Judith Kerman's concept of interactive poetry has been implemented by Robert Chiles (Assitant Professor of Computer Technology at Kent State) as Colloquy. Using this system, anyone with access to an IBM-compatible PC may read and create such poems.
An interactive poem presents to the reader an opening stanza followed by a question mark. Kerman's "Ice Fishermen" begins with this passage:
ice grey black underfoot
the fishermen wait
?
The reader responds by typing in one of the words from the stanza. This triggers the display of a new stanza based on that word. For example, if we type "black", we see:
ice grey black underfoot
the fishermen wait
black under the surface
open to a different place
?
Poems end after a predetermined number of lines, or when the reader chooses to terminate the process. Continuing with "Ice Fishermen" until it concludes, we get:
ice grey black underfoot
the fishermen wait
black under the surface
open to a different place
place different from this
silent black underneath
underneath the ice
cold and black
flaws in safe haven
cold air moving against the fishermen
rain standing on the ice
standing over holes in the ice
waiting where the world speaks
Note that Kerman begins each new stanza with the word that was typed, though this is not a requirement of the system.
Writing an interactive poem is an exacting process, since at least one stanza must be written for each word in any previous stanza. Multiple stanzas per word are preferable, as this reduces the repetition of passages that would otherwise occur if the reader selects the same word twice.
Interactive poems generally share certain qualities. They are (by default) limited to seventeen lines, a number which allows the poem to be displayed on one screen. The necessity for writing follow-up passages to every word leads to a highly imagistic tone with many repeated words. The manual notes that, because of practical limits, the number of words in a poem is usually "between 50 and 100, although the only real limit is the poet's patience at writing stanzas."
Colloquy poems are, in effect, hypertexts where every word is an anchor and every path limited in length and non-retraceable. Because of the density of links, the poems can at first seem to be computer-generated. The strict authoring limitations tend to engender a somewhat stifled, mechanical style. Future versions of the program could allow the production of less structurally overdetermined poems by relaxing the necessity for linking at every word.
In an instructional setting, Colloquy can be used to engage students in a profitable writing exercise. Reluctant poets could be drawn into the act of writing through the interactive experience of reading. However, the program's interface needs a complete overhaul to make it more user-friendly, especially if it is to be used by younger readers/authors.