I put this up as an example. On another medium someone asked Grok to write a poem in the manner of Nobel winning poet Anne Carson. This is the result.
It's best to be a fragment.
I want blankness for borders.
There are things classical.
One can gloss them for years.
Then they vanish.
The shelf hums me
of your unread margins.
There are things classical.
Dust, echoes, this faint trace
of meaning.
My personal page is empty.
I do not want to be whole.
I want to be classical.
Line to line, the spareness of air.
Cool, cooling.
Earth bears no such completeness.
Who does not end up
a translation?
Read all the ancients there is.
Still new.
Not ever having read anything written by Anne Carson, I have no idea of Grok succeeded or not. But, presuming this is somewhat close to the Nobel winning author, I think it is as much an indictment against what passes for poetry in this modern day as it is anything to do with AI. I wonder what Shakespeare or Homer or TS Elliot or Browning or Wordsworth or Frost or any of the others I read in school and still would think of such poetry? I tend to believe they would wonder what as going on with modern society that this passes as something like the great works of old. What is wrong with us? I have nothing against Maya Angelou but I do not understand how she merits a place on anyone's list of the 100 greatest poets of all time. I would tend to put "Cat in the Hat" by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel above her if only for popularity and the way my kids and grandkids repeat his rhymes even as I discern meanings there I never heard before. Maybe I am the idiot. It would not be the first time someone suggested it. In any case my point still stands. Is this what passes for great writing today?
Before you leave this page and dismiss me altogether, let me leave you with another offering. Is it real or AI?
I do not think you are in danger of becoming a poet laureate, but beware, someone will like your work better than Carson’s, and you will be published, at least online!
ReplyDeleteI just had a discussion this morning with a friend about the persistence of poets gaining recognitiom.. We are much more susceptible to the hoi polloi’s likes, and the mass approbation/celebration that comes to those who are “edgy.”
I read that a college professor was eliminating grades for his students . Everyone now passes the class. He said that he finally gave up. AI has taken charge of creative writing and individual expression. The students seem to be using it regularly for their work, and it is too hard to figure out who is not using AI. I suppose AI is destroying poetry too. Thus, we are approaching the period in history when people will refuse to think for themselves, and consider this a virtue.
ReplyDeleteRegarding AI, a physician I know suggested to me recently that AI use in medicine and science is more nuanced and detailed, subject to close review and scrutiny, and exists apart from the AI produced in the media arts realm. When creative prose, poetry, music, and entertainment are utilizing AI, the corroboration level may be uncertain. The accuracy of AI, and the benefits of its use, are dependent on the supporting details I hope that Christians do not seek answers to biblical truth by relying on AI, rather than reading their Bibles. This is indeed a new world where the internet is moving rapidly to higher levels. How to navigate through an AI dependent society is a challenge today. Pray for wisdom. Soli Deo Gloria
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