Spoetry

Spoetry or Spoems are poetic verses made primarily from the subject lines of spam e-mail messages.

What is Spoetry?

It is unknown as to when the first spoem was started as several writers and bloggers have claimed to have created the form. However, it is estimated that the idea began in 1999 as Satire Wire [http://www.satirewire.com/index.shtml] held their first spam poetry writing contest in 2000 [http://www.satirewire.com/features/poetry_spam/spam_winner.shtml] . Animator Don Hertzfeldt began writing spam poems in his production journal in 2004 [http://www.bitterfilms.com/forum.html] . Translator Jorge Candeias wrote a “spoem” a day during a whole year, between the 5th of May 2003 and the 5th of May 2004, using spam subject lines as title and inspiration; these are in Portuguese, based on spam bylines mostly in English [http://lampadamagica.blogspot.com/2007/05/spamesia-aqui-est-uma-das-tais-postas.html] .

A book entitled 'Spam: E-mail Inspired Poems' by Ben Myers was published in 2008 by Blackheath Books [http://www.blackheathbooks.org.uk/2.html] Myers claims to have been writing spam poems since 1999.

The creation of spoetry is similar to William Burroughs' cut-up technique in that individual subject lines of messages are pieced together in poetic form; making the creation of spoetry an exercise not in creativity as much as in having an eye for the unexpected.

The end result can be crafted into any literary form the author desires: haiku, concrete poetry, limerick, dada, and so on. Thus, spoetry is not a literary form but rather a means of creating poetry.

Examples

Several examples of poetry created from spam can be found across the Internet.

"What Can You Do in 3 Minutes?"
Look out your window
Make a child happy
Groom those bushy eyebrows
Get residency in Panama
Lose 10 lbs.
Remove dents
Pupate

Haiku Style:

Santa Claus catholic
Looking for medications
Your stocking stuffer

Smoking is harmful!
I do it because its fun
White Teeth Guaranteed

Memo: to My Pets
I know what you are doing
No, oh, that's just wrong

ee also

* Flarf
* Spam Lit

External links

* [http://www.harbus.org/media/storage/paper343/news/2003/11/17/ThatGuy/An.Epic.Poem.Made.Of.Spam-559870.shtml?norewrite200610101820&sourcedomain=www.harbus.org Article published in 2003 by the Harvard Business School Newspaper]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3247200.stm Article published in 2003 by BBC News]
* [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/30/1083224574827.html Article published in 2004 by The Age (Australia)]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1725415,00.html Article published in 2006 by The Guardian (United Kingdom)]
* [http://poemsmadefromspam.blogspot.com Anthology of Spam Poetry]
* [http://www.benmyers.com/spam/index.php Ben Myers' Spam Poetry]
* [http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/books/6355 Review of Ben Myers' Spam poetry book]
* [http://www.bitterfilms.com/forum26.html see journal entries from July 31, 2004 and April 22, 2004] by Don Hertzfeldt
* [http://www.flakmag.com/features/splog/ “Spam of the Day”] in "Flak Magazine"’s The Splog
* [http://spam-poetry.com Kristin Thomas' Spam Poetry]
* [http://www.spoems.com Spoetry Site]
* [http://linuxbox.co.uk/spampoetry.php Site featuring dynamically generated rhyming couplets]
* [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/07/spoetry_please.html Article and samples published in 2007 by The Guardian]
* [http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/spamalit Review of 'The Spam Anthology' published in 2007 by 3:AM Magazine]
* [http://www.artshub.com/us/?vmStr=6D16F9DE56B8827BBB6D85D9A5CD370FB91945DAE710B108 'The poetry of spam' September 29, 2006, Arts Hub US]
* [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/07/spam_poetry.html Andrew Gallix of The Guardian on the history of Spam Lit, July 2008]