Poetry As Code, Code as Poetry

1010001000111010101010101.

Does that look like poetry to you?

How about now:

The tree   fell   sofastfree fated to fail from the first.

A space in a sentence can be equilibration to the 0 of code, a word in place of the 1.  Sentence structures and vocabulary carry semantic and syntactic significance. Language is necessarily governed by a strict set of rules that are naturally and artificially governed.  Poetry, a specific genre of literature, is triply defined by rules; first by those of language, second by the conventions of literature and third by the defining characteristics of poetry. I argue that because rules govern poetry, they share a relationship with digital games that are also governed by rules namely in their creation (programming) and structure. Loss Pequeno Glazier argues in “Code, Cod, Ode: Poetic Language & Programming”, chapter of book The Aesthetics of Net Literature: Writing, Reading and Playing in Programmable Media by Peter Gendolla and Jorgen Schafer. (Transaction Publishers 2007), the following:

Much importance can be seen in the specificity of language, especially considering the sum of variations of a single word in different languages. The word itself is a solid object at the center of such a set of permutations. The meaning of a sum of such variants can be likened to an array in programming. An array object can be greater than the sum of its parts, a concept that ties into Cubism as well as to poetry where languages mix. (319)

The key words here are “array” and “empty”. We humans have been trained to read using a figure and ground relationship, the letter the figure, the white paper the ground.What is more, the each figure is imbued with great semantic meaning as defined by cultural and society.  I argue in code, 1 & 0 can be interpreted as figure and ground.

What is of use in this method (Is Sono At Swoons, an online poem by the author) is the concept of precise poetic analysis, of the relevance of position, location, and structure. The arrangement of words in a poem or in a program have intense value. Like the empty space beneath arches in a coloannade, writing and programming is a dance around the architectural spaces of the poem’s parts.Words themselves are modualr and programmable. As smoothly as “code” flows to “cod” and then to “ode”, poetic language is always engaged in the play of its parts. (329)

Binary is making it’s way into pop culture. Watch for the binary solo towards the end of the performance of New Zealand Folk Parody band Flight of the Concords.

Another Video, this on Poetry as Code:

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