Category Archives: Poetry

Write Across America: Ghost Story of Northern Virginia

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The latest stop on the virtual summer writing tour of various sites of the National Writing Project — known as Write Across America – was in Northern Virginia and the theme of exploration was ghost stories.

I missed the Zoom session but I used some of the resources to explore some interesting stories, including that of the “Female Stranger” of Alexandria, which features a headstone in a graveyard and only hints at her story. This one informed my poem.

Here some of my other poems from my other stops –

Nebraska

Georgia

Hawaii

We/US

Peace (In Explorations),
Kevin

 

Google’s New AI Duet Workspace: Hummingbird Haiku

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I saw an invite to my Google Account to pilot Google’s integration of AI into its various apps called, I think, Duet AI. They are rolling out a bit of it at a time, and after some hemming and hawing, I decided to give it a go (I might still opt out at some point but given all the inquiry and experimenting I have been doing already, it seemed like another step). Google has an explanatory page about Duet here.

I experimented with Duet in Google Docs after deciding to do some poem collaboration with the AI (which I assume is powered by Bard). I began with a haiku about hummingbirds, and then asked the Duet AI to write one, too. It did, and there are some options for tweaking the text, if wanted. You can Recreate (I didn’t find this worked all that well but maybe that is because the haiku poems were short) or Refine (with a few different parameters).

Then, I kept going, back and forth (another game of AI Chat Tennis), and I even tried to get it to turn the Document of poems into a Presentation (which I saw happen in a demo but it told me that feature had not yet rolled out).  The BOLD poems are mine and the ITALICS poems are via Duet.

Google AI 1

I even asked it to generate a list of possible titles for our collection. I had to recreate this a few times. Most were drab. One ended up OK.

Google AI 2

I later added the collection of poems to Giphy and added my own animated birds in motion, because … well, hummingbirds, right?

My initial reaction — I could see Duet being helpful as a thinking partner. The tool didn’t feel too intrusive (it sits off to the side with a little icon) and when I opened it up, it gave me some possible ideas for use with my writing. I haven’t looked at my email platform yet nor the presentation platform, but I will.

I do wonder about how and when and if Duet will be integrated into Google’s school platforms, and what that might look like. (I think Google has said they are NOT pushing Duet and AI into school Google networks … yet)

Anyone else given Duet a go?

Peace (Experimenting),
Kevin

Mostly Morning Poems: Assorted

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These are some poems from my morning writing with one-word prompts off Mastodon.

Morning Summation

Feathered Bristles on a Softened Brush

Flawed Parts/Loving Heart

Inconvenient Detour

And one as a haiku reply to my friend, Algot:
Water Clouds The Haze

And, finally, two poems from long ago that rediscovered for a DS106 Daily Create this week:
Mirror/Palindrome Poems

Peace (and Poems),
Kevin

Write Across America: Georgia (Shout The Jubilee)

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This poem is part of the National Writing Project’s summer Write Across America project, which different NWP sites and affiliates across the country are hosting place-based writing sessions.

I guess I tend to not be part of the Zoom sessions (so far) but I do use the resources and prompts for my own writing, on my own time. The latest visit was to Georgia, and one of the resources was a page about the McIntosh County Shouters, and their use of song and dance to tell stories, and to remember. The video I watched was about Jubilee, and that inspired the poem.

Peace (and Dance),
Kevin

Poem: Land Slant

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Land Slant

This poem comes from a one-word prompt — “matrix” — that somehow conjured up Emily D.

Peace (and Poems),
Kevin

Playing With Form: We Start Forever Together

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We Start Forever Together

A few folks in recent weeks have shared Obligations 2, a formatted poem by Layli Long Soldier that is fascinating to read and powerful for the way its ideas flow in various directions. You can read the poem along different paths. Her use of “the grief” phrasing across the entire center of her poem is such an emotional anchor moment, one that caused me to pause each time, right at that anchor, before moving onward, and then re-reading along another path, only to pause again at “the grief” line.

I was curious about how to even begin to formulate this kind of poem, so I tried to give it a try. I began with the simple concept of a “start” and an finish point of “forever” in my poem. Somehow, it became a shape poem too, as I started to see the contours of the narrator emerging through the formatting. Now, I am not really sure that was a wise design choice – whether that adds to or takes away from the poem itself.

You can read my poem top-down and jump diagonal as well and still have a flow of the poem, but I don’t think it is nearly as effective or as powerful in narrative as Obligations 2 is.

Peace (and Poems),
Kevin

This Morning: A Poem of Decay and A Song of the Future

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Gradual Decay

My mornings often begin with a poem (usually from a one-word prompt off Mastodon) and a response to the DS106 Daily Create. The poem was from the word “gradual” and the video/song was from a prompt about the future via an image of Bryan Alexander giving a presentation about the future. The music I composed was themed in three movements: Curiosity, Concern, and Creativity.

Peace (Making It),
Kevin

PS – I’ve also been doing something related to further explorations of AI Thinking Partners with my NWP friend, Paul Allison, but I will share more about that another day.

Write Across America: Nebraska

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I’ve been circling around a few days late to the National Writing Project’s Write Across America visits, in which different sites host writing activities. The last virtual visit was to Nebraska, a state which I don’t know much about. Thus, the title of my poem, which I then made into a digital format. And I sure hope I got the basic facts right, too.

You can read the poem as text here.

Peace (Wandering The Terrain),
Kevin

Poems: Of Poets and Pianists

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Always Wandering Away

Two poems, from two one-word prompts. The first was this morning’s poem– with the word “precision” and my mind went first to “imprecise” and then to my daily poetry writing, which is admittedly a bit lazy, in that I don’t often return to revise or edit or do much to keep poems moving forward.

The second was from the other day, with the word “piano” and jazz pianist Keith Jarrett sprung to mind, particularly his vocalizations as he plays.

Silence In The Gaps

And of course, that almost requires a soundtrack:

Peace (Where Words Inspire),
Kevin