'Experimental' poetry — part two

Kia ora.

Following on from part one, 'experimental' poetry, then, ranges mightily across all manner of media - from strict text juxtapositions right through to poets experimenting on their very own corpus: not as body of work, but on their own body as work. And Aotearoa-New Zealand is no exception, as we shall soon see.

For me, this 'means' that poetry is a vast everyday emotional experience and not a sterile study of neutered lines in some arcane academic book. We - my wife and I - have a home in Pampanga, Philippines. Every Good Friday, without fail, a procession makes its somewhat tortured way past our home: penitents, flagellants, their assistants, while gawpy-eyed spectators lean over balustrades and fences to see the sights - all on their way later to a field just down the road, where some of them also become crucified - literally, with nails being hammered through limbs and hands. Yes, this too is 'experimental' poetry - somewhat extreme indeed - but a definite creative existential statement. The photo below is a milder representation.