One of our prompts last semester was to “test the integrity and possible effects of lines, try out as many free verse versions of a prose sentence as you can think of.” Rather than trying to come up with all new poems for the sake of the prompt, I thought it would be more fun to use text that wasn’t necessarily meant to be poetic and turn it into a poem by messing with the line length.
Since I was looking for a collection of short, random source blocks, Twitter seemed like the obvious choice; I scrolled through my tweets from that week and picked a handful to mess with. I used the provided hashtags as titles (for those that had them) and created hashtag titles for those that didn’t. I messed with case a little bit but left the words exactly as they were and, other than removing any emoticons, I only made minor punctuation changes.
Overall I like how the poems came out, but some definitely worked better than others. I found it interesting how you could change the rhythm of the statement in drastic ways just by cutting a thought short or letting it run on.
Original tweet: wha? It’s fruit juice mixed with sparkling water and it helps with my thirst just fine
#ilikemyjuicejustfine
wha?
it’s fruit juice mixed with sparkling water
and
it helps MY thirst
just fine
Original tweet: Should be doing homework but I’m wiped so I’m gonna go to bed and yell at myself in the morning for being lazy
#itslikeicanseethefuture
#itslikeicanseethefuture
should be doing homework
but
I’m wiped
so
I’m gonna go to bed and yell at myself
in the morning
for being lazy
Original tweet: My friend and I laughed hysterically & saw actual past behavior echoed in the main characters’. Clearly we are the target demographic. #Paul
#paul
my friend and I laughed
hysterically
and
saw actual past behavior
echoed
in the main characters’.
clearly
we
are
the
target
demographic.
Original tweet: Gaa! “… as compelling AS yesterday’s”… Stupid thumbs! Learn English more gooder! You’re embarrassing me
#shamedthumbs
gaa!
“as compelling AS yesterday’s”
…
Stupid.
Thumbs.
Learn English more gooder…
You’re embarrassing me
Loading tweets...
4 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
-the mama
2011-08-01 at 14:22 (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This was a fun idea!
-the mama
2011-08-01 at 14:23 (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The stupid thumbs sounded like me.
Kim Reinking
2011-11-23 at 12:27 (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Is this Sarah Chavis who attended UC Davis? I would love to catch up with you.
-Kim
thegoblin
2011-11-26 at 19:47 (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Yes?