FLARF ORIGINS, POETRY BY GARY SULLIVAN AND JORDAN DAVIS

This the first flarf poem written by Gary Sullivan. It was a response-prank sent to this online scam by the "organization" Poetry.com. Sullivan's father was among the many who were fooled. This was Gary's poetic response:

mhm

by

Gary Sullivan

Yeah, mm-hmm, it's true
big birds make 
big doo! I got fire inside
my "huppa"-chimp(TM)
gonna be agreessive, greasy aw yeah god
wanna DOOT! DOOT!
Pffffffffffffffffffffffffft! hey!
oooh yeah baby gonna shake & bake then take
AWWWWWL your monee, honee (tee hee)
uggah duggah buggah biggah buggah muggah
hey! hey! you stoopid Mick! get
off the paddy field and git
me some chocolate Quik
put a Q-tip in it and stir it up sick
pocka-mocka-chocka-locka-DING DONG
fuck! shit! piss! oh it's so sad that
syndrome what's it called tourette's
make me HAI-EE! shout out loud
Cuz I love thee. Thank you God, for listening!

The poem, which was obviously made as a joke, circulated blogs and Sullivan's own circle of poetry friends. More people began writing flarf and the movement is starting to be taken quite seriously. I think that flarf poets are inspired by the endless absurdities present on the internet that mirror worldly existence, at least to an extent. That being said early flarf was certainly entertaining, but I'm still not quite sure there was anything I could understand of these early days of the flarf scene.

This is a group of poems inspired by both flarf and the internet. Davis certainly calls attention to the strange, honest, beautifully creative human preposterousness.

(thank you poetry foundation.)

Three Poems on Demand

BY JORDAN DAVIS

TURTLES GENERATE POEMS

No wonder they move so slowly—

Somebody in there is

Trying to write.

PICTURES OF BUGS BUNNY DRESSED LIKE A THUG

What drove me to draw this picture

Of Bugs Bunny dressed like a thug?

Plural. Pictures. Not once did I sketch

The buff tattooed torso of Thug Bugs

But many times, over several days.

He looks mean, doesn’t he? When O when

Will this election be over

So I can blow off life again

Without inadvertently producing objects

Of great and mysterious-to-me beauty.

POEM FOR A SIXTH WEDDING

You know a lot better than I do

What you’re doing