“Clown poetics” is a nebulous term that sort of means a poetry of a neon hinterland, that juggles various tenets that may or may not include the following:

1) Stupidity is a valid form of meaning-making.

2) Activating the “hammerspace” of a poem, which is the cartoonist’s term for the extradimensional space in which Daffy Duck et al can pull a signboard from out of nowhere. Anything can happen next in a poem.

3) Paginated poetry is fine and all, but ideally will want to wrench its way into the real world through performance, or even better an immersive performance which holds the audience accountable in the form of hostage-like collaboration.