word for/word

I've been reading the current issue of word for/word That came out recently. I was glad to see two of my favourite vispoets included : Gustave morin and Andrew Topel.

Gustave Morin's poems were done with his usual verbo-visual finesse.
The first poem "Curdle" is made of a number of images that seem to have different meanings as you look at them. lines of gravity defying glasses pour liquid into each other, But I at first took them to be a line of theatrical spotlights. The actual glasses themselves call to mind the glasses of milk on the Cadbury logo (I don't know if that is on Canadian chocolate bars). The title curdle also brings to mind the idea of milk.

The second poem "une douzaine de livres de brouillons scribblisme " calls to mind asemic writing, though due to the semiotic qualities of the images of books there is semantic content. The use of the term "scribblism" and the french language reminds me of early 20Th century modernism.

"Blob" and "Slash Drip up" both play with notions of legibility and are masterful and up to his usual excellent standards. I can personally recommend his book penny dreadful and I would like to at some point but some more of his books. He really is one of those visual poets whose work just blows me away again and again every time I see it.

Andrew Topel also does well on the examples show in this e-zine. His sequence called "scores" are a beautiful floating dance of letters and symbols that really make good use of the page as a space.

When I read word for/ word I don't read it in all one go, rather I savour it and read it over a few days. this is why it took me a while to mention it here. I recommend it.

Al the other vispoets are excellent . As is the code poetry feature.

The textual poetry sections is up to its usual standards . Good to see some prose poems there.
Adrian Lurssen is a good example. His poems are finely crafted Chinese puzzles that are very much stimulating.