Spam Poetry!

One of the highlights of my summer internship so far has been helping to put on a show of Fluxus work. Fluxus is an art movement with its roots in Dada as well as ideas such as anti-art, interactivity, and Zen. They do a lot of cheap, open editions and a lot of event scores (scripts for performance pieces that anyone can perform), with the intention that "high" art becomes accessible to the public. They also break down boundaries between genre, notably in Cecil Touchon's "Spam Poetry Game" (of which you can buy a book, if you were into this). Here's the prompt he sent out:

Below are some random words found in some recent spam trash - you probably
got a copy too! Please take this material and do with it what you will to
create a poem. If you add words put them in brackets. If you remove anything

put it as a remainder after the poem. Time limit 24 hours from this posting.


-------------------------------------------------------------
reputation from storms and your wrong. An apology? Bah! adversaries in
alights only on the hand that does not grasp. The greater the difficulty If
you love the more tempests. To the end enemies that I can remember. There is

no of England. lesson imperfectly The bird our days God's ways of freedom
Disgusting! wrong, Cowardly! Beneath the gentleman, however be. Where
customer to death, you can't wrong he might go in paradise surmounting it.
Skillful pilots gain their much my political life, but no who mixes the
pleasant with the useful. I have had a lot of there is much error. I never
forgive, dignity of any but I always forget. He gains shortcut to life. Law
everyone's there is glory approval of, life is a learned. Honesty is a
question of right or not a matter of policy. Everyone complains of the
badness of his memory, but nobody of his judgment. Malt does more than
Milton can to justify to man. is part of the Common

------------------------------------------------------------- 

If that gets your brain ticking, fantastic. If not, here's prompt option two: find a spam email from your inbox and imagine writing a reply. Or write a persona poem from the voice of the sender. What if you really were a Nigerian prince? What if your pills really could increase pen1s size in just three weeks?

And if you're excited about Fluxus or spam poetry, I encourage you to do some research/come see the show that's up now at the Regional Arts Commission on the Loop.