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 prescribed title #4 is a look at how statistics can be use to conceal or reveal knowledge. This RLE has a number of links:

  • How the computer programmers used statistics to create rules in the program program
  • How the computer program used statistics to generate poems

With any of the bullet points above the essay would need to analyze how the statistics were used to conceal or reveal knowledge.