Beau Présent

Rhythm and visual form in poetry have always intrigued me. The first poem I had published was visually and audibly rhythmic. To me (I don't know about anyone else), it read much like improv jazz sounds, clustered at times, elegant here or there, dynamic, powerful.

The first poet I loved was e. e. cummings.  He often broke his words apart and scattered them across the page, or even turned his poems into little puzzles meant to be worked out. I always admired his visual style. And then, years later when I became more serious about writing poetry myself, I discovered a clip on www.ubu.com (an incredible resource, by the way) of e. e. cummings actually reading one of his poems. If you've never heard him read, the experience can be quite shocking! (here it is) I was stunned. He sounds very much like a specter, his emphases very rhythmic and precise but still ephemeral, bewildering, warbling, entrancing, bizarre. That's when I really fell in love with giving readings of my poetry, or writing poems with the idea that I would have to read out loud some day.

Ezra Pound coined the terms melopoeia, phanopoeia and logopoeia to describe three kinds of poems, or at least three elements of poetry, defined thusly:

Melopoeia: when words channel emotions or take on new meanings simply by how they are heard; essentially, the musical elements of a poem.

Phanopoeia: visual imagery, and, I'd argue, the poem as an object on the page; essentially, all visual elements of a poem, poetically or physical.

Logopoeia: the intellect of a poem; essentially, the meaning derived from the sounds, images and structure, concocted in the mind.

(all of this can be found with slightly different definitions from wikipedia here: Logopoeia)

I feel like great poems include all three poetic elements. A poem should be just as interesting to read as to listen to, and indeed should express greater depth when both reading and listening to it, enhancing the logopoeic experience.

Some forms of poetry channel both melopoeia and phanopoeia simply by their style. The OuLiPian constraint Beau Présent is one such form. A beau présent is a poem written only using the letters in the title, usually the recipient's name. I've written a lot of them, and it's probably one of my favorite constraints. I even wrote one to be read at a friend's wedding ceremony. The first poem used only the letters in his name, the second used only letter from his wife's, and the third poem used letters from both their names.

This poem took a long time to write, as any beau présent does, but the outcome is pretty awesome. It's also a sound poem, (a poem without much logopoeic meaning) the chosen title word being onomatopoeic (KABOOM!).

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Mo + O + Ba + K → KABOOM!

  a mob mob a momma,

a mom bomb a mamba,

a ma'am

                bam

      a bam

                     -boo.

a baboo abba amok!?

a boob?

                      KABOOM!

a boob!

                      KABOOM!

a kaka ook,        a babka kook; 

        a kobo bo-bo...

                  a ba baa a BB

bomb a mama kob,

kabob Bob,

boo     a Kokomo      mambo,

                        book a koa boa--

OK???                KA-BOOM!

             KO!

KB?!

             KB, A-OK!

Akko baboo

bomb oak

kaka.

KABOOM?

AMA 

A-bomb a

momma.

                      KABOOM!

Moab

(AKA

Mao) 

ammo.

                                   KABOOM!

Kabaa

abba 

A-bomb

ambo.

                                            KABOOM!

(moo)