I Don’t Enjoy Your Well-Structured, Rhyming Poems Anymore
Did you write this or did an AI?
A few times I have asked chat GPT to write a poem for me, and the results were usually amazing. Especially when I prompted the AI with a lot of personal information and emotions to take into account, giving it a story background, and perhaps even a style of writing.
The poems are usually well-structured and capture my emotions really well. It kind of makes sense that a large language processor would be able to pull it off. Because poetry is often based on an algorithm and rhythm and this is what AI is good at. Mix it up with a great sense of placing words that make sense in various tones, and you can make a beautiful generated word flow.
But ever since I discovered how great an AI was at writing poetry, I kind of lost the enjoyment of reading poetry, as soon as it seems too tightly structured and rhyming. Because then, I can never figure out whether it was written by the person sharing it or by using an AI. Of course, it can also be a mix. Using AI for a little help, without creating the whole poem.
I have also wondered: Does it really matter, if the poem is beautifully written and truly evokes emotions? After all, when I make AI write a poem for me, giving it all sorts of descriptive information, it feels like it could have been written by a better version of me. So why not?
Perhaps, because it doesn’t feel just as personal as the imperfect word flow that I would be able to make out of it. Maybe what the AI shares have a better structure, and uses a lot of the mechanisms that make a poem speak to emotions, such as “show, don’t tell”, using figurative language that speaks to your imagination, and more.
I still prefer to read the imperfect poem with less structure and more YOU. But since AI is so great at writing poetry, it can be really hard to tell the difference sometimes. So while it might be unfair to great structured poets out there, I often skip your poetry if I feel it is too structured.
I recently shared a poem, called Disappointment. I also asked Chat GPT to write a poem for me, giving it all the background information, and I kind of found the poem a much better version of mine … even though it captured with better skills the words I wanted to say, but still, it wasn’t MY poem. I wish it was though!
The poem I shared was my own imperfect version. The poem below is what Chat-GPT came up with.
Disappointment
Created with Chat GPT
Here I go again, lost in longing’s sway,
With hopes soaring high, my heart led astray.
And there you go, retreating to distant lands,
Leaving me behind, holding empty hands.
I dared to hope, though I knew I should not,
For your fear of intimacy, a battle I fought.
In the depths of desire, our souls ignite,
Yet you turn away, seeking solace in flight.
Disappointed, I danced amidst the night’s gleam,
With friends by my side, in an alcohol-fueled dream.
But the fairy tales spun couldn’t ease my core,
Your absence casts shadows I can’t ignore.
In smiles and laughter, I sought solace anew,
Hugging, talking, playing, as if I’d made do.
Yet within me, a void, aching and wide,
Yearning for you, unable to subside.
Twin flame runner, elusive and free,
I miss the connection, the love shared with thee.
But you’ve made your choice, a path to take,
Leaving me here, my heart left to ache.
In this absence, a lesson slowly unfurls,
To accept the truth, as life twists and twirls.
For love cannot thrive, if it’s not meant to be,
I’ll find strength to let go and set my heart free.
Well done, AI-Language Model, well done.
