Instan and Middle Passages

I found Vicuna's "Instan" to be very compelling because I think it is one of the few texts that we have read this semester that actually works better in a written form. I say this because when one looks at the drawings one is sent into a world that contains poetry but also something beyond anything that lyrical writing can ever provide. Well I was reading "Instan" I found myself trying very hard to just follow the lines on the page. Sometimes I knew what the words were sometimes I did not. I fought the urge to just examine the letters on the pages and then just write the words at the bottom of the page to make it easier for myself. But as I briefly reflected on that idea, I thought that sort of thing is probably something that Vicuna is trying to avoid. So, I did not write the words at the bottom of the pages but instead forced myself to try and just follow the lines on the page.

When I got to the part of the book where she just has the poem minus the drawings, I couldn't help but think that there was something missing in reading her poem in a more traditional manner. As I was reading the bare poem, it made me realize all over again how interesting the poem was when it was broken up into drawings.

As I was first reading Brathwaite's "Middle Passages" I still had "Instan" on the brain and I thought for the first several pages that "Middle Passages" was not all that experimental. But then as I read more and more, I realized that he was doing some things very quietly. One of the things I noticed is that text moves from right to center to left. Sometimes a line starts on the right side of the page, other times in the center, and yet others on the left. I thought that this was intriguing because it really is a challange, much like what I found in "Instan," asking: what is printed poetry supposed to look like? Of course "Middle Passages" also contains moments when there is a significant change in font but I find myself thinking more about how the poems move within the text.