A Valentine's Day Poem

   
			      LOVEMAKER V3.1
			      By Jeff MacGregor

Welcome to the LoveMaker! (v3.1 Erosoft Industries, \\C 1993)
I am the LOVEMAKER.  A personalized, interactive poetry assistance
program. At the prompt, please enter your response.

What is your name?

>JOHN

What a nice name, JOHN.  You must be a man.

>YES

How nice for you.  Who is your poem for, JOHN?

>SHEILA

How nice for SHEILA.  She must be a woman?

>YES

SHEILA must be very special to you, JOHN.  Is she?

>YES

What is the occasion, JOHN?

>VALENTINE'S DAY

SHEILA is a very lucky woman.  I will need information about
SHEILA for a poem that best reflects your deep feelings for
her, JOHN.  What color are her eyes?

>BLUE

Thank you, JOHN.  But could you be more specific?  Are they
blue like the sky after a clearing storm?  Are they the icy blue
of the far flung fjords, shrouded in mist and mystery?  Are they
the steely blue of Walter Gropius's later Bauhaus sketchbooks?
Are they a cornflower blue that speaks of Sunday picnics in
simpler times?

>THEY LOOK KIND OF GRAY WHEN SHE'S ANGRY

Thank you, JOHN.  What about SHEILA'S hair?

>BLOND

Thank you, JOHN.  But could you be more specific?  Is it ash
blond with some auburn like the silky tresses of Rapunzel?
When the sun hits it in a certain way in the late afternoon does
it look like spun gold?  Is it the hard, cheap blond of the
streetwise trollop or the dazzling, brilliant satin of Renaissance
cherubim?

>I THINK SHE DYES IT

Thank you, JOHN.  Are there any other characteristics we
should mention in our poem to SHEILA?

>
>
>

JOHN, are you still there?

>SKIN?

Thank you, JOHN.  But could you be more specific?  
Is it fine and alabaster and tightly grained like antique
porcelain, slow-fired by master craftsmen? Or is
it pink and lustrous like the hand-burnished silver one's
Grandmother might be found polishing with gentle, loving
strokes on a rainy Sunday afternoon?

>SHE TANS TWICE A WEEK

SHEILA must be very special to you, JOHN.  You must
have deep feelings for SHEILA to write her a special
VALENTINE'S DAY poem.

>YES

How nice for you, JOHN.  What kind of poem do you think
SHEILA would like?

>?

My MENU (Alt+M) offers the following styles.  At the prompt,
please choose ONE:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Couplet  | Triplet  | Quatrain | Eclogue  | Pastoral |  Sonnet  |  Elegy |
I----------------------------------------------------------------------------I
|   Epic   |  Ballad  |  Lyric   |   Ode    |  Idyll   |  Haiku   |   ??? |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

>?

That's O.K., JOHN.  How do you see yourself?
Please choose ONE:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|   Laureate   |    Bard     |   Sonneteer   |  Troubadour   | Meistersinger  |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|   Jongleur   |  Versifier  |  Rhapsodist   |   Lyricist    |    Other  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

>OTHER

Can you be more specific?

>I GUESS...

Perhaps if you briefly shared your innermost dreams
and desires, JOHN?

>
>
>
>

JOHN?

>I'M THINKING

May I make a suggestion, JOHN?

>SURE

Perhaps you imagine yourself a hopeless romantic, JOHN.
A man who lives and loves with passion and desire and
appetite.  A man who grabs great platters from the groaning
board of this world and eats his fill.  A man who takes what
he wants the moment he sees it and makes it his own.  A
man who kneads fate in his strong hands, shapes it and
commands it.  A man with a reckless bent and the courage
of fire.  A man who sees beauty in a raindrop and all the truth
of the universe in the eyes of a child.

A man with needs and wants aflame within him.  A man
of power and means of influence, JOHN.  A man destined to
be the envy of other men.  A man that few can ever understand
and fewer still will have the guts to love.  A man of whom it
might be said...  Would that Alexander in his age had but half 
the measure of his strong stout heart or clear hawk's eyes
undimmed and true, pooled with azure purpose.  No earthbound
mortal he, but master o'er each and all...

Would this describe your self-image accurately, JOHN?

>YES

I thought so.  I'll use my random SEARCH MODE (Alt+S)
to choose an appropriate style for you, JOHN.  One that truly
expresses your deep feelings for SHEILA on VALENTINE'S
DAY.  

>Alt+S

Please wait.  

To print poem, please enter command Alt+P
at prompt.

>Alt+P

	 Dear SHEILA,

	 Roses are red
	 Violets are blue
	 Your hair is blond
	 and your eyes are gray (when angry)

			 JOHN


Thank you for using LOVEMAKER v3.1 from EROSOFT

------

Thanks to a fwd from the always infectious Yersisia Pestis
(yersinia@gate.cybernex.net)