Write A Poem | Teen Ink

Write A Poem

July 21, 2024
By is_joan BRONZE, Shenzhen, Other
is_joan BRONZE, Shenzhen, Other
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

                              When I write poems, when I start to depict the images 

                             in my head, using a foreign language, I defeat ChatGPT.


“Write a poem. [A demand was given] A unique one.” [Instruction Received]

"To be a poet - "

I was told,

"You write poetry."

But perhaps one day,

GPT will get published

Not I.


I, still,

could not figure the difference out

with my mother tongue.


诗/诗歌 shī and shī gē, (poem and poetry)

were the answers from machines,

from their translations.


“Write a poem.” I was told.

but if I can not use a language

properly, fluently,

how can I be a poet, and write good poetry?

how could I create rhythms, rhymes,

like a skilled musician,

played in a high-class jazz bar?


I am a writer who is not well-read

and thus weaker than the machine.

how would you, as a human being, describe scenes like movies in your mind, if you lack vocabulary?


ChatGPT is a blurry JPEG

of the web - 

said Ted Chiang in the New Yorker.


“So maybe,” I was thinking,

that I could be a spider, at first.

to be the master of the webs,

and the creator who can rule the webs.

but I failed and tried something else.

maybe I can write poetry in Chinese - 

but I did not hear the sound, the lines in myself.


Perhaps 

i am a

poet 

only using 

english 

to

pull 

         my imagination

                                         out


Perhaps

my language

is unique

because of 

how

I digest

my

      second

language.


And in the End,

i defeated the AI.


「Are you satisfied with my answer?

Click the items below to help us improve in the future」


                                                      {yes = 1} // {no = 0}

 

(Because of the order I lived my life

Isn’t experienced by the machine,

and the number of languages I know are countable.

and, the languages I know exclude any animal or computational,

or both, including, 

Python.)


                                       That was a very compelling story - I thought.


The author's comments:

This piece was inspired by a writing prompt in a summer session for creative poetry writing. It discussed the relationship between artist/writer and AI tools. The narrator is ambiguous, and it could be either an AI machine or a human narrator. The poetry utilized structural changes to identify different characters/narrators involved in this poetry.


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