Author: humanist55

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #13

humanist55

Dear Kat

Google Maps let me take a peek
at your delightful bungalow
and filling the fountain – could that be you?
Perhaps in America they’re not called bungalows
a word we learned from our former
Indian, Imperial subjects
and at least use of the word had no
cost attached to it…
You Americans, former subjects too
now stand over the world yourselves
and know the pains and gains of rule
though U.S. foreign policy seems
a far cry from your peaceful lawn
and so I picked this bucolic
tile design, by an AI drawn
and hope you enjoy it’s faerie frolic…

Much Love
Andrew

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

I have included the bizarre stamp celebrating Dungeons and Dragons in the image of the card I sent…

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…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #12

humanist55

Dear Brian

My only clue to you
courtesy of Google Maps
is that you live in a bungalow
on a tree-lined avenue
nicely displaying Autumn colours
on which slender basis I choose
to send you this AI vision
of a post-apocalyptic Knaresborough
(a nearby town in Yorkshire.)
The iconic railway viaduct
subducting beneath invading trees
a tiny signal box, brick-built
the last remaining trace
of civilization – so if we heed not
signs of climate change –
we may yet face this devastation…

Much Love
Andrew

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

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 18 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…

Autumn

humanist55

days of Autumn now
remind us of our own days
of Autumn coming

towards year’s closing
fruit and other harvest swells
before Winter’s knell

we too can fill stores
with our hard-won knowledge and
bless those left behind

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Punam – paeansunplugged in Poetics, Uncategorized, invites us to write about Autumn at least once this year…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #11

humanist55

Dear Sarah

Midjourney AI in America
imagined the scene of Knaresborough
nearby nearby here in Yorkshire.
The viaduct carries trains to this day
but this small train drawn by Hokusai
has brought that artist through
both time and space
to envision Knaresborough
as a Japanese woodcut.
Whether you approve of AI. or not
this is a feat of creativity
of some sort which even
the makers of Midjourney
do not fully fathom…

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

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 18 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…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #9 & 10

humanist55

Dear Francoise
A little peek on Google Maps
shows me that Hedgesville
is the most charming of small towns
deep in W. Virginia’s Appalachians
and I picked this card because
it seemed “homespun”
though in truth it is the creation
of Artificial intelligence
if I may call it that…
I guess there are a lot of pictures
of the work of crafters for
an A. I. to learn from and oblige me
though in truth I can knit,
crochet, sew and embroider
as well as any man I know
but these little hearts could do
as ideas for “real-world” art
Much Love
Andrew

I sent a card but cannot match it to the picture on the front of the card and so #9 is my poem only…
If Emily Darby of Group 10 would care to DM me I would be most obliged…

Dear Emily
They say we
never really lose a memory
but if the mind is a palace
ever-expanding as we age
then for sure, we forget
how to find our way
through the labyrinth of corridors
where in places, ceilings have collapsed
and should we revisit darker passages
we should trail a long string
so we may retrace our steps
and not get lost for good.
But with each exploration
we may map the past
– define our own archaeology…

Thank you for your lovely
card of Mont Blanc, whose style
I adore… Much Love – Andrew

Vampire ll

humanist55

A Quadrille…

Vampires have to be
permitted entry
one night
laid low by other losses
I let you lie with me
bleed me dry
almost
though not enough
to feed your need
you never turned me
sought out fresh blood
but you marked me
for life…

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

This week over at dVerse Poets Pub,  dorahak in Quadrille invites us to write a poem on the undead – Vampires…

‘Give us a 44-word poem including the word “vampire” (or a derivative thereof, such as “vamp”)’

I was awakened by another’s insomnia and then couldn’t return to sleep myself so ar 4am this poem sidled into being, but confused by the hour, I wrote 144 words instead of 44 – but I guess they needed to come out and so, having posted it in error, I was challenged by Dora, our host, to distill it down to 44 – it still works I think, but if you want to read the original – hit the Home button to find it below this post…

Vampire

humanist55

Like a vampire
you had to be let in
I knew what you were
kept you at bay
but one night
laid low by other losses
I let you across the threshold
to lie with me
you bled me dry – almost
not all at once  but daily
feeding but not enough
to feed your need
an amour fou
that even though I knew it
I could not break the spell
and when I was close to death
you moved on to fresh blood
though you hovered
on the periphery
for the odd feed
you never turned me
and yet though you are
far enough away now and I
am recovered
perfuse again
and have walled you off
in my mind
you have left your mark
for all time
as all lovers do
if lover you were
and I will never be
as I once was
innocent of all…

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

This week over at dVerse Poets Pub,  dorahak in Quadrille invites us to write a poem on the undead – Vampires…

‘Give us a 44-word poem including the word “vampire” (or a derivative thereof, such as “vamp”)’

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #8

humanist55

Dear Grace
This AI-fabricated teacher
in the style of Gustav Klimt
Struck me as so striking
I pondered the words that might
describe him geographically
and generationally
Boss – Liverpool, Bonzer – Australia
Dishy – Sixties, Sick – Noughties
Dope – currently
Fanciable – Fifties, Personable – Forties
Stylish but not Suave, Fine
Fair but not fair – more darkly Dreamy
A Snack, Eye Candy, Hot
Studly and Hunk do not, I think, apply
Buff, Beautiful, Dreamboat…
Which of these gets your vote
or does he simply not float your boat?

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, who arrange 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 missives – to date I have received 16 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…


Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #7

humanist55

Dear Terri-Ann
I see you live in Honolulu
but that, and a bravely empty
Facebook page have given me no clue
as to who you are and what poetry
you might enjoy and so I resort
to writing about the AI picture
on the front, or rather whether we ought
to make art using the computer…
Niceaunties is a pseudonym for an artist
and for her AI generated project
about ageing, beauty, freedom, and fun
without AI it couldn’t have been done
but Artists Against AI have sent
death threats to Niceaunties
because they say AI is murdering art
remember they said the same
about photography so I say
live and let live – have a heart…

(See niceaunties.com)

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, who arrange 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 missives – to date I have received 16 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…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #6

humanist55

Dear Roberta
Using an AI to make images
can be wondrous,
frustrating, puzzling
and incredible in varying degrees
but sometimes, the sheer beauty
simply makes one gasp…

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. Yet we poets often work to prompts and we must construct prompts for the AI…

The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. Organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, who organise 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 missives – to date I have received 16 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…