Poetry

Andrew Brenza’s poetry focuses on the creation of intellectual and emotional transformations through the radical reconfiguration of page space and fundamental alterations of conventional syntactic and semantic structures. His work has appeared in many online and print journals, selections of which are listed below.

Books:

automatic souls

Automatic Souls (Timglaset Editions, 2020)

Description:

With two quotes from John Cage (“Nothing more than nothing can be said.”) and Samuel Beckett (“I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”) as starting points Andrew Brenza has created a narrative sequence of visual poems that “reveal the hidden tragedies in our typefaces” (derek beaulieu). Composed entirely from the Bauhaus font Automatic Souls is populated by sad, mechanistic creatures, trapped in a “weaponized meat machine” (Michael Sikkema). Below and sometimes embedded in the visuals is text, captions that suggest “an expression of the delusion of meaning.”

From Brenza’s afterword: “The characters in this world did not ask for their predicaments. They did not ask for the nature of their compositions. Yet they respond to those predicaments given the nature of their compositions. This is how it goes in the half-light of a fading free will.”

Automatic Souls is a chilling reminder of the predicament of the soul as we enter the 2020s.

Perfect bound, A5 format, 72 pages, colour cover, black & white inside. Edition limited to 99 copies.

Ordering:

Album, in Concrete

Album, in Concrete (Alien Buddha Press, 2019)

Description:

Album, in Concrete is a book of visual poems that explores possible visual representations of melody in specific keys/letters. It is loosely constrained by the number of octaves available on a standard piano keyboard.

Ordering:

Gossamer Lid

Gossamer Lid (Trembling Pillow Press, 2016)

Preview this book

Davy Knittle reviews Gossamer Lid in American Microreviews

Praise for Gossamer Lid:

“Define the constellations. Fly to them on wings that, though so-named, are much more solid than gossamer. Add commentary to & on—sometimes directly relevant, sometimes provoked or stimulated by, sometimes tablet wor(l)dplay, sometimes the ranting of a wordsmith howling at the moons that there weren’t enough words in the language & he’s sometimes had to make more up. Gossamer Lid is both a gnostic gospel for the 21st century & an alchemist or chiromancer’s journal. The entire is a book of poetry that is wide-ranging, brilliantly integrated, oft-times demanding in the reading of it. But well worth that reading. & you’ll never see the night sky in the same way again.” — Mark Young

“The poet Paul Celan changed his German when it sought to eradicate him. In parallel, Andrew Brenza constructs tongue-twisting portmanteaus and neologisms because English refuses to register the environmental eradication (the ‘horrorscope’) to come. Gossamer Lid asks us to approach the earth from a new angle. Concrete poetry meets the poetics of hard science in this necessary constellation of ‘striploss sunbliss.'” — Jena Osman

“Andrew Brenza’s gift splays gossamer and gusto via aptly architected and sonically potent language that recasts its role into a fundament that morphs beyond what was thought possible. I am stunned by the exquisite recreation of what syllables can do together, what visual dimensions resonate far beyond page-bound depictions of their own miraculous being. This is poetry that confronts the curious reality of how small our species is with the largest picture that we stretch to know. Concurrently, we discover an immensely robust life force in Brenza’s mind, defying all suspicion of our collective insignificance! Do not miss this book. It is extraordinary.” — Sheila E. Murphy

Ordering:

Chapbooks:

poems in c

Poems in C (Viktlösheten Press, 2019)

Triptych of Andrews

A Triptych of Andrews (The Blasted Tree, 2019)

Bitter Almonds & Mown Grass

Bitter Almonds & Mown Grass (Shirt Pocket Press, 2018)

waterlight

waterlight (Simulacrum Press, 2018)

an excerpt from Alphabeticon

an excerpt from Alphabeticon (No Press, 2018)

8 Constellations

8 Constellations (Beard of Bees, 2017)

And Then

And Then (Grey Book Press, 2016)

21 skies

21 Skies (Shirt Pocket Press, 2015)

Journals and Magazines: