Poems are created with words. But not always are the words the only, or even key, ingredient of beautiful poetry. Both auditory and visual facets have helped shape poems for as long as humanity can remember. One of the more obvious examples of how sound impacts poetry is when we look at the sonnet form so exquisitely used by William Shakespeare. The form exists by the grace of rhythm and rhyme, both elements that have a very strong effect on how a poem sounds.

But sound is not the only influence. The way a poem looks is also something poets have played with since humans were able to weave sounds together coherently. Our first ways of creating "written" records were very visual, indeed. Even when words took precedence, typography played a key role. But aiming for a visual effect went further than that. Sometimes by illustrations accompanying the words, other times by putting the words into shapes that had a meaning specific to the message of the poem. This last thing is known as concrete poetry and has been used since the Greeks of roughly 3000 years ago first started doing so. And maybe even longer.

When I was at the NFT Paris conference earlier this year, it was quite an overwhelming impression. Lots of things to take in, lots of interesting talks, lots of cool art. At one point, I found myself in a corner, staring at a screen that was displaying art, including some concrete poems, on rotation. Reading these poems, deciphering them, and enjoying the visual element, it felt like meditating. It gave me some rest and peace of mind. It was a great joy.

This brings another aspect to it as well. In the last decade or so, maybe a bit longer, poetry has moved from paper to screen. First on blogs and websites, then on social media such as Instagram. The visual element, whether it is delivered through concrete poetry or any other type of visualisation, has played an important role in that. For some magazine publishers, this has become a bit of a challenge, as not every social post translates well onto paper. And most magazines are still very much either on paper or acting like they are on paper. But that's not the point I want to talk about here. The point is seeing poems on screens in a gallery setting. As individual pieces of fine art.

Thanks to the event of NFTs, the way poems are published on blockchains, and the culture as it is evolving in the art scene surrounding this new wave of digital art, poems are becoming increasingly multi-media pieces. Not just visually, but also with sounds. Everything combines into that multimedia file that can be wrapped, minted immutably on a blockchain and presented on a screen to be experienced by the one enjoying it. Or even better, when you follow the work of artists like Sasha Stiles, the poem becomes an immersive art piece that loses all value when you try to translate it to the confines of paper(mimicking).

If you look at the history of poetry, it's easy to see that there are waves of where the mainstream is focusing on. There are always artists on the edge that create new ways, that later, for a while, become part of the mainstream. We are now seeing a moment when a new mainstream is developing. It seems fringe still, hidden away in the playgrounds of the cryptocrazies. But it is there, and it is moving fast. Poetry is going to be an art to be experienced. Those who want to hold on to poetry being for reading only will have to wait for another wave. It will come. In a century or so. But now it's different. Poetry will be about visual elements, about sounds, about words all playing together to create an experience.

How will you play along?