This poetry (I'll be giving you samples) is one of my favorite styles to write, publish, or read. I coined the term virtual journalism in June of 1993 and it is getting around. Until anyone comes up with a more representative title, this is the one some of us are using. I've tried this term on audiences, students, comrades, who are "warming up to it" and many are "convinced." No one has argued against it.

Jazz Kills the Paperboy
My chapbook, Jazz Kills The Paperboy, is a demonstration chapbook on virtual journalism poetry. It includes dense, rich, fast-paced popculture narrative poems. And it includes the criteria for writing this kind of poetry. The book sells for $8.95 through Pudding House; but, you don't need to buy my book, unless you want to read the full text. This manuscript is one that received a $5,000 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council, so that might be an option you'd prefer.

This webpage may be downloaded so that you can work with the criteria right now and as you write. This paper lists the criteria and gives you examples by several poets. It may not be downloaded or copied for other than personal use and may not be copied for workshops or classrooms. For that send a prepaid purchase order for the demonstration chapbook, Jazz Kills the Paperboy as recommended or required reading for 10 or more copies @ $8.95 less 35% discount.

Background
After an ambitious investigation to see if this style already has a name, I asked the godfather of contemporary poetry genre terminology, Robert Peters (Hunting The Snark: A Compendium of New Poetic Terminology), who drew a blank. Morty Sklar of The Spirit That Moves Us Press, who had intended to reprint Snark, likewise, had no clue. Nor did perhaps 50 others I asked including heads of creative writing programs. They could talk about and around this style but couldn't come up with a name for it. It seems, virtual journalism it is since 1993.

Virtual Journalism came to mind in the height of excitement over "Virtual Reality" in the electronics and video industry. It conjures up all sorts of connections--visually exciting, dense and rich, as though you are there. Virtual Journalism poetry, usually a poetry of place, often accomplishes "shock of recognition" and "felt experience" that poets aim for.

Why "journalism?" Poems that answer who, what, where, and when might have a journalism quality or the effect of reporting an incident. However, we might as much as possible keep out the "why" and "how" since we are writing poetry, and it is better to let readers draw their own conclusions, especially in these narratives.

No Omniscient Poets
Virtual journalism usually keeps the omniscient poet out of the poem; it reports as fact; it doesn't blatantly sum up or tell you how to think. Most of the writers of virtual journalism poetry are crafting psychological and sociological poetry (without intending to) in its best form--third person accounts that don't tell us how to feel. This kind of writing portrays the freshman lesson, "Show; don't tell!" (Granted, an over-rated platitude though almost always the best advice).

Taking a picture of a moment
This is a topic in my book, Topics For Getting In Touch: A Poetry Therapy Sourcebook. Nope, you don't have to buy the $25.00 book (unless you want the largest compilation of writing exercises under one cover). I'll explain it here. "Taking a Picture of a Moment" is one of my staple writing exercises and one that works especially well for the creation of virtual journalism poems. The same way scene props come into focus before your eyes in a Polaroid snapshot, language becomes material objects, even brand names, and creates a very specific image in the mind of the listener/reader. This is ONE of the reasons we have "product placement" in movies. The following poem from my book, Jazz Kills The Paperboy, illustrates that concept of taking a picture of a moment.


GRAPEFRUIT CONDOM

Will Maxton
at Jazzy's Independence Day Party,
after the official thing was over and all the
core buddies sat around the umbrella table
shootin the breeze with job gripes, dare stories,
and amateur stand-up,

came out from the kitchen door juggling a
big pink grapefruit throughout his approach--
addressed the gang with a sharp attention-getting stop
and pulled from his Dockers pocket the
condom he caught from a
toss at the Gay Pride Parade.

Will
worked that raincoat over the
huge fruit and
swung it around, over his head,
building speed and length like a
soccerball on a garterbelt, then
let 'er rip-smash against Jo's
freshly painted barn
right where the
Chew Mail Pouch sign announced
88 degrees and falling. The sucker held
and
Will
announced to the ladies that
any hidden messages are
deliberately implied.

Jennifer Bosveld
from Jazz Kills the Paperboy
(available from Pudding House Publications, $8.95)

There it is, a picture of a moment from the life and times of Jo Jazz. This poem shows what happened in who/what/where/when terms. It doesn't give you an opinion on who. It lets you be there and decide for yourself. Like reading the newspaper should.

Who's writing this stuff?
Writers of virtual journalism include Jim Belcher in his book The Diamond Ring River Valley: The Adventures of Sara Gail (a novella in poetry form--my god this is a wonderful collection), Alfred J. Bruey in his how-this-came-to-be-that poems, Al Ferber and his Gus, Carol Schott Martino in Catholics and Publics, sometimes Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel (in an abbreviated way), David Huddle in his book Paperboy of many years back (University of Pittsburgh Press), Sybil James in some of Stout Mama, Kate Murphy in her Ms Intensity poems, me.... And one of the best examples I know is the poet who won our chapbook competition in 1994, Ron Moran, an English professor at Clemson University. His book, Getting The Body To Dance Again (Pudding House), is truly another demonstration chapbook.

David Huddle's poems have been some of my most frequently used in applied poetry work over the years. While his poems occasionally address mental health issues (probably without meaning to directly), portray family culture, and demonstrate a style of writing anyone can understand and even attempt to imitate, it is first and foremost good poetry artwork. I am on the lookout for other writers of the style.

Call for VJ Poems-- Although I appreciate a broad range of styles of poetry, it took me 15 years of editing and publishing a literary magazine to realize that poems I now call virtual journalism are among my most enjoyable moments reading. I want to find more writers of this style and the best way I know of accomplishing that is to issue a Call For Poems, but you'll need criteria. I sometimes add to the list and clarify, but as of this writing, the following criteria will help you as a writer of virtual journalism poems and will also help readers of VJ deepen their appreciation of the imagination and revision that goes into this word work.

1. Dense, concrete language.

2. Tight use of interesting nouns and action verbs, including brand names and proper nouns.

3. Text almost passes as journalism because it often answers who, what, where, when, but not so much why or how (after all, it's only virtually journalism!)

4. Reflects intense human experience.

5. Usually is poetry of place--some place identifiable (car wash, party by the barn, Johnson City, San Diego Zoo).

6. Includes character focus and often the exact dialogue and action, like a mini-play, an act, a scene from a movie.

7. Narrative but spare (some people call this "brief narrative" but that doesn't capture it at all).

8. Sometimes can be a list poem of events during a moment, often a twist at the end.

9. It is an easy journey for the reader to travel regardless of the busy ride, distracting incidents, and crisp dialogue.

10. The events are probably of ordinary people made extraordinarily fascinating or entertaining.

11. Thrives on the colloquial.

12. Rather average in length. However, one very long and successful piece I know of is book-length by a master of the craft--Julie Otten. Her book, The Courtship of Jim Jones (forthcoming from Pudding House in 1999) and other characteristics of Julie's style come close to VJ poetry.

13. Psychological or sociological interest.

14. Although it can deal with serious issues, it is often humorous, ironic, or shows unspeakable truth (w/small t) that you still cannot articulate--a flash or shock of recognition.

15. Factual, or rather, factualistic--presented with material evidence. However, as Lowell Jaeger said in Pudding 21, "A poem knows that facts are never enough." And that is true for virtual journalism.

16. There is a music, a patter to the delivery; it succeeds well when read aloud but must not depend upon an oral reading to elevate its artistic success.

17. It is usually written in third person, eliminating "I" and a sense of the poet's involvement. It sometimes pulls off being objective in its reporting and avoids the omniscient poet.

18. The poem need not stick to all of the above but would, after a holistic evaluation, fit into this profile.

What sets this word-art apart is the material situational evidence. But the poem cannot be simply loaded down with inventory for no reason. Have a reason for selecting the items that appear.

Consider the samples I call "virtual journalism" poems. Notice how many of the criteria hold true for them. And notice in what ways they are different and yet fall into the VJ category.

IT WAS ALL OVER SOME STUPID CHUNK

of metal twisted by death's rattle
from a car bumper
some accident ago
into the shape of a gun
when Gus was six
that Gus claimed was his
and that superseded Charlie's claim
and damn, Gus hit him
and screeched like the monkeys
in the trees
again and over one time
upside the head
for good measure
lest there be any question
of rightful ownership
until Charlie's eyes
were just all blood
and Charlie knew once and for all
he shouldn't had'a thrown
that piece of metal down the sewer.

by Al Ferber
from Gus (Pudding House Publications)

THE TUNNEL OF LOVE

Sparky Byrnes closed down his full-service car wash
on State 123 when Furness & Sons Construction Company
scraped the fields of red clay across the road for fill,
spilling as much, Sparky said, as they carried away,
staining State 123 a deep red that the wet tires
of his customers spattered over fenders and door panels.
Most of the cars looked cleaner before they went in.
After the State Board fined Billy Banks, the pharmacist,
for dispensing one bottle a month of codeine-based
cough syrup to old Mrs. Wilson without keeping records,
Billy went to Las Vegas to think about his life and,
he said, to get some fresh ideas. When he came back,
he talked Sparkey and his wife, Georgette, into turning the car wash
into a drive-through wedding chapel, the
first in our state. They called it The Tunnel of Love,
took out the machinery, except for the winch that pulls
the cars along, added stops on the conveyer for plastic
flower rentals, a cashier, and a minister to preside
where the dryer once rolled on casters. Above, a sign
light flashed, "When we unhitch you, you're hitched!"

They found a minister who retired before the Methodists
put in their pension plan, setting him up in a trailer
behind The Tunnel of Love. On call 24 yours a day,
seven days a week, he married three couples in the first
week of service: two teenagers, two middle-aged runaways,
and one older woman and younger man who argued each tug
up the aisle, then drove back through for an annulment.

When the Council of Churches in our town got together,
they set The Tunnel of Love as their sole agenda item,
voting to make it the topic for every sermon
in every church on the second Sunday after Pentecost.
It was the first time the Council agreed on anything.
By the fifth Sunday after Pentecost, business slacked
off at The Tunnel of Love, so they added piped-in-music
of your choice, from polkas to country and western,
and offered to videotape the ceremony, free of charge.

Ron Moran from Getting the Body to Dance Again
(available from Pudding House Publications, $8.95)

Carol Schott Martino

AFTER THE RAINS

My brother must have been about three
when I spread the word
he'd eat worms for a nickel
And after the rains
mama would let us splash barefoot
in the street
We made boats from Tastee-Freeze cups,
filled them with boxelder bugs
then sank them with our feet

And later on
the neighborhood kids would come
with their worms and their nickels
and by the end of spring we could have
saved enough
to buy Popsicles all summer
if Eddie Dillon wouldn't have run us
out of business
by catching mud puppies in his basement

Eddie would poke their funny dark eyes out
with an old rusty screwdriver
then scrunch them between his teeth
like raisins.


Carol Schott Martino
from Catholics and Publics, Pteranodon Press

If you have virtual journalism poems you'd like Pudding Magazine to consider, send them with SASE. You'll hear back by return mail, unless we're traveling. And remember, this isn't the only kind of poetry we like to receive. Whatever you write, give us a try. We pay in copies, like most small press magazines. Or perhaps you have a large collection. You might consider clicking on "Chapbook Competition." We also consider chapbook manuscripts through general submissions (a $10 reading free applies; there is no reading fee for individual poems submitted to the magazine). Thanks for looking into this. Have fun trying your hand at virtual journalism; I hope we hear from you. Please realize that we receive over 40,000 poems during a slow year and over 100,000 during years we're more public. We regret the small percentage that we can publish.

"Virtual Journalism: How to Write it; Where to Find It"
Copyright 1995 Jennifer Bosveld.
This article is copyrighted but may be printed out providing clear credit is given to the author. Copyright for individual poems is held by those authors; poems were accepted for this article, a reprint from Pudding Magazine.

Check CALLS FOR POEMS to discover the broad range of work we're looking for. Pudding House Publications seeks poems for the chapbook series, numerous anthologies, The Walls Project, Topiary Tales, and much more.