What exactly is visual poetry? Geoff Huth, Bob Gru-ku-mann, David Baptist Chirot, and other members of the Spidertangle List seem to know it when they see it, but can’t arrive at exactly what it is they mean when they try to define it. Does visual poetry need to have some linguistic element to make it poetry, or can it be created without words, or symbols, or even the beginnings of what could possibly be seen as linguistic elements? And if so, what separates visual poetry from just plain graphic art?

Or is it a matter of intention? David Baptist Chirot sees petroglyphs as visual poetry and assures us that some “Outsider Arists” are visual poets and some are not. Does wishing make it so?

Poor Spidertanglers weaving and weaving away in an apparent attempt to contain the whole world in their nets!

A definition stretched too thin is no definition at all.