These unorthodox poems are a compilation of words, thoughts that routinely run through the mind, usually discarded, forgotten - a stream of unconscious notated; the sounds of words, onomatopeia re-interpreted, their meaning deconstructed; words read or heard, misread, misheard, slips of the mind, wordplay, poems that write themselves; all put together so that a different sense may be intuited.

xxxxxxxxxx“And what of unconscious meanings, which are by definition not deliberately xxxxxxxxxxintended? ‘I really do think with my pen’, Wittgenstein observes, ‘because my xxxxxxxxxxhead often knows nothing about what my hand is writing.’”

xxxxxxxxxxLudwig Wittgenstein, “Culture and Value”, Chicago 1984, 17e, quoted on p.47,
xxxxxxxxxxof "The Meaning of Life", Terry Eagleton, Oxford University Press, 2007,
xxxxxxxxxxISBN 978-0-19-953217-9

Tanya Ury commenced writing the bi-lingual half dimensional poems Xmas 2009. This collection of one-liners was continued in 2010, during the time of breakdown, discovery, treatment for breast cancer, falling in and out of love, breakdown again. The 28 poems were completed a year later, New Year 2011.

xxxxxxxxxx“Certain slips of the tongue in the course of a phrase give us sudden insight xxxxxxxxxxinto ourselves by substituting one word for another, and the unwelcome word
xxxxxxxxxxis ameans whereby poetry escapes and perfumes the phrase. These words are a xxxxxxxxxxdanger to the practical understanding of discourse. In like manner, certain xxxxxxxxxxacts. Faults sometimes – they are deeds – produce poetry. Though beautiful, xxxxxxxxxxthese deeds are none the less a danger.”

xxxxxxxxxxP.42 “Miracle of the Rose”, Jean Genet 1951, Penguin Books 1971,
xxxxxxxxxxISBN 0-14-018054-0

An example of this phenomenon is to be found in Genet’s text:

xxxxxxxxxx“Darling is merely a fraud (‘an adorable fraud,’ Divine calls him), and he
xxxxxxxxxxmust remain one in order to preserve that appearance of a rock walking
xxxxxxxxxxblindly through my tale (I left out the d in blindly, I wrote ‘blinly’).* The xxxxxxxxxxwords in italics do not appear in the revised edition. (Translator’s note.)”

xxxxxxxxxxP. 26 of Jean-Paul Sartre’s introduction to “Our Lady of the Flowers”,
xxxxxxxxxxJean Genet 1951, Granada Publishing 1973 586 02039 X 2

In its style and intention the concrete poetry is a collection of jumbled, abstract ideas that reflect the day-to-day life and mood of the artist. Above all, it is improvised and written down immediately - in essence it is automatic writing.

Tanya Ury’s written poetry may be regarded as “concrete” because of its visual design, and unconventional aural effect when spoken - the texts thereby gain in dimension beyond accepted meaning.

Ury has also created other artworks that might be considered visual poetry. Moving Message 1992, incorporates an LED sign displaying the words: you are why; wrestlewithyourangel 2001, is a neon sign produced together with the neon sign neonazi 2001; the title of a double photo portrait lesser is me more or less 2003 plays on the name of the German Post-Impressionist Lesser Ury, as does the title of a further double portrait or else 2007, which refers to the German writer Else Ury. The title of a third photo-portrait Beelzebularin 2005 reveals itself to be an anagram of the biblical Bezalel Ben Uri. half dimensional - semi detached 2010 combines the first of the half dimensional poems with the photograph semi detached.

Concrete poetry in the series:

femiNINIty – femininitiation 1984 & 2011
moving message 1992
Word-fore-play - Recipe for Love 1995
Sonata in Sea 1999-2000
wish 2000
wrestlewithyourangel 2001
neonazi 2001
Poker Poems 2003
elle la poésie 2003
lesser is me more or less 2003
Beelzebularin 2005
Un 2006
or else 2007
half dimensional poems 2009-2011
half dimensional - semi detached 2010
cement 2011 -
on a mat appear 2011 -
Lost Poems 2011
weißer neger (white nigger) 2011
powdercake 19.12.2004 & 15.5.2011
informed 2011
concrete party 2011
oral call 2011