I've spent a couple of delightful hrs at UBU this past weekend. really, the time done vanished. especially good are the sound poems of Bob Cobbing located here. Cobbing is a poet I've known from just a few of his visual poems published in a couple of anthologies of experimental writing from the U.K., such as the new british poetry (ed. by Gillian Allnutt, Fred D'Aguiar, Ken Edwards and Eric Mottram, Paladin: 1988). this book was indispensable to me for in it I discovered writers as diverse as cris cheek, Tom Raworth, Barry MacSweeney, Bill Griffiths, Geraldine Monk, Tom Pickard and so many more.

Cobbing's poems were the only vispo found in its pages. and they were the first I've ever read. when I found the anthology I was trying to define myself, an apprentice poet, against the writers who were my mentors at the time: Berryman, Hart Crane, Robert Creeley, a bit of e.e. cummings, Rilke etc. etc. at the time I couldn't care less for vispo. how do you read this stuff?. over time, my arrogance subsided and I've come to greatly admire vispo and sound poetry. Crag Hill, whose interview can be found at Tom Beckett's new blog, was very generous when he sent me an issue of Score featuring the work of Canadian visual poet jwcurry when I was searching for his work. I'm still learning vispo and sound poetries. the web is fertile ground for our varied poetries. I've discovered them, and I am in love. no shit about it. and now how do I define myself as a poet? with this: ? I'm still that beginner, for I'm always still making discoveries and falling in love.