Onceptual Poetry

Jonathan Jones, oncept (fullcrumb horseries no. 3) (2011)
Jonathan Jones, whose mind works mysteriously from the cultural redoubt of Brussels, has created another small booklet of pwoermds under the banner of his sticky pages press, and this one is filled with palindromedary works.

Well, almost. It ends with one.

But the booklet consists of paired sets of pwoermds (and one triplet just to throw us off course), and the words he has created continue to amaze and to work the mind. The art of the pwoermd is merely the process of making a word that can be memorable and significant on its own, and Jonathan does this well, well enough for his skill to frighten the weak of heart.

Like me.

Take the first pair of the book as an example:

seethings

embering

The first word suggests a number of seething things but also refers to a human's ability to see, particularly to see things, and maybe even to see things that are not present. The second word, since it's paired with the first, forces us to assume that the things seethings are the embers of a fire. We imagine the visible throbbing of heat withing embers. But the word isn't so much about embers as about remembering, and in this case we are remembering things in the distant past, things no longer burning full and bright. We are left with the seething embers of our memories in place of the bright flames of our original experiences.

That's probably the best set in the book, but the four pages of this booklet are filled with other such tricks of words, which is what poetry is. Jonathan says the most anyone can with the fewest words anyone could use. And that is the sign of a poetic talent.

I'm always left amazed.

_____

Jones, Jonathan. oncept. fullcrumb horseries no. 3. the sticky pages press: Brussels, 2011.

ecr. l'inf.