Unlikely 2.0


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Editors' Notes

Maria Damon and Michelle Greenblatt
Jim Leftwich and Michelle Greenblatt
Sheila E. Murphy and Michelle Greenblatt

A Visual Conversation on Michelle Greenblatt's ASHES AND SEEDS with Stephen Harrison, Monika Mori | MOO, Jonathan Penton and Michelle Greenblatt

Letters for Michelle: with work by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Jeffrey Side, Larry Goodell, mark hartenbach, Charles J. Butler, Alexandria Bryan and Brian Kovich

Visual Poetry by Reed Altemus
Poetry by Glen Armstrong
Poetry by Lana Bella
A Eulogic Poem by John M. Bennett
Elegic Poetry by John M. Bennett
Poetry by Wendy Taylor Carlisle
A Eulogy by Vincent A. Cellucci
Poetry by Vincent A. Cellucci
Poetry by Joel Chace
A Spoken Word Poem and Visual Art by K.R. Copeland
A Eulogy by Alan Fyfe
Poetry by Win Harms
Poetry by Carolyn Hembree
Poetry by Cindy Hochman
A Eulogy by Steffen Horstmann
A Eulogic Poem by Dylan Krieger
An Elegic Poem by Dylan Krieger
Visual Art by Donna Kuhn
Poetry by Louise Landes Levi
Poetry by Jim Lineberger
Poetry by Dennis Mahagin
Poetry by Peter Marra
A Eulogy by Frankie Metro
A Song by Alexis Moon and Jonathan Penton
Poetry by Jay Passer
A Eulogy by Jonathan Penton
Visual Poetry by Anne Elezabeth Pluto and Bryson Dean-Gauthier
Visual Art by Marthe Reed
A Eulogy by Gabriel Ricard
Poetry by Alison Ross
A Short Movie by Bernd Sauermann
Poetry by Christopher Shipman
A Spoken Word Poem by Larissa Shmailo
A Eulogic Poem by Jay Sizemore
Elegic Poetry by Jay Sizemore
Poetry by Felino A. Soriano
Visual Art by Jamie Stoneman
Poetry by Ray Succre
Poetry by Yuriy Tarnawsky
A Song by Marc Vincenz


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Roger Humes says: maxima proposition was part of a continuation of an examination of "terseness" in verse. A few years ago I had been working for quite some time exploring lengthily narrative in my work which culminated with the book There Sings No Bird, a modern Western version of the Arabic legend of Majnun and Layla.

At that time I discovered that anything else I attempted to write in that style was merely a rehashing of what I had previously created. In an attempt to break out of that rut I radically changed my style, making my lines "sparse" with only one to two words per line. This resulted in my illustrated volume on death and aging, after the visitation.

Next, I carried the brevity one step further in producing a series of one line poems that became maxima propositio; i.e., the greatest premise or proverb. This work was initially published as an e-book pamphlet.

For a number of years I have also worked with computer graphic art. This led me to explore using video with my poetry, resulting in the maxima propositio piece. The text is the same used in the e-book, only with a fractal background and soundtrack added to words scrolling from various positions in different colors and fonts.

I have no idea if the work is "successful" or not. All I can avow is that for me it fulfilled the need my creativity required at that moment. I hope you find viewing it as compelling as I did the creation process.

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Roger Humes is a poet, musician, and computer graphic artist. He is the Director of The Other Voices International Project, a cyber-anthology of world poetry, and the International Poetry Editor for Harvest International, an annual arts and literature magazine produced by the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He has released two collections of poetry, There Sings No Bird and after the visitation, as well as an e-book version of maxima propositio. All are available at stores.lulu.com/electrato. Humes lives in Claremont, California.


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