In touch with a good friend and fellow writer yesterday, he commented on attending an AI academic’s lecture and not finding it that informative – certainly nothing new to his own areas of interest and experience. My friend was ‘playing with ChatGPT and poetry’ rather than engaging with the generating images/researching coding focus of the lecture, and he also commented on how AI ‘won’t write poetry at all well – it’s all rhyming doggerel’, and this is definitely my own experience with it.

I became interested in ChatGPT a year ago, December the 5^th to be precise, after reading about it in The Guardian and then had my own engagement with it – quite general, with some disturbing aspects, but including the writing of poetry. You can find links to my posts on this here: https://gravyfromthegazebo.blog/?s=ChatGPT&submit=Search

After yesterday’s reminder of the poetic doggerel, I did return to ChatGPT having left it behind some months ago, and explored its rhyming propensity a little more. Nothing has changed in its algorithmic compulsion to rhyme – which is surprising considering the wealth of information and models at its disposal – but I did manage to coax it into a momentary break from that rhyming response. Still limited, but some kind of learning. If I am assed enough to return, I will ask Al (have called it this from day 1) to write a poem without rhyming, and will not be surprised at the familiar rhyming response. Here are yesterday’s exchanges:

Note – the poems appeared in conventional stanzas, accentuating the rhyming, but these get presented as ‘prose’ paragraphs when copying to save.

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Having been uncertain, I did persevere and write a list poem about quadratic equations*, as is now clear! I have also continued with my mathematical focus/compulsion, though after one on trigonometry, I may have now concluded.

I am delighted to have engaged the interest of those who actually know a thing or two about math, and I appreciate likes/repostings of my work from Marian Christie and JoAnne Growney.

My interest in maths and poetry was first properly prompted by Marian Christie when I read and reviewed her book From Fibs to Fractals. Exploring mathematical forms in poetry (read here: https://gravyfromthegazebo.blog/2021/11/11/from-fibs-to-fractals-exploring-mathematical-forms-in-poetry-by-marian-christie-beir-bua-press/ ). JoAnne Growney added a post about my early ‘math’ list poems on her web site Intersections — Poetry with Mathematics (see here: https://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot.com/2023/11/adding-list-poem.html ).

I will post my further arithmetical list poems over the coming days for those who are counting on them…

*I suggested there is a ‘story’ behind me and quadratic equations, and there is which is mentioned in my review of Marian’s book. I think my suggestiveness was a little overstated!

I am delighted to have three TextArt pieces in the latest edition of Ranger Magazine, and to have one of these used as the cover for this Issue #3 – my thanks to editor David A. Bishop.

You can see the poems here: https://www.rangermagazine.net/issue3

This Division List Poem is the final of four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic (to use the accurate terminology). It is also the final of my four creative explorations of these fundamentals.

As I said in yesterday’s posting of multiplication, this list poem is less literal and more in the spirit of what such a form should be.

I still haven’t decided whether to tackle quadratic equations…

This is the third of the four arithmetic operations for which I have produced a list poem: division is tomorrow.

I have always worked as a writer to sequences, either of a type (here, list poem) or themes. It becomes obsessional, or more positively, a creative impulse to pursue.

This multiplying list poem adheres more to its artithmetical roots than tomorrow’s dividing – the latter prompting a broader range of ideas.

…in this sequence. I’d written the ‘Adding List Poem’ in yesterday’s posting as a submission for an educational theme and anthology publication, thus the direction towards students/young writers (as a teacher I always found list poems a superb idea/structure/support for encouraging creative writing).

The poem wasn’t taken, and thus yesterday’s posting of it to share all the same. And as I said then, this prompted me to write a ‘Subtracting List Poem’ which follows. Any arithmetical references – correct or awry – are from research rather than my Maths CSE Grade 4 shallow aptitude, though this could have fueled the less secure (but I always, in any case, take comfortable refuge in poetic licence):

Love a list poem, this is my latest – the kind of content and ideas I would like to introduce to students for writing their own:

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