  The opportunites of digital poetry are as wide as the poet can imagine. They can use sound, video, generative art, interactive links, and much more to further the concept of there poem. *Why Do You Stay Up So Late?* by Marvin Bell [16] is a good example of digital poetry that incorporates some of these elements.

Immediately I was drawn into this poem by the sound; it was very dramatic and there was a consistent noise that resembled wind blowing throughout the poem. In the beginning, everything was black with speckles of teal and purple until I clicked on the teal orb that followed my mouse cursor. By clicking on this orb it changes the image and line of the poem. It does not move on with the poem until you have clicked the orb, so the sound loops over and over until you move on.

Throughout this poem there seems to be a sense of confusion, foggy memory, and that something went wrong. I drew this feeling from lines like, "I am hundreds of years old but do not know how many hundreds." The sound only progressed my feeling this way. The sounds advanced in their intensity as the poem went on. It really added to the overall mood of the poem, which is something that traditional poetry could not do. The sound was the first thing I noticed; it made me feel eerie. Another aspect of this poem that caught my attention was the bold colors against the black background. It made me zone into the words while also making me feel like I was in another world. I was so encompassed by the environment the poem created, with its bright colors and ambient noise, which is something that could not be experience through traditional poetry.

For example, this poem would not have such a strong overall tone if it was not for the sound or visual effects. The words are strong enough to stand alone and are structured much like a tradition poem, but this poem gives something that a traditional poem does not. It uses two senses, sight and sound, to help create images in you mind. Just like traditional poetry your mind usually creates a setting or set of images, but with this poem you are directed more, by the poet, as to what images your brain might create. This could be due to the fact that you are already provided with images in this poem. Also this means the poet has more control in what you might be viewing in your mind. One thing this poem, and other digital poems, cannot provide that traditional poetry can is that you are not able to go back and reread in whatever order you would like. Some digital poems don't even let the reader experience the poem in the same way everytime as the words might change each time you view it. With *Why Do You Stay Up So Late?* as a reader you got to experience the poem in one specific order, but you had to start over from the beginning if you wanted to reread a line.You could not just start from whatever line you wanted to.

Overall, this poem is a good inbetween of traditional poetry and experimental digital poetry. It still uses a traditional order of lines that are meant to be read from beginning to end, nstead of randomized words that are not in order. It is progressive as it incorporates newer media to advance its viewing and experience.

## Endemic Battle Collage (Jacob Hubele)

Have you ever read a poem and wondered what it would be like to experience as a story with animation and sound effects?  Well, you’re not the only one.  Since the 1990’s, poets have made this dream possible by communicating their thoughts and ideas to their readers through more and more advanced means with the continual development of the computer.  Their new form of poetry, dubbed digital poetry, appeals to the newer generation of tech-savvy individuals who are more familiar with the computer screen than a paperback.

The main difference between digital poetry and its older counterpart is the medium through which it communicates with its reader.  The article *Digital Poetry* even observes, “digital poetry is not text poetry simply distributed on the web or put into electronic form: it uses the properties of the digital medium in a meaningfully distinct manner”.  Digital poetry makes full use of the abilities of the computer to connect to its audience.  It is not uncommon to find an example of this genre that uses intricate graphics and animated text.  Also, digital poetry even makes use of its text to communicate a message.  It will group words together to form a picture or even make the words take on the effect of their meaning.

The first thing that captured my attention in the *Endemic Battle Collage* by Geof Huth was the way the words were positioned on the page.  Every line of poetry was different.  Some of them were easy to understand, but others were more difficult and I was never able to completely wrap my mind around their meaning.  However, they all had one characteristic in common.  In each line, the words seemed to describe themselves.  What I mean by this is that the words formed the shape or took on the characteristics of the thing they were trying to describe.  For example, one of the lines of the poem included the word “rain”.

Instead of just having the word sit stationary on the screen like in a normal poem, Huth used the letters of the word to exemplify their meaning.  He caused the letters of the word to fall down the screen like raindrops.  It was as if the poem was reading itself!  I feel this is one of the main purposes of digital literature.  Digital poetry is like a window into the mind of the author, giving us the ability to see and feel the poem just as the author wanted.  It also allows the words of the poem to literally jump off the page.  It is as if the poem wants to tell you its story.

I feel digital poetry is poetry in its natural form.  We are able to experience it exactly the way its author wants.  Digital poetry also give authors the ability to breathe life into their poems, giving the poems the chance to express themselves.  Through the use of special graphics and sound effects, the author is then able to set the stage and give their poems the feeling of a play.  It is this special ability that sets this genre of poetry apart from all of its competition and creates an experience that is hard to forget.

## Open.Ended (Caitlin Kauneckas)

An excellent example of poetry presented in a “modern art” format, is open.ended by Ana Karpinska.   The ability to incorporate technology with the classic poem or piece of literature is what makes this an incredibly unique, form of poetry. The poem itself is composed on two different cubes. While most other poetry is permanently in one place, each person who reads this poem is able to experience it in a completely different way. The poem is also interactive, allowing the viewer to move the cube how he or she wishes to see it.  Having the ability to change how a reader can interpret the poem is what makes this form of poetry most unique.

The first thing to catch my attention about this poem is that it is two cubes, one smaller and inside the other, moving in different directions. This poem has no start or finish, that is what makes this poem different for everyone. You have the ability to move the cubes, as one moves the other moves too. This makes up the different versus of the poem, every turn of the cube changes what it says. Although this is a form of digital poetry it seemed different than the others to me. The whole point of the moving cubes is to allow the reader to interact with the poem and allow them to read it in their own way. Many of the other forms of digital photography used bold, differently colored words, and animations to show the importance in each word or stanza in the poem.

When the cubes line up together the statements are quite powerful. " Eyes closed I am everywhere" transforms into "we may well unfold here" This seems to be saying that your imagine can take you anywhere but in the end you are going to be where you already are. so you should make your moment count here. It also can transform into " And again surrounded", even if you are alone, you can't escape your own thoughts or actions.

"An insatiable need to repeat" transforms into " An instinct we feed repeatedly" and "This is a need for touch". We are constantly trying to repeat our actions, humans are creatures of habit and tend to do things repetitively. This could be something like a mistake that we commonly make or an action that we always take.

This type of poetry is called “hypertext”.  Robert Coover gives a brief discussion of its history in his article “The End of Books”.  Hypertext, he mentions, is a term that describes writing done on a “nonlinear or nonsequential space made possible by a computer”.   This poem takes full advantage of the computer technology available in its presentation to the reader.  The poem is mesmerizing and draws the view in.  It leaves you wanting to explore more hypertext poetry.  It left me contemplating how other technology could be used to create interesting, unique poetry.  This piece of poetry is definitely a work of art.  Maybe I liked the piece because I have grown up in a media centered, technology focused world.  Much of what I see from friends on social media can be called hypertext actually.  Photos with witty captions, 15 second films, clever hash tag labels, all of these are pieces of art or poetry in hypertext.

## This Is How You Will Die (Sydney Cline)

When first looking at this poem one might think, this isn't a poem at all. They might question, how is this considered poetry and why do I have to read it? The title of this poem is *This Is How You Will Die,*so naturally one could assume that it will be about death. It is about death but not in a way one would think. This poem caught my attention because of the title. I thought it was going to make me sad, but it did the opposite.

Here is a screenshot of the beginning of it.

At the top of the poem it has the title and the words you will die are in red, that is what first caught my eye. Having those words bolded in red is a little terrifying. I know we all die someday but seeing that made me wonder when will I die? Then it has a special notice that says, "If you win lots and lots of credits that means your death is far away." This made me wonder at first how is this a poem? But then I saw the rules at the bottom of the screen. This poem isn't a regular poem. It is actually a game that is inside a poem. The object of this is to see how you will die, when it is your time to come.

The first thing you do is to click the death spin 3 times and if you get certain death combinations you get extra spins. With each spin you lose life points. On my first spin I didn't win any extra spins, but on the second spin I did. I won extra spins but I also gained blood disease which is bad. This poem's intention isn't to make readers sad, it actually makes readers laugh. The different death combinations are very hilarious. They aren't real but it is still fun to see how you as a reader/player could die. There is also a button that says explain death. If you click on the button it explains your death more in depth, but the words are in stanzas and they are very descriptive. So this shows how this poem is an actual poem and not just a funny game to play.

This poem is a work of art and not just a piece of online literature. According to Christopher Funkhouser, "Digital poetry is a new genre of literary, visual, and sonic art launched by poets who experimented with computers in the late 1950s." What makes this poem unique is that it has sound, pictures,  short clips from movies, and it has a very different way of reading it. This poem isn't read like a normal piece of literature, it is played like a game. When playing this and reading this poem I felt very connected with it because I didn't just have to read text. I enjoyed it and wasn't bored. This poem shows how digital poetry can enhance a readers way of analyzing. Most handwritten poetry is analyzed by just reading it and talking about it with other readers. While digital poetry can be analyzed with more interaction. Even with the sound in this poem, it made me think this poem was going to be very creepy. But it wasn't creepy at all, it was very hilarious and made me laugh a lot.

There are many things digital poetry can do for readers but it could also be a bad thing. The way it could be bad is that if an author is working on it and accidently deletes part of it, that part would be gone. Yes, the author could rewrite it but that just shows that digital poetry can be easily deleted or even manipulated. Where as regular poetry will always be there. Once something is handwritten and printed it can't be deleted. For me personally, I like digital poetry better because I can interact a lot more with it. There are some readers like me, who are more visual than not. I feel more connected with a poem such as this one, than one that is handwritten.

I found this really interesting because I've never encountered anything like it. This poem shows just one of the many ways digital poetry can enhance our interaction with it.

## References

1. ↑ Poetry Beyond Text
2. ↑ http://alintakrauth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Alinta-Krauth-Camberland-interactive-digital-poetry-co-authored-with-Jason-Nelson.jpg
3. ↑ Digital Poetry
4. ↑ https://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr\_lk8wikjpG91qe3z6t.jpg
5. ↑ Electronic Literature: What is it?
6. ↑ http://digitalhumanities.org/companion/view?docId=blackwell/9781405148641/9781405148641.xml&chunk.id=ss1-5-11&toc.id=0&brand=9781405148641\_brand
7. ↑ http://www.poetrybeyondtext.org/digital-poetry.html
8. ↑ Poetry Beyond Text
9. ↑ http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/howe\_kaprinska\_\_open\_ended.html
10. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/27/specials/coover-end.html
11. ↑ http://www.secrettechnology.com/death/deathspin.htm
12. ↑ http://digitalhumanities.org/companion/view?docId=blackwell/9781405148641/9781405148641.xml&chunk.id=ss1-5-11&toc.id=0&brand=9781405148641\_brand