#!/usr/bin/perlAPPEAL:listen (please, please);open yourself, wide;join (you, me),connect (us,together),tell me.do something if distressed;@dawn, dance;@evening, sing;read (books,$poems,stories) until peaceful;study if able;write me if-you-please;sort your feelings, reset goals, seek (friends, family, anyone);do*not*die (like this)if sin abounds;keys (hidden), xXyz (locks, doors), tell secrets;do not, I-beg-you, close them, yet.accept (yourself, changes),bind (grief, despair);require truth, goodness if-you-will, each moment;select (always), length(of-days)# listen (a perl poem)# Sharon Hopkins# rev. June 19, 1995Perl PoetryArticle 970 of comp.lang.perl:Path: jpl-devvax!pl-dexxav!lwallFrom: lwall@jpl-dexxav.JPL.NASA. GOV(Larry Wall)Newsgroups: news.groups,rec.arts.poems,comp.lang.perlSubject: CALL FOR DISCUSSION: comp.lang.perl.poemsMessage-ID: <0401@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA. GOV>Date: 1 Apr 90 00:00:00 GMTReply-To: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NSAS. GOV(Larry Wall)Organization: Jet Prepulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CALines: 61It has come to my attention that there is a crying need for a place for people to express both their emotionaland technical natures simultaneously. Several people have sent me some items which don't fit into anynewsgroup. Perhaps it's because I recently posted to both comp.lang.perl and to rec.arts.poems, but peopleseem to be writing poems in Perl, and they're asking me where they should post them. Here is a sampling:From a graduate student (in finals week), the following haiku:study, write, study,do review (each word) if time.close book. sleep? what's that?And someone writing from Fort Lauderdale writes:sleep, close together,sort of sin each spring & wait;50% dieA person who wishes to remain anonymous wrote the following example of "Black Perl". (The Pearl poetwould have been shocked, no doubt.)BEFOREHAND: close door, each window & exit; wait until time.open spellbook, study, read (scan, select, tell us);write it, print the hex while each watches,reverse its length, write again;kill spiders, pop them, chop, split, kill them.unlink arms, shift, wait & listen (listening, wait),sort the flock (then, warn the "goats" & kill the "sheep");kill them, dump qualms, shift moralities,values aside, each one;die sheep! die to reverse the systemyou accept (reject, respect);next step,kill the next sacrifice, each sacrifice,wait, redo ritual until "all the spirits are pleased";do it ("as they say").do it(*everyone***must***participate***in***forbidden**s*e*x*).return last victim; package body;exit crypt (time, times & "half a time") & close it,select (quickly) & warn your next victim;AFTERWORDS: tell nobody.wait, wait until time;wait until next year, next decade;sleep, sleep, die yourself,die at lastI tried that, and it actually parses in Perl. It doesn't appear to do anything useful, however. I think I'm glad,actually... I hereby propose the creation of comp.lang.perl.poems as a place for such items, so we don't clutterthe perl or poems newsgroups with things that may be of interest to neither. Or, alternately, we shouldcreate rec.arts.poems.perl for items such as those above which merely parse, and don't do anything useful.(There is precedent in rec.arts.poems, after all.) Then also create comp.lang.perl.poems for poems thatactually do something, such as this haiku of my own:print STDOUT qJust another Perl hacker,unless $springLarry Wall lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa. govI