The death of Eugen Gomringer, at 100 years of age, closes off what we might term the classic Concrete poetry century. He was long held to be the founding father of the movement as a movement, rather than a method (which has been ubiquitous throughout human history, human’s painting and depicting and shaping with writing) and he, for innovative literature, is one of the most influential and considerable poets of the 20th and 21st century. I was fortunate to cross paths with him on a few occasions, most especially when we shared the stage at the Lyrik Kabinett in Munich. There’s a nice article about that, and my response to him in work, here Even at 95 I found him to be warm, sharp witted, direct, like his writings, and his poems. Subtle in his focus. Every year I have been teaching, failing none, I have taught his thinking around Concrete poetry and it’s place in 20th century poetry. His influence has been enormous and his legacy assured.

Attached is the video I filmed of him, that night in Munich, with his talk for the Klang Farben Text festival. He lived an extraordinary and full life, genuinely broke ground in literature and language arts, and inspired many others into a field he formulated. He was always writing, always in his own, original way. To that we should all aspire, leaving behind us the silent spaces that can be found in the centre of his most famous poem.