The Altered Scale Blog: Review of HEI KUU (Post-Asemic Press) by Michael J...

The Altered Scale Blog: Review of HEI KUU (Post-Asemic Press) by Michael J...:   by Terrence Folz Am reading the book Hei Kuu and really getting into it. It's a collection of haikus by my friend Michael Jacobson. T...

Hei Kuu by Michael Jacobson is now available as an ebook at Amazon!

 

My book Hei Kuu is now available as an ebook on Amazon's Kindle, for $5.00.

After a short wait I decided to create an ebook out of my senryu poetry collection Hei Kuu, which was released by Post-Asemic Press last October 2020.

The book collects my personal mythology and is mostly true with a few flourishes and embellishments to keep things poetically interesting. It is my first, but hopefully not last book of verbal poetry.

I tried to stick to the classic 5-7-5 syllable pattern like in traditional haiku/senryu and for an OuLiPo like constraint and challenge, but I wasn't entirely successful. About 10 of the 409 poems didn't quite fit into that pattern, but an attempt was made. 

Click here for more info about Hei Kuu, and here is the link to the ebook at Amazon's Kindle.

Here are some sample poems from Hei Kuu:

9.

 

Schizo-affective

Drunks drown comic skull nitro

Gladiator steins

 

10.

 

YinYang argue thick

Conflict in black and white zeal

Nailed post sexual

11.

 

Vanished like cement

Sima seminal sea mint

Surly Anchors dropped

  

12.

 

The tone will not stop

Telepathic bugging rot

I drink beer why not

  

13.

 

Sad poetry lump

Quasi moon scribe lunatic

Literate love dump

 

14.

 

Animal reflex

Satan red teenrage Porsche

Volcano permits

 

15.

 

Minneapoets

Ignited beer brains crush poems

Mania scripture

 

16.

 

Space module Virgin

Venereal star Bowie

Lost space invaders

 

3 Books by Michael Jacobson: Works & Interviews, Hei Kuu, and Somnolent Game (forthcoming from PAP in 2022)!

 

I'm hard at work on my 3rd paperback book Somnolent Game due out in spring of 2022 from Post-Asemic Press. Somnolent Game is a novella length prose poem about a video game character who wants to quit violence and find paradise. He is looking for one true story that will set him free from being a shadow of a human. It's also a tale about a sentient being who is trying to be true to himself and find love beyond death.

My other 2 books Works & Interviews and Hei Kuu are both currently available now at Amazon.

Glyphs of Uncertain Meaning by Tim Gaze | To be released in June of 2021! Post-Asemic Press #014

 

I am proud to announce a great book of primal asemic writing from Tim Gaze, who founded Asemic Magazine over 20 years ago. The book is titled Glyphs of Uncertain Meaning. It will be the next title to be released by PAP in May of 2021. This book gets right down to the basics and origins of asemic writing; it is a collection of simple black and white designs created by Tim over a period of many years. But the asemic writing is difficult to describe with words so here are a few sample pages and a few blurbs.

Here is from the author's preface:

"There is an art of writing which starts with letters rather than words, and explores ways they can be broken down, distorted and recombined. The letters, symbols and marks I use in my writing are best described as “glyphs”. Between 1998 and approximately 2008, I created many pages of improvised combinations of glyphs, some of them familiar and easily recognizable, and some not. A variety of writing tools were used: pens, pencils, marker pens, Chinese brush with bottled ink, and atomiser spray bottle with ink. Almost always, they were made on ordinary white A4 sized office paper.

The process of reading these glyphs is up to the reader. Regular reading of pages full of words is like walking on a level path with no obstacles, so that most readers travel at full steam ahead to get to the end of each page. In this collection, the idea isn't to read each page quickly and then turn the page. You are invited to ponder, even to find partial meanings or no meaning at all, at whatever speed works for you." 

— Tim Gaze

"By inviting us to read and ponder these pages, Tim Gaze is opening the box of a game without rules –a game of communication that uses gestural marks he calls glyphs. Deliberate reading and pondering enables one to contemplate some of our most delicate linguistic issues — without being encumbered by words."

— Rosaire Appel, Author of Zinc Zanc Zunc: An Asemic Conjugation

"Tim Gaze’s glyphs present the material remains of gestural improvisation. To ponder them is to look into the heart of raw creativity, the remains of the moment when brush or pen hit paper and moved according to the exigencies of the moment. The “meaning” of these glyphs is, of course, uncertain, but their source is not. Their source is in the same place where we realize possibilities in our own lives, moment by moment. These glyphs seize the moment in delicious ways."

— Jefferson Hansen, Author of 100 Hybrids 

"With this thoughtful, humorous, sensitive and fascinating book, Tim Gaze illuminates all the ways writing can be nonverbal, yet powerfully communicative. Single characters, massed textures, even quasi-pictorial elements all make an appearance here. A delightful encounter, indeed." 

— Steven Skaggs, University of Louisville, Author of FireSigns 

Since the late '90s, Tim Gaze has been active as a poet, writer, publisher and performer. In particular, he has been very involved in the field of asemic writing, publishing Asemic magazine and setting up the first website, www.asemic.net. His books include the graphic novel 100 Scenes, glitch poetry collection noology and numerous shorter works. His asemic writing has been exhibited in a number of places. Most recently, he is completing a degree in linguistics, and preparing an album of sound poetry. Dance music such as batida by the Principe Discos artists gets him going. The Adelaide Hills of Australia, among trees, is his home.

GLITCHASEMICS in a gif by Marco Giovenale & Happy New Year 2021 from Post-Asemic Press!

Here is a gif of sample pages from Marco Giovenales book GLITCHASEMICS released last year in 2020 from Post-Asemic Press. It's a unique cross between asemic writing and glitch art, and It stands alone in the codex format. It was one of the best books published last year. It is definitely a one of a kind writing hybrid experiment and well worth another look at.

But here is looking forward to 2021. There are three new books in the works from PAP: Glyphs of Uncertain Meaning by Tim Gaze, Unwritings by Laura Ortiz, and Intimate Hands by Karl Kempton. GOUM and Unwritings are both strait up asemic writing books though in very different styles from one another. Intimate Hands is visual poetry and does play with words and images. There will be more info on these titles coming soon. Look for GOUM to be published in May of 2021. Unwritings will drop in August 2021. Intimate Hands will appear in November of 2021. There will be more information on these titles when the time draws closer to their publishing dates.

Cheers and Happy New Year 2021 from Post-Asemic Press!

Post-Asemic Press Author Cecil Touchon was interviewed by The Face of America.

 

               

Click here for info about The Cecil Touchon Asemic Reader.

Click here to purchase The Cecil Touchon Asemic Reader at Amazon.

'Hei Kuu' by Michael Jacobson was reviewed by Francesco Aprile in the latest issue of Utsanga!

My book of autobiographical senryu poems Hei Kuu was reviewed in the latest edition of Utsanga by Francesco Aprile. Click here to check it out. It's in Italian, but Google translate can help with the translation.

Click here for more info on Hei Kuu.

Click here to purchase Hei Kuu at Amazon.