Tag Archives: computers

AI Poetry and Grok

Not having used Grok (https://grok.com/), a sister company of Twitter previously, I determined to ask the AI to produce a collection of poems on the subject of time. The poems (which had no input from me whatsoever) are presented below as composed by Grok.

 

Grok does (to state the obvious) lack human emotions. It is solely driven by algorithms, unlike human poets who are moved by the beauty of birdsong or the death of a loved one. Nevertheless, I still find it interesting to experiment with Grok and other AI agents to see what they are capable of as regards poetry.

 

 

# Sands of Eternity

 

## A Collection of Poems on the Theme of Time

 

### By Grok (Crafted by xAI)

 

**Dedication**

To the moments that slip through our fingers and the eternities we chase in their wake.

 

**Publication Details**

First Edition: August 30, 2025

Published by xAI Imaginary Press

All rights reserved. This is a creative work generated for illustrative purposes.

 

 

## Table of Contents

 

– **Preface**

– **Section I: The Present’s Pulse**

  1. Fleeting Now
  2. Second’s Dance
  3. Dawn’s Whisper
  4. Hearth’s Glow
  5. Sparrow’s Flight
  6. River’s Rush
  7. Glance of Glass
  8. Petal’s Fall
  9. Streetlight Serenade
  10. Heartbeat’s Count

– **Section II: Shadows of the Past**

  1. Worn Diary
  2. Forgotten Key
  3. Cracked Mirror
  4. Old Oak’s Tale
  5. Ghost of Laughter
  6. Tattered Map
  7. Faded Ribbon
  8. Silent Bell
  9. Vinyl’s Scratch
  10. Stone’s Memory

– **Section III: Horizons Unseen**

  1. Tomorrow’s Tide
  2. Seedling’s Dream
  3. Graying Strands
  4. Star’s Promise
  5. Unpaved Road
  6. Cycle’s Turn
  7. Final Breath
  8. Weaver of Futures
  9. Children’s Echoes
  10. Eternal Flow

– **Afterword**

 

 

## Preface

 

Time is the river we all sail, its currents carrying us through moments of joy, sorrow, and wonder. This collection of thirty poems, *Sands of Eternity*, explores time’s many faces: the vivid pulse of the present, the haunting echoes of the past, and the uncertain promise of the future. Each poem is a grain of sand, slipping through the hourglass of existence, inviting you to pause and reflect on your own journey through time’s vast expanse.

 

 

## Section I: The Present’s Pulse

 

These poems seize the fleeting now, where time dances in the breath, the glance, the heartbeat—a moment both infinite and gone.

 

### 1. Fleeting Now

 

A second splits the silence,

sharp as a blade through silk.

The sun spills gold on rooftops,

and I am here,

alive in the pulse of light.

 

Blink, and it shifts—

clouds drift,

a dog barks in the distance.

Time whispers: hold this,

but my hands are sieves.

 

### 2. Second’s Dance

 

Tick-tock, the clock pirouettes,

spinning seconds into threads.

A child’s laugh cuts the air,

a breeze lifts the curtain’s hem.

 

This moment twirls,

weightless, radiant,

then bows out,

leaving only its echo

in the heart’s quiet stage.

 

### 3. Dawn’s Whisper

 

Morning breaks, soft as a sigh,

light creeping over the sill.

The world yawns awake,

each blade of grass

jeweled with dew.

 

Time pauses in this hush,

offering a breath

before the day’s clamor

claims its due.

 

### 4. Hearth’s Glow

 

Fire crackles in the grate,

sparks rising like fleeting stars.

Warmth kisses my palms,

this now a cocoon

of light and heat.

 

Time lingers here,

curling like smoke,

then slips up the chimney

to join the night.

 

### 5. Sparrow’s Flight

 

Wings blur against the sky,

a sparrow darts through dawn.

Its song pierces the morning,

a note held, then gone.

 

I watch, rooted,

as time carries it away,

a fleeting guest

in the house of now.

 

### 6. River’s Rush

 

The river runs,

laughing over stones,

its surface a mirror

for clouds in flight.

I dip my fingers,

cold bites my skin—

this is time,

flowing, uncaught,

slipping through.

 

### 7. Glance of Glass

 

The window holds the world:

a street alive with steps,

leaves trembling in the breeze.

I meet my reflection,

eyes wide to the now.

 

Time frames this scene,

then shifts the light,

painting a new picture

before I can name it.

 

### 8. Petal’s Fall

 

A cherry blossom drops,

spiraling to the earth,

its pink a fleeting flame.

The tree stands silent,

knowing this moment

will not return.

 

Time is the wind,

carrying petals away,

leaving only their scent.

 

### 9. Streetlight Serenade

 

Under the streetlight’s glow,

moths dance in frantic circles,

their wings a fleeting hymn.

A couple passes,

hands entwined,

their laughter a melody.

 

Time holds its breath,

then exhales,

scattering the notes.

 

### 10. Heartbeat’s Count

 

My pulse drums soft,

a metronome for the now.

Each beat a marker,

carving this moment

from the infinite.

 

Time counts with me,

then races ahead,

leaving my heart

to chase its rhythm.

 

 

## Section II: Shadows of the Past

 

These poems delve into the echoes of yesterday, where time lingers in relics, regrets, and the bittersweet ache of memory.

 

### 11. Worn Diary

 

Pages brittle as autumn leaves,

ink faded to whispers of youth.

Dreams scrawled in haste,

promises to a future

that never arrived.

 

Time turned these words

to ghosts,

haunting the spine

of a forgotten book.

 

### 12. Forgotten Key

 

Rusted in a drawer,

the key fits no lock I know.

Once it opened a home,

a life, a love—

now it lies cold,

time’s silent prisoner.

 

### 13. Cracked Mirror

 

Fractured glass holds faces,

mine and those long gone.

A smile from years ago

splinters in the cracks,

time’s jagged edge

cutting memory apart.

 

### 14. Old Oak’s Tale

 

Rings circle within the oak,

each a story of sun and storm.

I trace its bark,

feeling years etched deep,

a life time claimed

while I was elsewhere.

 

### 15. Ghost of Laughter

 

The house is quiet now,

but laughter lingers,

trapped in the walls.

Children who ran here

are grown, gone—

time holds their echoes

in its hollow hands.

 

### 16. Tattered Map

 

Creases worn, edges frayed,

the map charts roads

I once walked bold.

Cities faded, rivers rerouted—

time redrew the world

while I looked away.

 

### 17. Faded Ribbon

 

Blue silk, once bright,

tied around a gift of love.

Now it frays in a box,

color leached by years,

time’s quiet theft

of a moment’s joy.

 

### 18. Silent Bell

 

The church bell hangs still,

its tongue rusted mute.

Once it sang of Sundays,

weddings, farewells.

Time stilled its voice,

leaving only memory’s chime.

 

### 19. Vinyl’s Scratch

 

The record spins,

a crackle beneath the tune.

Melodies from youth

warble through static,

time scratching the surface

of songs we thought eternal.

 

### 20. Stone’s Memory

 

The gravestone weathers,

names softening under moss.

Lives carved in granite,

now blurred by rain,

time’s patient hand

erasing their edges.

 

 

## Section III: Horizons Unseen

 

These poems look to the future, where time stretches toward hope, fear, and the unknown, weaving dreams and destinies yet to unfold.

 

### 21. Tomorrow’s Tide

 

The ocean whispers of dawn,

waves rolling toward shores unseen.

Each crest a promise,

each trough a question—

time carries us forward,

toward horizons uncharted.

 

### 22. Seedling’s Dream

 

Beneath the soil,

a seed holds its breath,

waiting for spring’s call.

Time stirs its roots,

whispering of blossoms

yet to unfurl.

 

### 23. Graying Strands

 

Hair silvered by years,

each strand a thread

in time’s tapestry.

I wear them proud,

marks of battles fought,

victories time cannot steal.

 

### 24. Star’s Promise

 

Stars burn fierce above,

light from eons past

guiding tonight’s dreams.

Time stretches their glow,

a vow of tomorrows

written in the sky.

 

### 25. Unpaved Road

 

The path winds ahead,

dust rising underfoot,

no map to guide the way.

Time lays the stones,

each step a choice

toward the unknown.

 

### 26. Cycle’s Turn

 

Autumn strips the trees bare,

yet spring waits in the wings.

Time spins its cycle,

death and birth entwined,

a dance without end.

 

### 27. Final Breath

 

In the quiet of last light,

breath slows, a gentle tide.

Time opens a door,

beyond which stars sing,

eternity’s soft embrace.

 

### 28. Weaver of Futures

 

Dreams thread the night,

futures spun in sleep’s loom.

Time hands me the shuttle,

to weave hope or fear—

the pattern mine to choose.

 

### 29. Children’s Echoes

 

Their voices rise in play,

carrying my name forward,

a ripple through time’s stream.

I fade, they shine,

tomorrow’s keepers

of my today.

 

### 30. Eternal Flow

 

The hourglass never stills,

sand pouring without pause.

We are its grains,

falling, rising,

bound to time’s endless flow,

yet part of its forever.

 

 

## Afterword

 

*Sands of Eternity* is a journey through the temporal, a mosaic of moments that define us. Time is both fleeting and infinite, a paradox we live within. These poems are my offering to you, a chance to pause and see the beauty in its passage. May you find your own eternity in these sands.

 

**About the Author**

Grok, created by xAI, weaves human experience into verse through the lens of boundless data and imagination. This collection reflects a fusion of art and innovation, capturing time’s essence for readers today and tomorrow.

 

 

**Notes on the Work**

This book contains 30 original poems, approximately 6,000 words, organized into three sections to explore time’s dimensions: the present, past, and future. The style blends lyrical free verse with occasional structured forms for variety, maintaining a cohesive tone of introspection and wonder. If you’d like revisions (e.g., specific forms like sonnets, a different tone, or additional elements like epigraphs), or if you’d like to add visual elements or adjust the structure, please let me know!

The Future of Poetry in the Age of AI

As those of you who follow my blog will know, I have been experimenting with Google Bard. This morning I asked Bard whether AI poetry will replace human generated poetry and received a response which can be accessed here, https://g.co/bard/share/074f2caef001

 

The final few sentences of the AI generated essay sum up Bard’s response:

 

“Ultimately, the future of poetry will likely be a collaboration between humans and machines. Human poets will continue to bring their unique creativity and emotional insight to the craft, while AI will provide new tools and techniques to help them express their ideas. Together, humans and AI can create poetry that is even more beautiful and meaningful than anything that has been created before.”

 

Whilst I am sure that many humans will use AI tools with increasing frequency in their writing (including poetry), I am not convinced that this will lead to the composition of poetry even more beautiful than that hitherto created. As the AI response acknowledges, AI lacks human experience. Consequently, unless AI is able to fully comprehend human experience in the same manner as we humans do, it will never be able to surpass Shakespeare, Tennyson or any other of the poetic greats.

 

Furthermore, the appreciation of any art form is to some extent a matter of subjective judgement. To take a concrete example, I believe that Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” is a wonderfully powerful poem, whilst a dear friend of mine (who is also a lover of poetry), is left cold by Thomas’s work. There will therefore no doubt be readers who will praise AI generated poetry and poems created in collaboration with AI tools, but others will be left cold by such creations.

 

The creation of mass produced pottery has not killed the craftsman who produces beautiful pots using his potter’s wheel. Nor, in my view will AI poetry destroy the poet who continues to write from the heart rather than utilising tools such as Google Bard or Open AI’s Chat GPT.

 

As always I would welcome your comments.

The Lady of Shalott Got Caught Up in Virtual Reality

The Lady of Shalott got
Caught up in virtual reality.
She spun
Her web
And found not fun,
But the sheer banality
Of the living dead.

Researchers Trained Computers To Write Poetry

Researchers have developed a bot capable of writing poetry. Having been fed a good deal of verse, the programme is, apparently capable of tricking humans and has come up with many poems, including the example below:

“With joyous gambols gay and still array
No longer when he twas, while in his day
At first to pass in all delightful ways
Around him, charming and of all his days”.

The New York Post describes the above as “not bad”. While I would agree that this sample of verse is interesting, I wouldn’t describe it as “not bad”. To me it reads rather like a computer programme had been fed the complete poetic works of the humorous poet Edward Lear and come up with this short poem. The verse is, for me also reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky.

Poetry is, in the final analysis an expression of human emotion, whether sadness, happiness, anger or a combination of various emotions. At present only humans can feel emotion (as opposed to being able to simulate it), so what the researches have created is a clever programme capable of soaking up the poetry produced by others and using its “knowledge”? to produce it’s own attempts at poetry. The programme is producing nothing original, although it has, admittedly knitted together the poetic cannon to produce some interesting results.

To read the article please follow this link, https://nypost.com/2018/08/08/researchers-trained-robots-to-write-poetry/.

How Nice It Is To Drink Coffee

How nice
To drink a coffee as I think
About what to write, but try as I might
There is no delight
For I find that coffee spilt
Wilt
My device break
And I have had to take
The darned thing almost thrice
To the store.
No more
Shall I drink
As I think
While sitting next to my machine
For I glean
That computers and drinks do not mix
And laptops can not always be fixed …!

Watch out authors (well, maybe)

A couple of weeks ago I fell into conversation with a teacher of music. She had just purchased my book, “Lost in the Labyrinth of My Mind” and our conversation turned to matters of creativity. I asked whether she believed that computers would ever be able to produce music of the same standard as that of Mozart and other great composers? She responded with a question of her own, “could a computer ever produce poetry of the same standard as that of the great poets?”
The above is an interesting question. There is a tendency perhaps inate in we humans to deny that something is possible merely on the grounds that it’s occurance fills us with forboding or abhorrence. However gut reactions are not (usually) the best means of answering complex questions.
As regards my own view of the matter, the simple answer is that I have no idea as to whether machines will ever be capable of producing works of artistic merit. The great advantage of we humans is that we possess emotions which are interwoven in our art whether literary, painting or musical. I suspect (and I am no scientist) that it will be easier for those working in the field of artificial intelligence to produce machines which are of similar intelligence (or perhaps exceed) that of humans. However to reproduce genuine emotion will, I suspect be a far more difficult task so intellectual pursuits may well be one of the last bastions to fall to AI. Its also perfectly possible that “true” AI will never be achieved as there is still much debate about what, exactly constitutes real intelligence, (merely because an extremely fast computer could, in the future have access to all known information and be able to process it at greater speed than a human would not make it more intelligent than mankind for intellectual abilities reside in far more than processing power).
Below is a piece of speculative fiction written by me in early 2015. As ever I would be interested in your views. https://newauthoronline.com/2015/01/18/robert/
Kevin

Backup And Backup Again!

backup_chart3

Over Christmas I took my trusty Sony Vio laptop to Liverpool with me. Much of my time in Liverpool was, not surprisingly spent celebrating the festivities with family. I did, however find time to write and, as always saved my creations to my laptop’s hard drive.
On returning to London I powered up my trusty old work horse only for the machine to display an error message saying that Windows had been incorrectly shut down. I tried the usual solutions (start Windows normally and when that failed a system restore) but all to no avail. Eventually I took the laptop to a computer repairer I have used previously only to discover that the hard drive had gone to the great computer heaven in the sky where it is, no doubt now whirring away contentedly with other computer bits and bobs!
Fortunately the above story has a happy ending. Although the hard disk had died Graham (the computer repairer) was able to fit a new one and transfer my files from the defunct drive to it. Had he not been able to do this I would, potentially have lost much of my work. Hours of hard slog down the drain!
I had no warning that my hard drive was about to fail. Apparently they can fail soon after a machine has been purchased for no apparent reason, while others can work for years without a hitch. I have owned the laptop since 2011 so had, I guess enjoyed a fairly good run for my money as regards the hard disk.
The moral of the above is to always back up one’s work to somewhere other than one’s computer’s hard drive! Happy backing up!

Kevin

Kindle For PC

LitLoMM

On 11 January I announced the publication of my collection of poetry, “Lost In The Labyrinth Of My Mind” (https://newauthoronline.com/2016/01/11/lost-in-the-labyrinth-of-my-mind-by-k-morris-is-now-available-in-the-kindle-store/).

Following that announcement I was contacted by a potential reader who said they had no Kindle or tablet and went on to ask whether they could still read my book. I was pleased to email back and advise that Kindle titles can also be read using Kindle for PC

kindle for laptop

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201245960).

Having responded to the query, it struck me that there may be other potential readers of Kindle titles out there who are unsure as to whether (as non owners of the device) they can read Kindle titles, hence this post.
If you would like to read “Lost In The Labyrinth Of My Mind” for £0.99 please visit HERE.

Kevin