TWO: KALDRON / the making of

 notes on kaldron, an international journal of visual poetry and language art

i began publishing kaldron in the spring of 1976, about nine months after moving to shell beach, california, northern pismo beach. contents focused on lyrical and narrative lexical poetry accompanied by smatterings of contemporary and historic visual poetry. tabloid format (11x17); each run, 1000 copies. issues 1-10 are newsprint, 11-21/22 book paper. 21/22 is bound by staples, slick cover stock, 11x14. number of pages increased over the years from 12 to 24; the last double issue, 52. individuals on the bulk mailing list received copies gratis, an example of free enterprise. copyright belongs to contributors.

in 1978 for issue #8, i decided to change contents to only visual poetry and language art (visual text art). at that time while small magazines were including concrete and visual poetry, no small or large press devoted itself solely to visual poetry and visual text art in the states. to begin with a bold national and international statement, i thought making the issue a catalog for an international exhibition. i asked david and patty arnold, living in oceano at the time, to join in curating. thus was born the visualog exhibition series associated with kaldron. the gallery director at california polytechnic state university in san luis obispo provided the exhibition space in the university gallery. glenna luschi of cafe solo press opened her doors for us (mainly david and patty) to publish a special issue of cafe solo. it is a slick cover edition with half tones printed on book paper. it too was 11x17. thus, visualog 1 is cataloged by kaldron 8 and cafe solo, series 2, numbers 3 & 4.

the intent of the new direction for kaldron was publishing the best national and international work possible. egalitarian, it was open to all schools and nations. business model, maintain free enterprise with first bulk mailing free to those wishing a copy. efficient use of the mail systems, publish the addresses of each contributor for easy contact (a straight line is quicker than a triangle).

kaldron entered into the arena of correspondence /mail art at this moment expanding its audience and attracting visual poets and language artists outside the usual visual poetry forums. some arenas were controlled by powerful groups excluding others. kaldron provided a new opportunity for many to be published in the states.

issue 8 contains the first article on what i call the m.i.a.’s of concrete and visual poetry histories that generally are not actual histories. revisiting available anthologies and writings, i noticed in these “histories” that coverage after e.e. cummings jumps directly to concrete poetry with no mention of kenneth patchen and also countless others i discovered later. i set up a meet to interview miriam patchen, his widow. the article is reprinted on the e kaldron site (https://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/kpint.htm) my revisit of patchen is found as the coda in my article on anther m.i.a., henri-martin barzun (The Enigma of / Henri-Martin Barzun https://synaptry.blogspot.com/2020/03/synapse-essay-ninth-enigma-of-henri.html. the concerned focus on patchen for me and others is that it seems, he, as many of us view, is our william blake. generally speaking, it appears a major division among concrete poets, visual poets, visual text artists, scholars and academics is found by those influenced by patchen and those who ignore him. patchen being truly a street poet of the political left and a visionary sourcing from the higher realms as did blake. he suffered no fools and took no prisoners. he is a model most post modern poets and their allies have turned their backs on.

issue 13 is devoted to my first rune volume. bern porter published a very limited first edition. issue 16 is devoted to the work of the under discussed and under praised doris cross. she began her word paintings in 1965 now considered among the earliest treated text works. issue 17 is dedicated to the works of 3 Americans, Paula Hocks, Scott Helmes and Loris Essary. issue 18 is sourced from visualog 2 exhibited in the cuesta gallery at the local community college, cuesta college. issue 19 is devoted to five french, 4 of whom are lettrists, three arab word painters and eight japanese visual poets. issue 20 is an all american issue. issue 21/22 is the catalog for visualog 3 displayed in one of the roving galleries supported by the art collective of san luis obispo county, alternatives.

below is an abridged list of visual poets and mail artists published in kaldron and or exhibited in visualogs 1-4. visualog 4 and 4.1 were exhibited in brooklyn in 1991 curated by bill keith. for complete issues of kadlron see my web site https://www.karlkempton.net/

Fernando Aguiar, Portugal

Josefina Alcala, Mexico

Ana Aly, Brasil

Miekal And, USA

Avelino De Araujo, Brasil

David Arnold, USA

Patty Arnold, USA

Francisco Arias, Mexico

Denise A Aubertin, France

Vittore Baroni, Italy

Kum Nam Baik, Korea

Carlyle Baker, Canada

Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Russia/USA

Michael Bell, USA

Shaunt Basmajian, Canada

Guy Beining, USA

John M Bennett, USA

Ilya Bokshtein, Russia/ Israel

Daniel F. Bradley, Canada

Jonathan Brannen, USA

Hart Broudy, Canada

Paulo Brusky, Brazil

Ernst Buchwalder, Switzerland

Sergio A. Burquez, Mexico

Paulo Brusky, Brazil 

Barbara Caruso, Canada

Sergio Cena, Italy

Paula Claire, England

Ryosuke Cohen, Japan

David Cole, USA

Ruth Cowen, Australia

Doris Cross, USA

jw curry, Canada

CURVD H&Z, Canada

Anna Cusenza, USA

Betty Danon, Italy

Carlos Dantas, Brazil

Elwood Decker, USA

Brian Dedora, Canada

Guillermo Deisler, Bulgeria / Germany

Peter Klaus Dencker, Germany

Wally Depew, USA

Frederique Devaux, France

Bill DiMichele, USA

Michael Dudley, Canada

Bela Egyedi, Canada

K.S. Ernst, USA

Loris Essary, USA

Greg Evason, CANADA

Bartolome Ferrando, Spain

Aaron Flores, Mexico

Giovanni Fontana, Italy

William Fox, USA

Lisa Frank, USA

Bill Gaglione, USA

Philip Gallo, USA

Jesus Romeo Galdamez, El Salvador

Giuliano Gallela, Italy

Generator Press, USA

Andrei Gennadiev, Russia

Michael Gibbs, England

Anthony J. Gnazzo, USA

Bob Grumman, USA

Alexander Hamburger, Brasil

Norm Hammond, USA

Scott Helmes, USA

Michael Helsem, USA

The Hermetic Press, USA

Villari Herrmann, Brasil

Dennis Holt, USA

Tom Hibbard, USA

Dick Higgins, USA

David Highsmith, USA

Crag Hill, USA

J.R. Hines, USA

Paula Hocks, USA

Davi Det Hompson, USA

Wharton Hood, Canada

Channa Horowitz, USA

Isidore Isou, France

Motoyuki Ito, Japan

Jon Iverson, USA

Noboru Izumi, Japan

Alaistair Johnston, USA

R. K.Joshi, India

Eduardo Kac, Brasil

Hideo Kajino, Japan

Kyuyo Kajino, Japan

Edith Kallman, USA

Hiroo Kamimura, Japan

Edward Kaplan, USA

William Keith, USA

Karl Kempton, USA

Ruth Kempton, USA

Sylvia Kempton, USA

Joseph Keppler, USA

Bleim Kern, USA

S. E. Kohler, USA

Rachid Koraichi, Tunsia

Richard Kostelanetz, USA

Marco Kurtycz, Mexico

Suzanne Lacy, USA

Mary LaPorte, USA

Peggy Lefler, Canada

d.a.levy, USA

Torbjorn Lime, Sweden

Fred Lonidier, USA

Aaron Marcus, USA

Stephen-Paul Martin, USA

John Martone, USA

Hassan Massoudy, France

Kurt Mautz, Germany

Tony May, USA

Florivaldo Menezes, Brasil

Philadelpho Menezes, Brasil

Hassan Massoudy, France

Hansjorg Mayer, Germany

David McLimans, USA

George Meyers Jr., USA

Steven Moore, USA

Tomoko Miyajima, Japan

Ikuo Mori, Japan

Peter Murphy, Australia

Shutaro Mukai, Japan

Shutaro Mukai’s Group: Mukai + Ishibashi + Ejiti + Shinozaki + Nagasa + Washiyama, Japan

Rodrigo Munoz, Mexico

Giulia Niccolai, Italy

Tom Ockerse, USA

Richard Olson, USA

Peter Peshkov, Russia

Pawel Petaz, Poland

Tom Phillips, England

Lamberto Pignotti, Italy

Howardena Pindell, USA

Margerite Pinney, Canada

Harry Polkinhorn, USA

Gabriel Pomerand, France

Bern Porter, USA

David Powell, Australia

Tim Prather, USA

Dmitriy Prigoff, Russia

Ronald Prost, USA

Betty Radin, England

Robert Reheldt, Germany 

Ruth Wolf-Reheldt, Germany 

Beryl Reichenberg, USA

RETROFUTURISM, USA

John Riddell, Canada

Kirk Robertson, USA

Marilyn R. Rosenberg, USA

Dieter Roth, Germany

Runaway Spoon Press, USA

Neide Dias Se Sá, Brazil

Roland Sabatier, France

Karla Sachse, Germany

Abilio-Jose Santos, Portugal

Alain Satié, France

R. Saunders, USA

Ken Saville, USA

Klaus Schnitzer, USA

Robert Sennhause, USA

Karen Shaw, USA

Toshihiko Shimizu, Japan

SHISHI, Japan

Mieko Shiumi, Japan

Falves Silva, Brazil

Harry Smallenberg, USA

Maynard Sobral, Brasil

Sober Minute Press, Canada

Eric Solstein, USA

Adriano Spatola, Italy

Pete Spence, Australia

Buzz Spector, USA

Carol Stetser, USA

SOBER MINUTE PRESS, Canada

Carolyn Stoloff, USA

Marcel Stussi, Switzerland

George Swede, Canada

Shohachiro Takahashi, Japan

Hiroshi Tanabu, Japan

Lowell Tanquary, USA

TEXT POETICO, Spain

THE METAL FARM, Canada

Miroljub Todorovic, Yugoslavia

Arrigo Lora-Totino, Italy

Fred Truck, USA

David UU, Canada

Ed Varney, Canada

John Vieira, USA

Shoji Yoshizawa, Japan

Elizabeth Was, USA

Chuck Welch, USA

Larry Wendt, USA

Michael Winkler, USA

Madam X, USA

XEXOXIAL ENDARCHY, USA

Constantin Xenakis, France

Ryojiro Yamanaka, Japan

Shoji Yoshizawa, Japan

Karl Young, USA

ZEDITIONS, France.

Paul Zelevansky, USA

Hossein Zenderoudi, France