~ Videopoems ~

Videopoetry, filmpoetry, cinepoetry, poetry-film… the label doesn’t matter. What matters is that text and images enter into dialogue, creating a new, poetic whole.

Purple Lipstick by Heather Haley

On 5 November, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 1 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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A poem about domestic violence, on YouTube courtesy of a magazine called Shattered Thought which appears to be no longer online. Heather Haley, however, is very much still online — in fact, the annual videopoetry festival she organizes in Vancouver, Visible Verse, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on November 19-20. This is the premiere videopoetry event in North America. Go if you can.

The Videopoems page of her personal website says about this film, in part:

Heather’s videopoem Purple Lipstick still garners kudos having been an official selection at the VideoBardo 2nd International VideoPoetry Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the 3rd Zebra International Poetry Film Festival in Berlin, Germany and the Women in Film Festival in Vancouver where she was a guest speaker. Purple Lipstick also screened at Commfest, Wildsound, Female Eye in Toronto, Northwest Projections and Reel to Real in Seattle.

Purple is the colour of a fresh bruise and domestic violence the single greatest cause of injury to women in Canada. Purple Lipstick confronts its insidious nature through compelling juxtapositions. A disembodied female voice employs vivid language, absurdist against a backdrop of banality, images of *normal* family life. Numb in her isolation and still in her nurse’s uniform, a wife and mother prepares dinner. The inherent terror of her home life is invoked with excruciating tension. Its brutality can only be alluded to.

Shot on Bowen Island near Vancouver, Purple Lipstick features actors Bazil Graham, Ripley Ferguson, Cairo Ferguson and slam poetry star Alexandra Oliver-Basekic.

The Ramble by James Brush

On 4 November, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 1 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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James’ first video haiku — see his blog post about it.

Immigrants by Ren Powell

On 3 November, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation, Author-made videopoems
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I’ve posted a number of Ren Powell’s other animations, but for some reason I skipped this one. As always, see her site Anima Poetics for a much sharper, Flash version.

Tickets to Your Morning in the Mirror by Tyler Flynn Dorholt

On 2 November, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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Dorholt’s poems on the page are long, difficult and packed with arresting images, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that his videopoems would be the same. The text of this one originally appeared in Slope.

For links to all Dorholt’s films, see his blog.

Kleine Reise (Little Trip) by Claire Walka

On 1 November, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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Outstanding poet-made videopoem. Claire Walka says in a note on Vimeo:

Doing shopping in the supermarket can become an expedition into a new world… A poem made of brand-names.

I’m grateful she took the time to add English subtitles so those of us with no German can appreciate this ingenious little film.

Sveta by Sergey Timofeyev

On 29 October, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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Diana Palijchuk is the animator, and Arthur Punte did the montage. I found a Facebook page for the author, and he is indeed Latvian — the first to be included on Moving Poems — though, I presume, an ethnic Russian (his poems are in Russian).

Stephen Fry Kinetic Topography: on language and pedantry

On 28 October, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation

Couldn’t agree more! Animation by Matthew Rogers. Hat-tip: Open Culture.

The Black Hole by Zachary Schomburg

On 28 October, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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Another “poem film” by Zachary Schomburg in support of his collection Scary, No Scary.

Wanting Sumptuous Heavens by Robert Bly

On 27 October, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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Another MotionPoems production, designed and animated by Angella Kassube with a reading by the poet.

Parts of Speech by Holly Karapetkova

On 26 October, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 2 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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A really fine author-made videopoem (hat-tip: 32 Poems Magazine). Karapetkova doesn’t appear to have a website, but there’s a brief bio at Gryphon House.

untitled poem by Ryan MacDonald

On 25 October, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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One of a couple pieces by Ryan MacDonald at The Continental Review. He blogs at Brief Epigrams.

Window Interplay by Francisco José Blanco

On 22 October, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 1 Comments - Concrete and visual poetry
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I don’t entirely understand Josephine Gustavsson’s explanation for the method here, but it sounds highly imaginative:

Every day, trains scrape off iron filings from the rails of the tube network. These filings are regularly removed by staff, since they can otherwise interfere with the signaling system. The procedure is carried out using a machine that contains a magnetic force.

The visualisation of the poem ‘Window Interplay’ is made for the moving image screens of the London Underground, to inspire Monday morning commuters. It is made through a series of explorations, making use of iron powder and magnetic fields.


Francisco José Blanco is a Venezuelan artist resident in Sweden.