Welcome to my digital poetry portfolio.
Below are photo links to previous work and highlights of ongoing experiments. The majority of work here was previously posted in my blog, but check out the first image below to navigate to publications found in magazines and reviews.
Most of my writing hinges on writing and image working in tandem. At times, my eye carries the poem down to the letter, where positioning creates isomorphic action, other times, the poem forms solely as a result of its environment and medium (such as you can find in my blog). Ultimately, I strive for musicality and lyricism no matter the medium or environment.
Publications
Though they are rare in the world, visual poems make up the bulk of my publications, and, I hope, will continue to.
Here, you will find links to pieces published and a list of assorted work.
People Poems (explained, sort of)
Something tells me a little explanation about what I do could help… Without so much talking, expect this to be a visual guide of examples which reveal underlying structure in the visual poems I write.
Overhead Projector Light Experiments
There’s an immediacy to an overhead projector that you don’t get with paper or digital document. The humming machine, the continually warming lamp, the light, and associations of high school classrooms with its hurried note taking and short hand. With these selections, I concentrated on light and shadow, presentation, immediate composition, and how all those things connect with language.
Ugly Carpet Free Writes
There is smth monumental about free writing which, I think, expresses the ups and downs, the clarity and obscurity we experience everyday in our lives. There is scrambling to catch a rhythm in our environment despite dissonance in things we try, attempt to say, in coming to some gentle, wordless contentment.
The root here, is definitely in hip hop, music, and lyricism.
This particular collection of free writes was written on paper on old attic carpet, hence the name.
Outdoor Projector Poem Experiments
A project I am still working with, the galleries included here show my experiments with using a low power, portable projector in various spaces around my hometown of Kent, Ohio.
The results were mixed, but the exploration of what amounts to installation poetry emerged.
More of these free writes can be found on my Instagram account linked to below.
In the Works
Click one below to see three of my most recent blog posts.
Arc Poems–After Circle Poems
Recently on Instagram, I posted this poem. After reading Quait journal’s Issue 2: circle poems, I was inspired to write poems in circles. Only, the poems I had read were already doing that and doing it well. So, I chose to break away from the circle for my poems. The first way to play with the…
A New Video Poem
It feels like years since I’ve posted anything, and today seems like the perfect day to do so.
A Collage (Not Poetry)
I’ve been working on a few things lately, but with the semester beginning, I have to change gears.At some point, I may post a new transcription of one of my character sketches, work that becomes more painstaking the more I revise and transcribe, but for now, I’d like to share a collage. Over summer break,…
Dan Dorman 