My poem “The Joys of Serf Culture” was published in 13 Miles from Cleveland literary magazine, Volume 6 Number 1 for 2024. I’m a bit behind in posting, as this was released in January. You can read the full poem here, just scroll down a bit. Lots of interesting Vispo and text work from familiar and unfamiliar names.
This is actually a reprint, the poem first appearing in Mad Swirl on April 24, 2021. I’m pleased to see it getting new life.
On March 9, Mad Swirl literary journal published my poem “Free Trip.” You can read it here.
Ranger Magazine #4 was released in January 2024 featuring a wide array of experimental work in many formats. I’m pleased to be represented with two videos and six poems. The videos are “Tiger Song” and “ET ABC,” both featuring asemic language imagery and asemic vocals in the electronic soundtrack by Hearasay in Paradox Lust. The poems are “baiting,” “better get,” “whether tube or tunnel,” “we must,” “pointers pointing,” and “way out.” You can view the videos here and the poems here.
Ranger is a new literary magazine focusing on experimental text, visual and hybrid work from the editor of the defunct Angry Old Man journal. Ranger #2 was released on August 3, filled with experiments of all kinds. Witness the contents here. I’m pleased to be represented by a portfolio of new work including video, video stills/vispo, and text pieces.
My video “Phantom Broadcast” features asemic visual elements and an electronic soundtrack that includes asemic vocalizations. I pulled 20 stills from the video to demonstrate the asemic text. You can view this stuff here.
There are also seven text pieces, including “can’t go back,” “Good Times,” “It’s down to this,” “collect afraid,” “A Resource,” “There goes another angel,” and “Click the topic to access a collection of images.” You can read them here.
The last issue of Otoliths, Issue 70 for Southern Winter, was published July 30, and it bows out in classic encyclopedic style, covering an even wider gathering of experimental poets, writers and artists from around the world than ever before. As editor Mark Young noted in his announcement email, “This last issue is immense & ranges from the dunes of Oceano across to the battlefields of Ukraine, from Scandinavia down to the unceded lands of South Australia. It contains reviews, memoirs, collages, photographs, paintings, vispo, text poems, short stories, videos, combinations of the preceding plus a few other things.” The contents is too huge to paste on this post, but can be marveled at here.
I can’t say enough good things about Otoliths, as it has always seemed like the literary journal of record for the “international avant garde” ever since I discovered it in 2016, and I’ve been grateful for all the times my work has appeared on its pages. This last blast is no exception. You can find new video, vispo and text from me in these pages.
My video “New Brain Imprint” incorporates asemic textual elements in the imagery as well as what I’m calling “asemic vocalizations” in the electronic soundtrack (credited to my music project Hearasay in Paradox Lust). You can view the video here. There are ten stills pulled from the video, demonstrating the asemic text, which can be viewed here. There are also ten text pieces here, including “some functions of lingual,” “say out noise,” “tailing action float,” “talker view,” “day lag,” “palest pensive,” “nettle pack lock swell,” “laugh track to everything,” “gurgle, fetter, blessed,” and “This Immersion.”
Otoliths will be missed. It’s passing leaves a huge void in the literary journal world. But we will (hopefully) have the online archives in perpetuity, and there are print versions to be acquired on Lulu. Long live Otoliths!
The penultimate issue of Otoliths was released over the weekend; this one is number 69 for Southern Autumn 2023. As usual, it ranges widely across a variety of literary and artistic genres and hybrids from a huge cast of international contributors. One can but go to the contents page and begin selecting works to view for an encyclopedic snapshot of the artistic “avant garde.”
I’m pleased to be represented in this issue with text, vispo and video works. The five text pieces include: “Is It Ever This,” “untitled [better the day of/tomorrow],” “In case of,” “issue tote,” and “Past Ratchet.” The vispo are still images pulled from a video I made a few weeks ago, called “Hieroglyphic Avalanche,” because that’s pretty much what you get: a moving script of asemic ideograms or hieroglyphs rushing by in relentlessly kaleidoscopic neon metamorphosis. There are 20 stills pulled to demonstrate some of the individual characters.
My goal with recent video work has been to create works with asemic images and soundtracks that use “asemic vocalizations.” I had wanted to do a long form piece, and at just over 17 minutes, “Hieroglyphic Avalanche” gets the job done on all counts. (I must apologize if YouTube includes advertisements before and during playback; that’s not by my choice, I don’t know why they are there, and I’m receiving no remuneration for these intrusions.)
You can check out my text pieces here. The vispo and video link can be found here.
Otoliths #68, the Southern Summer 2023 issue, was released today. As always, crammed with text, vispo, mixed media and unclassifiable works from across the international literary avant garde. Follow the linked text to the contents for full details. Hours of great reading/viewing.
I’m pleased to be represented in this issue by an array of work, including five text pieces from my most recent explorations, plus the short asemic video “Codex Null” and five still images taken from the video. You can check out the poems here, and the vispo here. The poems are “Bird Lessons,” “Magnified Channels,” “leak allusion,” “more so,” and “Later Mages.”
Yesterday my poem “Milkshake Flumes” appeared in the online poetry journal Mad Swirl. You can read the poem here. If you click on my name, it goes to a archive of all my pieces published by the journal. It’s great to be part of the journal again!
I’m very pleased to be part of the Virginia focused issue of The Southern Poetry Anthology (Volume IX in a series), which includes poets from across the state. My poem “Hold This Moment in Stone” was selected almost two years ago (back when I was still a resident in my native state) to be part of the book. So it’s been a long wait! The anthology is available in print and ebook versions. Publication and ordering info here. (Also available on Amazon, etc.)
According to the back cover blurb, ‘This collection includes well-known, established, and celebrated poets such as Charles Wright, Claudia Emerson, Gregory Orr, Ellen Bryant Voigt, R. T. Smith, Forrest Gander, and Rita Dove, and the editors have dedicated equal focus on newer, diverse poets who continue to broaden and enrich the literary legacy of this beautiful state.” Although I’m not familiar with most of those “well-known” poets, I was happy to see my friends Mel Nichols and Rod Smith represented with generous samplings of their work.
“Hold This Moment in Stone” is part of my “Civilization’s Lost” series, and ironically it was one of the last of those pieces to be published. After I sent it to the Southern Poetry Anthology, Futures Trading accepted it–although editor Caleb Puckett suggested an edit, saying the poem “has a lot of potential. However, it does feel slightly rambling–like it could use a tighter focus as you move from stanza to stanza.” So I did change one stanza, the second to the last one on the page above, and he took it. The Southern Poetry Anthology was open to previously published work, so this wasn’t a problem. But I never changed the version I sent to the anthology, and they took it as is! I kind of think the poem is stronger with the edit, but it goes to show you never know what editors will like or dislike about a piece. You can read the edited version in Futures Trading here. No matter what, I’m pleased that two places accepted the work, and I think both versions work well. When it comes time to publishing the “Civilization’s Lost” series as a book, I’m not sure which version of the poem I’ll use.
Otoliths #67, the Southern Spring 2022 issue, dropped on October 31 just in time for Halloween. Puns about the issue being filled with both tricks and treats aside, it’s another encyclopedic view of the international literary avant garde with visual poetry, art work, text pieces, essays and hybrid forms from around the world. Check out the contents here.
I’m pleased to be represented by a selection of visual and text pieces, including an asemic video called “Silent Letters,” which includes some of my original experimental electronic music, and ten stills from the video. These are asemic vispo in themselves. Five text pieces of recent vintage round off my contributions: “Glass Ladder,” “Game On,” “What We Did,” “din dings,” and “those who repeat it.” You can check out the vispo here and the text works here.
jeff bagato 