automatic poetry.

Howdy...I had a really nice productive weekend that was mostly artsy in nature. I haven't gotten around to scanning and taking pictures of any projects just yet so nothing to share at the moment. But I'll catch you up soon! :-)

For now though, I would like to share something with you that I was playing around a month or so ago. There's an amazing talent of a woman at my work named Kelly. She is always doing something creative and is pretty much self-taught. One day she asked me about different adhesives and as I going through them, I asked what she was going to use it for. That's when she told me about automatic poetry. Wha? After she gave me the run down, I was ALL over this! From what I can gather, original automatic poetry uses the surrealist technique which uses the unconscious mind as the central source of inspiration. The modern method is to clip random sentences or phrases from a book, string them together to make a seemingly cohesive poem, and then glue them down on scrap cardboard. Very crude. My kind of thing!

I had a book I bought from Goodwill called Lovers and Liars and so I went through it and clipped out phrases that caught my eye. Then the phrases were assembled without too much thought. This is how my poem turned out:

You can make automatic poetry this way or you can try using an Automatic Poetry Generator. I tried this method and here's the poem it came up with for me.

All humming against the flock Strange and humming above the fire I find sensuous faces beneath the vapors Heavy! The pleasure is gone So misty behind the air We converse with yellow eruptions before the air Alass! The feeling continues All humming against the flock We create angry snares within the gods Alass, alack! The Fool will come again open-eyed seeking over the horizon a trace of sadness After how many voyages your brother seek the road back and never catch up I'm kinda likin' the old cut and paste method a little better, but this will do in a pinch! Go ahead, give it a whirl and let me see!!! :-) I'll post more tomorrow once I get some things scanned. Hope you had a good Monday. Did anyone see that moon tonight? AMAZING! We're setting our alarm for 2:30 am and are planning on getting up to check out the lunar eclipse that's supposed to happen. Wish us luck!

Comments

[Julie]

Oh! I love this...will try it out soon :)

[Lilli]

That's so Cool! Those are powerful phrases that you chose.

We had a full moon up here last night too :) I didn't know about the eclipse, though.

[Melissa M]

Automatic Poetry is a good thing. I didn't have to set my alarm to see the lunar eclipse, I was already up getting back from a concert I needed some wind down time and by the time I was finished winding down the time had come. It was an amazing sight.

Melissa

[GMa Jean]

I regret not knowing about the lunar eclipse until today and missed it totally.

As for the poetry, it is beautiful! But I, being so literal and obsessive, probably interpret lines differently than others may. Although, it is the right way for me. The phrase "How many voyages seek the road back and never catch up" is my life story.

But the first one really is for me: In 3 or 4 months I may have a new plastic hip. The plastic chairs and table sitting unmoved on my small patio for at least two years will be dripping with rain, IF I am lucky. The small rattling noise might be from my hip, or just the usual loose marbles in my head. The roar of rock music will be when I am happy enough to blast Abba music throughout the house. Not sure of the rest of this; however, I do have small bird figurines that certainly shower me with bursts of charm everytime I look at them.

Beautiful words that evoke wisps of memories forgotten, references to future dreams and hopes....that is why people believe fortune tellers who read tea leaves, because they themselves will always bring their own interpretations to what you say. You have inherited that gift, I think.

[Jana]

I like your cut & paste poem best! We set the alarm for something painful last night & dragged ourselves out of bed to watch the lunar eclipse on our front porch. Took a slew of photos w/my telephoto lense but had focusing issues---maybe one or two not-as-blurry keepers! Just as we got up my youngest came home---she'd been freezing up in a high meadow w/friends watching the eclipse. Glad we saw it!

[AscenderRisesAbove]

ohhhh i came up with something similar awhile ago; though not to this extent. I like this idea very very much - collage verbage!

[Amy P]

If you like that you really need the fridge poetry! (words on magnets) We've had them for years and still stand there writing poems while deciding what we're having for dinner lol! Yes we have a big electric bill from standing there with the door open with only half our mind on dinner and the other half on the outside of the door with poetry.

[Laume]

I so have to try this automatic poetry thing. Love it.

And the moon, yeah, she's been particularly beautiful this month, hasn't she! I stayed up for the eclipse and got some pretty good photos of it - put them up on my blog if you want to take a peek.