BERN PORTER: YES, NOW IT CAN BE (SORT OF)

A SCIENTIST-ARTIST WHOSE SUBVERSIVE WIT INFORMED HIS FOUND-WORD POETRY AND WORLDVIEW IS CELEBRATED IN A NEW RETROSPECTIVE ANTHOLOGY

by Edward M. Gómez

In the annals of modern art, there are still many holes to be filled in; sometimes, it’s overlooked or forgotten artists themselves or their friends and associates who take the first stabs at carving out spaces for such figures in the canon of modernism and at revising the often stubbornly fixed, mainstream narrative about its history and evolution.

The interior of the gatefold dust jacket and, on the right, the front cover of the new book *Now It Can Be — Why Did It Fail Before?*, an anthology of the late Bern Porter’s so-called found poems published by The Idea of the Book, a small press based in Portland, Oregon. Photo courtesy of the publisher

With this in mind, denizens of the late-20th-century avant-garde and admirers of gonzo creative expressions of all kinds who are already familiar with the life, ideas, and artistic achievements of the late Bern Porter (1911-2004) will be thrilled to learn that an anthology of his so-called found poems has just been published in an attractive edition, Now It Can Be — Why Did It Fail Before?, by The Idea of the Book, a small press based in Portland, Oregon.