poetry is fun!

hi a,

here are a couple of links to some of my favorite experiments...

the first is poems that GO (linked from my blog as you may have noticed), which, if you haven't been to yet you really ought to. there so much fun to be had. also, if you're savvy enough to understand and appreciate the essays on, then i'd recommend those too (i'm, sadly, a mere fledgling at this whole computer thing, it's the boy that does all that, though i did all those fancy buttons on my own!)
http://www.poemsthatgo.com/gallery/index.htm (i'm sending you straight for the archives, where all the fun is)

the second is to Raymond Queneau's (finally!!) internet friendly Cent mille milliards de poems which was born in 1961 -- far before the time of internet:
http://www.smullyan.org/smulloni/queneau/
i found Queneau in a math book, believe it or not, about 5 years ago. there was a sort of word problem which asked, if you had a collection of 10 14-line sonnets and each line was cut so that the line (or as many as 9 lines) behind it on subsequent pages could become visible, how many variations of these 140 lines existed? how many different poems could you create? the answer? ask Raymond...

the third is something the aforementioned ruth jennison showed me. it is a collection of 500 sentences which appear to you on screen one at a time, never repeating. i have sat at my computer for hours reading these beautiful snippits of poetry. i don't know very much about Robert Grenier, though i do know i like what he's done. so here you go... http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/grenier/ (click on sentences)

i hope you have fun with these places. i'm interested in what your response to such media-based poetry is, but remember these are the extremes. though i suppose the internet makes it so much easier for poets to accomplish such amazing and mind boggling poetic feats. also, keep in mind that raymond did this on paper, in the 60's. (sadly and even more sadly predictable, Cent mille milliards de poems is not available in print.)

best,

katy

ps the link to that list of experiments i mentioned before is here for you: http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/bernstein/experiments.html i'm thinking of creating my own list sooner or later, perhaps just an addition to the ones listed on this site.