Saturday, April 1, 2023

National Poetry Month / NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2023


Welcome, friends! Once again we gather for a round of 30 poems in the month of April. This is my 12th year in a row writing Poem-a-Day and NaPoWriMo poems. TWELVE! Crazy.

I'm happy this April to welcome back my longtime poet friend Thomas Alan Holmes who's rejoining the poetic fun this year. ¡Abrazos, Alan!

I hope all of you, our faithful poetry fans, will come back all month to read our poems!

Here is the first prompt: Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's prompt, write a foolish poem. The poem could be about a fool, about being fooled, about fooling someone, or whatever other foolish direction you wish to take it.”

Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt. “They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but they never said you can’t try to write a poem based on a book cover — and that’s your challenge for today! Take a look through Public Domain Review’s article on ‘The Art of Book Covers.’”


The book cover that intrigued me was for the 1907 book The Thinking Machine by Jacques Futrelle.
This made me think of the AIs we currently encounter in the news, esp. ChatGPT, which can write pretty human-sounding texts. Here's my curtal sonnet today, merging both prompts.

The Thinking Machine

The AI thought he could be a poet,
that he could just fool the reading public.
Couldn’t be too hard? Just rhyme aabb,
lilt up some iambic lub-dub, insert
an extra syllable or two, magic
sleight of hand with concocted “facts” — easy.

The poet shook his head. He wasn’t fooled.
The AI verse was trite, warmed-over dreck.
No heart there, no there there, no fantasy.
Words like old marbles, tasteless food for fools,
                              desert-scorched dead tree.

—Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]

Incidentally, I decided to see what ChatGPT could do with these two prompts. I asked ChatGPT to "write a poem in the style of Vince Gotera about fools and thinking machines." Here's what I got back, under the title "Fools and Thinking Machines," six quatrains of aabb beginning
Fools believe that thinking machines
Are nothing more than metal screens
A soulless box of wires and code
No heart, no spirit, no abode

But they are wrong, these simple souls
For AI's mind is vast and whole
It learns, it grows, it knows and sees
The world in ways we can't conceive

. . . . . . . . . . . .

So let us welcome these thinking minds
And leave behind our foolish blinds
For in this new world we create
Our thinking machines will help us innovate.
Essentially this is an apology for AIs, pleading for humans to treat them as equal entities. Fascinating! Hmm. Anyone sensing Skynet here? Skynet was the worldwide AI that warred with humans in the Terminator movie franchise, creating seemingly invincible android soldiers. Maybe less fascinating and more chilling?

Regarding ChatGPT's ability to "write in the style of Vince Gotera," not even close. But it's quite amazing that ChatGPT wrote this verse instantaneously. Much faster than the hour it took me, roughly, to write my poem above.


Okay, moving on to Alan's poem today: the book cover he chose to work with was for The Hollow Earth by Franklin Titus Ive, (1904).
Alan also worked with both prompts today. Here's what he said about the poem: “It’s been nothing but shootings, Trump, and tornadoes on the news today, and the cover of Hollow Earth just seemed relevant. I know that I don’t offer the word ‘fools’ in this piece, but I mark the date, and the subject matter of the poem addresses fools, too.”

Hollow Earth
April 1, 2023

The Saturday before
Palm Sunday, I was in
a big-box store and saw
a basket, bunny-tagged
and secular and made
to look chock-full of toys
and candy. It said SWAT
inside; its packaging
held plastic handcuffs small
enough for children’s wrists,
a gun that shoots toy balls,
and fun-sized M&Ms.
The former president
of the United States
has called for violence
in the city where he
earned notoriety.
In Nashville, families
are burying remains
that they identified
by what the bullets left.
But Wal-Mart calculates,
and Mars provides its sweets,
and I, who should have left,
nevertheless bought ham
and, leaving, through my soles
felt asphalt fragile as
an eggshell covering
inescapable depth.

—Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]

An excellent poem, Alan. Chilling as well. Okay, friends, there's the first day. Come on back tomorrow for more!


Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks!

Ingat, everyone.   


NaPoWriMo / PAD 2023 • Pick a day:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30


6 comments:

Thomas Alan Holmes said...

Hi, Vince--thank you for asking me to join you for this year's NaPoWriMo. I hope I can offer some good drafts this month.

I have been busy, and I published a book of poetry, In the Backhoe's Shadow, with Iris Press last August.

I have another project in mind and hope this month's prompts will permit me to work on it, but I will do my best not to "go rogue" much this year.

It's good to be back.

Bruce Niedt said...

Nice sonnet, Vince! I was less impressed with the AI's poem - trite couplets and a pathetic plea to be taken seriously, LOL. Alan's poem was brilliant, with a chilling closing image - bravo.

Vince Gotera said...

Alan, I'm glad to have you back. It's okay if you go rogue every time! Of course, if you can work on the project AND hew to the prompts, that would be most impressive. Good luck with the project.

Vince Gotera said...

Bruce, thanks for your generous comment. Going over to your blog now to check out your first two days!

Vince Gotera said...

Alan, congrats on the new book again!

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