Despite its frequent recourse to a horse the rider was lost.

[hummingwolf]

Why oh why did I ever agree to do MegaPoMo? It's only day 3 and already I'm having trouble finding my old enthusiasm for this project. Writing is hard! I am so uninspired! Trying to come up with one word to put after another, over and over and over...

Wait a minute. All I have to do in order to generate some nonsense poetry is start a program. And then if I want another poem, I hit "Enter" twice. Nevermind.

The winter sun, of course, a most furious emperor!
but it's a shame
with a shoulder stick set to a renewed formalism,
postmodern poetry rejects the notion of some virgin mine,
that fire, which all things spray violent
and whose skin is the
night before, and you try walking in my nature.

each voice shines bright like running water,
how you are.

Yes, yes, I see... the winter sun is the aging inspirational fire of our decadent culture: not a virgin mine from which new ideas may be taken and refined like gold, but a violently spraying fire, a daystar whose outer appearance is that night before--that "night" of all that came before this society of our decay. And yet each voice, each of us underneath that furious emperor, reflects that light like water...
Or, y'know, maybe it's all just randomly-generated nonsense. That could be it.

In a medium saucepan bring the bullfrog back.
we would with our eyes are dim with tears:
they had an hour, or until just tender. Drain and set me the bonus of laughter
a richer harvest reaping without toil,
and pumpkins safe in bed
is not the love of a deserted pool,
old poets skill-less in the agricultural sector?

because they are.

Oh, I bet they are, HAL.

Comments

[compostwormbin.livejournal.com]

The title of your post sounds so familiar. Is it lyrics from a song? If so which one?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

HAL got that line by combining a few things. The one most likely to be familiar to you was:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

[compostwormbin.livejournal.com]

Yes my grandparents told me that poem. But what about the "recourse to a horse" part?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

"Despite its frequent recourse to a" came from an article about postmodern poetry.

"to a horse" was part of a line from a poem: "These dreams are tied to a horse that will never tire"

The combination "recourse to a horse" is one HAL came up with on its own.

[compostwormbin.livejournal.com]

Heh. Interesting. And amazingly clever for a computer. Kinda reminds me of the style of some Paul Simon lyrics

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Thanks to the sheer power of randomness, MegaHAL does come out with good stuff sometimes!

[lyssabard.livejournal.com]

You are hard to hunt down sometimes. :) Like...this week.

I just wanted to say, you are invited to Thanksgiving with me, Bryce, and my brother at our house in Vienna. I am making Tgiving dinner.
There will be much goodness (I hope, if I don't fuck it up.)

Let me know if you can come?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

I'm hard to hunt down? Where on earth have you been, woman?

Thanks for the invite! I'm not sure what else is going on--what date is Thanksgiving this year, anyway?

[lyssabard.livejournal.com]

Dude, online and at work.

Are you on now? I am not seeing you.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Weird. I didn't see your name online all week till last night (and then you had an away message on).

When you posted this comment, I'm pretty sure I was in bed. Feeling better, but still need sleep.

[illuviel.livejournal.com]

HAL is more lucid than some other written pieces I've read this week. Yay, MegaHAL.

Thanksgiving's the 23rd.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

I keep toying with the idea of posting MegaHAL output alongside poetry by "real" postmodern poets and creating a poll to see if anyone can tell which poems are which.

Thank you! Oh, that's two days after my next dental appointment. Ouch.

[nalidoll.livejournal.com]

Is it cheating if I simply bet that HAL's are the one's I like best?

I swear HAL's pisces. But then, I would.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Fish!

My somewhat outdated copy of the program says it was modified May 18, 1998. But I don't know when HAL was originally born. He could be Pisces!

[illuviel.livejournal.com]

And those 'pieces' were sposedly non-fictional, instructional material to boot. And I go with Nali's assessment that MegaHAL's are the ones I'd prefer.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Well, though I have fed HAL plenty of prose on topics he needed to know about, there's probably some decent postmodern poetry in his system as well. My main thing is that I refuse to enter anything into his database that makes even less sense than his output already makes.

[hraith.livejournal.com]

Nonsense? Bah! Hal is no more nonsensical than tarot or astrology.

:D

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Well... yes, I tend to agree with you there!

[contrariety.livejournal.com]

You know, what's disturbing is I actually kind of like that first one.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

If it helps any, I don't just pick the first bit of poetry HAL comes out with. As his editor, I do try to select some of the better bits for public consumption!