Experimental Poetry 17: Installation poetry

Is poetry art? You bet your last Picasso it is! 

And, because poetry is art, there should be no limits to the ways you can express yourself. Written or spoken, your words should have no boundaries. One of the most interesting and creative art movements of the last few decades is installation art. Installation art is three dimensional and site specific. It often uses mixed and/or multi media. Examples include walk through displays, totally immersive exhibits and interactive artwork. One of the most famous, and poignant installations took place at the Tower of London in England in 2014. The display was progressive, commencing in July 2014 and concluding on November 11th the same year. Ceramic red poppies were gradually placed tumbling out of the tower and onto the grass verge, until by the conclusion 888,246 had been placed. This was to commemorate every single fatal casualty of British and Commonwealth servicemen during World War 1. 

Installation poetry therefore requires a physical space, an 'idea' and the materials or media that conveys that idea. As with any form of art, your creation depends entirely upon your ability to realise (ideate) and execute it (create). 

Method 33: Hanging verse. Use a clothes line or any other line on which you can hang strips of paper. Cut out lines of text, or phrases, or single words, and clip them with clothes pegs to the line. Invite people to create their own poems using as many lines as they wish. This is best done in a public place, like a garden, park or other outdoor space. 

Method 34: Imagens. Scatter pictures, cuttings from magazine and newspapers, images and photographs across an open space and invite people to choose as many as they like as the basis to writing a poem. This works well with children in particular, but can be used to encourage anyone to write poetry.

There are so many other ideas I could mention, but these two should get you going. You can be as elaborate as you wish with installation poetry. Bear in mind it's temporary, but then... nothing lasts for ever does it?

Steve Wheeler

Previous posts in this series

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness
Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations
Experimental Poetry 4: Overlapping Voices
Experimental Poetry 5: Random Prompts
Experimental Poetry 6: The Movie Method
Experimental Poetry 7: Unexpected End Rhymes
Experimental Poetry 8: Calligrams
Experimental Poetry 9: Anarchic Poetry
Experimental Poetry 10: Timed Writing
Experimental Poetry 11: Paraphrasing
Experimental Poetry 12: Deliberate Malapropism
Experimental Poetry 13: Breaking Structure
Experimental Poetry 14: Speak out Loud
Experimental Poetry 15: Quantum Elements
Experimental Poetry 16: Random Interactions

Image by Amanda Slater on Flickr used under a Creative Commons licence

Read Me A Song!

 Read me a song and I’ll sing you a poem! 

Some folks tend to get confused when I refer to my poems as my songs. What’s the big diff? A bigger nose… smaller toes? All upon the same beautiful body…?

The lines between poetry, literature, and music tend to share the same fabric, only to create different colored clothing for what seems to be the same purpose… expression and entertainment.

Ray Charles was once asked what he liked about country music. He said, “The stories man, the stories!” Isn’t that what poets do? Don’t we write stories as well? Our poems are not linear in terms of chronology, plot, and character development…. yet they do share story characteristics. 

Stories, song lyrics, poems… there’s some bouncy correlations there, are there not?

Then there’s the music itself… expressions of light and shade… crescendos and quiet movements…. communicating emotions with notes that move our spirit and fire our imaginations. Piano concertos, blazing guitar solos, roaring horn sections, ukuleles (yes… ukuleles!!!) … they ALL evoke emotions of some sort! They soothe, excite, dance, reflect cultures… Is that not what poems do?

So why are poems not as popular as pop music or the latest on big time best seller lists? Why are there not coffee houses and auditoriums bursting at the seams with poets singing their songs? Websites and merchandise going into orbit with success and renown poets of golden recognition being knighted and decorated by governments around the world? Is poetry really that underground?

Yes it is.

Then why are you reading this?! 

I have a feeling it’s because you care. You care about words like expression, perspective, and emotion. You long to fire your imagination and stimulate senses beyond the physicality world. You want to be a part of something bigger than most of the drivel you hear on popular radio or read in magazines rife with nonsense about this and nonsense about that. 

You want focus. You want quality. You want diversity. You want POETRY!!!!

Now there is quality music and books out there... There are beautiful manifestations of art in so many forms… sculpture, architecture, even murals extemporaneously spray painted on box cars or on the walls of inner city building…  even to the commissioned immaculate variety. But is poetry? No! 

Poetry represents a valued medium that has every right to be right up there with the popular celebrations of the works of Michelangelo, Mozart, or the Beatles. Bob Dylan’s songs were poetry in themselves, which brings us right back to where we started… what’s the big diff?

For me… there is none.

Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments below. I would LOVE to hear some of your thoughts on this subject! 

More to come…

Matthew Elmore