The “poets” in this RLE are actually computer programmers. They created software programs that contained language-based rules based on what they had seen in poetry. The computer programs created new poems based on these language rules.

Robert Gaskin’s poem “HAIKU ARE LIKE TROLLIES”: 

Wandering in mist

Reaching out to soft sunlight 

Blue-scaled dragons pause.

Moon low over sea

Glimpse of discarded cocoon 

Small fish swimming idly. 

Prehistoric Digital Poetry an Archaeology of Forms, by Chris T. Funkhouser, The University of Alabama Press, 2007, pp. 58–59.

John Morris’s poem “Haiku—At Random”:

Frogling, listen, waters 

Insatiable, listen,

The still, scarecrow dusk. 

Listen: I dreamed, was slain. 

Up, battles! Echo these dusk 

Battles! Glittering . 

Fleas spring far, scarecrow,

Oh scarecrow, scarecrow: well, far, 

Scarecrow, oh scarecrow. 

“Prehistoric Digital Poetry an Archaeology of Forms.” Prehistoric Digital Poetry an Archaeology of Forms, by Chris T. Funkhouser, The University of Alabama Press, 2007, pp. 58–59.

May 2021 TOK essay Prescribed Title #1 is centered on whether knowledge claims are need to have an element of trust or not. This RLE has considerable links to trust:

  • The trust that the researchers have in their research on language and their trust that their program is based on their research
  • Trust in digital versus traditional methods of creating art
  • Whether someone trusts that the digital poems have artistic value or not