Spoetry

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

Contents 1 What is Spoetry? 2 Examples 3 See Also 4 External Links

[edit] 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’s estimated that the idea began in 1999 as Satire Wire [1] held their first spam poetry writing contest in 2000 [2].

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, limerick, dada, and so on. Thus, spoetry is not a literary form but rather a means of creating poetry.

[edit] Examples

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

Limerick Style:

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

[edit] See Also

• Flarf

[edit] External Links

• Article published in 2003 by the Harvard Business School Newspaper
• Article published in 2003 by BBC News
• Article published in 2004 by The Age (Australia)
• Article published in 2006 by The Guardian (United Kingdom)
• Anthology of Spam Poetry
• Ben Myers' Spam Poetry
• see journal entry from April 22, 2004 by Don Hertzfeldt
• Flak Magazine’s The Splog features a “Spam of the Day”
• Kristin Thomas' Spam Poetry
• Spoetry Site
• Site featuring dynamically generated rhyming couplets