Regex Poetry

(Patterns as Narrative)

```regex

^Once upon a [time|dream|star]$

```

*The story can begin in multiple ways, but it must begin.*

---

```regex

(love|hate){2,}

```

*Love or hate, repeated at least twice. Often they alternate.*

---

```regex

hero\w*

```

*A hero, followed by whatever comes next. Heroic? Heroism? Or just hero, alone.*

---

```regex

\b(I|you|we)\b

```

*The boundaries of pronouns. Where I ends and you begins.*

---

```regex

[^doubt]

```

*Anything except doubt. That's called faith.*

---

```regex

(?:dark.*night)+

```

*Dark nights, plural, non-capturing. You survive them, you don't hold onto them.*

---

```regex

^(?=.*hope)(?=.*despair).*$

```

*Lookahead: A line must contain both hope and despair. That's called being human.*

---

```regex

(never|always)+

```

*Absolutes, repeating. We cling to them when truth is too complex.*

---

```regex

goodbye\.{3}$

```

*Goodbye, with exactly three dots of trailing silence at the end.*

---

```regex

\bhe(art|ro)\b

```

*He-art or he-ro. Sometimes they're the same thing.*

---

```regex

(?i)truth

```

*Truth, case-insensitive. It doesn't care how you write it.*

---

```regex

(.+)\1

```

*Anything, repeated. Patterns we can't escape. Cycles we keep spinning.*

---

```regex

^[A-Z].*[\.\?\!]$

```

*A proper sentence: Start with capital, end with punctuation. That's all grammar asks.*

---

```regex

\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}

```

*A date. Time, measured. The past, formatted.*

---

```regex

(.*)

```

*Everything. Greedy. Captures all.*

---

```regex

^$

```

*Nothing. Empty line. Silence. The space between verses. The pause that gives meaning to sound.*

---

The Final Pattern

```regex

.*

```

*Anything, any amount.

That's life.

That's story.

Infinite possibility in finite syntax.*

**THE END**

(or: `/THE END/` if you prefer)