Winston Plowes has delivered his verdict on the Texperiments involving poetic text messages he conducted on behalf of National Poetry Day last month.

“Dear Texters, Texperiments HQ has now closed. Firstly, can I thank you for taking part in this nationwide SMS poetry experiment. And so many of you did. including lots of Write Out Loud members. Fifteen different experiments took place, each loosely following the consequences format (some of you might know this as exquisite corpse). I must say that the results were more amazing than I could have imagined. I’ve have lots of positive feedback so far, including calls for the project to re-run next year. Here are some snapshots of my favourite results. Remember, contributors sent in their string of words having only seen the line before. You can see the full set of results here or by visiting the Facebook page of National Poetry Day, which commissioned this project.” 

 

	Constellations can spin wildly. Fluorescent thoughts blind me with promises. Made softly, broken fiercely. Grinding glass calms the Earth’s fall.     The talented fool, my dearest love. My kittiwake, my sea foam spirit     Through the window I see no star, sodium light nulls night. Let me dream wandering pathways. Looking for that perfect moon.

 

 

The genius box

hides foolish sins.

Again and again

the river nudges.

 

If a falling star

means you are gone.

Dead inside my womb

cold like a snail

 

The dark star

freezes my heart

like this river

swollen by rain

 

The dark star

reflects only itself.

Its bitter teeth

ground winter down

 

Beyond Starlight’s reach

early evening glitters.

A beetle sheen

coats the bottle.