Nell Osborne Surreal-Absurd Sampler
“A perceptive friend of mine says that my poetry takes place within deep social insanity. I like poetry and prose that behaves outrageously, or antisocially, or which doesn’t “reward” the reader, at least not in familiar or legible ways — I think that’s a personal preference — but it lends itself well to the experience of being alive right now.”
Stuart Ross Surreal-Absurd Sampler
In 1984 I founded a school of writing I called Demento Primitivo. It really caught on, at least among me. The people and other creatures and objects in my poems and stories often push themselves beyond the boundaries of realism and into the dementations of reality. Reality is the bubbling cauldron of absurdity we are flung into. The giant ladle of surrealism stirs us around and around until we capitulate to its nurturing demands.
Some News
My visual poems are inspired by the poetic aesthetics of Zen koans. I noticed that some combinations of objects and words shape my thoughts in an unexpected way and, at the same time, inspire me.
Heart flattened in an avalanche of odd
These poems are built around the waking moments - the instance when the dream state and wakefulness flip and the whole dreaming hubris gets tossed into a pile in some mental corner like some leftovers.
Surreal-Absurd and the Art of the Prose-Poem
One notable characteristic of the surreal-absurd is a taste for minimalism and prose-poetry, for spinning weird yet resonant yarns in a paragraph or so of poetic prose. Herein lies a selection of such prose poems from the Mercurius archives…
Heavy Legs
These collages piece together fragments of images and language that have been left behind and lost on the sidelines of day-to-day life.
Living in Ukraine These Days
The Ukrainian poet Volodymyr Bilyk recounts his daily life in war-torn Ukraine.
Word Fungus
My collages, made with small scraps of torn paper, are worked quickly and intuitively. This creative practice has broadened to cover (literally) old 'morning pages' - the discipline of 3 pages uncensored, longhand writing to kick-start the day – repurposed in this way, two forms of expression are juxtaposed as a kind of creative palimpsest, where some of the original text shows through.
Chasing its tail
Three digital paintings.
Palaces
It was while isolating with covid last September that I decided to rescue my old manual typewriter from a box in the attic.
The giant killer wants no hands
I just love to cut up old books I find in the trash and turn them into something new and absurd. No deeper meaning, just fun and entertainment.
Pupa
Three visual poems
The Gloss Machine and the Velvet Death
The theme of this collection is “creative destruction.” I’ve taken my own work, which are mainly (industrial and street) photographically based, and defiled and deformed the original prints with an assortment of random and common household items and products, as varied as drywall screws to floor and glass cleaner to birth new art from already existing art.
Hopefully
Three watercolour paintings
The Burning That Begins in the Eyes
Everywhere we look there are faces staring back at us. Out of the corner of the eye, we spy a wink from a passing shadow or a smile in a gleam of water. We project our selves outward into the field we experience. These four collages record what I have discovered in flowers, hair, and other objects.
All the Octopi
These visual poems, which sit on a line between facts and aesthetics, celebrate octopuses. The text, consisting of a list of the common names of all octopi, is repeated and fractured and then images and colours are layered on. The process is more intuitive than deliberate, with accidents and random configurations contributing to the creative process.
Breathing Hard and Voluptuously Sleazy
These mixed-media visual poems combine acrylic paint, cut-up text and digital processes.
Femininity, Animism, and Politics: how Pop Surrealists are Re-inventing Surrealism
From female avatars to mountains with eyes, Dorothy Circus Gallery's Alexandra Mazzanti talks about trends both old and new in pop surrealism
John Maradik Surreal-Absurd Sampler
Three poems and two collages from John Maradik, complete with an intro on the surreal.
Rachel B. Glaser Surreal-Absurd Sampler
Six unique and absurd pieces from poet, short story writer, and novelist Rachel B. Glaser, complete with a mini-essay on the surreal.
The never-ending quest…
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