This is Flarf!

I decided to try out flarfing. How I came up with this 'poem' is that I typed the words "Synergy, correct, individual, perhaps, rain, frequent" into Google, and the rest is right here to feast your eyes one and devour.

 Synergistic effects of seasonal rainfall, parasites and demography on fluctuations in springbok body condition ... For ruminants, individual body condition varies cyclically with ..... For comparison, we repeated the model of adult female body .... 1988), perhaps providing a greater range of forage options for ...

$160 (save $35 over individual Synergy Essence prices) ... Coast Spring Water, Hawaiian Rain Water, Pacific Ocean Water or a combination of each. ... relationship with them with vary but there is a common thread joining them all together. ... than others on this earth plane (perhaps cause their spiritual practices or beliefs).called “spring creep,” is often ascribed to climate change.4 Perhapsunsurprisingly, 

spring creep affects individual species differently. It is a boon to some ...... 

environment, and a similar analysis would likely be appropriate before any major 
 sheets or the drying of the Amazon rain forest.96. Like climate ...
We know very well that a middle culture person with difficulty remembers some ... to solve their problems, organise their learning and give them the correct answer. .... many little events have a synergistic effect and cause disrupting consequences? ... Oftenafter raining, near a car street I observed a puddle with a coloured ...line in order to isolate the individual roles of radiation (RA-. DIATION) ... 
MICRO and SYNERGY is to weaken the squall line. 1 Introduction.
Thus, SUMO acts synergistically on several proteins, and individual ..... serve a common purpose and are pesynchronously triggered.
Perhaps deliberation has educative effects or contributes to individual self-development ... problems, groups often do not correct but instead amplify individualerrors; emphasize ..... earnings of firms; changes in the American economy; and annual peek rainfall runoff in eight different .... Beyond the sum of the parts: synergy.
Background: Common property studies at Loma Alta, Ecuador ... Meeting the desires of individuals while sustaining ecological “public ..... Farmers traditionally leave forest surrounding the hat fiber to “attract rain,” TEK related to the fact ... Perhaps there were no local direct experiences indicating the costs to ...


CASE DESCRIPTION When Porter Raulston, the CEO of Rain Dance ... Synergy is when the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. ... The case further illustrated the need for conducting proper due diligence and having a ... the plan and why planning seems to often take priority over day-to-day activities.
 The words in English I'd heard just bothered me that they weren't a grammatical sentence, so I wanted to fix tht. ... Come, walk in rain with me, come, sing a song with me, ..... with individual and unique perspectives and skills frequentlyexceeds ... (Applause from audience, perhaps a couple of tomatoes.) ...

What is Flarf?

My post title is "what is flarf?" So I looked it up, and here's an interesting link on info about what it is and how to do it. Check it out if you please!
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-flarf-poetry
according to this website, which is in fact a how-to, it's " A quality of intentional or unintentional “flarfiness.” A kind of corrosive, cute, or cloying, awfulness. Wrong. Un-P.C. Out of control. “Not okay.”"

I think I agree with the "out of control" and "not okay" bit especially when applying them to Annoying Diabetic Bitch. I didn't really find any poems that made me think or feel anything positive. The only thing I really felt was pain that I had to read this, and I couldn't put it down and never pick it back up again. I'm sorry if this is harsh Kevin, but I think it's awful and I wouldn't read it if I had a choice.
I started reading some of the 'poems' from Sharon Mesmer's Annoying Diabetic Bitch, and I found it hard to read them seriously because I don't really see it as art or talent to just take random words and in this case, make something offensive. Okay, so maybe flarf can come out with something that is good and pleasant and more than just offensive strings of words thrown haphazardly into a book. Overall I found it to be a painful read, and I don't think flarf has to be that way. I'm sure I can come up with something less offensive.

Jen Currin, The Ends

Jen Currin's chap book type thing had a few different types of poemings in it and the one that stuck in my mind the stickiest was the poem called: "On Peace Street" and it goes like this:

"It started snowing. I wanted to pour us glasses of wine and go out into the snow, to feel it melt on our faces. The first snow of the year. I told you I didn't think the military should exist and kissed you. You said you couldn't think of anyone but him. The snow was wet; it slipped off windshields and slushed the stairs. A city of bolted kale glowed whitely in the front yard. The black cats from upstairs slipped past our legs. The moon was falling slowly. You looked away and I lifted my glass."

I found this poem attracted my attention because it contrasted happy and sad images in my mind, There's one part where it says "I...kissed you. You said you couldn't think of anyone but him." And that makes me think that they were out having fun in the snow and one person expressed their feelings that the other basically said that they wanted someone else. And then the poem goes on to describe more scenery. I just find it interesting that it can be so disinterested in the emotions that it was describing and continue on in the poem as if nothing had been said other than talk about snow.

So I've written a poem trying to get at the same idea as this poet did,

We watched a movie, and I wanted more popcorn but the cupboard was empty. The movie was a blur of animation and music. All I could think of was the pretty girl you smiled at earlier. You smile at me and drink some pop. You tell me stories of your chidhood and I smile when the time is right. I can't escape the pit. But I forget and we become quiet and the movie becomes loud and the night outside is dark and the room is aglow from the tv and all I can think of is popcorn.

It's just a draft so far.

My Life By Lyn Hejinian

"All that is nearly incommunicable to my friends. Velocity and throat verisimilitude. Were we seeing a pattern or merely an appearance of small white sailboats on the bay, floating at such a distance from the hill that they appeared to be making no progress. And for once to a country that did not speak another language." 

An excerpt from My Life by Lyn Hejinian. 

I find that this type of structure for a poem is hard to read, as it was really easy for me to lose my place. Not just because of how long the lines were, or the fact that it was block quote style but because there was no connection for me between each sentence. However, I did like how clearly I could picture most of the things she was saying as there was a lot of imagery in the sentences, but that was taken away from every time a new image was forced into my head with each new sentence. I feel like I got whip-lash from reading this poem because I was being pulled in so many directions. I still feel like there's something that does make it narrative, I just can't tell what it is. It seemed to me like reading a shopping list, because all the items are separate from each other but there is one common thing that links them all together even if it is not obvious at the beginning what that might be. 

Here's a poem I've written that tries to encompass some of the feelings I got from reading My Life.  It's a rough draft.

In my living room there is a white pot with grass sticking up from all angles. It's been filled with dirt, as if to encourage the little plant to continue to live. I had a bagel for breakfast, it reminds me of camping and drunk hammocks. And of course Christmas time, with a damaged box and a gift for us both. My hands feel like ice, and are white like the snow. I have a surprise for you, gourmet jelly beans. Yes they're a real thing. Yes I know you like them, that's why they're for you. Your Mom is so electronically challenged that we can't go skating until she learns how to use a tv. So I wait to skate. No matter what I do, I'm always cold. When I was little, my Mom took me sledding, and when we went down the biggest hill she screamed and we never went sledding together again. We have pictures. I don't understand how it can be so grey outside and still blind me so much that my brain aches. It's like a cruel joke. I just want raspberries and frozen yoghurt. 

When I was writing my poem, I  tried to go for the same random list of thoughts that Lyn did, but I wanted mine to have more of a narrative feel so it's easier to see how they're connected. I'm not sure if I achieved what I was going for, but then again, it's just a draft. 

I made a blog, look at me go!

I'm gonna post poems and other such things here to express my inner soul fire thingy or something of that kind. I hope you guys enjoy my ramblings and don't cry as if they're onions.