MARY GABLE

The news slingers at the New York Times have gotten into the poetry business. But not on purpose.

Here’s how “serendipitous poetry” works: an algorithm scans recently published Times articles for sentences that fit a haiku’s requisite 5-7-5 syllable scheme. The machine spits out some true verse—and some duds. Curators choose the best ones, and publish them on the newly created Times Haiku blog.

The insta-poems are styled as images rather than text, so they retain their structure even when they’re shared. Best of all, click on a haiku of interest, and you’re transported to the Times article from which it originates. Pure highbrow genius, for the Age of Tumblr.

Tagged: language