As I promised, a continuation of the e-poetry discussion...

My second major reason for saying that "e-poetry" is mixed media art and not just poetry is because poetry is all about words.

The gift of the poet is to create (in fewer words than a novel or an essay) with language. The entire basis of human speech is at the poet's disposal. They craft with words, be it the language of beauty and love, or death and despair, or rage and rebellion. The words themselves are enough - enough to stir emotion and passion, enough to paint a stunning visual image, enough to spark a connection, or in some cases enough to alienate and confuse.

Whatever the case, the poet has chosen his/her medium. And it is word. The problem with classifying digital poetics as true poetry is that it relies on far more than the written or spoken word. It uses images, sounds, speed, and many other aspects to influence the reading and reception of the piece. In some cases, the viewer is even forced to hunt for the words or work to "catch" them all. This to me immediately signifies a separation from the very medium, the very essence of poetry. Again, I feel that while digital poetics utilize poetry, they are not in and of themselves poems.

The digital poet has the ability to manipulate the viewer with outside aspects, and to put them in the same category as true poets is to undermine both the integrity of true poetry and the expansive creativity of these digital artists. E-poetics are a separate and unique form of art that should be recognized in its own way. While these artists use words - "poetry" if you will - their creations are not 100% poems.

One could remove the words from e-poetry and then perhaps assemble them on a page to be a poem. But doing so ruins the effectiveness of these pieces, and in fact ruins the creation of the artists. The words and pictures and sounds and interaction all combine together to form one unique work of art... but not a poem. In my opinion, that is.