It would be interesting and fun to build a concrete poem (that is, a poem that is "shaped" into whatever it is about) out of giant concrete type. This poem, a statue really, would then be planted in a public square, or perhaps in front of a poetry museum. Not only would it be ironic, but it would be stimulating: Approaching the poem from afar, it would appear to be nothing but a slab of concrete. After getting a bit closer, strolling the poem's perimeter, and perhaps climbing into a bench to see it from above, its true meaning would become apparent. Also, if large enough, the monument would provide joy to airplane travelers passing overhead.-- DrWorm, Jan 21 2010 Conch Crete http://www.explorec...aedalus-sicily.htmlDaedalus [rcarty, Jan 23 2010] This made me think of you http://www.stumbleu.../cool/one-day-poem/ [blissmiss, Feb 06 2010] My God you have tainted the way I think. I read this as Concrete Concrete Porn.-- blissmiss, Jan 21 2010 //Not only would it be ironic// Why would a concrete poem be ironic? Is there something inherently ironic about concrete? (or perhaps poems?)
A concrete teddy-bear might be ironic - but a poem? You can still read the poem, in the normal way i.e. by reading it, and get the same emotional response whether it's written in nanomolecules, or spelled out in the stars, or spontaneously emerging, from clever formulas.
(Ahhh, penny drops - literary clutz that I am, I'd never heard of "Concrete Poetry" before - where (apparently, according to wikipedia anyway) typography and layout is as important as the language of the poem.)-- zen_tom, Jan 22 2010 The irony this statue needs would not be there if when you look and start to read you find an ode to concrete.-- hippo, Jan 22 2010 this brought to mind the style and ilk of [desertfox]
I like the creativity but have serious doubts of its do-ability.-- dentworth, Jan 22 2010 sp: statue-- xandram, Jan 22 2010 I don't know about irony, but if it were made out of a cast iron typeface I'd figure we might be getting closer.
I think ironic if the poem was about the perils of concrete use, or the ... wait a minute. Baked, any Renaissance cathedral in the world, basically. I mean they used some really good concrete, writing all those messages into the walls that I vaguely remember, but it was still concrete, no? Or is this idea more than just writing poems into concrete for people to read? Are the psalms poems? I'm very confused.-- daseva, Jan 22 2010 No, no, no. This isn't about carving concrete. It's about making giant letters out of concrete and then arranging them on the ground facing upwards.-- DrWorm, Jan 22 2010 Sure, but isn't the concrete poem idea to shape the words and the whole poem into something that it resembles? I don't want to stray from the goodness of your concrete concrete poem idea, making forms out of big ass concrete words, but laying the words down is no form at all...
concrete poetry: words into forms, usually on paper concrete concrete poetry: words into forms, concrete medium. More punny than ironic. Big ass concrete poems: laying words down on the ground for aliens to read.-- daseva, Jan 22 2010 This idea, currently only speculative, is "concrete concrete poetry". But if it were baked, it would become concrete concrete concrete poetry-- pocmloc, Jan 22 2010 Concrete, from OED: / 5. Hence, generally, Combined with, or embodied in matter, actual practice, or a particular example; existing in a material form or as an actual reality, or pertaining to that which so exists. Opposed to abstract. (The ordinary current sense.) Absolutely, the concrete, that which is concrete; in the concrete, in the sphere of concrete reality, concretely. /
I looked at this as concrete in the sense of concrete thinking: devoid of metaphor, abstraction, allusion or irony but exactly as depicted. For example:
Concrete is strong
Stronger than wood
And it lasts long
And that is good.-- bungston, Jan 22 2010 Reinforced concrete is more irony.-- rcarty, Jan 22 2010 Words sometimes harden, like concrete And must be poured with caution They change their shape, from sheet to tweet Forming both rants and potions Words build you up, words tear you down Words resonate, like dancers But mark my words, sometimes concrete Becomes the only answer-- theircompetitor, Jan 23 2010 [rcarty] - genius!-- hippo, Jan 23 2010 Buffalo Bill's defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat Jesus he was a handsome man and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy Mister Death
e.e. cummings
(I think I'll make this one, just for the hell of it, set it into the grass in my backyard. OK, It's not such a literal 'concrete poem' as to have any recognizable shape other than it's own thing, but hey, still one of the best pieces of literature ever created) (damn formatting won't work on this site, sorry. it really depends on the format, look it up somewhere to read it in it's native form)-- oxen crossing, Jan 28 2010 random, halfbakery