Arlo Salinger’s Poem Generator (ArSaPoG)

By Arlo Salinger

Welcome to Arlo Salinger’s Poem Generator (ArSaPoG). In a few simple steps, you can create your own submission to 2024’s Rushlight: Secret Garden. Please keep limbs inside of the ride at all times.

Under the Hood: The ArSaPog was designed by—who else—me, Arlo Salinger. Using a text analysis tool, I deconstructed the most recent Rushlight (Renaissance) to its simplest parts, reviewed all of the various writing styles, and bashed rocks together until I got something that can, no doubt, get you into Rushlight: Secret Garden.

There are some limitations on this. While the inputs are agnostic to the original style of writing, the output can necessarily only be in the form of a poem. This is because prose, unfortunately, requires much more obvious syntactic structure than poetry does. Additionally, since words that were repeated in higher frequency are favored over words that appeared only a few times, authors that really nailed in one or two phrases get a bit more skin in the game when it comes to the word generation. To hopefully counteract this, I have added a set of “trademark words”: Words and phrases that only appeared once during the magazine. The inclusion of these are vital to the publication of your piece in Rushlight. Oh, also, some words got formatted weird. It’s hard to perfectly input over 100 pages containing over 18k words.

The ArSaPoG was originally designed to be used with a set of simple resources that most people should have access to.
(If you can’t access some materials, you can use RANDOM.org’s number generation feature as needed).

1. Deck of playing cards
2. 6-sided die
3. A coin approximately the size of a standard U.S. quarter with two visibly distinct sides
4. A Wheaton College wID
With these simple materials, you should be able to create something truly amazing!

I. Poetic Intent

The first step is to set the Poetic Intent. Flip a coin.
Heads (even #) - This is a narrative poem whose goal is to tell the audience a story.
Tails (odd #) - This poem’s goal is to illustrate a concept, moment, feeling, or otherwise without explicitly referring to one event.
While this may seem like it has no bearing upon the result of the piece, setting the Poetic Intent early on can help you a lot in the creative process. This will hopefully be evident as you continue to write your poem.

II. Structure
Next, we shall determine the structure of your poem. Roll the die.
1 - This poem is a traditional poem. Begin lines with capital letters, use punctuation, and don’t worry about including some longer lines and phrases.
2 - This poem is actually a series of smaller poetic fragments separated into parts. Roll the die again and use the value rolled to determine how many parts the poem will have. One last time, roll the die to determine the section headers:
1 or 6 - Letters. “a.”, “b.”, “c.”, etc. Use any capitalization you want.
2 or 5 - Roman numerals. “I”, “II”, “III”, etc. Use any capitalization you want.
3 - Arabic numerals. “1.”, “2.”, “3.”, etc.
4 - Short titles. Generate these using the Trademark Words section.
3 - This poem is a more modern poem. Use exclusively lowercase letters and use shorter lines.
4 - This poem is more modern but has gained confidence in writing longer lines. Use exclusively lowercase letters and don’t be afraid to have more words per line.
5 - This poem is extremely modern. Do some E. E. Cummings shit. Separate words, split them over lines, left-align them, go bananas.
6 - This poem is postmodern. There are literally multiple ways to read it. While constructing this poem, make sure that it has a cool double meaning when you read it backwards, include footnotes, or read both halves at the same time or some cool shit.

III. Content
Prepare your Wheaton College wID. Ignore the 00 at the beginning. If you do not have one and are reading this, generate a random number from 000001–999999 and add 00 to the beginning of it. Now, again, ignore the 00 at the beginning.
The numbers, when added together, will tell you how many times to generate content words. If, for example, I used RANDOM.org to generate a wID and got w00568057, I would generate “Content” thirty-one times.
If the number is less than or equal to 12, use the Content Phrases list.
If the number is between 13 and 54, use one of the following Content Words list. Every time you generate a Content Word, flip a coin.
Heads (even #) - Word Bank 1
Tails (odd #) - Word Bank 2
Please note: Some “Content Words” are actually short phrases. If you have a problem with this, send an email to the Rushlight editing staff.
Lastly, if your Poetic Intent was narrative, add an additional Phrase from the Phrase List no matter how many words you have drawn.
Now, draw a card using the appropriate list. Leave the card out of the deck for the next time you draw.
Word Bank 1
1♠(1) - silence is never 7♠(7) - walking
2♠(2) - don’t know 8♠(8) - before
3♠(3) - time 9♠(9) - younger
4♠(4) - and 10♠(10) - if you
5♠(5) - wasn’t J♠(11) - fox
6♠(6) - vodka bottle Q♠(12) - again
K♠(13) - my mother

1♥(14) - window 7♥(20) - gun
2♥(15) - boy 8♥(21) - day
3♥(16) - beat 9♥(22) - arm
4♥(17) - see 10♥(23) - afternoon
5♥(18) - fuck J♥(24) - knowing
6♥(19) - the way you Q♥(25) - other
K♥(26) - because

1♣(27) - memories 7♣(33) - look
2♣(28) - i wanted to 8♣(34) - something
3♣(29) - room 9♣(35) - world
4♣(30) - love 10♣(36) - death
5♣(31) - version J♣(37) - same face
6♣(32) - heavy Q♣(38) - said
K♣(39) - go

1♦(40) - her eyes 7♦(46) - let
2♦(41) - night 8♦(47) - god
3♦(42) - long 9♦(48) - sky
4♦(43) - through 10♦(49) - to make you
5♦(44) - hand J♦(50) - boat
6♦(45) - wasn’t Q♦(51) - red
K♦(52) - corner

Word Bank II
1♠(1) - i should have 7♠(7) - kiss
2♠(2) - trying 8♠(8) - tears
3♠(3) - green 9♠(9) - group
4♠(4) - leave 10♠(10) - flowers
5♠(5) - rain J♠(11) - more than just
6♠(6) - seems Q♠(12) - lips
K♠(13) - never

1♥(14) - city 7♥(20) - Naruto
2♥(15) - yet 8♥(21) - open field
3♥(16) - chest 9♥(22) - fear
4♥(17) - in high school 10♥(23) - friends
5♥(18) - innocence J♥(24) - black
6♥(19) - forward Q♥(25) - and
K♥(26) - moat

1♣(27) - down 7♣(33) - life
2♣(28) - staring 8♣(34) - looked
3♣(29) - sweet 9♣(35) - how
4♣(30) - do you 10♣(36) - slowly
5♣(31) - voice J♣(37) - everyone
6♣(32) - two Q♣(38) - not the same
K♣(39) - though

1♦(40) - the door 7♦(46) - i saw
2♦(41) - dead 8♦(47) - old
3♦(42) - couldn’t 9♦(48) - woman
4♦(43) - fall 10♦(49) - against
5♦(44) - days J♦(50) - point
6♦(45) - sun Q♦(51) - i know
K♦(52) - told

Phrase List

1♠(1) - i don’t know if i want 7♠(7) - the sky is falling
2♠(2) - my deprecating eyes 8♠(8) - floating people in white noise
3♠(3) - is not the same as 9♠(9) - tender kiss to fix
4♠ (4) - i can glue it 10♠(10) - my body cries
5♠(5) - silence is never quiet J♠(11) - next to each other
6♠(6) - it wants you to Q♠(12) - couldn’t care less
K♠(13) - made longer by sleep

1♥(14) - of my empty guts 7♥(20) - open field night
2♥(15) - before time could be dated 8♥(21) - the charming frame
3♥(16) - there was no way 9♥(22) - for every street corner
4♥(17) - what’s the point 10♥(23) - the same face that
5♥(18) - to each other J♥(24) - and i think
6♥(19) - i’ve got to Q♥(25) - is never enough
K♥(26) - conviction of someone who

1♣(27) - granting me an escape 7♣(33) - her days made
2♣(28) - sex which stabs 8♣(34) - an upturned bowl poured
3♣(29) - a few feet 9♣(35) - is not the same
4♣(30) - round face of the young 10♣(36) - seemed to notice
5♣(31) - the world goes dark J♣(37) - its natural pheromones
6♣(32) - read the symptoms Q♣(38) - dust settled on
K♣(39) - one of the lucky

1♦(40) - down heart leaving 7♦(46) - numbers are so
2♦(41) - lead the collision 8♦(47) - bounced gleefully through
3♦(42) - can call it yours 9♦(48) - all of my roommates
4♦(43) - plunk plunk plunk 10♦(49) - graft of my tongue
5♦(44) - better than consciousness J♦(50) - no room for
6♦(45) - my yellow tone fourth Q♦(51) - the night with it all
K♦(52) - face in my knee

IV. Additional Words
Now that you have some words, it’s time for you to add some of those Trademark Words that will really add the oomph to your poem.
For every even number in your wID including 0—yes, even the ones at the beginning—add one Trademark Word.
Draw a card. Leave the card out of the deck for the next time you draw.

Trademark Words
1♠(1) - exquisite 7♠(7) - fish
2♠(2) - sour 8♠(8) - counselor
3♠(3) - honeybee 9♠(9) - gatcha
4♠(4) - conversation 10♠(10) - American
5♠(5) - neighborhood J♠(11) - rectangle
6♠(6) - elder Q♠(12) - unintelligibly
K♠(13) - female

1♥(14) - budding 7♥(20) - theatrics
2♥(15) - concussion 8♥(21) - exhaust
3♥(16) - blizzard 9♥(22) - glides
4♥(17) - sadistic 10♥(23) - vessels
5♥(18) - puppet J♥(24) - hellstorm
6♥(19) - canvas Q♥(25) - drip
K♥(26) - destruction

1♣(27) - gutted 7♣(33) - fade
2♣(28) - magic 8♣(34) - ravage
3♣(29) - named 9♣(35) - caress
4♣(30) - penetration 10♣(36) - macabre
5♣(31) - aloof J♣(37) - jazz
6♣(32) - wax Q♣(38) - chandelier
K♣(39) - mud

1♦(40) - knives 7♦(46) - turquoise
2♦(41) - laundromat 8♦(47) - seek
3♦(42) - Portuguese 9♦(48) - liquor
4♦(43) - chamomile 10♦(49) - strength
5♦(44) - disposition J♦(50) - sexy
6♦(45) - mood Q♦(51) - pornographic
K♦(52) - ripple

V. Title
Every good poem needs a title. It’s really hard to come up with a good poem title, though. So, let’s have a nice little table for that too. BUT WAIT. Flip two coins. If you get the same result twice, your poem is titled “Untitled”.
If not, roll a die. You need to draw that many cards from a deck. This time, they will be divided into Red (r) or Black (b). We’re in the home stretch now!

1b (1) - ancient 7b (7) - in
2b (2) - on 8b (8) - city
3b (3) - wrong 9b (9) - torso
4b (4) - closet 10b (10) - what
5b (5) - a capella Jb (11) - nobody
6b (6) - of Qb (12) - friend
Kb (13) - 2022

1r (14) - to 7r (20) - &
2r (15) - take 8r (21) - for
3r (16) - story 9r (22) - not
4r (17) - it 10r (23) - time
5r (18) - difference Jr (24) - through
6r (19) - part Qr (25) - look
Kr (26) - arrangement

VI. Conclusion
By now, you should have the building blocks for something good. Arrange these pieces as you see fit. This includes the punctuation as well, so long as it follows the poem’s Structure. As-is, there is an unfathomably long list of poems that can be made here. How many can there even be? Like, genuine question now. Just doing out the numbers based on the playing card draws, this far exceeds 4,893,842,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s. Too much, almost.
To exemplify how this is done, I will make my own poem using the ArSaPoG. I hope that you enjoyed all of this. I hope that you make good poetry.

Case Study 348

By Olivia Modica

Day 18,

I usually don’t sleep at night, and when I do I drift off into the nothingness and do not dream. I always chalked it up to the fact that I wasn’t creative. I had never enjoyed the arts and found myself a more scientific man. I like the facts, what is true and easy to believe in.
Three weeks ago I was told about a new insomnia sleep study at the research center two towns over. I thought, ‘what the hell? I rarely sleep as is, might as well make a couple bucks off of it.’ We were marched in here three weeks ago and told by some scientist that it would last a month. I had nothing better to do, so I took the chance. They asked us to keep a journal during our stay here, record any changes in sleeping patterns or odd behavior. Along with the journal they introduced me to the drug that would be the center of this entire study. It is said to not only aid with sleep but intensify dreams.
For the first two weeks everything was normal. It wasn’t until three nights ago that the dreams started. The first time it happened I opened my eyes prepared to see the room I had been provided during my stay but I was instead met with a dark sea of clouds. There were people all around me staring at me. Their faces were distorted and stretched as if someone was pulling their flesh in two different directions. Their mouths were gaping open, and although they were open no sound came out.
One of them was crying, but she still remained silent and unmoving. It was unnerving to me that tears were just puddling on the dirt around her shoes but she said nothing. Then I woke up. Days after I’ve had this dream I can still remember every single detail.

Day 21,

I was asleep for fifteen hours yesterday. I’ve never slept longer than five and somehow my body took it upon itself to put me out for fifteen hours! If one of the researchers hadn’t come to check on me I don’t think I ever would’ve woken up. Somehow I dreamed the entire time. Every detail is etched, no carved, into my brain. I remember the faces. Every single one. I remember the sound of my screams mixed with their screams mixed with more screams.
Some of the faces were familiar too. Perhaps my brain doesn’t have the bandwidth to create new faces and is using my fellow participants as inspiration, after all they are practically the only people I interact with. However, when I wake and I attempt to search for these people from my dreams I come up empty handed. It appears as if maybe these faces are coming from a different place. They want to evaluate my psyche and make sure I won’t become a danger to the other patients. But I’ve seen things, I know I’ve seen things. Just yesterday I saw them dragging someone away (information has been redacted for your safety and the safety of others).

Day 25,
Since my last entry I have been evaluated and they’ve put me under what is essentially house arrest. I have been stuck in this fucking room for days with nothing but the infuriatingly bright lights that sit on hour after hour blinding me. I promise I’m not crazy. I’m as perfectly sane as any person can be.

Day 27,
I haven’t slept since that day. I have been sitting, staring at the wall blindingly awake. I think I’ve stopped blinking, hell I think I’ve stopped breathing! I’ve begun to occupy myself with watching. I take in every move of every person I see. I’ve started to notice that some of them haven’t been leaving their rooms. I asked the researchers and they said that those people were part of a shorter project. I don’t believe them. I’ve seen things, I’ve seen everything. No one has left, no one is leaving. They’re all still here! (information has been redacted for your safety and the safety of others).They’re somewhere I know they are. Sometimes I hear them scream, but no one is there. There has to be someone, they have to be somewhere! I know they are, they have to be, they have to be, they have to be.

Day 31,
This morning the nurse came in and gave me the sleeping pills. They’ve said that I’ve been awake for an unhealthy amount of time. They said they just want to help me. I didn’t want to take it, I don’t want to sleep. They had to tie me down to keep me from screaming (information has been redacted for your safety and the safety of others). I tried to vomit up the sleeping pills to no avail. I’m trying to fight it, the sleep I mean. The researchers must truly want me to sleep because the screamings have stopped and no one has come to see me all day. Perhaps, if they are so insistent, I should stop fighting it. To be honest, I’m beginning to have trouble fighting sleep. Even as I write my eyes are being forced open and I can barely think................

Important Notes;
After two weeks of exposure to the drug, patient 35890 has finally become susceptible to the influence of the proposed drug dgkdjfgdfgdg (information has been redacted for your safety and the safety of others). The patient shows signs of the vivid dreams we’ve seen in action and should wake up in six to eight weeks, if at all. According to the current statistics, about 5.0% (information has been redacted for your safety and the safety of others) of patients wake up from comatose. If the patient does not wake up the protocol is provided on the next page. In addition to this, you can find documentation to provide forged death certificates on page 92 of your packets.