Commentaries on Bob Cobbing - The Argotist Online

so. [1] It would be pleasant to reissue all four in one go; but the work involved is considerable and
a little painstaking. Rather than hold up what is available, we are starting with issue two.
Here it is. It is entirely printed by Bob Cobbing. My work has been to locate the remains, [2] a few
here and a few there; to sort them, weeding out the pages that were too damaged; to fold them; to
collate them; and to staple them.
From the first the magazine was to be, in the words of its editor, Houédard, in the introduction to
Kroklok # 1, the Writers Forum anthology of sound poetry.
That is, poetry on the page which is identified as sound poetry.
And this is differentiated from “visual poetry”.
To me, now, these seem odd separations, not least in the light of the work of Bob Cobbing himself.
Nevertheless, it might be remembered that during what we might call the Kroklok period, the
Writers Forum workshop met according to a schedule concentrating by turns on sound poetry,
visual poetry and performance of poetry. Or so I remember. Others may correct me; but it was
something like that.
I am not going to worry too much about it; and I point these things out because it may help you
read these magazines.
In the introduction to #1, Houédard expresses the hope that it will be possible to publish
recordings along with the texts. That never happened, but how much more ambitious one would
have to be now to include the wide variety of soundwork, not least the material made possible by
new media.
Retrospectively, it all seems very ambitious; but it indicates something of the mood of the times.