I am having entirely too much fun this morning with BookThug’s PoemBot.

As the page explains, it’s a neat tool where you can collaborate with BookThug authors to create your own unique poem. You simply type a line of  text , choose your poem type and length and click “create poem.” Then watch as PoemBot magically conjures a poem using your text along with text taken from published BookThug authors.

Here are the 3-line, 4-line and 5-line poems generated from my line “cracked teacup.” I must admit, I do wish I had actually written the 4-line poem.

cracked teacup
as for the allowances of kings
all he could see was the sky and snow falling

cracked teacup
split skin
fantasy no matter
we’re just trying to see things

cracked teacup
retire when you’re ready, great fairs to tahiti
when did things begin to lose their cohesion?
when a soldier dies and i don’t care anymore
as different stages of imma-blow-yer-fkin-shack-down

While I would never use one of these poems in entirety of course, because plagiarism, I do think it could be a useful tool for experimentation when I’m stuck on a particular word or line . A great way to leave the familiar roads I travel in my own writing. So thanks for this BookThug! And did I mention it’s also really fun?