Broken Poem Generator

January 18, 2003 8:40 AM

Broken Poem Generator.
the pencil strokes-
ones they were
to open half
place in space
posted by soundofsuburbia (12 comments total)

Cool toy, soundofsuburbia. This poem I generated seems to speak to the Mefi propensity for short attention span:

people are pretty reasonable to stay away
there's no point in being bitter
the dial turned so the words went unnoticed
posted by madamjujujive at 10:20 AM on January 18, 2003

Is this safe for work? I cant tell:

carla came around & said to cheer up
at the receiving end
& a different voice is asking
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 10:59 AM on January 18, 2003

what it looks like
of an eye
convoluted structure.
underfoot & not notice

I like it! thanks sounds!
(it took me back to when i would take children's history and science textbooks and extract poems:

Zenith sky like big turned down
point the of sky above person place
called zenith place its zenith person

his zenith if points up is to A
zenith as moves wherever
is always to
to the point the sky.
posted by amberglow at 11:14 AM on January 18, 2003

she draws two eyes converging
that is precisely what it looks like
glued my eyes to the window
& i wasn't any different:


This must be great for the high-on-marijuana young pseudo-intellectual artsy-wannabe type. (Which, come to think of it, pretty much sums me up, other than the weed...)
posted by dgt at 11:57 AM on January 18, 2003

great - even better for bringing back archy the cockroach, who haunted my high school english classes.

now if i could only find out the names of those 20th century poets that plague my memory...
posted by myopicman at 12:22 PM on January 18, 2003

Awesome, now I know where the english poems on Japanese products come from!
posted by shepd at 1:33 PM on January 18, 2003

Neat, but would be neater if the lines were culled from other poems, and not just this guy's stuff.

from the classes of things
only strangers notice
that won't hurt anybody
posted by superfem at 6:21 PM on January 18, 2003

This is great fun, soundsofsuburbia.

cause i don't do
_______see a stricken friend--
____when i'm around anyone
__anything i should.

I love how the example "see a stricken friend" gets stuck in the middle of a semi-coherent thought. Very stream-of-(artificial)-conciousness.
Apologies for the underlining--I used to know how to do spaces on mefi...
posted by hippugeek at 2:13 AM on January 19, 2003

livejournal.com may never be the same.
posted by mcsweetie at 1:01 PM on January 19, 2003

hey, some of the poems it makes are actually good.
posted by Fabulon7 at 6:34 PM on January 19, 2003

I was about to disagree with you, Fabulon. Then I saw this.

intimacy's when other people are close enough
you can do it gently
when you could have been skiing alone in the mountains
for you to step them away
all those evenings spent brushing her hair
if you're worried about the afters

It's at least as good as any other poetry I've ever seen. Which begs the question, is the use of the word "good" really good for poetry? How can one tell? I guess it's personal tastes, and if a lot of people happen to agree on a given poem, that makes it "really good"..? Or something?

that naturally died down
about it.
people often get an urge to keep up a conversation
anything i said didn't feel sincere
my eyes kept closing something
but it's best to fight it.
swear i wasn't crying

Maybe there is no such thing as good poetry, by human hand or by a computer drone. The words put down are just words put down and the reader puts their own interpretation into it. So what one perceives as good may not be seen that way by someone else. It's all subjective.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:02 PM on January 19, 2003

talk to your neighbours
coming in from the park tonight
the last fifteen years have already sucked
& build a fence
.

picturing you at the receiving end unsure
i made myself a lonely drink
a need to say
& there are unintended consequences.
& when it fails there's
are your letters
open half
posted by hippugeek at 11:57 AM on January 20, 2003