a new form of poetry to replace flarf
kristen iskandrian and i have discovered a new form of poetry to replace flarf
we take gmail chats and use them to write poems
this is different than flarf because it uses gmail chat and not google and because a thousand people or five people or two people can take the same gmail chat and write poems and increase their bonds of understanding and friendship whereas flarf does other things
with this new form of poetry that will begin to replace flarf in 2007 and make flarf obsolete in 2008 people can also work alone as a way to retain (a little) the benefits of severe depression (freedom from obligations and the pleasure of focusing only on yourself) while also being a productive member of the poetry community (and society at-large); people can do this by focusing only on one particular gmail chat (the source maybe of their severe depression; of which half the words will have been typed by themselves) in a productive, poem-producing way, a way that, because it requires cognitive energy to be focused on something outside of oneself (the poem), will to some degree lead to a less self-focused person and therefore cure to some degree the person's severe depression, though people who are not severely depressed can also benefit from this form of poetry since being focused on oneself is not a binary system but can always be worked on
there are probably other benefits to this new form of poetry but they haven't been discovered yet
(for example you can do this with someone and then look at the poems you made and if they are very different you can end the relationship and find someone more similar to you to hang out with, or something, i don't know, i'm not sure about that)
thank you for your time and consideration in this new era of poetry that will be enjoyed by over thirty people
here are some poems kristen and i made from one of our gmail chats
we take gmail chats and use them to write poems
this is different than flarf because it uses gmail chat and not google and because a thousand people or five people or two people can take the same gmail chat and write poems and increase their bonds of understanding and friendship whereas flarf does other things
with this new form of poetry that will begin to replace flarf in 2007 and make flarf obsolete in 2008 people can also work alone as a way to retain (a little) the benefits of severe depression (freedom from obligations and the pleasure of focusing only on yourself) while also being a productive member of the poetry community (and society at-large); people can do this by focusing only on one particular gmail chat (the source maybe of their severe depression; of which half the words will have been typed by themselves) in a productive, poem-producing way, a way that, because it requires cognitive energy to be focused on something outside of oneself (the poem), will to some degree lead to a less self-focused person and therefore cure to some degree the person's severe depression, though people who are not severely depressed can also benefit from this form of poetry since being focused on oneself is not a binary system but can always be worked on
there are probably other benefits to this new form of poetry but they haven't been discovered yet
(for example you can do this with someone and then look at the poems you made and if they are very different you can end the relationship and find someone more similar to you to hang out with, or something, i don't know, i'm not sure about that)
thank you for your time and consideration in this new era of poetry that will be enjoyed by over thirty people
here are some poems kristen and i made from one of our gmail chats
It feels like the entire face is smirking
It was a conscious decision for it to be that way
like a valedictorian making a speech
in a red dress
What if you saw me playing on MTV
playing your songs and saying they were mine?
In the bathroom it is harder to hide
that you are a boring asshole.
In a song it is easy to hide.
I will dedicate your songs to you
and you will reveal that you are an asshole
CBS will bid and make of us a TV show.
Two different angles and us talking with Irish accents
and moving glasses that we don't have
higher on our noses.
I know we discussed the possibility of laughing
and making spaghetti for dinner and
putting the entire operation on our vita
but I think I will go for a walk now.
The entire face is smirking
and licking ass. I listened to Brian yesterday
and looked at his photos. He is like "has his shit together."
I mean, it was a conscious decision
to be valedictorian of NYU. I had to make a speech.
It is impossible to reveal you are an asshole
by playing the drums
unless there is death metal. Are we making money right now?
I think people are messing with our minds. What if CBS makes a TV show?
It would be like faster
and "for profit." I just saw me looking like an ass
from two different angles. I held dinner
but I think I will go willingly look like ass now?
37 Comments:
flarf
how do you start a poem like this?
do i need to wear any special clothing, like pantaloons?
or do i need to lose the clothes?
be more specific. you should know that poetry is 93% clothing, 7% snow.
\
things power themselves.
alot of things have become autonomous.
things have eaten alot of other things
and become intelligent.
do you "think" or do you "thing"?
come down off your mountain
of assholes
and get drunk with the butchers.
in fact,
rectal octopi saussurage isn't bad
isn't islambabad
or tigerturkeybad
just pick up two wires
ut them pictura together
anywhere
and see what asshole pops up
I like Calvinism.
I think people probably
do really know every thing that's going to happen.
Nobody knows anything,
or put another way
as won app roaches N-finity
Fuck depression.
I would rather you JOIN THE DESTROYERS OF EVERYTHING
than be depressed my children
kiss my motherloving asswhole,
[sheesh]
GOD.[your mother]
none of that matters alex, all that matters is the wikipedia entry get a higher word count than flarf
first someone has to name this new poetry, someone, some ass somewhere
Von Weiner Poems?
evil peach pit poems, or beardless peach pit poems, or evil bearded aerosol can stunt poems
I would like to add a comment to Tao's regarding this new method of poem-production. What excites me is the obliteration of 'the writer' per se, and the changed notion of the 'writerly space.' Collaboration has always existed, of course, but the relatively newer space of the gmail chat is unwittingly conducive to the exchange/growth/coup of ideas. And since the intention of the gmail chat is not to 'generate poems,' the formation of any eventual resulting poem perhaps has a better chance of being less self-conscious, less solipsistic. (I said 'perhaps,' not definitely.) When I open a Word document, I have a feeling of anxiety that can sometimes be exhilarating but that mostly hurts my work and my momentum. The same thing has happened when I attempt to blog. But the gmail chat eschews such blockages, in part because, as Tao said, you are a recipient, you have ceased orbiting in your own cramped space, you are more 'I-Thou' and less 'I-It.' It is precisely because it feels, looks, and seems like a throwaway resource that gmail chat is so effective at encouraging the free flow of ideas, images, narrative. The solitary writer is confined to his or her own fixations and limitations, but the gmail chatter gets to experience those of another, and maybe cast a different sort of light on them. The poems that can come out of this can become a sort of X-ray of the exchange. A collage of spontaneous moments. How these poems are deemed--'good,' 'bad,' whatever--is, as always, beside the point. The means and spirit in which they are created, however, is potentially interesting and useful.
Also: world domination.
Oh I am so glad for that addendum Kristen. I started to get really nervous. Sort of, chittered like a squirel, propped myself up in my chair with my knees to my chin and then there was "World Domination" and everything went back to normal. Good good.
Now for a plan.
Tao's right. We can't market this without a label, a name, a title, for the movement.
Do it.
Sell it to the people, people.
I think it needs to be named by the haters.
I think this new type of poetry should be called either "Squiff" or "Squiffy Po".
I've also (and I only say this because claims of precedence are an obligatory part of blog discourse) been composing poetry this way for 18 months already. However, I only share my poetry composed in this way with the one individual with whom I have poetic email chats.
I'd call it, "sNUfFpO." The first part, NUfF playing off of "nuf," because nuf said. The second part (minus the lower case) reading UFO because Marvin is a most popular boy's name.
Also, I am a hater. I started a facebook group against myself.
Tao/Kristen,
The idea is great unless you don't have any one to chat with. I feel more isolated now. Oh well.
my secret word is sdwjx
how about we call the new poetry "squiggle-bits". that way, if this new movement explodes, we can also do a line of candy or toffee covered pretzels.
also: i don't know a lot of people who chat on gmail chat.
soundbites
send one to maud newton, im sure she'll hate it, and she can name it.
someone get kathy acker through a ouiga board to name it.
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call it "dogfarts"
this needs to get bigger than slam poetry.
Ezra Pound.
apparition of these faces in the crowd
some petal, on my asshole
i have three minutes before i have to go to work.
i'm gonna get my gun.
there it is, all nice and shiny.
Like wet pussy on prom night.
The gun is in my hand.
I look at my hand holding the gun.
I think about relaxing my fingers.
I shoot my left testicle off.
It shatters like martinis glasses on the floor.
no scream comes from my face because i just watched 300 and i'm badass.
I hit up a kitchen knife and cauterize the wound.
No scream arises.
Because I just watched 300.
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
against chabon and foer.
ew
CHARF
i think the new poetry should be called 'shit'
shitpo
jereme, you can buy my gmail chats with kristen
The question is do we want to continue the new trend or the old.
New trend: the name would have to be a verb.
old trend: adjective. so we can be adjective -ists and become a collective group of assholes.
I say we go with the new trend.
Break Poetry
Broken pieces, fragments, shards of digital dialogue molded into poetic form via collaboration.
Break Poetry.
Shit, is there already a Break Poetry? I guess I should look it up.
my secret word is qznouy
So you want me to pay money for your google chats?
Wow, I thought this was supposed to help with depression.
I feel worse now. I will chat with random housewives I guess.
i think it should be named 'breakdancing'
money won't cure your depression, jereme
is this happening? did something happen? is this new form of poetry happening, or is nothing happening?
someone start a new quarterly journal to publish this poetry
tao,
I know money cannot cure the agony.
What the hell are we naming it again?
secret word is wpgqkg
In my ideal world every text would invent or discover a new genre. Maybe it happens already and it just takes someone to notice it and classify it. Each new genre is a puncture wound in the body of conformity. That is why I am fond of new forms. I salute this post-flarf gmail chat poetry. I suggest the name warp and woof poetry since that is basically the technique of an interweaving of two minds created on a gmail chat. It is a weaving term, I think, that means basically interweaving. Also, it just came to me that the guy who coined the term 'mastermind,' one of the original self help success gurus from the 1930s, Napoleon Hill, believed that when two minds get together on one project, they create a third mind that is extra-powerful: the mastermind. So maybe it can be mastermind poetry or third mind poetry.
$$$
or
kerbungles
or
your mother is a whore
or
incestos
or
tricks are for kids
or
penis
i have three minutes before i leave for the bar.
story about when i spent the night with tao in his closet in bushwick.
After Tao cummed me in my asshole he slurped out of me and then leaned back on the bed.
Tao's forehead was covered with sweat.
I put my penis on his forehead and wiped it off.
he then engulfed my penis licking off the sweat.
After he removed his head from penis.
He winked and smiled.
serious literature.
by ben marcus
I like Noah's idea of naming it Your Mother Is A Whore but we need to change it to My Mother Is A Whore
Or MMIAW for short.
Yo i'm a MMIAWist. Join my scene.
My secret word is oydfxku
this is a good idea bc flarf is so a few years ago, and mostly blows
i will try some out and post it on my intern blog and say that you made it up
good georg
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