Sound poetry

I am interested in the idea of sound poetry, and would like to try writing (or perhaps it would be better to say constructing) some, but I haven't yet managed to get my head around the concept. What I mean is, I need some intellectual justification (to myself, at least) for perpetrating sound poetry. Not stuff where the sound of the words is simply emphasised, as in, say Gerard Manley Hopkins, but stuff where the sound is without semantics. Many people think such stuff is nonsense, but I don't think it is. Not all of it, anyway. It can certainly be funny or frightening or evoke a whole range of other emotions.

Why do I have this difficulty with it? It's no more abstract than music. With music, there's this huge legacy of pre-existing work, so it's not hard to see how one's own efforts match up with the rest. Of course, as with any art, if one is creating music rather than sonic wallpaper, then one is pushing the boundaries, breaking new ground. At least the boundaries are visible, the ground reasonably firm.

Could I tell with sound poetry whether I was listening to random burblings or something profound? Well, I think I probably could, though if the burblings were delivered with sufficient verve, confidence and volume, I might think they were better than they actually were. If I constructed some sound poetry, could I tell if that were random burblings or something profound? This is what concerns me. I don't mind being thought silly if I know I'm not. If I'm not sure whether I'm being silly, being told I am is more unsettling.

I could claim I have a reasonably well-developed aesthetic sense, so I'd be as good a judge as most of any attempt I made, so I don't need to worry overmuch about it. If I didn't worry overmuch about it, I wouldn't have a reasonably well-developed aesthetic sense, would I?

The way I see it, you can't just dip in a toe, the way you could do a small, unambitious animated poem. It's got to be unconventional and strange enough to disorient people and it's got to be delivered with utter confidence or it won't work. Conventional poems sound much better with confident deliveries, but a good poem can often survive an indifferent performance. I don't think the same goes for a sound poem.