An Introduction to Spoetry

Over at The Guardian, Eva Wiseman reports on the curious new trend of Spoetry:

Some spam emails are filled with nonsense. Others simply fill the heart. Recently, under a colourful link to a website selling penis extensions, I found this poetic jewel:

Elizabeth you siren me, coriander. glasswort you alveolus me, chocks.
Dastard you backyard me, colonial cybernetic. risen you begrudge me,
Baccarat rebuke alfresco

This nugget of verse was not created entirely by chance. Bayesian filters, anti-spam programs which rank words in emails according to undesirability, can be fooled when said bad words (Cialis, mortgage, porn) are broken up with arbitrary prose. A message screaming cock pump drug pimp for example, will be filtered out, but if it’s couched with terms such as hawk, seize, hence and triumvirate, the spam will be eluded and your inbox will receive a surreal and striking surprise.

Comparisons with Ezra Pound and William Burroughs follow. (Thanks to David for the link. )