Soundings: (small circles the world makes – Guatam Verma

Released by BlazeVox, this small collection, totaling nineteen pages of poetry, left much to be desired. From something that must be described as experimental, I expected more resonance. Bearing a picture of crop circles on the cover, which suggested an extraterrestrial hoodwink, the contents didn't quite match the allusion, largely based in the world of objects. Objects, not images, which should be the primary stuff of poetry. Based on the title, I thought there would be more of an emphasis on an aural experience and, as a means to convey an image, that would be enough to satisfy me, but the text was unfortunately lacking in that regard as well.

Firstly, as an experiment in form, the methods of presentation weren't particularly exotic or inventive. The majority of the contents was left-aligned, even if it was moved away from he margin. Use of white space seemed excessive or inappropriate. A variation on a Sestina, in which all of the lines in a given stanza ended with the same word, disturbed me. One bright spot was a sonnet, History in 14 lines ... & then 1, which featured words that were blurred and, alongside the main body of the poem, replacement words were listed, all utilizing the same footnote. Modern text manipulation was not utilized in the poem entitled Robert Rauschenberg: Soundings, 1968, which displayed cut-outs of text-blocks pasted onto the paper at slanted angles. It gave the poem a cluttered, though box-y, feel and I wanted a more seamless appearance. I expected an overlapping effect.

Initially, I couldn't tell if I was reading one long poem or not. I am looking for unity in the collection and, after the opening sequence, the collection seemed to lose coherence as a whole. Footnotes appeared throughout the e-book, which weren't used effectively. As an experimental addition to the text, they didn't seem to add the right kind of mystery. As traditional footnotes, they didn't seem to be particularly relevant or informative. Take this footnote, for example:

¹listening: Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms

The footnote appears in a poetic fragment at the top of page eight. A block of white space separates the fragment from a block of text at the bottom of the page, which also mentions Stravinsky. When I reach the block of text which mentions Stravinsky, I am listening to him in my mind. Is it important to mention Stravinsky again in the footnote? Other footnotes seemed simply referential and, if that is the case, they should simply be added to the acknowledgements section at the end of the e-book.

Basically, there was just too much textual manipulation. It obviously distracted from a clearer reading of the actual text. When the reader must spend so much time analyzing the techniques, and writers should make their readers work, there is something lacking in meaning. Form should augment the language of the poems rather than detract from them.