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PERIPHERAL VISION MAGAZINE: WHAT'S IN A NAME?
The name I chose for this publication, Peripheral Vision, has a certain history to it. It's been applied here and
there: a song, a writing group, even a nom de plume. The idea, fairly obviously, is that we may see things from the
corner of our eye that we miss by looking straight ahead. In other words, it's a metaphor for lateral thinking.
That's what we want to do here at PVM -- break free from that forward gaze, see the ghosts that flicker on the
edge of our vision. Like Odin, perhaps, sacrifice one eye so that the other can see all things!
Well, maybe that would be a little too extreme, eh? Creativity, though, true creativity, does require that sort of
vision, the lateral thinking that can lead us to new places. Focusing on the concepts and precepts we have learned
from our teachers, however well-meaning they may be, will take us only where we've already been.
Those ideas we have received have value, none the less. They are the first steps on our own journeys, our points of
departure.
For one must not mistake lateral thought for sloppy thought. To move laterally in ones mind, one must have a
starting point, and to think outside the box, one must first find a box! Without a structure of some sort, our
thoughts tend to be inchoate and rambling, unfocused. Restrictions truly can be a source of creativity.
Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down. ~ Robert Frost
This quote is frequently printed and repeated, sometimes quite out of context. Frost was not so much condemning
free verse -- he did dabble in it himself -- as he was pointing out that it is mighty hard to play the game when there
are no rules.
Okay, I know that even in the most free-wheeling free verse poetry there are rules simply because one is employing
language. And all language, we should remember, is ultimately metaphor. Every word has a host of connotations,
connections, meanings.
Or, as a lesser poet (that being me) put it:
To watch the stars one must first find
firm footing, lest they spin, unfixed,
in heaven, all their purpose lost.
~ from Bound (Stephen Brooke ©2007)
We need to seek those patterns, whether in the stars or in our minds. There are new relationships and meanings to
be discovered there! It is, of course, possible to let the structure actually dictate too much, to the detriment of
meaning. Art is always a balancing act.
An interesting thing (to me, but then I'm easily amused) is that being forced, as a poet, to find the words that fit a
structure can force one to find new meanings. It can take a work in a quite different direction.
And that is being in a box so one can think outside it.
Enough small empty boxes thrown into a big empty box fill it full. ~ Carl Sandburg
Simple, yet it makes one stop and chew on the words a while. Sandburg could think way outside the box, empty or
otherwise. We'd like you to try to do the same.
That is one reason we like well-crafted and structured art here. We feel it is a path to freedom, a way to keep from
getting lost along the road. This is not to say that we are opposed to free verse, total abstraction or any other
'Modern' (or even 'Postmodern') manifestation of the arts. If done well, we'd love to publish it! Peripheral Vision
Magazine is not reactionary, not part of the 'New Formalist' school (though we admire the work of Annie Finch), not
a purveyor of greeting card poetry and art.
What we are is a publication that recognizes that Modernism is no longer modern and that we are
post-Postmodernism. We're looking for creative writers and artists who are willing to move on while understanding
where they started from, those who can use the gifts of the past to build our future. We want and need creative
and critical thinkers.
We need people with peripheral vision!
Stephen Brooke
Publisher and Editor, Peripheral Vision Magazine
PS my thanks to Ayesha Saldanha (aka Bint Battuta), blogger, translator and writer, for giving me the idea for this
essay!
The name I chose for this publication, Peripheral Vision, has a certain history to it. It's been applied here and
there: a song, a writing group, even a nom de plume. The idea, fairly obviously, is that we may see things from the
corner of our eye that we miss by looking straight ahead. In other words, it's a metaphor for lateral thinking.
That's what we want to do here at PVM -- break free from that forward gaze, see the ghosts that flicker on the
edge of our vision. Like Odin, perhaps, sacrifice one eye so that the other can see all things!
Well, maybe that would be a little too extreme, eh? Creativity, though, true creativity, does require that sort of
vision, the lateral thinking that can lead us to new places. Focusing on the concepts and precepts we have learned
from our teachers, however well-meaning they may be, will take us only where we've already been.
Those ideas we have received have value, none the less. They are the first steps on our own journeys, our points of
departure.
For one must not mistake lateral thought for sloppy thought. To move laterally in ones mind, one must have a
starting point, and to think outside the box, one must first find a box! Without a structure of some sort, our
thoughts tend to be inchoate and rambling, unfocused. Restrictions truly can be a source of creativity.
Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down. ~ Robert Frost
This quote is frequently printed and repeated, sometimes quite out of context. Frost was not so much condemning
free verse -- he did dabble in it himself -- as he was pointing out that it is mighty hard to play the game when there
are no rules.
Okay, I know that even in the most free-wheeling free verse poetry there are rules simply because one is employing
language. And all language, we should remember, is ultimately metaphor. Every word has a host of connotations,
connections, meanings.
Or, as a lesser poet (that being me) put it:
To watch the stars one must first find
firm footing, lest they spin, unfixed,
in heaven, all their purpose lost.
~ from Bound (Stephen Brooke ©2007)
We need to seek those patterns, whether in the stars or in our minds. There are new relationships and meanings to
be discovered there! It is, of course, possible to let the structure actually dictate too much, to the detriment of
meaning. Art is always a balancing act.
An interesting thing (to me, but then I'm easily amused) is that being forced, as a poet, to find the words that fit a
structure can force one to find new meanings. It can take a work in a quite different direction.
And that is being in a box so one can think outside it.
Enough small empty boxes thrown into a big empty box fill it full. ~ Carl Sandburg
Simple, yet it makes one stop and chew on the words a while. Sandburg could think way outside the box, empty or
otherwise. We'd like you to try to do the same.
That is one reason we like well-crafted and structured art here. We feel it is a path to freedom, a way to keep from
getting lost along the road. This is not to say that we are opposed to free verse, total abstraction or any other
'Modern' (or even 'Postmodern') manifestation of the arts. If done well, we'd love to publish it! Peripheral Vision
Magazine is not reactionary, not part of the 'New Formalist' school (though we admire the work of Annie Finch), not
a purveyor of greeting card poetry and art.
What we are is a publication that recognizes that Modernism is no longer modern and that we are
post-Postmodernism. We're looking for creative writers and artists who are willing to move on while understanding
where they started from, those who can use the gifts of the past to build our future. We want and need creative
and critical thinkers.
We need people with peripheral vision!
Stephen Brooke
Publisher and Editor, Peripheral Vision Magazine
PS my thanks to Ayesha Saldanha (aka Bint Battuta), blogger, translator and writer, for giving me the idea for this
essay!
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