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 #2 is focused on finding differences between change and progress. This RLE is linked to this prescribed title in the follow ways:

  • Whether digital art is progress or not
  • Whether this new form of poetry is progress or not
  • What constitutes progress in art
  • Whether this use of computer programming is progress in art