Today's National Poetry Month poem is a bit different than other entries thus far. It is an experimental product that I refer to as a coem or code poem. These pieces slam programming language syntax and poetic syntax together.





Poetry and programming are conventionally seen as very different mediums. There is, however, a surprising amount of crossover. Rhythmic structuring can mirror mitigating file sizes. Both exist without true rules, instead relying more on debating schools of thought which readily define new standards and techniques. They both seek to express something complicated by any means necessary. As a result, I believe coems are something that are intentionally without formal requirements. The idea is really to merge the poetry and programming through their boundlessness, less-so than succumb to notions of requirements and absolutes.





The power, or relevance, in all of this is that incorporating modalities and norms of programming concepts into poetry, the writer is able to experiment with language in a few different ways:





The most obvious opportunity that presents itself is exploring mechanical language in perhaps the most efficient way possible. Most languages have concise syntax with an abundance of abbreviations. This compactedness opens itself to creating a variety of moods: Hurriedness, obscurity, melancholic efficiency.





Programming is not solely numbers and names, there is often text involved as well. Text data is stored as a construct called strings, which define error messages and the like. So too, programmers will leave comments to themselves in the script quite frequently. It is a necessity. This opens up an opportunity for more conventions of poetry to present themselves.





Additional media integration can be made accessible to someone versed in both programming and poetry. Whether it is something as straightforward as ASCII art or a means for the reader to launch audio from their phone, the potential is immense.





When all is said and done, as poetry and programming evolve they would benefit from engaging with one another. They are both practices that make order out of nothingness by coaxing chaos into an individualized method of success.





My own efforts are focused on transforming functional.corr into a project that highlights the versatility of coems. Hopefully additional creators in the field consider exploring the potential in this relationship.







