On Michael e.
Casteels’s solar-powered light bulb and
the lake’s achy tooth
Ellie Hastings
In an Apt. 9 Press chapbook of concrete
poems - beautifully printed, created with a typewriter and ample white space, Michael e. Casteels has
unfolded a landscape. Solar-powered light
bulb and the lake’s achy tooth has weight and density with an economy of
words. With the use of brackets and slashes, Casteels packs in possibility with
minimalism. See for example the title “a (d)r(i/a)ft,” where in a single line he
gives the reader four possible words. Casteels’s economized style is doable
because of his titles, which are often longer than the poems themselves, and
act as their own lines and signifier. This is seen in “moon poem 2” where the
poem’s body is simply “(n/l)ight.”
Casteels can also be blatantly literal,
but there is something beautiful and profound in this. In “low moon with owl”
he physically intersects the “owl” with “moon,” also forming the word “low.”
This technique perhaps defamiliarizes the word; Casteels turns word into
object, and the page becomes his canvas, typography his brushstrokes.
The typography is then
visually informing. See “night scene” and “night scene 2” where he creates a
landscape of an owl and moon simply with the placement of three letters; and
the image of (perhaps) a howling wolf, with the placement of four letters.
Casteels is introspective and musing with his type. He manages to turn a question
mark into a fishhook, a period into a freckle, and sketches the sound of water
with the letter ‘o.’ In “where the loon was” Casteels creates an image of a
loon taking flight in water, leaving only ripples with the use of brackets;
his punctuation becomes an objects with a new, unconventional visual
purpose. The author defamiliarizes the word, he also defamiliarizes
typography itself. Though this technique may seem inane and lacking substance,
these poems work for the chapbook as a whole, building on Casteels’s landscape, reflective
and delicate.
In his economy, Casteels is subtly
dynamic in his creation. His poems build on themselves, forcing his audience to
make connections. See “brushing the dog” which becomes “birds/build/nests.” The
reader is forced to follow this image through, and assemble their own scene.
And this is perhaps one of Casteels best skills – creating a landscape out of
nothing, forcing readers to enter a landscape that only exists in their mind.
Casteels is also generous in his white space. Though some might find the use of
his negative space overwhelming, Casteels moulds his page with attention to
detail; the space allows for awareness of the word as Casteels picks away at
sound, shape, and function. What is really beautiful about this chapbook is its
elegance in form and the type’s seduction of white space.
Solar-powered
light bulb and the lake’s achy tooth is a gentle piece of art. Casteels is
unique in his ability to form a minimalist landscape with intense effect.
Placid and reflective, Casteels brings a new awareness to the art of type and
the word, making this Apt. 9 Press chapbook well worth the exploration.
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