Google found poems

I was introduced to Ryan Fitzpatrick's "Fake Math" (Snare Books, 2007) by fellow poet Bronwyn who visited my workshop this week. Fitzpatrick's book is a brilliant collection of poems that employs the search engine as vocabulary; each poem composed with the results from a search of a specific word or phrase.

The idea of a found poem resulting from the gargantuan mess of a search results page intrigued me; and we tried it out in class with the students. It's a great, playful way to let students let go of their preoccupations with logic and allow them to enjoy the malleable nature of language.

here's mine

Math

a google found poem

is elegant. I think I have found

ts defining feature,

beauty in method,

that long thread

plugging in numbers.

Formulas aren't important anymore.

It is not uncommon to hear physicists

represent the ratio of the physical

and the evolutionary conundrum.

Almost every other branch

is seen three-dimensional

inspired by the theories

for those unlucky few who haven't yet discovered

aversion to numbers

because life is easy for mathematicians.