About the Online Dating Poetry Experiment

What even is this??

As someone masculine-presenting (although I identify as androgynous—and mentally/emotionally lean feminine; they/them pronouns, please), I have found online dating to be pretty demoralizing. I am reasonably attractive, after a fashion, and I have well-written profiles that underscore my whimsical nature, the safe spaces I create for others, and the depth I bring to shared experiences.

But in spite of that, I decided I wanted a hook—something to get people to message me.

As an experiment, I decided to mention in all of my online dating profiles that, if asked and it's something I decide I have the bandwidth for, I will do a short tarot reading or write a short poem based on their profile.

I did get a few bites. Ironically, people whom I wrote poems usually didn't make any real effort to maintain the conversation afterwards. Likewise with tarot readings. Eventually, I realized that some people were messaging just for brief entertainment, and after they got what they wanted, they'd abandon the conversation for something that better caught their fancy.

That being said, I saved a lot of the poems. I thought they were fun. I'm going to repost them here, as many as I saved. I wrote them all very quickly, in no more than ten minutes, often as a challenge to myself to come up with something meaningful and interesting swiftly.

There are people who crank out poems on street corners at typewriters based on prompts, similar to what I did. I could say, they do it better, they're more skilled at writing, they're faster, and so on—but comparison is the thief of all joy, and all I want to do is share things that have brought me joy in the process of their creation.

These are those. I hope they bring you delight. 😊