Friday 1 April 2016

Beat poem generated

Tom Raworth's blog pointed out this amusing site. I typed in the first two lines of one of my own poems and received this:


Cuban Reverie

Launch the polaris, the end doesn't scare us
Enforce a mental overload
Gravity's got my bones
Satan rears his ugly head, to spit into the wind

Only yesterday they told me you were gone
Funny thing, he's like you & me

And now I fill your brain

Satan rears his ugly head, to spit into the wind
How long, I hold my breath
Only yesterday they told me you were gone
Place all your trust here in me

Don't you give me any orders
Unlike your love for me
Man you were never even there
Man you were never even there
You won't need your breath

Place all your trust here in me
Random turmoil builds in me
Only yesterday they told me you were gone
Thanks for the information don't need no
Random turmoil builds in me
Unlike your love for me
Don't you give me any orders
Enforce a mental overload

Funny thing, he's like you & me
Random turmoil builds in me
Only yesterday they told me you were gone
Man you were never even there

And now I fill your brain

Jump or die!
Unlike your love for me
Next thing you know, they'll take my thoughts away
Know it all scholar
Place all your trust here in me
I spread disease like a dog
Launch the polaris, the end doesn't scare us
Enforce a mental overload

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice posting about "Beat poem generated"...........

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Martha King said...

Legs of a shop dummy indeed. It's actually not bad. But when I tried it with one of mine, the ribs of the algorithm started to show. Just the same, it's a bit of a hoot and great for my favorite day: April 1. xoxox Martha

Laurie Duggan said...

You can do it over and over again with any set of lines and different combinations will come up. It's true though that there's a limit to what the algorithm can do. As it stands it's an amusement rather than anything else. What's important (if anything is important) is whether or not the generated poem can stand by itself. I once had a 'summarize' function, obviously designed for business purposes and let it loose on an irregularly punctuated poem spaced across the page. I got one good piece out of it then tried it several times more to no interesting effect.