concrete poetry, or poesia concreta, is a poetic literary form that brings together aspects of design (geometry and style) together with art (music, poetry, and various visual forms). first circulated publically as an innovative form in 1952 with the publication of the magazine, noigrandes, by décio pignatari, haroldo de campos and augusto de campos, concrete poetry has continuously maintained an attitude of responsiveness to and integration of changes in the technologic landscape to maintain status as a form of vanguardism within the arts.

for concrete poetry, the poem-object replaces the traditional poem, asserting value as an aesthetic object through the ‘beginning,’ ‘center’ and ‘ending’ movements of the poem. at the center of poesia concreta is an exploration of the verbi-voco-visual dimensions of the poem. the elimination of verse, use of the blank space of the page for meaningful arrangement of letters/words, incorporation of foreign words/neologisms, and the open field of semantic meaning that grants the poem multiple possible readings are the result of this juncture of the visual, vocal and verbal through poetic inquiry.

the poems in this issue of saccades reflect the lineage of concretism in brazilian poetry, in both its contemporary and canonical forms.