Barcode Poetry

Riffing on company slogans, song lyrics, protest chants, and writing advice, Barcode Poetry is a 101-part sequence of typewritten visual poems taking up the complicated relationship between art and commerce. Though made on a 1940 Remington Rand Deluxe Model 5 typewriter, a relic of the analogue past, these poems masquerade as the hallmark of digitized consumerism — barcodes — to playfully critique the paradox of creativity under capitalism. This debut collection includes an afterword on composing typewriter art that positions Barcode Poetry against the commercialization of the culture industry.

Paperback
Edition of 200
The Blasted Tree
2021
978-1-987906-71-4
$20

The Blasted Tree

Paperback
Edition of 200
The Blasted Tree
2021
ISBN: 978-1-987906-71-4
$20

The Blasted Tree

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Publication History

Barcode Poetry was one of the first two books published by The Blasted Tree and released in 2021, but the project began several years earlier in the fall of 2016. Early versions of these poems were published by NewPoetry, Soliloquies Anthology, Penteract Press, BALDHIP, h&, Bottlecap Press, NōD Magazine, Timglaset Editions, Queen Mob's Teahouse, ToCall Magazine, Renegade, Antilang, Train: a poetry journal, Poet Responses to OO: Typewriter Poems by Dani Spinosa, and in the chapbook Barcode Poems, published in 2021 by psw/Timglaset Editions.

In the summer of 2021, The Blasted Tree undertook a crowdfunding campaign to support the publication of two new books of visual poetry. Through pre-sales and the success of this campaign, The Blasted Tree was able to fully fund the production of both books, including an edition of 200 copies of Barcode Poetry.

Reviews

"Can poetry achieve the escape velocity it needs to outrun the logic of the market? That's open to debate, and Flemmer's barcode poems — plus his attached statement — weigh in with wit, vigour, and originality. If you're looking for a quick read that rewards repeated use, Barcode Poetry will get you there. Proceed to checkout."

— Jade Wallace, CAROUSEL Magazine

"There is a fascinating tension between the digital chill of the barcode and the manifest humanity of the poems themselves ... The poems are arranged so that they move fluidly between registers, and the result is a book that is as much a pleasure to read as it is to look at and think about."

— Aaron Schneider, The /tƐmz/ Review