Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

Czech Concrete Anthology by Jiri Valoch; bp Nichol

Review by: Frank Parman
Books Abroad, Vol. 48, No. 2 (Spring, 1974), p. 394
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40128619 .
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czech
Jiri Valoch, ed. with bp Nichol. Czech Con-
creteAnthology.Toronto.CoachHouse. 1973.
28 sheets,unbound,unnumbered,ill. $3.
When I first visited the Coach House
Press in spring 1970, they were selling
posters,postcardsand small boxes of wooden
matches- all of "The Pipe: Made in Czecho-
slovakia,"which is now beautifullyrendered
on the boxtop cover of this anthology.It's a
pity that the box isn't built like a matchbox
instead of a giftbox, becausein an item like
this "it'sthe conceptthat counts."The Coach
House Press of Toronto (not to be confused
with the publisherof the same name in Chi-
cago) is most highly regardedfor the design
and art of printingemployedin their publica-
tions, and their existence is an outstanding
example of the necessityof governmentsub-
sidy of the arts (most of their booksare made
possibleby the CanadaCouncilon the Arts).
With this publication,however, the value
rests more with the choice of Czech poets
whose work is generally not available in
North America with the exception of Jiri
Valoch (see Mary Ellen Solt's ConcretePoet-
ry: A Woridview)and for the rangeof poems
represented(for discussion of the kinds of
poems and historyof concretepoetry,see M.
E. Solt, "ConcretePoetry," BA: 44:3, pp.
421-25). With this anthology,the contempor-
ary art movementspopularlyknown as "con-
ceptual" and "minimal" are shown within
the internationalmovement known as "con-
crete poetry."It is difficult to refrain from
comparingworks in this anthology,all done
since 1965,with the works of the Czech poet
and master of collage, Jiri Kolar, whose ob-
ject-collagework is infinitelymore subtleand
profound than the four "poem-objects"of
Karel Trinkewitz representedhere.
By far the most interestingwork in the col-
lection are the six poems by the editor, Jiri
Valoch, whose early work was heavily in-
fluenced by Kolar's typewriter experiments,
"Poemsof Silence."These poems show refer-
ences of a wide range, from "typographic"
poems through graphic music notation and
"found" poems to Conceptual Photodocu-
mentation.A fascinatingaspect of both con-
cretepoetryand conceptualart is in its inter-
This content downloaded from 91.229.229.158 on Mon, 23 Jun 2014 14:31:37 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
other slavic languages
national simultaneity. Valoch's "air (land
poem- 1970),"which offers immediaterefer-
ence to work of Ian HamiltonFinlay in Scot-
land, is also relatedto the environmentalcon-
cernsof architect-sculptor Don Bernshousein
his work conceivedin Hawaii in 1970.
The emergenceof an anthologyof "Recent
Czech ConcretePoetry"in Canadabringsthe
question:When do we get a good representa-
tion of the Canadiancontributions,including
bp Nichol (Canadianeditor for this antholo-
gy) recipient of the Governor General's
Award in 1970 for his work in both visual
and audial concretepoetry?
Vran\ Farman
CottonwoodArts Foundation
polish
Jan Kulka. . . . wiec jestem.Wroclaw. Osso-
lineum. 1973. 79 pages. 15 zl.
Although Jan Kulka (b. 1937) does not
belong to the Polish literary establish-
ment, . . . wiec jestem (the title merelytrans-
latesDescartes's"ergosum") showshim to be
a poet of greatdepthand virtuosity.His work
combinesin undogmaticsocialconsciencewith
a haunting metaphysicalawarenessof death.
Kulka'svocabularyis simpleand, for the most
part, lyrical- which does not preclude the
presence of medical terminology. Myth
touches reality:Biblical,classicalor romantic
figures contrast with the brutal realities of
modern life where experienceis constantly
brokeninto disordered,incoherentfragments.
Kulka expressesirony through unusualturns
of metaphor:"We all agree/ man is necessary
/ to a flower- to put to death / to a dog- to
inculcateingratitude/ to a machine- to teach
thoughtlessness / to the moon- to create
anxiety / to a child- to make cynicism a
habit."
The book is divided into six parts which
reflectthe narrator'sspiritualjourneyfrom a
stage of total emptiness and despairtoward
at least a tentativeeffort "to save that which
was yesterday"(the title of one of the last
poems). The last poem, addressedto Chopin,
ends with a hesitantaffirmationof the crea-
tive instinct, which persists in him like a
single, disconnected chord from a Chopin
etude.