The Visual Pwoermd in Yellow and Black

Although InterNaPwoWriMo has never focused on this aspect of pwoermdy, pwoermds come in a visual form in addition to the more common textual form. To some degree, most pwoermds are visual, because they are usually meant to be seen to be understood; even if they can be pronounced into the air, their meaning might be inaudible. But some pwoermds are insistently visual, and these we call visual pwoermds.

One, and maybe the only, visual pwoermd that has appeared thus far in this year's celebration of InterNaPwoWriMo is ƏC's "y.ouu," a verbally simple and visually complicating piece that uses ƏC's (apparently) signature colors of yellow and black. Colored like a bees, ƏC's pwoermds sting with a sudden realization of what is actually possible via the mechanisms of the pwoermd.

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Pwoermding as Composition, Rather than Flash

Richard Capener considers the process he used to create a recent poem of his

here

.

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The Illustrated Pwoermd

Mark Young, Kiwi poet in exile at the far edge of Australia, posted a simple pwoermd recently, but illustrated with a beautiful photograph of nectarines, one that allows us to better see the beauty of his little, perfectly balanced pwoermd, which is a deft piece of stigmeological metaplasmus:

ne(tar)ne
When I saw that pwoermd I gasped at its perfect construction. But go to Mark's blog to see it in its native environment.
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Figuring Out the Pwoermd Out

Alex Davis has just posted an experiment in pwoermdmaking. Working almost entirely with one core word ("language," appropriately enough), he has used all of the processes I claim are used to create pwoermds. As I looked at my list of methods, I was reminded that I'd forgotten one: metaplasmus, or intentional misspelling, so here's one using "language." It is one of the great, but few pwoermds written by Jonathan Brannen:

laugnage

Be sure to check out what Alex has come up with for the other "figures of pwoermds," at his posting on figurative language.

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mespellings

The incomparable Karri Kokko—a Finnish poet and probably the best punner I've ever known, and that is while working in English, a second or third language for him (I'm not sure if his Swedish preceded or followed his English)—has, just now, sent me a note (via Facebook) entitled "mespellings," which is an interesting now about the art of pwoermdy and its possible effect on real life:

An observation: Putting a lot of time and effort into coining pwoermds--ofttimes by deliberate distortion of common utterances--makes one, strangely enough, hesitant or unsure of the correct spellings in one's everyday vocabulary.

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Jonesing for Jones

Jonathan Jones, a Briton living in Belgium, and whose blog Belgian Waffle is a favorite of mine, has become a manic pwoermdist of late, spurred on, apparently, by both InterNaPwoWriMo and my book, ntst: the collected pwoermds of geof huth. Jonathan is has the perfect minimalist mind for pwoermds, which you can see for yourself at his blog. While writing me about his first attempts at pwoermdy, he provided me with some of his insights into pwoermds, which I've extracted below:

Thanks for the initiation into the strange word (world?) of pwoermds.

I've just been over to the UK. Waiting for me at [my parents'] house was NTST.

I read the first few pages, got so excited that I started scribbling down my pwoermds. That I wrote nearly 50 in one day is testament to not having much else to do. Actually, they remind me of the cryptic crossword mindset I used to inhabit: a joy and a curse. You spend your day semi-abstracted turning words over and over inside and out certain that there's a 'find' somewhere waiting on the horizon of your vocabulary.

I'd dip back into your text and DAMN! you'd got there first and I'd have to sratch it out - I now realise my 'psilent' is one of yours (or more or less).

I wasn't sure mine were always 'pure' pwoermds (if such a thing exists). Is one allowed two words/ a phrase? At what point does the pwoermd meet the pun?

As I was swimming this morning, I was thinking of food equivalents - a good pwoermd is the literary equivalent of sushi? An 'amuse bouche' that titillates the palate and then is swallowed with relish? Little detonations/ de-notations of sense. Certainly I like the way they force attention on to tiny little energies of language. Space seems to open up in the joints. Articulations - that's the word. Plus a naughtiness - and danger even? - s writing verges upon illiteracy/ dyslexia/ the scrambled.

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