The first concrete poem I ever saw was Alan Riddell's Revolver. I was amazed, mesmerized, completely enchanted. Then Ian Hamilton Finlay's Girl au pair. Lovely. Even that particular shape of the pair was marvelously witty. Then Apollinaire. And Sweeney Reed gave me a proof of Alex Selenitsch's Balloons. Magical. And so on. It was a coup du foudre concert. I had to try doing some poems myself. For a long time all the poems i did were for friends' birthdays or for Christmas or for St. Valentine's Day. Poemes d'occasion. It is only in the last few years that I have done some unoccasional poems as well but even those are always sent to special friends. So all the poems I do are for people not for posterity. Concrete letters.