Unconventional Inspiration: Part I
Welcome to Unconventional Inspiration, a series of articles on how technology can be used to inspire poets while still emphasizing and being authored by human creativity. For this inaugural entry, we will be checking out Steven Savage’s webpage, Seventh Sanctum.
Seventh Sanctum has been around since 1999. The internet was very different then. It was a place to rummage through. I have fond memories of using it as a tool in online text roleplays and shared writing projects.
All of the generators on Seventh Sanctum work via randomness. There are technically a finite number of possible combinations of text, and nothing is being pulled from other sources or training other generators. There’s also more genres and types of generators than would be reasonable to list.
While most of the generators are targeted towards writing science-fiction and fantasy, here are some ideas for poets:
Use the Monster Generator or Dark Ritual Generator to create a title or central metaphor for a poem
Use the Song Challenge Generator to come up with a poem to write
Lastly, the Classic Cool Generator is an incredible premise for any poem.
Some examples of poems to write from these strategies:
a poem about a tree crab
a heavy metal informed description of file folders
a jazz poem about diaries
“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe but with rock stars
a poem entitled “Sacrament of Omens”
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte but with mad scientists
These are just a few ideas to get you started.
Lastly, Savage’s comments on the website’s purpose are refreshing in an age of increasing litigation against and control of creatives, “I can't own randomness and I do this page because I like helping people create”. His personal website boasts a veritable host of other free resources, and you can find him on more websites through his LinkTree.
Senia Hardwick holds and MFA from Queens College and teaches full-time. Their first book "An Exchange in Demonology: Improvement of the Self and Others" is available from CLOAK. You can also find more of their work at www.seniahardwick.neocities.org and on IG @necro.pharmakon.
