A poetry engine (formal writing prompt)

Perhaps what you have been longing for all this time without knowing it is a set of instructions for how to use the quadratic formula to write poems.

If so, you are in luck. You may have it here.

It's called Quadratic Engine, as specific formal processes (such as N+1) are often called "engines" of experimental poetry.

You can have this engine for free, or you can throw me two American dollars*, which I will waste on locally made vegan ice cream with mini eggs blended in. (Yes. I know mini eggs have dairy. The ice cream crafter knows it. We all know it. She makes it on sufferance once a year because we beg her for it.)

This is an oddity, but one of my own particular small treasures. It is one of my favorite processes for rapidly producing a poem draft with evocative formal and emotional relationships.

It's a writing prompt more than a game, though the process of deciding how to interpret the formula's mathematical terms each time has a playful quality.

I find the quadratic formula a highly productive formal prompt -- like writing haiku or other small formal poems.

If you try it, let me know if it works for you. (And if you have any suggestions for additions to the file, let me know.)

You do not need to know any math to use the engine. (And you do not need to know how to drive.)

While I'm waiting for my bigger little game to take final form in my brain, I thought I'd release another, uh, little thing you can use for stuff.

{rf}

*But actually, honestly, donate it to something else. Send it to Texas or Ukraine and just have Quadratic Engine as an indirect reward.