Friday, May 12, 2023

Fonis by Roberto Ncar is available now on the Post-Asemic Press Bandcamp site!

After a slight delay Post-Asemic Press is delighted to release Fonis an album of sound poetry by Puerto Rico's finest sound poet Roberto Ncar. The album contains 10 tracks of sound poetry. Roberto has a unique voice and pulls and pushes his energetic vocals into diverse streams of invention. This release is one that we hope listeners will enjoy as something different and vocally complex.

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Typo Poem by Michael Betancourt is available now at Amazon!

The latest book from Post-Asemic Press is Typo Poem by Michael Betancourt. PAP is pleased to release this book because it is an exciting and potent blend of graphic design and asemic writing with a meticulous display of spirit and artistry. 

Michael Betancourt’s Typo Poem is an extended meditation on the glitches of language, where letters and words collapse back into their constituent parts, becoming asemic. These poems are made from typography and the failings that always lurk just beneath the surface. It offers an ongoing provocation for its readers, one which rewards re-viewing, re-readings, and returns because on each engagement, what is and is not in the pages seems to change, despite being printed. The excitement this work offers expands over time as its materials become more familiar and stranger makes it a collection worth the time it demands.



Betancourt’s typoems are reminiscent of many ideas in asemic language, Wildstyle, Cubism. Each and every work is layered and architectural warm, and also filled with humanitarian fragmentation that allows the imagination to move through these spaces.
— Josรฉ Parlรก, artist

Betancourt’s elegant asemic compositions, spatially ambiguous and graphically complex, are deceptively lucid at first glance. But these works hover in an indeterminate space, as if waiting to be collapsed through the perception of the viewer into an either/or resolution of il/legibility. Instead, the poems refuse to become fixed and thus sustain an ongoing provocation.
— Johanna Drucker, writer, artist, and scholar

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Post-Asemic Press (April 3, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 129 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1736614711
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1736614716
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.31 x 9 inches
  • Price : $25.00

Here are some links to purchase Typo Poem:




Wednesday, December 28, 2022

in ghostly onehead by J. D. Nelson is available now, around the world, at Amazon! Post-Asemic Press #021

Post-Asemic Press is pleased to announce the publication of American poet J.D. Nelson's debut collection of poems in ghostly onehead This tome resurrects the neo-beat spirit of freedom and carries the light of experimental poetics deep into the 21st century. The book also includes a foreword by the Australian poet and publisher Mark Young

JD best explains the book here:

"๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜จ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ญ๐˜บ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ, my first full-length poetry collection, includes 75 never-before-published poems that were written between 23 July 2015 and 12 January 2021, a period of exactly 2,000 days. The title of this collection comes from a phrase from ๐˜›๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜Š๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜œ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ, an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the late 14th century. “In ghostly onehead” essentially means “in spiritual union” with the creative force of the universe. I have long felt that, as a writer, I act as a conduit through which this force flows. My work is influenced by the Beat writers, especially Jack Kerouac’s spontaneous prose technique, and the cut-up technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs. My writing is also influenced by Dada and Surrealism. Most of my poetry is created through the cutting up and collaging of my own freewriting."

Two Sample Poems:

the special time of the johnny carson
on the tonight show earth learning in school and how is the johnny carson?
the final tree of the night and that earth word word words
throwing salt was a plain deal kiss the learning toy is sharpened this way
soon, cool anne on that day there was a snow
an animal, or name something a planet of monsters in the mud



to speak of clouds
here in the trees
this is the same thing all over the sun this is a new pine tree
whenever it comes to something dharma chalk
a blue jay calling for its friends peanuts! peanuts!
never really a true green (we call it red) they would rather have a salad
the blinking brain by itself no one gets it

Some Blurbs:

in ghostly onehead, J. D. Nelson’s first full-length collection, takes the lyric’s temperamental ghost on a wild joyride into the riotous, incandescent dreamworld of “wooden water,” “paper sun,” and “the clown cloud car/ one scrambled/ egg mtn.” Tirelessly inventive and unquiet with their creative energies, these poems speak of language and its hidden meanings, of syntactic spins that create meanings, of orality’s emancipatory tactics. Nelson’s ever-curious mind belabors succinct inquiries that move back and forth erratically from the metaphysical “soup for the lonely world” to the physical realm where “you are spidered enough to stand with the roots of the trees.” Spirited and complex, darkly brooding but always with its good humor intact, in ghostly onehead is a memorable and brilliant debut. —Kristine Ong Muslim, author of The Drone Outside

American experimental poet, J. D. Nelson, with voicings singular and unique, in in ghostly onehead, his first full-length collection, constructs a playful, melancholic elision. Employing purposeful, visionary poetics including cut-up techniques, he aspires to the radiant, exhibiting taut, bold clarity. A divine mix of the inward, contemplative, and hilarious, Nelson’s poems propose a new-world where “violin hats” and “skin-suits” are in evidence, a crossroads, both circuitous and carnivalesque. The book induces in the reader, a deeply wrought current of ecstasy, the almost-celestial. A synesthesia of a broken-down America, of constructed landscapes where “closing another bank account at midnight/the same meal plan for days and days” is the norm. We discover, journeying back from sacred empty places there is enough “soup for the lonely world”, while “the earth bursts/the moon of that”. One poem’s narrative asserts from “cuts on my hands from puppy teeth/I become the wolf”. In another, a voice proclaims, “I’ve won this earth/I’m wording it this way”. A bravo achievement! Get your hands on this superlative collection (a tour de force).

—Robert Frede Kenter, poet, visual artist, publisher of Ice Floe Press

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Post-Asemic Press (December 25, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 93 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1736614738
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1736614730
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.24 x 9 inches
  • Price : $12.00

in ghostly onehead can be purchased at the following links:



bio/graf

J. D. Nelson (b. 1971) experiments with words in his subterranean laboratory.
Since 2002, more than 2,000 of his poems have appeared internationally in more than 300 print and online publications. He is the author of ten print chapbooks and e-books of poetry, including Cinderella City (The Red Ceilings Press, 2012). in ghostly onehead is his first full-length collection. Nelson’s work is influenced by the Beat writers, especially Jack Kerouac’s spontaneous prose technique, and the cut-up technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs. His writing is also influenced by Dada and Surrealism. Most of his poetry is created through the cutting up and collaging of his own freewriting. His poem, “to mask a little bird” was nominated for Best of the Net in 2021. Visit his website, MadVerse.com, for more information and links to his published work. His haiku blog is at JDNelson.net. Nelson lives in Colorado, USA.

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Grzegorz Wrรณblewski interviewed by Jefferson Hanson about his book Shanty Town | Post-Asemic Press #019

Grzegorz Wrรณblewski Interview by Jefferson Hansen


Grzegorz Wrรณblewski has a new book out called Shanty Town from Post-Asemic Press. 



Here is the interview:


1.Each page consists of a deep layer of what looks like cursive writing with circles and other geometric figures on top. Is the cursive in a language or is it asemic? 



This is my calligraphic method, way of creating asemic writing. I have been working on this type of line for several dozen years. It looks like a concrete notation, like cursive. Maybe because it is not a classic pictogram, for example. This “writing and signs” are an echo of my aesthetic research. A kind of signal to other people and outer space. Cursive is like psychology here. Or like an EKG heart test. He gives us many tips. Geometric figures complete this study. Chaos can mean harmony at times. In my opinion, Cy Twombly, Mark Tobey, Pierre Alechinsky and Donald Judd (here I am mentioning, for example, some classical artists of contemporary art) created (paradoxically!) similar works. Mantras have dynamics. Zen is not a lazy dream. It is the constant work of our consciousness.

 

2. Do you think of our everyday language as layered? Do you think of poetic language as such? How about asemic “language”? What is suggested by the layering in Shanty Town?


Each variation, type of language, including asemic writing, has its own specific accents. Moments of screaming and silence. Irregularity and regularity. Joy and nostalgia. Inner sadness… Layers are just those elements, accents. We have a similar situation in every other entry, creation. In traditional literature, objectivist poetry or haiku. In the singing of the birds, et cetera. Layers are deformation, that is, necessity. It is a voice from planet Earth. Life is made of layers. Their number and density are the characteristics of every human being. The layers in Shanty Town tell the psychological condition of the author of the book. As he sees, he feels the reality around him. What is he dreaming about, what are his “ups and downs”. It seems to me that the issue of layers is not only a topic for archaeologists or geologists. It is also a topic for psychologists, anthropologists, space researchers... Layers are ordinary and mysterious at the same time. As with quantum theories, they cannot be easily defined. Layering in Shanty Town is also a journey through time. Traveler's mirror… As you can see in Shanty Town we sometimes have a lot or less of layers. So this trip had its own pulsation. 

 


3. You are a poet, visual artist, and asemic artist. How do these three roles interact, if they do, in this work?


I have been working on literature and art for over forty years. I wrote not only poetry, but also prose, plays, essays. Similarly with art. I've experimented with various visual techniques. Apart from acrylics, ink, pastels, charcoal etc., I created mixed media installations. I was interested in the combination of paints with materials such as sand, newspaper scraps, grass... I have also created and still create photographic series, which I make using a technically simple method, a mobile phone.

I was fascinated by calligraphy, and many asemic motifs found their way into my very old works. On the website Postasemicpress.blogspot.com, Michael Jacobson has published examples of my paintings of this type several times. In my case, literature and art was a large testing ground. The variety of methods and techniques of expression turned out to be very helpful. Everything complemented well. So I was formally well prepared to work on Shanty Town. I had a lot of artistic experience. However, I knew that despite my “work plans”, a huge, unknown space awaited me. And that's how it happened. Shanty Town chronicles a shipwrecked man sailing on a mysterious ocean. It is an evidently interdisciplinary book. A combination of different genres of art. It seems to me, however, that it is a consistent register, very “readable” in reception. This is my hand and soul. People who study the book thoroughly will surely have an opinion about its hermetic nature or the openness (of Shanty Town's ideas).


4. What is the relationship of the title, “Shanty Town”, to the work within? 


Shanty Town is a theme, words from Jamaican ska music. And also the name of a ruined, poor suburb. So, on the one hand, there are roots, cotton fields, and, on the other, a passenger syndrome, someone who is among the excluded. However, a hard past and social exclusion do not mean failure. In some cases, they are salvation. The ability to look at space from a distance. A healthy and analytical distance. I don't feel like the most losing human copy.

But life among human mammals has never been easy and optimistic for me. I strongly believed in the solidarity of those excluded from society, in their wisdom and the power to impart knowledge. That is why the rhythm of cotton fields and houses covered with rusty sheet metal. I wanted to transform my visions, tell the world about them. I chose asemic writing. No other literary or artistic genre was optimal for me. I think that everything is well presented in the introduction published in the book, written by Mark Young, as well as blurbs of such great writers/artists/thinkers as: Dave Read, Karina Obara, Stephen Nelson, Anna Matysiak, Tim Gaze. Calligraphy tells about the human condition, his observations and dilemmas. A traditionally registered chronicle would not be a nuisance. Here, I needed improvisation and a subconscious mind. Different working method. The book may look like a conceptual object at first glance. But it's not like that. It also reflects on human matters that are close to each of us.

 

5. Did you approach these works as pieces that would end up in a book rather than framed as visual art? If so, how did such an approach affect the work itself? 

I was working on these calligraphies with the book in mind. That was their purpose of creation. But I do not see any problem or conflict to show works from Shanty Town's book at exhibitions in galleries or art museums. Not necessarily in the golden framework… It is a matter of sensible preparation of such an exhibition. Selection, creating cycles. There are many potential possibilities. Each exhibition space has its own logic. Lighting, area, height. Dialogue with asemic works would be very important. The transfer of works from electronic documents to canvas or other material is not complicated technically. But for that you need a solid economy, good curators and organizers. And you know how difficult and complicated the art world is now. So that's just a theory for now. But I thought these works could be presented well in larger formats, such as relatively large "icons", each 120 x 100 cm. It would be an interesting experiment for sure. Single motives would have to "defend itself". The world of the gallery is governed by different rules than the world of books.

 

6. What, in your view, is asemic writing, and what is its value?


The definition of asemic writing should always be an open definition and not limited by anything. This is not only the orthodox inspiration of "Voynich manuscript". Asemic writing roams freely in the timeline. Calligraphy meets a hologram, and hologram meets electronic, improvised sounds. Together they form a more capacious whole. Asemic writing tries to better understand the Universe, analyzes the mysterious past and looks into the future completely unknown to us. It will always be an aesthetic, extremely important outpost of art, a kind of thinking about the meaning of life. You have to try to treat, although it is not possible.

 

Monday, August 8, 2022

Owl Noise Zero by Owl Brain Atlas aka J.D. Nelson is available now at Bandcamp!

Out now from Post-Asemic Press! A re-release of pure intensity in the form of sound poetic brilliance. The album is titled Owl Noise Zero by Owl Brain Atlas, the sound art project of poet J.D.Nelson. It was originally self released back in 2013, but has now found a home at PAP's Bandcamp site.  J.D. is also going to release his debut collection of poems in ghostly onehead next month (September 2022) via PAP. So keep a lookout for his new poetry collection that keeps the beat spirit alive and evolving into the 21st Century.

Click here to listen to the whole album.

Sunday, July 10, 2022

A Review of Tim Gaze's Book Glyphs of Uncertain Meaning by Rodica Frentiu

 Here's a selection from Rodica's review for PAP.


"These glyph compositions seem to settle into a puzzle that tries to reconstruct an original moment in the history of writing…Reminiscent of an artistic subconscious, Tim Gaze’s glyphs recover the process through which the direct observation of the real world enters a process of abstraction which plays a decisive role both in visualisation and in the verbalisation of thought…Tim Gaze’s glyph compositions illustrate two universes, which I would call the universe of black on white and the universe of white on black."
—Rodica FRENศšIU

From a review of Glyphs of Uncertain Meaning published in:
Philobiblon: Transylvanian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Humanities
Vol. XXVII (2022), nr. 1