Pages

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Everyday Poetry

It's Poetry Thursday again. This week's prompt was to bring poetry into the everyday - some place you wouldn't expect to find it. It reminded me of something I read in a book, of the author discovering Housman's poem "Loveliest of Trees" tacked up to a cherry tree on her university (college) campus. I also thought of a lovely poem "Low Tide, Aramoana" by New Zealand poet Cilla McQueen. If I was to read a poem at work, or pin one up, that's the one I'd pick. That's because I do accounts for a shellfish exporter, and the poem mentions cockles, and a scene very like the one where our shellfish are harvested.

But I'm not brave enough for that. So I decided to do it backwards and post a poem that brings the everyday into poetry, rather than poetry into the everyday. And what is more every day than spam? (I just checked the prompt, and there was another part, to use a phrase you hear every day in a poem. I didn't do that either). I get around 100 or so spam messages a day, and a year or two back I decided to make use of them and turn some of them into a poem. Each line is the subject line of a junk e-mail:

Spam

Here is the Incredible News
someone is interested in you
it is a world of love
this is a limited time offer

become the man that women desire
Dave did it, so can you
nail fungus is a thing of the past
passion should last forever

peel your hardboiled eggs in seconds
Spot’s got nothing on Dave
elevate mood and improve sleep
stop e-mails like this one

stir up your morning
fresh roasted gourmet coffee
the aroma will put a smile on your face
energy never tasted so good

tired of running to the Post Office?
Elvis endorses Google’s g-mail
please scan for errors by March 25
what’s Bill Gates got to do with it?

More Poetry Thursday here.

16 comments:

Paul D. said...

I teach biology and I often tell people about the critters that live and on us. I used to talk about the nail fungus and joke that some drug company would market a fungicide to kill it and have an advertizing campaign about how undesirable it was socially to have nail fungus.

Obviously someone took me seriously.

Jim Brock said...

Ha!

I'm such a fan of found poetry, especially things that riff off the most banal, anti-poetry sources! Wicked smart.

Sue said...

LOL Catherine -- I love it -- might have to copy it (for personal use of course) -- Here via Michele's today.

gkgirl said...

ahhh...
this was a cool idea
and it worked
very well...
yay

Deb R said...

That is such a totally cool idea, Catherine and you really pulled it off!

writingblind said...

Wow, some of those lines you wouldn't know were spam. That's the beauty of found poetry I guess, you never know what's going to come out.

wendy said...

An old friend of mine wrote a book and in it he he coined the phrase..Database of intentions..or something similiar...I wrote back that "database of delusions" was more like it...I think I need to send him this terrific poem...
thanks

Star said...

Excellent use of junk mail! You were very creative in combining them to come up with an intersting jab at the spam world. Well done :-)

MaR said...

Brilliant! I don't get as much spam mail as you do (*knocks on wood*) but now I am kind of looking forward to it to see what I can come up with :)

Tia said...

I just knew I should come back to your blog again! This was fabulous! What an awesome way to make lemonade out of lemons...

BTW - is Keri Hulme very popular in NZ? I recently read "Bone People", her first (and only?) novel, I think. My husband and I both LOVED it.

January said...

Great poem!

I think this qualifies as a "flarf" poem, certainly a found poem. I can't think of a better way to recycle spam than to make it poetic.

liz elayne lamoreux said...

now this is very cool my dear. very cool. love it! such a fun way to almost look forward to spam as it brings a line of poetry with it...

Kay Cooke said...

This is great stuff - so well strung together. I love the Elvis line!

paris parfait said...

How clever is this - a poem made from spam??!! Brilliant!

Ceebie said...

Turning spam on its head - I love it!. I often wonder who it is sitting behind their monitors, sending out spam. To think of them as poets rather than creeps trying to make a buck! Beautifully done :)

Dani In NC said...

I'm adding my voice to the chorus. Creating found poetry is a special art in itself. You did a great job with this poem.