Three Concrete Poems
by Jey Ley
In the Orchard
Staircase
With Praise
Artist Statement
Recently, I have started to think of my visual poems in terms of “visual meter”. Traditionally, the concept of “meter” (in the context of poetry) refers to a meter of sound, a sort of uniform flow of speech. However, fast forward to the advent and dominance of free verse, many would argue that contemporary poetry has given up sound meter in favor of free-flowing speech. Either way, sound meter can be incorporated into poetry, but not as a requirement.
With this in mind, my visual poems sometimes, but not always, use what I refer to as “visual meter”, or a uniform flow of visual patterns. Each of my poems presented here in Sugar Suites is a good example of my visual poetry that employs visual meter. For example, my poem “In the Orchard” treats the phrase “orchid in the orchard” as a visual unit, or symbol, that is repeated in a predictable way. Furthermore, the vertical alignment of “dragon | orchid” can be considered another repeating visual unit embedded in the poem (which can also bring to mind a vision of a type of orchid species called “dragon’s mouth”).
Jey Ley’s poetry appears or will in Chicago Quarterly Review, Magma Poetry, The Rialto, Tokyo Poetry Journal, VOLT, South Dakota Review, The Hollins Critic, Lullwater Review, and elsewhere. Jey is a visual artist and new writer in Gem City, OH. IG: @jeyleyjey