Tanya Grae - "The Space Between"

"White space within a poem engages the reader on a visual level and evokes an aesthetic impression before the words are read. According to the typographer Jan Tschichold, "White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background. It is the canvas and blank page, but it is also the silence." In a holographic sense, no space exists between elements; the apparent void is always full. White space, or negative space, is geography, through boundary and organization, and allows the white to flood and create a moat, providing the reader with a visual demarcation and shape to the words themselves. White space can represent a blank to fill, no longer passive, but active and wanting. The reader participates in the experience, as always, but in this instance, space is bounded with suggestion, limited only by the reader's imagination. The same white space can also provide a caesura: an interruption or break, a breath and pause. Punctuation and phonetics create natural caesura within both poetry and prose; however, the pacing of a poem is also impacted by the time it takes a reader to reach between words. Space can be employed actively as an antisymbol for punctuation or a metrical breath. Introduction of space or pause to the body of a poem--boundary, void, or medial--creates a spatial caesura, and the silence becomes an operating component of the work."

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Note: The Free Library. S.v. THE SPACE BETWEEN: Spatial caesura within a poem.." Retrieved Feb 04 2023 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/THE+SPACE+BETWEEN%3a+Spatial+caesura+within+a+poem.-a0553280233