JUDITH ROITMAN WRITES EMOJI VERSE

For fun on a July afternoon, here are two poems made from emoticons or emoji. In 2008, I guest hosted an Academy of American Poets poetics forum. The program was discontinued after hackers attacked. But from that archive I found this commentary from Judith Roitman and her poems: 

Judith Roitman: "I find emoticons very strange, yet here they are to the left of me for my use, so I will try to write an emoticon poem. Why not?"

Cry oops Mr. Green.
Mr. Green roll wink.
Laugh. Smile. Frown.
That way.
That way.
!

Evil, very evil

Joy & happiness

The confusion of the world.

I know.

Embrace!

Copyright 2016 Judith Roitman. Reprinted with permission

Judith Roitman has published poems in various journals, including First Intensity, Black Spring, Locus Point (on the web), Bird Dog, and Wakarusa Wetlands in Word & Image (Lawrence: Imagination and Place, 2005). She has published: The Stress of Meaning: Variations on a Line by Susan Howe (Morris, Minn.: Standing Stones Press, 1997); Diamond Notebooks (Buffalo, New York: Nominative Press Collective, 1998); Slippge (Elmwood, Conn.: Potes and Poets Press, 1999); No Face: New and Selected Poems (Lawrence, First Intensity 2008); Slackline (Hank’s Original Loose Gravel Press, 2012).  See JudithRoitman’s essay about Susan Howe on the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog (scroll down). She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a BA in English (1966) and the University of California-Berkeley (1974, mathematics Ph.D.).