Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #15

Dear Melody

I felt. I felt it unencumbent on me
to explore AI. so I could see
what all the fuss was about.
I duly sought some pointers on the Internet
then jumped right in to experiment
and have to say – took to it like a duck to water!
To get the image just as you want it
clear instructions, you must formulate
when writing your Midjourney prompt,
even the order of instructions – best
before AI. goes off. and does the rest
But then again, keeping it simple
a single word – an abstract image
may deliver for your waiting. page
as in this image. – The prompt was
– Poetry…

Much Love
Andrew.

This last year, both I and many poets I know (in the Internet sense as opposed to the real world or the biblical), have started illustrating their work using AI images whose results are sometimes so stunning as to distract from the poems being illustrated. So are we shooting ourselves in the foot, gilding the lily…

The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. It is organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, which arranges the participants into lists of 31 + yourself for you to address your offerings to. This was my second year and I was on List 10. The lists are sent out in early July and you have until the end of August to send out your poetic missives – to date I have received 21 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent.
Although the original poem is to be sent as written – crossings out, blots and all, I have typed them out for people who can’t read my writing and I am allowing myself to edit if I feel like it…