Artificial Intelligence Meets Poetry

Several weeks ago I came across a post on Facebook with some extraordinary fantasy images. As I read I learned that these were done by artificial intelligence. I admit that I was intrigued and began searching for how this was done. I was able to find the Midjourney site and spent hours lost in creation. According to Wikipedia, Midjourney is an independent research lab that produces a proprietary artificial intelligence program that creates images from textual descriptions.

As a person who loves both words and photography, this was a goldmine to my heart. I proceeded to spend hours getting lost in the different creations that were born from the many words that I loved, both of my own and of others. I couldn’t help but wonder what artificial intelligence might create from poetry, so I absolutely had to try.

I began with some of my own words:

My spirit is a river

with passions roaring wild

spilling gently into calm,

quiet waters …

forever dancing

in the place where

the fire of the day

meets the quiet of the night.

The forest sings

a thousand songs

filled with wisdom

collected over centuries,

and I,

A solitary human

with my finite heart

doing all I can to

hear their whispers

Emerging from the shadows
An Awakening
in light

Pushing past false selves
A fledgling
reborn, tonight.

Layer upon layer of untruths
Melt from my skin
like ice

Puddles of darkness surround me
Evaporating
into the night.

The stars slowly descend
To encircle
my inner being

A dance of light and love
An ethereal Celebration
of Seeing

Then I thought of the many poets and poems that I have loved and decided to see how the dance between artificial intelligence and poetry would go with these celebrated words.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –

And sore must be the storm –

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –

And on the strangest Sea –

Yet – never – in Extremity,

It asked a crumb – of me.

~Emily Dickinson~

I am too alone in this world,

and yet not alone enough

to make every moment holy.

~Rainer Maria Rilke~

I wish I could show you,

when you are lonely or in darkness, 

the astonishing light of your own being.

~Hafiz~

In the depth of my soul there is

A wordless song – a song that lives

In the seed of my heart.

~Kahlil Gibran~

Let your life

lightly dance

on the edges of Time

like dew on the tip

of a leaf

~Tagore~

My soul is from elsewhere,

I’m sure of that,

and I intend to end up there

~Rumi~

The dream of my life

is to lie down by a slow river

and stare at the light in the trees –

to learn something by being nothing

~Mary Oliver~

Poetry is the unexpected

utterance of the soul.

~Mark Nepo~

To see the world in a grain of sand

and a Heaven in a Wildflower,

hold infinity in the palm of your hand

and Eternity in an Hour

~William Blake~

When you appear

all the rivers sound in my body,

bells shake the sky,

and a hymn fills the world.

~Pablo Neruda~

When I rise up

let me rise up joyful like a bird.

When I fall let me fall

without regret like a leaf.

~Wendell Berry~