The winner of The Blasted Tree's fourth flash haiku contest, held on social media earlier this week, is Johannes S. H. Bjerg! We've published the haiku into 2.5" x 2.5" mini-leaflets in a limited run of 60 copies. Johannes’ poem was selected for the zen-like irreverence befitting a true haiku master. The twisting grammar of this poem takes us to the brink and leaves us “there beneath a duck.” This was a very hard decision to make, lots of funny and thought-provoking entries this time around, so thanks very much to everyone who participated in the contest! Copies of the haiku are available from The Blasted Tree Store on antique grey Classic Laid paper.
Poetry Scroll - A Good Man is Hard to Find by Katerina Sevelka
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a lyric poem that shifts though perspectives like reflections in a mirror. This publication marks Katerina Sevelka’s third with The Blasted Tree, and has been produced in a limited run of 60 scrolls, 4.25” x 0.5” bound up in electrical tape, and 4.25” x 14” unfurled. 10% of the edition is bound in red tape, symbolizing the rare man reflected in the poem. Read “A Good Man is Hard to Find” online, then purchase the scroll from our online Store.
READ A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND
Poetry Chapbook - The Vispo Bible: John by Amanda Earl
Each piece in Amanda Earl’s newest entry in her ongoing visual poetry project, The Vispo Bible, represents one chapter from the Books of John, New Testament. Text is taken from BibleGateway.com, King James Version, and adapted into beatific, kaleidoscopic images. The Vispo Bible is a life’s work to translate every chapter, every book of the Bible into visual poetry. The Blasted Tree has published seven images into a chapbook bound with black, faux-leather paper and gold embroidery floss, and stamped with archival gold ink. An edition of 40 chapbooks has been produced, and can be purchased from our online Store.
VIEW THE VISPO BIBLE: JOHN
Poetry Broadsides - O/Ô by Aaron Tucker
Visual poetry by Aaron Tucker, O/Ô uses the Google translate camera function to translate the French and English Hansard proceedings for the day that O Canada/Ô Canada was officially adopted as the Canadian national anthem. As concrete poetry, as photographs, as computer layering, language layering, these pieces reflect the quest to form a national identity through the languages spoken and not spoken or translated. O/Ô has been produced in a limited edition of 40 sets of two 11” x 17” broadsides, and each individual broadside features a pair of images translated from the Hansard in either of our two official languages.
View O/Ô
Poetry Chapbook - The Landscape We Left on Each Other by Lauren Elle DeGaine
At once familiar and foreign, intimate and distant, this collection of poems by Lauren Elle DeGaine follows the ebb and flow of a romantic relationship full of quiet, tender moments and sudden, frightening conflict. DeGaine employs recurring images, feelings, and impressions to reveal the spiraling circuits we all travel with those we hold most dear, exploring the poetics of love, loss, trajectory, and intersection; “the tear — an ache — not an explanation.” A limited edition of 40 chapbooks have been produced, each bound in hand-made, sage green paper, available now from The Blasted Tree Store.
READ THE LANDSCAPE WE LEFT ON EACH OTHER
Black Square #1 by derek beaulieu
Constructed from layered up Letraset transfers, Black Square #1 is typographic topography, an exploration of texture and shade, and the geometry of precision and error. The Blasted Tree has produced three limited editions of this visual poem by derek beaulieu at various sizes, each highlighting particular aspects of the work - 50 leaflets printed at scale show how the square looks to the unassisted eye, 10 numbered and signed artist prints magnify and reveal surprising details, and 100 mini-leaflets reduce the image to its superficial geometry. Black Square #1 can be viewed at a high resolution using the link below, and each of the three printed formats are available from our online Store.
View Black Square #1
Poetry Leaflet - The Crows by Anthony Etherin
Often considered portents of doom, three crows can also signal change, transformation, and rebirth. These three poems (a murder of sorts) transition from one constraint to another; a palindrome, a monometer sonnet, and a perfect anagram by line. The Crows is Anthony Etherin's second outing with The Blasted Tree, and we've produced a limited edition of 50 leaflets to mark the occasion. Read the trio online, then stop by our Store for your copy of the 4" x 9" leaflet, printed black on black with a bright yellow interior.
Read The Crows
Poetry Booklet - Sovereignty by Franco Cortese
"Sovereignty" is one of those magic words packed full of anagrammatic possibility. Each of the poems in this six-part series by Franco Cortese are line-by-line anagrams of the titular noun. All six are also subject to additional constraints: they must begin in the form of "ye ___ ___", and refer at least once to each of the following topics/themes: sex, death/decay, vegetation and language/text, in one form or another. Sixty 3" x 4" purple and gold booklets featuring the series have been produced, available now from The Blasted Tree Store.
Read Sovereignty
Poetry Chapbook/Art Book - Contemporary Meat by Sacha Archer
Sacha Archer's third outing with The Blasted Tree, Contemporary Meat, is an erasure poem redacting the proper nouns from a litany of author bios. By removing the proper nouns, Archer reveals how name dropping has become the cultural currency of the literary community; we are only recognizable by virtue of those who recognize us. To emphasize the depersonalized content of the work, Contemporary Meat comes in a stack of 3.5" x 3.5" cut sheets tied up in butcher twine, then packaged in styrofoam and plastic wrap, much like a filet mignon. A limited edition of 40 chapbooks/art books featuring this unusual presentation and binding have been produced, available now from our online store.
READ Contemporary Meat
Poetry Broadside - Surround Sound by Nathan Austin
A suite of glitch poems by Nathan Austin sampling bits of failed optical character recognition from Google’s search results. OCR is meant to identify printed characters using a scanner and computer software, which proves more difficult in practice than in principle. The poems that comprise “Surround Sound” come from an article about composer Eliane Radigue, originally published in frieze magazine in 2011. The suite as presented by the author appears in the online gallery, and a limited edition of 11" x 17" broadsides featuring the series can be purchased from The Blasted Tree's store.