In the same vein as [squared]: a Dice Poem, I have created a manually-generative poem using the squares on a Rubik's Cube.
There are many combinations.
They have inexpensive "puzzle blocks" at some larger craft stores, and the words were printed on label paper, so there is no reason you can't give this project a go. Create your own non-digital generative poetry as a piece of Moment Art, with a little extra elbow grease!
Shown below are pictures of the faces of my cube before they were realigned. After changing the order, the poem opens up completely different worlds of insight into the characters of the piece, sides of them that I could not possibly consider on my own. With just a little effort, you can make a poem that almost creates itself.
There are a good number of people that pursue studies on computer-generated poetry, and understand a lot more about it than I do. I hope, that if nothing else, I am able to bring a largely esoteric field of study to those without the programming capabilities.
Total cost? A couple bucks and some time well spent. Consider this a Weekly Moment Art piece if you will, but please consider giving this type of poetry a try.
And for those interested, here's what the python program looks like, though you may download it here: boxed.py
# [boxed]
# Sonny Rae Tempest
from random import choice
from time import sleep
square1=['It was her first time.','She wore her best dress.','What if it never happened.','What if it happened again.',"She didn't want to, though.",'She always thought she might.']
square2=['There was a plane overhead;','There was a bonfire;','There was a dead bird;','There was never time;','There was a tree;','There was always space;']
square3=['the news confused her.','the grass tickled her.','the coffee warmed her.','the truth astounded her.','shadows blanketed her.','the dog nuzzled her.']
square4=['In the right night, she was','In their eyes, she looked',"In the wrong state of mind, she'd feel",'In October, she looked so','In her own eyes, she felt','In the right light, she looked']
square5=['easy.','easy to talk to.','twitchy.','comfortable.','amazing.','insecure.']
square6=['She never liked her','She stretched her','She tapped her','She rubbed her','She pinched her','She stroked her']
square7=['legs. There was a time when he',"feet. That's the only reason he",'eyes. The truth is that he always','shoulders. She only assumed that he',"kneecaps. Maybe that's why he",'cheeks. What if he never']
square8=['amazed her','touched her','wanted her','despised her','loved her','hit her']
square9=['so poignantly.','; so what?','so delicately.','so forcefully.','so much.','so hard.']
while True:
print ('\n'+choice(square1)+' '+choice(square2)+' '+choice(square3)+' '+choice(square4)+' '+choice(square5)+' '+choice(square6)+' '+choice(square7)+' '+choice(square8)+' '+choice(square9))
sleep(8)
Also, check out Gunning With Scissors in Kill Screen Magazine.
-SRT
