Poetry + AI
“My feet won't obey the polite cage.”
As a founder building at the intersection of art and technology, I've come to understand that true innovation happens when we refuse to stay within comfortable boundaries. The line above, from my poem "New Orleans Dreams,” is a call from my younger self to break free from conventional thinking about what creativity can be.
New Orleans Dreams
I was just a crass lass squeaking by barely in math class
No brass just class
Laid on thick
Sick with the laugh last
No bone to throw no life raft
Vessel filled with wrath
Perching on the edge of my own path
What a blast, alas
All future no past
Working out the kinks on the brink
Drip drops of water falling down the sink
Tapping out a rhythm when no sleep came to me
Inside dancing too fast to dream
Little raft in a giant sea
As long as I could find the beat
The jazz patter squeak on the rain streaked streets
With enough heart to beat and to feed my body
Till I bleed the words down on the page
My feet won’t obey the polite cage
When Words Become Worlds
"Chinatown, SanFrancisco":
California hangs above me
Trace the map lines — eyes closed
Recollecting ferry terminal fumes
The translation from text to visual isn't perfect, but that imperfection makes it interesting. What is imperfection in art?
The Experimental Mindset
As someone who creates with technology, I approach technological innovation by embracing uncertainty as a creative force—that electric anticipation, the rapture of possibility, the proximity to something not yet fully formed—this is how to create the conditions for unexpected discovery.
Finding Your Beat in the Machine
The rhythm of sound poetry and good technology share a common quality—they render the complex into something that feels inevitable. "New Orleans Dreams":
Tapping out a rhythm when no sleep came to me
Inside dancing too fast to dream
Little raft in a giant sea
As long as I could find the beat
This is precisely what we're building at AICharmLab—tools that help artists find their beat within the overwhelming sea of possibilities—allowing us to tap into rhythms we might otherwise miss.
"Slip second by second unceasing" — this evolution happens incrementally, often imperceptibly, until suddenly we find ourselves in new creative territory.
The modernists broke conventions because they had to—because the world had changed irrevocably around them.
Our time is not unlike their time.
That is to say, our human lives are more of a relay.
Each person passes the baton to the people coming up behind them.
The circle you keep—
Be bold, as the modernists were.
A Prompt / Parting Thought / Til, Anon.
What verse from your creative past might reveal patterns you've never noticed when revisited with a fresh eye and AI?
With your AI of choice, Claude.ai, Chat. GPT, etc.
Upload one or two concepts: ideas you created on paper to get started. Suggest smartphone + AI to capture images and quickly iterate on your ideas.
Based on the uploaded content, the AI will interpret your concepts—what themes emerge?
*bonus: Create a narrative from these themes. Play with multi-modal inputs, start with an image vs. text, etc.
Create a sketch for your narrative.
What emerges?
Working out the kinks on the brink
Drip drops of water falling down the sink
@superSonic — circa 2010
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Your faithful writer. —Sonia SuperSonic
