Not an AI Poem, or Ranting in a Run-On About Punctuation in Poetry
I am not a robot just because I understand how em dashes and Oxford commas work—the woods are not lovely, dark, and deep; “the woods are lovely, dark and deep” and poets with promises to keep know when they are and aren’t connecting and do not welcome implied editing by assuming a punctuation is or isn’t there and do not enjoy the suggestion that whether they are ems, ens, ‘phens, asterisms, or interrobangs that they were generated as statistical probable outputs of prompts and not the eclectic, elegant, and nuanced clever creations of characters that they are. I will ampersand with ample ands & there is simply no way I will allow the AI-whisperers to tell me it didn’t happen just because they couldn’t read it—just because they couldn’t believe it—just because they didn’t receive it.
4 thoughts on "Not an AI Poem, or Ranting in a Run-On About Punctuation in Poetry"
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This is great.
I had to laugh because just yesterday I was looking for pictures of a sculpture another poet referenced, and her initials were M. F. Of course I typed out her full name, I can’t recall her last name at the moment, first name was Maive. Stupid Google wanted to give me information on “Maine Fishing.” ROFL
But yes, the punctuation thing. AI becomes extremely confused when I write a visual poem. I can hear all the little bits and bites of data saying, “What the heck does she think she’s doing?”
Thank you for sharing this delightful and apt poem!
Wonderful! Those Oxford commas bedevil me too. I mostly don’t use them but then sometimes…
Anything that starts with the Oxford comma will lure me in!
Former English teacher here sends hugs and kisses for the humor and current frustrations with AI. Good giggles.
Amen!