I think that's a fair critique. As for your question pertaining to the intended "register" of the poem, I was aiming for something akin to "Ceci N'est Une Pipe".   

I'm not sure about this one. On the one hand, it does what it wants to: by translating what me think of as Cummingsesque mechanics into visual poetry, the piece does indeed position itself as an example of the sort of poetry it is critiquing.

That is, at least as I read it, the words / phrases buried in the text "NO NEW MESSAGES", "MESS", "NONE ME AGE" are meant to blast modern poetry / poems as a species and this poem / poet (persona) in particular.

That self-reflexive aspect is where the interest comes (otherwise it's just someone being curmudgeonly about modern poetry) in the question of what exactly the intended register is. Is this a "wink-wink" self deprecating joke, or a "but no serious" swipe or a "too meta 4 u" takedown cum paradox?

I think this is really where one's mileage is apt to vary. I can imagine other readers having a lot of fun with that. Personally, I don't have too much patience for this sort of playfulness.

I think I'll have to agree with u/damonstrator that this is rather contrived. While the meaning and intent are clear the result was simply discordant with that: the phrase "NONE ME AGE" really detracts from the heavy metaphorical implications of "NO NEW MESSAGES" in its formatting and usage.

Nah, don't apologize! *I'm* sorry I overanalyze poems so often!

Yeah I wasn't thinking about the implications of reading this vertically unfortunately.  Sorry. 

Am I overthinking it, or am I supposed to be noticing "OMG" and "neg" vertically? (Probs overthinking it? I do that lots).

The intention of the all caps was to remove any indication of where and when words/phrases start and end. I wanted the reader to discover the "message" so to speak on their own. 

I like the concept of this but the "none me age" is a little off-putting for me. I read it like a pirate or something saying "none my age" which could be discourse about how poems from certain times are given preference over others. I think this idea of poems that are maybe 50 years old (not old enough to be old and revered like Shakespeare, but not young enough to be respected for its innovation) is juxtaposed well against the idea of "no new messages", which to me is very new sounding, and the use of form itself which is also innovative and modern. 

I was also looking at what what could be made from the letters of nemeage, as something could be no-nemeage, and found something kinda nifty. A word in which the sequence of letters 'nemage' (I know it's a letter off, but stay with me) is Kinemage, which is "(short for kinetic image)... an interactive graphic scientific illustration." (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Kinemage) which I think fits well with the form of this piece

#The Current State of Poetry as an Artform

&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;N O N E [W](#b)  
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[Correct formatting here] (https://www.imgur.com/6dkGEKi)

*****


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[She said a thing...](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/68vbff/the_piano_room/dh1mo5z/) | [...and then she said another.](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/68pz2j/pain_sustained/dh0ea8i/)