Sunday Poetry XVII -- Accidental Poetry, and a "Writing" Challenge

Remember the "bookmash?"  There are two approaches to "creating" one, the first a little less pure than the second:  1, you find a bunch of book titles on your shelves or at the library or wherever, and you arrange them in such a way that the titles create a poem of sorts; 2, you look up at a recently read pile of books or a short row of them on your shelves, and they have already, accidentally, formed a poem.  I don't know about the other contributors, but I confess, I intentionally arranged my titles.

Not that this is bad, but what if the Fates had more to do with it?  

I'm going to try something and write it up as I go, and maybe it will turn out to be poetry, but maybe not.  (I am relying on the website www.random.org for my very numerological approach.)  The question, of course, before and after the completion of this little experiment, is this: 

Is there any value to accidental poetry, or other accidental art?

parameters	randomized result
Number of lines (3-15)	4
phrases per line (2-4)	3
words per phrase (3-5)	5

For each phrase, I’ll randomly assign a shelf number (1-7) from my fiction bookcases, a book number (1-25), a page number (1-200), a line number (1-25), and a word number from which to begin the phrase (1-15). 

(I have no idea how this is going to turn out.)

phrase	shelf	book	page	line	word	phrase
1	4	14	22	16	3	“rush.  a vortex” (Wicked – Macguire)
2	6	20	34	25	5	“richer tone was (Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck)
3	2	3	28	15	4	“part of the” (In the Time of Butterflies – Alvarez)
4	5	24	36	16	15	“light patch on” (Nightjohn – Paulsen)
5	7	19	35	15	3	“father also loses” (Fatherhood – Cosby)
6	2	6	53	23	2	“monastery.  Early boards” (Museum at Purgatory – Bantock)
7	3	11	24	2	10	“the other man” (The Mysterious Flam of Queen Loana – Eco)
8	1	5	168	14	9	“him the honor” (The Believer, March 05 – McSweeney’s)
9	4	12	3	11	4	“come here! – all” (Franz Kafka, Collected Stories)
10	4	19	79	24	9	“go, he said” (The Road – McCarthy)
11	2	2	95	13	2	“di iosafat qui (from Jehoshaphat above)” (The Inferno of Dante)
12	3	14	193	17	7	“drawer those nice” (On Literature – Eco)

The "Poem," unedited

by Accident

rush. a vortex richer tone was part of the

light patch on father also loses monastery.  Early boards

the other man him the honor come here! – all

go, he said from Jehoshaphat above drawer those nice

The “Poem,” with altered punctuation and line breaks

by Accident, with Help

Rush: A vortex;

richer tone was part of

the light, patch-on father—

also loses.

Monastery, early boards,

the other man:  Him

the honor come here!

“All go,” he said, from

Jehoshaphat above.

Drawer: those nice. 

So, obviously, this isn't a great poem, though I'm surprised at and pleased with some of the phrase combinations.  I bet if I do this a few more times, I might actually stumble upon something half-decent, or even, maybe, good.  

CHALLENGE:

Do this yourself,

see what you get,

post a comment here with your results.