I have awoken to birdsong
And lain awake
Until sleep takes me again.
I measure time
With clocks. Birds and flowers
No not hours,
Nor do they see me
Conversing with time
In a half rhyming rhyme
Until my song is done.
When I found naughty Miss Rose
Sleeping nude under my new bedclothes,
I said, “my dear,
The bishop draws near,
You’d better stay under those bedclothes!”.
There once was a very lonely IT guy
Who fell in love with an AI.
It’s name being Fay
They married in May
In the cloud as it floated by.
There was a young lady named Wong
Who sang many a very sad song.
When they said, “sing something glad!”,
She whacked them with her handbag,
Which was very wrong of Miss Wong!
On Monday 13 February I was interviewed by Ariadne Sawyer of Vancouver Co-op Radio’s the World Poetry Reading Series, https://worldpoetry.ca/. During my interview I read a number of my poems and discussed my work.
My thanks to Ariadne and the World Poetry Reading series for their kind invitation to appear on the show, which can be found here https://www.mixcloud.com/VictorSchwartzman/world-poetry-cafe-for-feb-16-with-kevin-morris-and-randall-stephen-hall/
My segment appears approximately 10 minutes into the podcast and runs for around 15 minutes. In addition, I read a poem at the end of the show.
I listened back to the podcast using Chrome. However, other browsers should also work.
The show will air at 9 pm (UK time) on Thursday 16 February, (the podcast linked to above is available in advance of the show).
Many of you (perhaps all) will have heard or read about Chat GPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool, https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/.
Having watched a couple of videos on Youtube, I was curious to see how Chat GPT would respond to my poetry. I therefore inputted the text of my poem “Midnight” into the search engine.
You can see below the results of my experiment. First, I simply entered the text of the poem and Chat GPT provided it’s interpretation of it’s meaning. Second, I re-entered my poem. However, in the second instance I asked Chat GPT to continue the poem which it duly did.
I must confess to being impressed with Chat GPT’s interpretation of “Midnight”. Where I to explain my own poem I would have done so in very similar terms to those generated by the AI. However, I was not overly impressed with how Chat GPT continued my poem. The continuation is, in my view mediocre at best. The poem (as I wrote it) is dark with no glimmer of light, however Chat GPT adds such a glimmer.
Do I think that Chat GPT or other similar products are going to replace human poets?. No. Chat GPT draws from a huge database (although it is not connected to the internet). It has access to a vast amount of literature (including) poetry from which it draws. It is not, however capable (so far as I can ascertain) of producing anything truly original. We humans have emotions which play a significant role in the composition of literature (including poetry). Chat GPT and similar products are incapable of feeling emotions. They are software (admittedly very clever software), but software nonetheless.
—
My Poem:
Midnight, black as pitch. No scheming demon, ghost, nor witch. Only the darkness, which in the human heart resides, manifests itself in cruelty and pride.
Chat GPT’s Interpretation of the Poem:
This verse paints a picture of midnight as a dark and ominous time, with the absence of supernatural entities suggesting that it is human nature itself that is the source of evil. The mention of cruelty and pride implies that these negative traits are inherent in people, and that they manifest themselves in the darkness of the night. This could be interpreted as a commentary on the darker aspects of human nature, and how they reveal themselves when the constraints of society are lifted.
—
continue this poem. Midnight, black as pitch. No scheming demon, ghost, nor witch. Only the darkness, which in the human heart resides, manifests itself in cruelty and pride. (End of my poem).
(Start of Chat GPT’s continuation of the poem). Yet in the shadows of this midnight hour, Lies a glimmer of hope, a guiding power. A light that shines, dispelling all fear, Bringing comfort, banishing the tear.
For in the heart of every man and woman, Lies a spark of love, a gentle flame, burning. A force that fights against the night, Bringing peace and hope, making everything right.
So though midnight may seem bleak and grim, Let us not forget, it’s just a passing phase. For with the dawn comes a brand new day, And a chance to make a brighter way.
continue this poem. Midnight, black as pitch. No scheming demon, ghost, nor witch. Only the darkness, which in the human heart resides, manifests itself in cruelty and pride.
Yet in the shadows of this midnight hour, Lies a glimmer of hope, a guiding power. A light that shines, dispelling all fear, Bringing comfort, banishing the tear.
For in the heart of every man and woman, Lies a spark of love, a gentle flame, burning. A force that fights against the night, Bringing peace and hope, making everything right.
So though midnight may seem bleak and grim, Let us not forget, it’s just a passing phase. For with the dawn comes a brand new day, And a chance to make a brighter way.
When a pretty young lady named May
Knocked on my door on Valentines Day,
And my dear old wife Claire
Screamed, “are you having an affair!”,
I turned to my sweet mistress Fay …
Birds outside my window
Visit me today.
But they
Never stay.
Young women go
By on the street.
Their stilettoed feet
Tick tock like clocks.
And I rhyme
Of old Father Time
And clocks
That stop.
When a nubile young lady named White
Invited me out on Saint Valentine’s Night,
Miss Nell came as well
With the most Reverend Bell,
And the waitress she wore Angel Delight!
Yesterday evening I attempted to send a Tweet only to receive the message that I had exceeded my daily limit. I had not previously come across this and, following some Googling found this article in the Hollywood reporter which states:
“The company said it will now limit users to a maximum of 2,400 tweets a day, but users reported being prevented from tweeting far below that limit”, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/twitter-limits-tweet-frequency-1235320995/.
In addition to sharing my own poetry, I do share news articles and other material on Twitter. However, my daily Tweets have never come anywhere close to 2,400! Where they to do so I would be spending my whole day at my computer or on my mobile!
This is, obviously a manifestation of the problems besetting Twitter who are doing a good job of incentivising users such as myself to delete Twitter!
I shall monitor the situation but, if things don’t improve radically I shall be saying a not very fond farewell to Twitter!
K Morris - Poet 