I love it when serendipitous collisions occur and the result is beautiful art.
The Longest Poem in the World is a series rhyming couplets drawn from randomly selected Twitter updates. Looking only for end rhyme, the site’s script pairs one tweet with another to make a couplet, then streams couplet and couplet down the never-ending, always-creating, nonstop-scrolling site.
An example:
hide and seek ain’t the game, cos you’ll never find what you are looking for.
and why does a potential employer need my credit score?
Line 1 was written by one user, Line 2 by another. Yet the nonsense blends into a kind of tongue-in-cheek, unaware-yet-self-aware poetry.
Real poets always try to reflect our contemporary moment in some kind of contained literary form. Yet this machine is aggregating the mundane minutiae of everyday life, and assembling the debris into a rhyming reflection of 2009’s most relatable experiences.
Going for a drive and this time i probably wont come back.
Making mac and cheese and bacon. who up for that late night snack?
How can you match such a sinister, threatening line with another that just snaps you back into the trivialty of every day? Did user 1 just threaten a break-up, or a suicide, and the second person balance it off with gourmet KD?
Rise and shine give God the glory!!!
AND WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT LORI?
Author Terry Pratchett always uses ALL CAPS whenever Death or God is speaking. I imagine God has just questioned Lori’s motives for rising and shining.
I find myself clicking “next” endlessly and continually reading for something profound, or something hilarious, but sometimes even just watching something mundane turn into a rhyme makes the silliness of our daily lives that much more passible.
Birds and the Bees. Why is it called that?
I put on my robe and wizard hat.
Our fictional combination poet is hoping to answer the question by donning the wizard getup, I guess.
Anyway, check this thing out. Try reading entire pages aloud with Shatner-like sincerity, or take turns with friends. I love it right now.
Kevan Gilbert is a life-size replica of a 5'8" tall human being, and comes with several interchangeable outfits and a realistic haircut. In the daytime hours, Kevan works as Project Coordinator of Creative Technologies at Vancouver’s Union Gospel Mission, overseeing an online strategy that raises over $700,000 a year. When he’s not spending time with his beautiful wife Kendra in their hometown of Burnaby, BC, Kevan is available to meet, chat and collaborate.