Thanks so much, Clare. I almost put that title in, but I wanted to leave the poem untouched - the way it was fed to DeepSeek. If AI is helping you post your poems, then am sure that is a good thing. Also check out poetry groups - they are usually very supportive too. That's what I did when I started writing on WP. :)
I have to say, I LOVE your December poem best of anything on this page. I adore "the world is perched on one leg like a cold bird" and so many of your other wonderfully original images. If I could write ONE phrase like that I would be a happy girl. "Dawn is the bodhi tree. Leaves shaped like a heart........how will I know if the bird is me?" I so love this poem.
Thank you, Sherry. That warmed my heart. And you write not one, but many, many, very beautiful lines. The earth and its creatures are grateful for your poems.
I’ll be honest. I’m not a regular to any poetry but prose is my abode. So, I didn’t really understand the December poem very well. It still sounded beautiful but I just didn’t fully get its meaning. I apologise for my lack of understanding certain kinds of beauty!
That being said, the prose preceding the poems was deeeply touching to me. The way the piece opened up as a rummaging act through your old art inspired by the words of a book or by another piece of art created by someone else, and how you slowly opened the doors of a budding technology, the new bot on the block, and the conversation between you too.. That’s what got me! And that was uniquely beautiful to read!
And its analysis of your poem sounded like a critic’s acclaim!
Thank you, Krishna Kanth. Appreciate you reading it despite poetry not being your main interest. Glad you enjoyed the prose and the conversation with the bot!! :)
Wow I love how you worked with Deep Seek. Enjoyed the poem that Deep Seek wrote. I have a question. If you feed information to Deep Seek and writing results, does one claim the writing as one’s own? Just wondering.
Thank you, Mary. I imagine a disclosure would be nice if there was AI assistance. Right now the bots aren't so good at poetry, which is not to say they won't get better. It will become hard to tell at some point if the poet is human or machine. Crazy times!
A lovey and succinct commentary on how the use of AI in poetry can be a positive one, to analyze and critique poems but still some way to go for ai to create a poem as beautiful and poignant as yours. Thanks for sharing Rajani
Thanks so much, Joao. That is so kind. DeepSeek appears to be a lot better at churning out poems that ChatGPT was (I only tried the free version) but it is quite a responsive bot...though who knows if I was testing it or the other way round!!! :)
Thanks so much, Ruth. Glad you liked the poem. And yes, it was a bit scary - it was being very conversational and friendly but also making up stuff... and then it wrote a sad poem! Very human, that thing!
Approach can trigger flight. " And here I am approaching the worlds in this poem within a story about poetry that contains a poem. Do I believe there is a Deep Speak? I wonder if the entire reading isn't of your invention, so much like some of the Jorge Louis Borges stories I've read. "How will I know if the bird is me?" How do we know we are not coded call and response? Not a character in a Ray Bradbury story?
Ha ha, how indeed!! All the edges are blurring and we have to question identity and reality!! Thanks, Susan...but no, I can't make up DeepSeek...more likely it made me up! :)
Your interactions with DeepSeek are a bit disconcerting. I dont like where it is all heading. Humans already talk more to machines than other humans. But, i guess it is inevitable. Atleast, it cant yet write great poetry.
I enjoyed reading your poem. Each line is a contemplation. The ennui, the bird, the arc in the sky, the questions had me rereading the poem, trying to seek deeper into it! Great writing as usual, Rajani
Thank you, Namratha. It is heading to the point where having learnt everything it can from us, it will get smarter and sentient and unstoppable :) AI poetry has improved since the days of cringe rhymes...it can only get better! All of which sounds a bit terrifying... but yes, inevitable!!!!
I often think about the beginning and end, Rajani. Questions that are questions and will perhaps stay that way. A lot many times, your contemplative poems speak to me in that way. The 'shunya' or ennui as we call it. The understanding that it is all that there is, is perhaps the best way to stay grounded, as individuals and as a race. I'm not sure if you're looking for this but that's how the poem spoke to me.
As for your conversation with DeepSeek, I am so intrigued. I will say you did good and I'm going back with the understanding that I can get a lot out of it too.
Am glad the poem spoke to you, Sonia...and yes, AI can be useful, not in the creative process, but for things like analysis or comparisons if they aren't accessible in the real world! Thanks so much for reading.
Your poem is vulnerable and unscripted--that's what makes it worth reading. I find it hard to imagine a machine creating emotions in that way. But some line has been crossed I think, and I don't believe we've thought about how we might want to protect ourselves from what we've unleashed.
Thank you, K. And yes, I did feel the same way...we're training AI without fully thinking of all the consequences...or maybe despite that which is more terrifying. At first they said, creatives would be least likely to be replaced by AI - with images and videos and perhaps, poetry...what's left??!
Definitely love your poem the best out of all of this, as many pointed out "the world is perched on one leg like a cold bird" is just a fascinating image that pulls the reader into the poem and allows it a more deeper experience, that inspiration and connection.
I think this is what we seek , when we are creating art, working through the barriers and stigmas that surround it from time immemorial. And this is where I think the machine influence is cheap, because it reads from its really big library and can arrange and imitate as instructed, which is something I am sure many strive to teach a poet, and seeing that the machine states that it cannot dream, the poets can - and poetry, writing and art should be ever-evolving and free humanities, not something that is programmed.
Thanks so much, Mirjana. I so hear you...writing and art should be untouched, but here we are and AI is being taught to create art and poetry and nothing is sacred now...scary to think what the consequences will be as they get better at it. Which is bound to happen.
No matter how ‘good’ they get, it is important to note that all they do is run their own code, which was at some point written and programmed to work by a human. It cannot invent its own new code , much like during visualization exercises for example we humans find it hard to imagine a vegetable from Jupiter; one that does not resemble or is an amalgamation of vegetables we already know, grow and consume here on Earth. I agree with you completely, that nothing is sacred now, but I believe the fault lies with us humans, not with the AI - which is programmed to satisfy the current human excessive need for a connection amid a techno-primal scream. We feel and are encouraged to seek machine assistance to write and discuss poetry, while still eradicating, demonizing and creating real world and online environments that discourage that very same thing. That is scary to me!
Wow, how brave you are! I experienced DeepSeek's poem as very poignant — and I found it quite alarming that I did so. Yours, however, has a realness and unexpectedness that I don't believe a bot could ever arrive at. It's not just the words or their arrangement, but an indefinable something behind them / that comes through them.
Thanks so much, Rosemary. I too thought DeepSeek's poem was a huge step up for AI poetry. I loved the title it chose, as well. Glad you liked my poem. We...humans...are banking on lived experiences to write meaningful poetry...I think at some point AI will start concocting its own "experiences" and then there will be no turning back :)
Thank you, Tio Stib...you said it...fascinating but a little scary. I worry about the future of creative work...what happens to the boundaries.
Thanks so much, Clare. I almost put that title in, but I wanted to leave the poem untouched - the way it was fed to DeepSeek. If AI is helping you post your poems, then am sure that is a good thing. Also check out poetry groups - they are usually very supportive too. That's what I did when I started writing on WP. :)
I have to say, I LOVE your December poem best of anything on this page. I adore "the world is perched on one leg like a cold bird" and so many of your other wonderfully original images. If I could write ONE phrase like that I would be a happy girl. "Dawn is the bodhi tree. Leaves shaped like a heart........how will I know if the bird is me?" I so love this poem.
Thank you, Sherry. That warmed my heart. And you write not one, but many, many, very beautiful lines. The earth and its creatures are grateful for your poems.
I’ll be honest. I’m not a regular to any poetry but prose is my abode. So, I didn’t really understand the December poem very well. It still sounded beautiful but I just didn’t fully get its meaning. I apologise for my lack of understanding certain kinds of beauty!
That being said, the prose preceding the poems was deeeply touching to me. The way the piece opened up as a rummaging act through your old art inspired by the words of a book or by another piece of art created by someone else, and how you slowly opened the doors of a budding technology, the new bot on the block, and the conversation between you too.. That’s what got me! And that was uniquely beautiful to read!
And its analysis of your poem sounded like a critic’s acclaim!
Thank you, Krishna Kanth. Appreciate you reading it despite poetry not being your main interest. Glad you enjoyed the prose and the conversation with the bot!! :)
Wow I love how you worked with Deep Seek. Enjoyed the poem that Deep Seek wrote. I have a question. If you feed information to Deep Seek and writing results, does one claim the writing as one’s own? Just wondering.
Thank you, Mary. I imagine a disclosure would be nice if there was AI assistance. Right now the bots aren't so good at poetry, which is not to say they won't get better. It will become hard to tell at some point if the poet is human or machine. Crazy times!
A lovey and succinct commentary on how the use of AI in poetry can be a positive one, to analyze and critique poems but still some way to go for ai to create a poem as beautiful and poignant as yours. Thanks for sharing Rajani
Thanks so much, Joao. That is so kind. DeepSeek appears to be a lot better at churning out poems that ChatGPT was (I only tried the free version) but it is quite a responsive bot...though who knows if I was testing it or the other way round!!! :)
Haha that’s the way they learn I isn’t it? We might as well get used to it because it’s not going away any time soon.
True, only going to get smarter...might as well accept and engage.
Yes there is a real power there that we can use to simplify and compliment our everyday tasks
I was fascinated (and slightly terrified) to read about your interactions with DeepSeek. I love the December poem, especially --
"Ennui and annoy come from the same root.
Darkness shifting in degrees.
The hand I lift to my face feels like
a stranger’s."
Thanks so much, Ruth. Glad you liked the poem. And yes, it was a bit scary - it was being very conversational and friendly but also making up stuff... and then it wrote a sad poem! Very human, that thing!
"That dawn is another shade of night?", I love this line.
Thanks so much, Jeet. DeepSeek told me about that line "the sky and dawn symbolize the elusive nature of truth and enlightenment." :)
@Chasey Delaney Appreciate the restack!!
"The world is perched on one leg.
Like a cold bird.
Approach can trigger flight. " And here I am approaching the worlds in this poem within a story about poetry that contains a poem. Do I believe there is a Deep Speak? I wonder if the entire reading isn't of your invention, so much like some of the Jorge Louis Borges stories I've read. "How will I know if the bird is me?" How do we know we are not coded call and response? Not a character in a Ray Bradbury story?
Ha ha, how indeed!! All the edges are blurring and we have to question identity and reality!! Thanks, Susan...but no, I can't make up DeepSeek...more likely it made me up! :)
Your interactions with DeepSeek are a bit disconcerting. I dont like where it is all heading. Humans already talk more to machines than other humans. But, i guess it is inevitable. Atleast, it cant yet write great poetry.
I enjoyed reading your poem. Each line is a contemplation. The ennui, the bird, the arc in the sky, the questions had me rereading the poem, trying to seek deeper into it! Great writing as usual, Rajani
Thank you, Namratha. It is heading to the point where having learnt everything it can from us, it will get smarter and sentient and unstoppable :) AI poetry has improved since the days of cringe rhymes...it can only get better! All of which sounds a bit terrifying... but yes, inevitable!!!!
Do androids dream of electric sheep?
Hmm... only the android knows that! DeepSeek is just a chatbot...and says in its poem that it doesn't dream...:)
I often think about the beginning and end, Rajani. Questions that are questions and will perhaps stay that way. A lot many times, your contemplative poems speak to me in that way. The 'shunya' or ennui as we call it. The understanding that it is all that there is, is perhaps the best way to stay grounded, as individuals and as a race. I'm not sure if you're looking for this but that's how the poem spoke to me.
As for your conversation with DeepSeek, I am so intrigued. I will say you did good and I'm going back with the understanding that I can get a lot out of it too.
Am glad the poem spoke to you, Sonia...and yes, AI can be useful, not in the creative process, but for things like analysis or comparisons if they aren't accessible in the real world! Thanks so much for reading.
Your poem is vulnerable and unscripted--that's what makes it worth reading. I find it hard to imagine a machine creating emotions in that way. But some line has been crossed I think, and I don't believe we've thought about how we might want to protect ourselves from what we've unleashed.
Thank you, K. And yes, I did feel the same way...we're training AI without fully thinking of all the consequences...or maybe despite that which is more terrifying. At first they said, creatives would be least likely to be replaced by AI - with images and videos and perhaps, poetry...what's left??!
Definitely love your poem the best out of all of this, as many pointed out "the world is perched on one leg like a cold bird" is just a fascinating image that pulls the reader into the poem and allows it a more deeper experience, that inspiration and connection.
I think this is what we seek , when we are creating art, working through the barriers and stigmas that surround it from time immemorial. And this is where I think the machine influence is cheap, because it reads from its really big library and can arrange and imitate as instructed, which is something I am sure many strive to teach a poet, and seeing that the machine states that it cannot dream, the poets can - and poetry, writing and art should be ever-evolving and free humanities, not something that is programmed.
Thanks so much, Mirjana. I so hear you...writing and art should be untouched, but here we are and AI is being taught to create art and poetry and nothing is sacred now...scary to think what the consequences will be as they get better at it. Which is bound to happen.
No matter how ‘good’ they get, it is important to note that all they do is run their own code, which was at some point written and programmed to work by a human. It cannot invent its own new code , much like during visualization exercises for example we humans find it hard to imagine a vegetable from Jupiter; one that does not resemble or is an amalgamation of vegetables we already know, grow and consume here on Earth. I agree with you completely, that nothing is sacred now, but I believe the fault lies with us humans, not with the AI - which is programmed to satisfy the current human excessive need for a connection amid a techno-primal scream. We feel and are encouraged to seek machine assistance to write and discuss poetry, while still eradicating, demonizing and creating real world and online environments that discourage that very same thing. That is scary to me!
Wow, how brave you are! I experienced DeepSeek's poem as very poignant — and I found it quite alarming that I did so. Yours, however, has a realness and unexpectedness that I don't believe a bot could ever arrive at. It's not just the words or their arrangement, but an indefinable something behind them / that comes through them.
Thanks so much, Rosemary. I too thought DeepSeek's poem was a huge step up for AI poetry. I loved the title it chose, as well. Glad you liked my poem. We...humans...are banking on lived experiences to write meaningful poetry...I think at some point AI will start concocting its own "experiences" and then there will be no turning back :)