Listen, by Sharon Hopkins (also in Programming Perl)

[jdube]

Source: Camels and Needles: Computer Poetry Meets the Perl Programming Language, by Sharon Hopkins (Wayback Machine, 2006) (PDF)

#!/usr/bin/perl

APPEAL:

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 peacful;
            study if able;

sort your feelings, reset goals, seek (friends, family, anyone);
            
             do*not*die (like this)
             if sin abounds;

keys (hidden), open (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, 1995

[jdube]

Hrm, it didn't quite post the way I wanted it to, sorry about the bad formatting. Says its maintained by me, but there's nowhere to change the content.

[jdube]

Whoop, I guess it worked. Nebbermind.

[Anonymous Monk]

does this not work any more, or do I have something wrong with my perl install? lacrymology@Optimus:~$ ./listen syntax error at ./listen line 26, near "not," Execution of ./listen aborted due to compilation errors.

[toolic]

It doesn't work for me on:

This is perl, v5.8.9 built for x86_64-linux

I get the same error as you do. Your perl install is probably fine. This poem may never have compiled. It does compile when I delete the comma after "not".