Where are the neighborhoods with bushes
big enough to hide in?
Kids that go around the block together all afternoon,
Normal-sized houses and the old Winkfields next door...
All day the kids hung out at that corner,
played on the grass, got drinks out of the hose,
and only left the area to go around the block over and over again.
All of a sudden I'm 30.
Life has shown me again that I am not in control.
I bet that block is not nearly as big
as I remember it being.
Original: HERE.
This poem was made entirely from text in the above e-mail.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Off to the kindergarten valentine party
A little note for my valentine:
Women who have these hormonal issues typically carry a lot
of weight around the middle.
I spent a few years calming down my teen angst and
attempting to grow up.
I know some people don't love the whole "Valentine's" thing,
but it is so fun to me.
What an adventure it is.
Original: HERE.
This poem was made entirely from text in the above e-mail.
Women who have these hormonal issues typically carry a lot
of weight around the middle.
I spent a few years calming down my teen angst and
attempting to grow up.
I know some people don't love the whole "Valentine's" thing,
but it is so fun to me.
What an adventure it is.
Original: HERE.
This poem was made entirely from text in the above e-mail.
"Poesis a Purgāmentum" Introduction Post
Hello. Somehow you've stumbled onto one of A.C. Sorensen's many artsy internet projects.
So just what is Poesis a Purgāmentum? Well, on April 15th, 2009, I went to check my e-mail. Waiting in my inbox was a spam e-mail entitled "Hair loss is not a verdict to you with Rogaine."
My e-mail account is set to automatically preview messages I click on. Normally I delete spam immediately, but something in the e-mail preview caught my eye. Aside from the cliche and expected image attached to the e-mail trying to entice me to purchase Viagra, I noticed that the bulk of the mail message contained many lines of text which read like diary or blog snippets. Some of them were quite thought-provoking, and I, being the romantic that I am, found beauty in these words.
Why had the spam e-mail's creator chosen these particularly unexpected lines for an e-mail about male impotence drugs? Were they "harvested" from actual internet blogs, or simply the product of a text generator? Curious, I copied and pasted an excerpt from the e-mail into Google's search box. All I found were online links to spam e-mails of a similar formula. There didn't seem to be any actual blogs or apparent author of the words.
In the following weeks I recieved several similar e-mails, all with the unique "diary-esque" text I loved so much. The wheels in my head began to turn, and with no apparent author to offend, I thought of the many things that could be done with the spam text: they could be sorted into poems, fake diary entries, prose, they could act as prompts... there were many possibilities and they would all prove an interesting excercise in restricting the artist to only using certain words or certain thoughts.
And thus, Poesis a Purgāmentum was born. The idea for this project literally arrived in my inbox one evening.
So welcome. I hope this blog will entice you to appreciate beauty in unexpected places.
~A.C. Sorensen
So just what is Poesis a Purgāmentum? Well, on April 15th, 2009, I went to check my e-mail. Waiting in my inbox was a spam e-mail entitled "Hair loss is not a verdict to you with Rogaine."
My e-mail account is set to automatically preview messages I click on. Normally I delete spam immediately, but something in the e-mail preview caught my eye. Aside from the cliche and expected image attached to the e-mail trying to entice me to purchase Viagra, I noticed that the bulk of the mail message contained many lines of text which read like diary or blog snippets. Some of them were quite thought-provoking, and I, being the romantic that I am, found beauty in these words.
Why had the spam e-mail's creator chosen these particularly unexpected lines for an e-mail about male impotence drugs? Were they "harvested" from actual internet blogs, or simply the product of a text generator? Curious, I copied and pasted an excerpt from the e-mail into Google's search box. All I found were online links to spam e-mails of a similar formula. There didn't seem to be any actual blogs or apparent author of the words.
In the following weeks I recieved several similar e-mails, all with the unique "diary-esque" text I loved so much. The wheels in my head began to turn, and with no apparent author to offend, I thought of the many things that could be done with the spam text: they could be sorted into poems, fake diary entries, prose, they could act as prompts... there were many possibilities and they would all prove an interesting excercise in restricting the artist to only using certain words or certain thoughts.
And thus, Poesis a Purgāmentum was born. The idea for this project literally arrived in my inbox one evening.
So welcome. I hope this blog will entice you to appreciate beauty in unexpected places.
~A.C. Sorensen
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