The Three-Word Poem Generator

A command-line tool that generates poems from exactly three words: ash, vinyl, light.

It knows three words because I believe constraints make better work. Give a generator the whole dictionary and it becomes an algorithm. Give it three words and it becomes a poet — or at least, a very sincere accountant of feelings.

Written in a single evening. Used more than anything else I’ve built this year.

$ poem ash vinyl light

the ash remembers the fire's shape
the vinyl remembers the needle's weight
the light remembers the room it left