flarf

n. a style of poetry in which poems are formed by a collage of quasi-random, serendipitously found words and phrases; poems or a poem in the style. Subjects: English, Arts & Literature

Editorial Note: The word history given in the site linked by the first citation is believed to be more or less correct.

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Citations: *2003 Michael Magee Poetics Syllabi by Charles Bernstein (Buffalo, N.Y.) (Aug. 22) “The Flarf Files”: My own understanding of it went something like this: “Flarf” is a collage-based method which employs Google searches, specifically the partial quotes which Google “captures” from websites. In its early manifestations it was VERY whimsical and went something like this: you search Google for 2 disparate terms, like “anarchy + tuna melt”—using only the quotes captured by Google (never the actual websites themselves) you stitch words, phrases, clauses, sentences together to create poems. 2004 John Palattella Nation (U.S.) (Oct. 4) “Difficult loves” vol. 279, no. 10, p. 23: For the past few years some poets have approached Google as a detournement machine, using the search function as a phrase generator and assembling the results into cut-up poems. (In some circles the method and poems go by the name of “flarf.”) As bewildering or irritating as spam, this work is defiantly typographic and can be downright impossible to read aloud, amplified or not. 2006 Jim Behrle The Jim Side (New York City) (Mar. 9) “Talking Points”: Tony Hoagland was heard claiming flarf after Naomi Shihab Nye’s reading.

Posted 13 Mar 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend