Tristan Miller and Dave Morice created a website that produces highly-authentic Shakespearean sonnets. The trick: rather than randomly-generated Markov gobbledygook that evokes the flavor while crudely hitting the meter, each generated sonnet reuses whole lines from the body of Shakespeare's poetic work. The results are more convincing, at the cost of more commonplace repetition.
Writes Miller: "unlike some other poetry generators, this one ensures that the poems have the correct rhythm, rhyme scheme, and grammar. Dave first published the
method for generating the poems back in 1991, but this is the first time it's been implemented on the Web."
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Rick Lieder -- painter, illustrator, photographer, husband of the brilliant novelist/playwright
Kathe Koja -- waits ever-so-patiently in his suburban Detroit back-yard with his camera, capturing candid, lively photos of
bees,
birds,
bugs, and now, in a new book of photos with a beautiful accompanying poem by Helen Frost,
fireflies.
Melissa Lozada-Oliva's spoken word piece "Like Totally Whatever," performed at the National Poetry Slam 2015, in Oakland, CA. Kick ass. (via Pro Choice America)
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The title grabbed me in such a way, I had to buy Morgan Parker's Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night without reading a single line. I tore through about half the poems, before realizing I was exhausted and emotionally drained.
Parker is an accomplished poet, publisher and creative writing instructor. She builds vivid pictures, and transmits such strong feelings, in so few words, I am thrilled! Parker shares a vivid portrait of life in America, pulling no punches and guided by an unerring moral compass. This collection of poems observes life, from how we use social media to outright discrimination, with an immediacy and power I've rarely found in modern American poetry.
Here one of my favorites (via Pank Magazine):
If My Housemate Fucks With Me I Would Get So Real (Audition Tape Take 1)
I didn’t come here to make friends.
Buildings spit their stomachs at me
and I spit back, down the sidewalk
into a bitch’s hair. I am a forehead
careening in clouds, a dirty tree branch
brushing against the shingles
of the production room. I am
groundbreaking: two as one.
Brooding tattooed over my art.
Otherwise, black.
Can do angry, can’t do
accents. I need little coaching,
provocation. Opinionated and
Everything a man wants.
Lips and boobs camera-ready.
If I hear you’re talking shit about me
in your confessional interview,
please know
seven birds have fallen dead at my feet
right out of the sky.
I learned this right hook here
when I was only six.
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On December 30th, someone using an IP address from the 32nd Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg sent a probe out to every IPv4 address with an open connection on Port 80, consisting of a poem exhorting the reader to "DELETE your logs. Delete your installations. Wipe everything clean, Walk out into the path of cherry blossom trees and let your motherboard feel the stones."
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Game designer Raph Koster is a polymath. A legendary game-designer (Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, etc), author of one of the seminal texts on game design (
A Theory of Fun), visual artist, musician -- and poet.
In 1995, William S. Burroughs was recorded reading of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" and "Annabel Lee" for a PC game called The Dark Eye. (He also was the voice of a character in the game.) Hear those recordings below and read this post at Open Culture for more details.
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From the stylish and courtly competitions of old Japan to the vital and evolving independent game development scene.
Quite literally splattered with everything from seal poop to motor oil, my eyeglasses are frequently filthy. These packets help.
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Astaeria is a "first-person poetry visualizer" by Emma—select a poem, and an abstract world of colors and shapes blossoms around that poem, with procedurally-generated music. Read the rest
Mike from Muckrock sez, "'My name is Allen Ginsberg and I sleep with whoever I want.' So noted the FBI, in its 89 pages tracking the life, lovers, and political activism of the American poet, who was born this day in 1926."
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MadameBerry has made us a neat toy: EDDA, An atmospheric slam poetry battle based on a collection of Old Norse poetry. Alongside warm firelight in a great hall, you choose how to complete phrases in response to your challenger, with the aim of besting four different types of poets. Read the rest
The Shakespearean delights of Pop Sonnets, one of my favorite reads, are being collected in a new book to be published in October.
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John-Lewis translated Jabberwocky into Nadsat, the synthetic Russified English dialect spoken by the protagonist of A Clockwork Orange, starting with "Twas dobby and the chellovecks—"
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The View Text Etsy store sells custom tights emblazoned with poetry from the likes of Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare (you can also get your own text on a pair). (via Geeky Merch)
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It's a thank-you to the donors who took Patrick Rothfuss's Worldbuilders charity over the $600K mark.
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EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow's visionary 1996 text
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace has stirred hearts since he penned it in 1996 -- and now you can own a beautiful recording Barlow reading it in his wonderful, gravelly voice.
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