Digital poetry. E-poetics. Whatever. Here's my deal.

I am not saying that these creations aren't creative, and I'm not saying that they aren't utilizing poetry. They obviously are. I would call them works of art. In fact, a visitor to a modern art museum such as Tate Modern in London would see media presentations akin to the E-poetry found all over the web. But that's just my argument - these are mixed media works of art. Not poetry.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

Over the past few days, I've been viewing several websites that host so-called "e-poetry" and "digital poetics." Some of these sites are:
http://www.poemsthatgo.com
http://www.poetspath.com/exhibits/digitalvistas.html

Looking through all these "digital vistas" is really interesting. Many are interactive, where the viewer can control aspects of the program by choosing links or moving the mouse. Most use music or audio enhancements. It is fun, and I encourage you to browse these sites and decide for yourself. But this is what I think:

Poetry has always had an oral aspect. In actuality, poems were being spoken and sung long before anyone was writing anything down - Homer's Odyssey, Beowulf. And through history poetry has retained this oral element. I would go so far as to say it has never been separate. Therefore, I would call this oral aspect of poetry a defining characteristic of poetry itself. Poetry that can not be shared orally is not poetry. There, I said it.

These digital poetics lack the ability to be shared completely by mouth. I can call my friend and read her Carl Sandburg's "Fog." I can type it here and you can read it for yourself:

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Now, let me try to share an instance of "e-poetics" with you. I'll write as if I'm "reading" this poem to someone. It is titled "dear e.e." You can find it at: http://www.poemsthatgo.com/gallery/summer2001/ee/ee.htm

Well, there is a poem in it. I couldn't tell you what it is, exactly. The words go too fast for me to write them down, and I can't copy and paste from a flash video. I suppose if I watched it enough times and wrote a little each time I could get all the words down. It starts off like a letter, and the person is describing a dream where someone rearranged his/her apartment. Then it switches from gray pieces of paper to a quickly sliding scene. Letters of the alphabet fly by, fading in and out. There are drawings of a sink, a door, a refrigerator, something else... oh yeah, words pop up really quickly, I think they are part of the poem. If you hold your mouse over it they stay a little longer, but you have to keep pulling it back into your little window. If you press on "wake up" then it takes you to a bio of the artist/author. I guess that's the "end" of the dream sequence.

Now, did you get all that? And do you think it meant anything at all to my friend on the other end of the line? It's like trying to describe a work of art to someone who can't see it, and in fact that is exactly what I'm doing. To read a poem, to absorb it, you don't need to see anything. (I know there are some poems where viewing the shape on the page is important. Okay.) It is my opinion that these e-poems are not poems at all, but works of mixed media art combining graphic design with poetry. Using poetry, but not poetry in and of itself.

More on this later.