review of the Enrico Mascelloni & Sarenco edited "Poesia Totale vol. II"

review of

the Enrico Mascelloni & Sarenco edited "Poesia Totale vol. II"

by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

2333. "review of the Enrico Mascelloni & Sarenco curated "Poesia Totale vol. II""

- credited to: tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

- complete version uploaded to my Critic website May 1, 2025

- http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticPoesiaTotaleII.html

review of

the Enrico Mascelloni & Sarenco edited "Poesia Totale vol. II"

by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - April 12- April 17, May 1, 2025

The complete review is here:

http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticPoesiaTotaleII.html

the truncated review is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7518748966

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232015629-poesia-totale-1945-1997

I've already reviewed the 1st volume of this 2 volume set. You can read my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7330854960 . The beginning of that review will suffice for the beginning of this one:

"I was in Hungary in July, 1997, for various neoist festivals. It was probably shortly thereafter I was invited by Monty Cantsin (Istvan Kantor), the organizer of the Hungarian events, an Hungarian ex-pat now based in CacaNada, to contribute to an exhibit of some 'neoist poetry'. I sent 2 large pieces one of wch stated that there is NO NEOIST POETRY. At some point I learned that there was going to a bk based on this exhibit & that my work wd be included. Great! I'm a publishing slut. SO, by the next yr the 2 volume bks were sd to've been sent to me in BalTimOre, where I no longer lived but still kept a PO Box. I didn't get them. BalTimOre was reputed to have the most corrupt Post Office in the country, or something like that, so I figured the bks had been stolen by (a) postal worker(s). "Blaster" Al Ackerman got his copies so I got to see them & I was damned impressed. I informed Kantor that I hadn't gotten my copies & he later claimed that Sarenco sent me a replacement package. I never got that either. I asked Blaster if he'd be willing to sell his copies & he sd no. Yrs later, I asked him again & he claimed that his copy had been stolen from Normal's, the bkstore I'd cofounded that Blaster 'worked' at, where he kept it on display. After that, I probably tried to find copies online & cdn't. SO, it wasn't until 2024 that I found this copy (as well as volume 2) for sale used somewhere in Europe for something like $165 for both volumes. I bit the bullet & bought them. Wks went by & I got vol 1. That was it. I'd bought both volumes & only got one. I informed the seller of this fully expecting to be ripped off but they came thru & sent the 2nd volume. 26 yrs of finagling but I finally got both volumes. & I SURE AS FUCK AM GLAD I DID!!!!!

"This 100 yrs retrospective of Visual Poetry has got to be the greatest collection on the subject. It's hard for me to imagine anything better. It's in Italian & I don't speak Italian but that's ok b/c the visuals provided are so incredibly comprehensive that this is a very rich compendium indeed. I'm extremely glad to be in it.

"This 1st volume is a history that includes the covers of a huge # of publications. It's got sooooo maaannny essays. It's got pictures of Visual Poets. It's got samples from a variety of collectors. Even though I don't read Italian it's obvious that the editors have done an amazing job of compiling every take on things that's out there. This volume is black & white. The 2nd volume is color & has images of the actual VisPo."

I've been involved in many international (or, as I prefer, 'patanational) communities or subcultures such as that of Mail Artists & that of Neoists, & I've enjoyed them all. In general I avoid being contextualized as an "artist" & prefer contexts that are a bit more imaginative - such as the mysterious "Pregroperativism" created by Arthur Berkoff in Germany & then the Netherlands. As such, one might think that my inclusion in this bk, wch is basically an art bk, wd be of less importance to me than other bks not so overtly art oriented. Strangely, perhaps, my enthusiasm for this collection is very strong & my inclusion in the community it represents makes me feel exceptionally 'warm & fuzzy'. Looking thru at the work & seeing how many countries the contributors are from & realizing how many of these people I've crossed paths w/ thru the mails & in person I've become hyper-conscious of how happy I am that this is the case. I'm glad to see such an expanded use of text, I'm glad to've participated in something so internationalist. In a world that seems to be never-endingly at war. it's truly fantastic to see people united around aesthetic & semantic experimentation. Thank the Holy Ceiling Light that there are so many of us out here who aren't rushing to blow each other away in order to steal each other's resources.

The contries listed in order of 1st appearance are:

Italy

Usa

Czech Republic

Greece

Portugal

Brazil

Germany

France

Denmark

Canada

Austria

Poland

Russia

Holland

Spain

Great Britain

Serbia

Chile

China

Belgium

Japan

Argentina

Slovenia

Hungary

Uruguay

Swiss

26 countries, none from Africa.

The page numbering picks up from the 1st volume so the first page here is "593". The yrs represented are "1945-1997". I'm listed under the name "TOLSON, Michael Fredrick" in the "Indice" on p 597. My 2 pieces are listed as appearing on pp 1097-1098. My middle name is actually spelled "Frederick" but when I was a teenager I decided to spell it w/o the middle "e" in order to make it appear more like 2 names stuck together: "Fred" & "Rick", both shortenings. That way I cd have 4 names instead of just 3.

The 1st piece is by "ACCAME Vincenzo", is from Italy, & is labelled "Untitled, 1977". I suspect that much of the work called "Untitled" probably has a title that the curators didn't know. This piece was probably big originally but is reduced to fit in the bk. It's all hand-written in black & blue & yellow. I find it visually interesting to look at but am unable to make any sense of it. It appears to be mostly or entirely math notation (that I had to see w/ a magnifying glass).

On p 601 there's an Al Ackerman contribution, apparently a decorated envelope of a mailing sent to Istvan Kantor. There're 2 Black & White pictures of Blaster (not identified as such here but it was Al's most common nickname) on either side of the address. The leftmost picture has the word "(DUMMYISM)" large & at its top. It's identified as "Untitled, 80's". Given that it appears to be an envelope it probably didn't have a title. The mailing address says "Montreal" so "80's" makes sense, earlier rather than later. That's the only thing attributed to Blaster but something comes later that's under a pen name that's probably his.

On pp 626-627 are Anna Banana's contributions: collages involving images of Cavellini. Anna Banana was the coeditor of Vile magazine, one of my favorite Mail Art publications. Cavellini made an art form out of Self-Historicization - planning in advance cultural celebrations of his work on his 100th anniversary. I'm told that he owned a sausage factory the profits from wch enabled him to collect art & to publish bks promoting himself. He disbursed these bks prolifically (I have a few) as well as stickers promoting his centennial. These stickers were based on the stickers for his sausage company using the colors of the Italian flag. Banana & Cavellini are both dead now.

On pp 628-629 are 2 collages from Vittore Baroni. I'm told that Vittore owns a hotel in Ponte Nossa, Italy. I have no idea whether that's true. The 2nd of the 2 collages has a rubber stamp in the lower right corner that has "S.I.N. Synthetic Internal Network". Vittore has been one of the most active Mail Artists as well as an author & a reviewer of music. The people I'm mentioning here are all people I've met &/or traded w/. They're my Mail Art 'family'.

Bill Bissett isn't part of my 'Mail Art family' but I've always felt positive toward him b/c he uses abbreviations & alternate spellings (& lower case) extensively. Hence, the 1st line of his VisPo on p 647 is "th kaptin sd he was mercurial". Alas, while reading Emmett Williams's "My Life in Flux and Vice Versa" I came across a story of Bissett (not named - but I recognized his style & the place was right) insulting Williams:

"In 1979, he [Williams] was at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. That was when bissett wrote his poison pen letter:

""he typed it his impassioned ode on '2.13.79.' The poet's scrawl of a signature is illegible, and he included no return address. I quote it here to show that I am not everybody's favourite poet. (See 1990 entry for The Boy and the Bird in Halifax.)"

[..]

""have you ever gotten your arse out

of fuckin cambridge

and visited glouster, is it too much to ask

and assume you might have stayed and studied.

""you stupid american poetasskisser academian

in the most reductive way." - p 276

"Wow, bissett comes across, to me, as yet-another bitter bigoted ignorant drunk."

- http://idioideopleintekst.nl/CriticWilliams.html

Then there's "BLAINE Julien" on pp 649-652. I've been told he owns (or owned, I don't know if he's still alive) a newspaper in Southern France. He published an enormous amt of wonderful bks & periodicals featuring Mail Art & VisPo & Performance Art related materials. I was fortunate enuf to be included in his Autumn 1981 Elementar Poetry in U.S.A. East & West issue 35 of DOC(K)S. Do people who own newspapers in the US spend their profits on promoting Mail Art & VisPo, etc?! I think not. & his work? The last piece, entitled "I", shows a frame w/ an image of smudged blue background w/ some slightly blurry white magnet letters in its midst. To the right is a larger black letter "i". Sitting in front of the frame is a bowl w/ multi-colored magnet letters in it & a clear glass pitcher w/ more of the same. The letters look like salad vegetables at a casual glance. SO, maybe the "I" is a 'word salad'.

"BUSSOTTI Sylvano", an avant-garde classical composer, is represented by a piece called "Extramusicale" on p 677. It's fairly sophisticated musical notation partially obscured by what look like ink splatters & blobs. It's quite intricate.

Then there're 4 pp (684-687) from the man responsible for getting me in this collection, "CANTSIN Monty". His contributions have a raw revolutionary power to them. The 1st one is a letter from him to the coeditor Sarenco. The letter starts:

"dear immortal Poet,

I'm singing an aria, standing on my balcony and waving to the thousands of revolutionaries assembled in front of my house. it's morning time in Akademgorod and the everyday ceremony of Neoism?! always begins with a song. how is life in Verona today?, are there any great Neoist?! opera singers?, perhaps Verona would be the best place to stage a Neoist?! opera, don't you think so?"

Overtop of this letter is a red "It's Always 6 O'Clock" symbol: a circle w/ short lines radiating out from it & a double-headed arrow aligned in the vertical 6 O'Clock position inside. The letter is signed in what appears to be gold spray-paint marker: "Esmeralda".

"COBBING Bob", the poet I sometimes credit w/ pulverizing the raw materials of language more than most, has work on pp 716-717. The 1st piece is called "Are your children safe in the sea?" (1966) & has that sentence typed & overtyped, backwards & forwards, sometimes so thickly overtyped that it's an unreadable black line. I named a movie I made after him:

147. a. "Bob Cobbing/Movie Trivia/Hypnopedagogy"

- 16mm -> 1/2" VHS cassette (single layer fish-eye transfer w/ white spandex screen)

- 28:30 or 57:00

- '91-'93

- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/OsqqA7MwdL4

b. "Bob Cobbing/Movie Trivia/Hypnopedagogy"

- 16mm (double layer optical print)

- 29:45 or 59:30

- '91-'94

- actually 58:26 in the following:

- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/bRxG1rc50bM

- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/BobCobbing

I had the great pleasure of witnessing him perform sound poetry w/ P. Clive Fencott in Baltimore & of further meeting him in London in 1984.

& then there're 2 works by "FINLAY Ian Hamilton" on pp 784-785. Finlay has always stuck out to me as unlike any other poet. "Poem-print n.11, 1969" is a very neat line drawing of a sailboat seen from the side. There's a 2 column list of boat info at the top middle of text that doesn't show on the boat itself:

"Port Letters" FR

"Fishing Nos" 87

"Radio Call Sign" MWCZ

"Nett Ton'ge" 53

"Gross Ton'ge" 53

"Name" Xmas Star

At the bottom left, the print is cocredited to John Furnival.

From pp 845-846 there're 3 works by Fluxus poet, performer, & publisher, Dick Higgins, another person I had the pleasure of witnessing read at Marshall Reese's apartment in Baltimore in the late 1970s (1978?) & to've crosses paths w/ in 2 festivals in NYC. His Something Else Press will always be an icon of great publishing for me. His 1st piece, presented here as "Untitled, 1973" seems like an experiment in the color printing he probably had access to as a publisher. There's a line drawing of a standing nude woman in black & yellow on the left & a slightly different drawing of the same subject to the right barely visible in yellow. At the top, slightly to the left are 2 hands in silver or grey, also barely visible. In the middle left there's a blue branch. Dominating the right is a black top of a tree - behind wch is a large "i" or "T" in the same silver or grey as the hands. Overprinted on this latter is a large "O" in black followed by a large "M" in the same font in blue. Is it too much to deduce that the piece might be called "OM" rather than untitled?

On p 852 there's one piece by "HUBAUT Joel" called "Decomposition III" (1969). I met him when he & Julien Blaine were touring. They performed in Baltimore. I wanted to acquire one of Hubaut's publications that cost $5 but I explained to him that I had no money, an all-too-typical situation for me. He was generous enuf to give it to me. I promised him that I'd get the $5 to him eventually. DECADES later, I was talking w/ someone who told me that they were going to France & that they'd be visiting Hubaut. I explained my debt to him & gave them $5 to give him. They did. He had no idea what they were talking about. I didn't expect him to remember but I did.

Hubaut's piece shows a drawing of a fucking couple w/ a mostly abstract coilage behind their heads. Bottom left has a photo of Chairman Mao's head w/ the words "Ubu Roi" below his mouth.

"ISOU Isidore" has 3 pieces on pp 856-858. They're all red superimposed over black, somewhat crude cartoonish line drawings & cursive text. They all have what one might take to be titles across the tops of their rectangular enclosures & are called "Untitled". They're all signed in pencil on the lower right. I find them strangely charming & if my French were better (or even slightly passable) I might find a narrative. The images seem to stand in for words. E.G.: there's "le" (the) followed by an mage of a goblet w/ a black fluid & the word "lait" (milk) on it. This is followed by "obtenu en" (obtained in) & what looks to me like an old-style phonograph (but might not be) , then "les" (the, plural) & 3 5 pointed stars then "que la" (that the) & a face holding a knife in its teeth onto the next line w/ "cache dans les" (hidden in the) & an image of clusters & leaves, then "de son" (of his) & what looks to me like a human heart followed by an image of a clutching hand. SO, 'the goblet of milk obtained in [a bldg?] the stars that the pirate hidden in the foliage of his clutching heart'? Isou is mainly known for his being the founder of Lettrism.

There're 2 letters from "JOHNSON Ray" on pp 874-875, someone I had an all-too-brief correspondence w/ before he committed suicide. They're addressed to "Sarenco Art Director Lotta Poetica" so that tells me something I didn't know. The 1st of these letters has Johnson's famous bunny head drawn over it.

980-983 has 4 pieces by Uruguayan poet/artist/political activist/Mail Artist "PADIN Clemente", someone I had minimal correspondence w/ hampered by a language barrier. Padin was disappeared into prison & rescued therefrom by an international letter-writing campaign organized by Mail Artists. His 4 pieces are strak usages of overlapping Black & White letters that somewhat 'cancel each other out' in favor of a graphic design.

"PORTER Bern", most famous, probably, for his Found Poetry compilation published by Something Else, has pp 1015-1016. Porter worked on the Manhattan Project w/o knowing what the bigger picture of it was. His 1st p is entitled "Question 56 (Bill Hanson)", 1995, & is a handwritten letter:

"What were Henry's feelings toward you when he found out about the Manhattan Project connection? What comments did he have?"

"RIEDL Anton" has 3 pieces on pp 1024-1025. The last piece is a photo of something called "Vollich aust es sa", for 4 speakers and 2 films, 1997. That caught my attn b/c it's a multiple-projection piece, the only one in the bk. I've given many multiple projection performances wch I've documented here:

225. a. "Multiple Projections - 1981-2002" {resumé style version}

- shot in BalTimOre, Montréal, Dundee (Scotland), Kansas City (Missouri), Pittsburgh, & Melbourne

- video disc + super-8mm frames (-> 35mm slide) + VHS + super-8mm + 16mm + 35mm slides + 35mm filmstrips + 35mm motion pictures -> 1/2" VHS cassette

- 14:54

- march, 02

[..]

e. "Multiple Projections - 1978-2009" (for YouTube)

- 10:00

- edit finished october, 09

- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/6smYCjQPuXM

On p 1045 there's a piece attributed to "SHERMAN GLANS Ted" that I deduce to be by Blaster Al Ackerman. It's a collage atypical of Blaster but there's a signature that reads "Thanks you buggers," that's followed by a rubber stamp of Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman followed by the typed signature "Glans Ted Sherman" (followed by the cursive "Glans Ted" w/ a "TURKEY" produce sticker immediately after) - something that gets skewed in the heading attribution.

On pp 1046-1047 there're 2 painterly contributions from "SHIMAMOTO Shozo", known for his connection w/ the Gutai group in Japan, a group sometimes associated w/ Fluxus. Shozo & Ryosuke Cohen & another performer whose name I don't remember came to Baltimore in 1987 when this movie was made of them:

597. "The back of Shozo Shimamoto's head"

- shot around July, 1987, in BalTimOre of a visit by Shozo Shimamoto, Ryosuke Cohen, & a Japanese performance artist whose name I unfortunately don't remember

- camcorder footage from Dave Guercio

- multiple exposure 35mm stills from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

- edit & titling finished June 15, 2019E.V. by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

- 7:02

- on my onesonwthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/dpOcptaJt1Y

The 1st of Shozo's 2 pieces has a circle in the middle w/ wiggly radii branching out from it. These radii each have a word wirtten on them: "DEAR, SARENCO, PLEASE, SEND, ME, YOUR, CUP, !, !" along w/ red & green lines.

On p 1061 there's a piece by "SOLT Mary Ellen" called "Zig-Zag", 1966. Solt was the editor of another major anthology called CONCRETE POETRY. Her piece is 'classic' conrete poetry insofar as its form expresses its semantic content.

"SZOMBATHY Balint" has work on pp 1074-1076 & is listed as being from Serbia. I was under the impression he was from Hungary. I met Balint in 1997 when he performed at the XXXPanzio A Neoizmus?! Anti-Esemény / XXXPanzio In the Name of Neoism?! Anti-Event in Vác, Hungary. I'd known of him for probably long before then as a visual & sound poet. His piece on p 1076 is labelled "Sound Poem" 7 listed as being from 1978. It comes w/ a handwritten instruction to print the word "SONORE" in red but it's in white here.

On pp 1097-1098 there's "TOLSON Michael Fredrick". That's me, I'm not sure why I'm TOLSON instead of my more usually "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE". Most of the people seem to be presented under their given names. My 1st piece is listed as "I'm not a poet". That's close enuf. If I'd lebelled it might've been "There is no such thing as Neoist Poetry" since I was asked to contributed Neoist Poetry to the exhibit. It was printed on what was probably a 3' X 4' piece of paper so the words were large & easily readable from a distance:

I am not a poet.

There is no such thing

as Neoist Poetry.

Neoism is a figment

of the collective imagination

of Neoists.

Neoists do not believe in Neoism.

Neoists are a figment

of the singular imagination

of Neoism.

Neoism does not believe in Neoists.

- tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

(formerly (un)known as

"Michael Fredrick Tolson")

A friend of mine reading that aloud can be witnessed here: https://youtu.be/Ug4ajUv4rqk?si=V8VupFdB7NQVxErL&t=25592 in a recent 10:26:00 movie of mine (2025) called "Susie reads to Neoists".

My next piece was similarly large, perhaps 5' X 3' & was very complex & detailed. As such, it's more or less impossible to understand in the bk (as are many of the other pieces) but still interesting to look at. It's listed as "Untitled, 1975/1996" but the upper right corner has the readable "CRUD(OO) SPIRAL TIM(OO) CAL(OO)NDAR - OFFIC(OO) PARTY - (WHOS(OO) N(OO)W Y(OO)AR?)" as a more accurate title.

I can hardly tell you how happy I am to have these 2 pieces included in this incredible bk.

On p 1100 there're 2 pieces by "TOT Endre". In his Wikipedia bio he's sd to've been associated w/ Fluxus ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endre_Tot ) but in the Wikipedia list of Fluxus artists he's not there ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus ). The 2nd of his 2 pieces has this text:

"IF YOU FEEL BORED GO TO

THE MOVIE. CLOSE YOUR

EYES AND YOU WILL SEE

MY FILM."

Nice.

"TOTH Gabor" follows on the next 3 pp (1101-1103). I met Gabor in Hungary during the afore-mentioned Neoist festival(s) in 1997. His 1st piece is labelled "Wreck II/H, 1974" & features a page-filling capital "H" much deteriorated.

"WILLIAMS Emmett" has 4 works on pp 1140-1143. The 1st one is called "Poets of the world, unite (for Sarenco), 1983" & is a hand-drawn substituion piece. It starts off w/ 'LOTTA POETICA" (the name of the magazine that Sarenco edited) & is followed w/o spacing or punctuation by a sortof 'ginderbread figure' w/ an "L" on its chest that substitutes for the "L" & then the rest of "OTTA POETICA". This process continues until it's all gingerbread men a/ letters on them & then the process reverses. The figure that ends the penultimate line has "P" on its chest, the last line is all drawings w/ letters on them that spell out the title.

"ZACK David", another Neoist, is represented by a collage of letters on p 1147. Zack died shortly after being released from a Mexican prison where his diabetes reached an extreme point from neglect.

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

idioideo at gmail dot com

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Anti-Neoism page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Audiography page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Bibliography page

to my "Blaster" Al Ackerman index

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Books page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE BYOC page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Censored or Rejected page

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Collaborations page

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