Preface

From the beginning of my work in visual poetry fifty years ago, I wanted to create from words alone images so strong that they would stick in viewers' heads long after their eyes turned away from my works. When I first heard the epithet Afterimage as an honorific among visual artists, I recognized it as analogous to the strongest lines in strictly verbal poetry.

Now that I've seen others claim the epithet Visual Poetry for words embedded in other kinds of images, I feel more reason to declare and extend my original ambition to make the most powerful afterimages available to me with words alone.

Secondouroboros represents a sequel to an earlier collection Ouroboros with different visual forms also published by NYQ Books (2014).

Many Shorter Ouroboros, all with less than seven letters, I've put into clear circular cylinders, thus making small Sculptures that must be held and spun in a viewer's hand to be "read."

--Richard Kostelanetz, 14 May 2020