Superpoems

Edmond Skellings, Poet Laureate of Florida, reads nine poems, each of which is illustrated by a computer-animated segment. The resultant "animated poetry" or "superpoems" mix onscreen words and swirling images to raise poetry to a multimedia level. Skellings' poems range across a wide variety of subjects: "To His Machine" is an ode to an IBM typewriter, "Vincent, Vincent" celebrates Van Gogh, "Senior Citizen" is a beautiful homage to the poet's father, "Moon Flight" poetically describes a moon landing (eerily accurate in that the poem was written 10 years prior to the actual landing on the moon), "Opening Shock" compares parachute jumping to birth "it's natural as being born, our sergeant cracked, checking the umbilicals"). However, while rapidly changing imagery on MTV doesn't present a comprehension problem (since the lyrics are often juvenile), it's questionable whether the dense language of poetry (the most meaning-compressed form of writing) is made more accessible by a bombardment of computer-animated images. Larger arts and literature collections may want to consider. An optional purchase. (R. Pitman)