This past week, poet Rodney Gomez visited University of Dallas and gave a workshop on how to include visual elements in poetry. His talk was met with great energy and appreciation. Afterwards, Gomez encouraged students to work on and share their own interpretive visual pieces. Gomez is originally from Brownsville, Texas and has spent time crafting poems based in Southern Texas environment, history and culture.
Gomez’s poetry explores the integration of poetry into different forms of artwork, which in a sense seems to be a whole new genre of poetry. His writing has been met with high acclaim, and he has received various poetry awards, including the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award.
In this workshop, Gomez discussed the purpose of adding a visual element to poetry as well as practical strategies for doing so, starting with the basic question, “What is a poem?” A poem is a work which contains these elements: rhythm, form, musicality, meaningfulness and figurative language. A visual poem contains all these elements and adds an image that goes along with the theme or subject
Some examples of visual poetry Gomez mentioned are: concrete poetry, graphic poetry, shaped poetry and pattern poetry. In these poems, depending on the type, the poet uses different kinds of artwork to enhance the essence of what their poem is about. When asked about whether or not visual poetry was more artwork than poem, Gomez said, “To me, there is not a fine line distinction between the arts, and there is meant to be unity between them.”
Why create visual poetry? There are various reasons why this approach may be more conducive to a particular poem or poet. For example, maybe the poem itself is not working, the poet is trying to aim at something more than words alone can convey, the poem itself demands shape, the poem echoes an image or the poet is trying to respond to a particular idea or art piece. Visual poetry can help a poet further narrow down the intended direction and tone of their poem.
Some examples of visual poetry include “Easter Wings” by George Herbert and “Frontexto #243” by Octavio Quintanilla. Self-proclaimedly not suited with a paintbrush, Gomez uses a lot of digital art to convey his visual poetry to a wider audience. Some of Gomez’s own works include “Orrery for Borderland Ghosts” and “Profile of the Wound.”