My poet husband (shameless promotional plugs here and here) went to a reading at the Bowery Poetry Club this Saturday and came back bearing gifts in form of cultgear blogging material. Flarf is an avant-garde poetry movement in which poets mine the internet for random words and phrases which are pieced together into poems. Some technically savvy poets created their own Google poem generators. For example, at this site I typed in “why” and clicked on “generate poem.” Here’s what came back:
“why”
Google Poem generated on Wed Apr 30, 2008
do one
all in the
tutorial
still for
Don
why
example
space
I
the
in
get
disagree determine
….. the the
If we get that far, I can find out if we agree on why it’s good.
Hmmm, conceptually Flarf is an interesting reflection on the internet as our collective database for words and ideas. But artistic randomness, in my opinion, works well when the intent is controlled. Whereas in this case, both control and intent are missing…
Performances from last year’s Flarf Festival:
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Though I agree that Flarf seems conceptually more interesting than the actual poetry itself, I must admit I like the subversive and performative quality of the movement that seems a bit of a nod to DADA and Surrealism. . . a kind of techno-pop postmodern surrealism. It will be interesting to see how flarf changes and hopefully puts pressure on the current poetry scene. Anyway, I tried the Flarf “poem generator.” Here’s “my” contribution . . . I dig the last line:
“poem”
Google Poem generated on Fri May 02, 2008
or
poem begins
overt
as “Footprints …In criticism
a poem, Dial-A-Poem
Next Better but, clips
inspired I my called am
every
in
Old War
Casey alas, browse
overt
·
Poets /
song a
fictional
poem this
Dial-A-Poem here the
in poem of
.. What is the highest point of the poem Casey at The Bat?
didn’t like, many fuck’s, no fun…