ACTS OF RESISTANCE – A VISUAL POEM Sequence IN 10 Panels – Robert Frede Kenter

Various shades of green background in a triptych. On left and right an old cement smokestack spewing steam (black and white). In the centre panel a meadow with grass, elongated pink flowers abstracted. Text from top to bottom both sides: in stencil FACTORY FACTOTUM FACTS ACTS OF RESISTANCE
A Street, a wide sidewalk, trees on both sides of the sidewalk. Colour scheme is garish black, dark red, yellow/white sky. Trees are dark/blackredbrown. There is an extensive text which may or may not be visible some of the text is: judgement spirited portraits memory stripped of history armoured tanks water cannons weaponry uniforms of violence marching in step assumed (arrayed as a short lined poem to the left of the page. Right lower: named rules the acid bath cycle of capital thrown where cowards of insurance make the false reports! We know, but they ...turned away from what was needed to be ...and understood this happens every day that ...so alive and so beautiful is turned by fear and cowardice" (set out like a prose poem). The piece also has blue /purple scratches hand drawn across the top and down thru some of the right side text.
A yellow/brown poster. The brown in centre, approximating an apartment complex or a smokestack. Geometric. Text down the left-to middle of the brown rectangle: Typically carried carried care sing housing
A brick- wall erasure -- rectangle darkbright yellow with crimson text: Everyday countries recruit workers and become particularly active The most notable differences are employers do not recover a piecework rate three-month waiting period workers must have a work permit upon arrival similar to health inspections of housing typically carried protections it is Man characterized by inequality demonstrated uneven ways expanded to living and working limited rights for sending agricultural health risks nd substandard face heightened they are two studies looked at rural communities she finds invisible money
A horizontal glitch collage of high rises (at top) and old worker cottages below in jumbled rows. Colour scheme: pink-crimson, black cottages with red roofs and yellow windows, yellow-brown rust background
a vertical glitch vispo that looks like city blocks, built up modern- post modern urban sprawl as well as motherboards, computer parts, In grey, pink, black and white, forest green, crimson nd blue. the words "dissemination" and City" are present ed, as well as stretched, turned upside down, deconstructed. Glitch glitch glitch
On the left of a 3 part collage -- a vertigo black and white elongated mix of a high rise and houses. Bottom left black rectangle. On the right graffit-like tag, red signature cut off, two red-pink blobs. Text underneath difficult to read, in black handwriting. "ot is / dmess/ and on the bottom a u with an x in a black circle and a period.
A redaction-erasure black and white from a newspaper obituary of a woman immigrant. On top of the text is a kneeling woman on a rock (made from tree bark). Scratches and drawings over the text. On the right a film strip of the same image in miniature in different colors. Text: "became older introverted deeply born volunteered from her family continued travelling until retirement
A city street, royal blue, green shadows on the sidewalk, in pools, Old and new buildings, black/purple blue. Some cars on the right side parked. On the left hoarding. In the distance downtown office towers. An eerie, haunted empty and lonely tone.
An elongated glitch picture puzzle collage, pinks, rose, bright red, brown and yellow shapes, squares, rectangles, morphing shapes and repetitions -- both in image and word. Text from left to right: secular intention radiant find your diacretic reason beyond the hambone scream find your beyond the middle: scream the scream the screaming hand other fragments of the same words at the right in diagonals, floating, upside down etc. red corpuscles in some of the panels against black glitch-morph abstracted

Author Note: I put these fragments together as a stanza in a poem, a visual sequence, of juxtapositions, breath, beats and musical tone, exploring links between history, gender rights, housing, the impact and reach of capitalism & dystopia, a “not turning away from what needs to be…” a thinking through of relations between work & climate change, technology and the Anthropocene.

Robert Frede Kenter is a disabled writer, visual artist, editor, and EIC/publisher of Ice Floe Press (www.icefloepress.net). Published widely, Robert’s work includes books and appearances in journals, on-line and in print, and exhibitions, incl. The Book of Penteract (Penteract Press, 2022), The Poets of 2020 (Fevers of the Mind), The Storms Journal, Best of Blood and Aphorisms (Gutter Press), Talking about strawberries all the time, Northward Journal, New Quarterly, Olney Magazine, Streetcake Magazine, Acropolis Journal, WRIT, scissors and spackle, visual verse, cough, and many others. Work forthcoming in anthologies: Glisk and Glimmer, (Sídhe Press), Speaking in Tongues (Steel Incisors), and more. A visual poem collection, EDEN (2021) is available at Rare Swan Press.

Banner Image: Prison is the numbered uniform, a visual component by Robert Frede Kenter (c) 2023.

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