.

AI’s Promise

What is the latest ingenious ability
makers have made out as mental agility?
Smoothly unveiling the newest utility,
__though it effusively
services whims, it reveals our fragility
__more than conclusively.

Digital painting and digital writing and
digital telephone management; lighting and
quickly delighting on schedule, inviting and
__straining salaciousness,
tracking the victimless crimes it’s inciting and,
__with a rapaciousness

equal to what it’s enflamed, it unerringly
measures responses to fantasies glaringly
hopeless and harmful, to state it unsparingly.
__Why would humanity
care, when enjoying their spasms so daringly,
__if it’s reality?

Fakes are becoming progressively deeper and
costs are becoming incredibly steeper and
only our lives are demonstrably cheaper and
__so the insanity
naturally turns to a digital reaper and
__what of humanity?

Adding a “trans” to the human relieves you to
follow the paths of strange gods and it leaves you to
laws of your own innovation, conceives you to
__be a primarily
mental creation, and free. If it grieves you to
__wonder, contrarily,

What of the rest of us? You’ll be invited to
faith in the uploaded mind, and united to
fakes so believable, you’ll be excited to
__jitterbug merrily
off to the holocaust, proud and delighted to
__go voluntarily.

.

.

Coffee with a Them

Wait. A reflexive decision allows opportunities
gone in a moment. He claims that The sin Christianity
always commits is intolerance. Rash importunities
trigger my terrible tongue to rebuke such inanity.
Wait. In the heated discussions among these communities,
cutting the ear of a listener off with profanity,
sorely deserving or not, is an errant psychology
making apologies needed before my Apology.

Hyper-politeness and all of my perfect propriety
doesn’t create a connection; instead of engendering
sympathy, all it engenders is ugly anxiety.
Perfect responses exist for objections to gendering
God (as her secular sermon continues). Impiety
tempts me to mock at it—what a preposterous rendering!
Still, it’s important to reign it in, even if heatedly.
(Lord, if you love me then shut my big yapper.) Repeatedly.

Passion in pain and the pain in the passion and
suddenly all of it’s real. At the start it was flattering—
Uncle Alphonse’s attention. It soothed. Then compassion and
sweetness became his remarks on my skin. I was chattering
nervously, frozen in time when he moved … in a fashion and
frankness that startled me … then he was done with the battering…
… gender was false … and if Jesus allowed it … ? Just listen and
ache with a person in pain and just listen and listen and…

Out of the blue and then out of the depths, the atrocity
shared with me battered and tore at me: wait, was I letting it
tear me the way that it terrorized her? Curiosity
opened a door and the pressure to turn is besetting, it
shows me the pressures on him with a stark reciprocity—
Mercy? Correction? Agreement? Or maybe the best is forgetting it—
Now can we finally drink from our common humanity,
poured from carafes into mugs of our delicate sanity?

.

.

Daniel Kemper is a former tournament-winning wrestler, a black belt in traditional Shotokan karate and a former infantryman. He has a BA in English, an MCSE (Systems Engineering), and an MBA.  He quit a 25-year IT career in 2023 and went all-in on poetry. Since then, he’s had works accepted for publication at The Blue Unicorn, The Lyric, thehypertexts.com, The Creativity Webzine, Amethyst Review, Rat’s Ass Review, Formalverse, The Literary Hatchet, the Society for Classical Poets, and Ekphrastic Review. He was an invited presenter at the 2023 national PAMLA conference and will preside over the Poetics Panel at PAMLA 2024. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by The Blue Unicorn and has been the featured poet at the historic Luna’s Cafe and the Sacramento Poetry Center. 

NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets.

The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


Trending now:

24 Responses

  1. Jeremiah Johnson

    What great thought in your “Coffee with a Them”! Love the reminder that if we can get someone away from the lights and the stage, and then really listen with empathy, maybe we can get somewhere in this whole cultural war. So much ground in life is gained one on one, not one in front of a camera.

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      Thank you, Jeremiah. Listening is definitely necessary, but not fully sufficient. I think anyone can have a heart for anyone; the next, wise step to take is rarely clear–well, for some it probably is.

      A huge thing I wanted to do with this poem though, was to expose a subtle but strong pressure that happens in these conversations. First, the person in the poem who is recounting their abused, molested past was bent, broken by the process. Contemporary media and academia go berserk if you simply note the data and the percentage correlation of trauma, especially sexual trauma, to non-heterosexuality. It’s not 1:1 but it’s way high enough to see substantial cause and effect.

      Here’s the subtle, but strong pressure.

      When a survivor speaks with someone about their experience, the listener experiences the same event, albeit abstractly/vicariously, but to a significant enough degree that the listener receives a parallel, potentially breaking, pressure against their philosophy/beliefs. The actual event tends to change the sufferer; the description of it tends to change the listener’s beliefs.

      How to prevent or reverse or recover from the change? Sometimes maybe only God can do this.

      I just felt it was really important to show something about the pressures at work.

      Reply
  3. Roy Eugene Peterson

    I cannot fathom anyone taking credit for or getting satisfaction from something produced by AI.

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      Quick note: “trans” in the AI poem refers to the “transhumanism” movement, a la Yuval Harari. (NOT the transgender stuff.) I’ve since been musing on changing the line to: “Adding a ‘deus’ to ‘homo’…” to avoid confusion.

      Fun (?) experience with AI. Like in the “old days” when you’d google yourself, I did the same with Bing AI. It found me on the internet, noted I was a poet, gave detail about my poetry, produced a link (to SCP) , and cited a four-line chunk of a coffee poem of mine.

      Problem is, the lines “it” cited were not mine. Not close. It didn’t even check its own link.

      I “confronted” the AI engine and after a pass or two, the AI engine admitted not only that the lines were wrong, but that “it MADE THEM UP! [I took screenshots to be able to verify later.]

      Reply
  4. Mary Gardner

    Daniel, “Coffee with a Them” is deep. Who is the “him” in “it/Shows me the pressures on him with a stark reciprocity-“?

    Reply
      • Daniel Kemper

        Mary, I just went back through and re-read the posted poem. The pronouns need correcting from what’s posted. The two people drinking coffee are both men. I see there’s an error in revision that changed it to “her.” The person is a man and the pronouns used here should all be “he.” (Save the somewhat ironic title.) That person prefers to be addressed as “them.” It got changed to a “she,” I believe, because the kinds of trauma people experience who are around at these events goes well beyond ordinary assumptions. Far. Hence, I think it was natural in editing to presume a female as a target of sexual trauma. But it should be he. Yet, there’s more to this poem.

        An evolution of my thinking took place sort of behind the scenes here which might have led to some errors and confusion.

        Being generally sociable, partly from my Southern upbringing, I’m usually very accommodating. I hate the factual denial of a male trying to say that he’s a female (etc). I can’t brook empirical contradictions at all. Around the time of the initial submission, I figured being courteous did not amount to support of contradictions. I’ve changed my position on that. I’ve written in another post here that my current thinking is that if someone wants me to call them any given name they want, I’m o.k. with that, but not o.k. with being compelled to falsehood. An initial draft of this poem had “them” scattered through it but quoted or italicized to put distance and irony in it; however, it really just needed to be reset to “him” from “them” at the time (and should get edited back to “him” here now.)

        The point of the poem, to show the breaking pressure of abuse, would still make sense if the target were a woman who no longer wanted to be thought of as a woman because of her victimization, but the total break of identity is much better illustrated by the “him.” As well as the transfer of that pressure to the poem’s main speaker, and in fact, FWIW, the person I know who this is based on is, in fact, a man. (Who’s hurtling towards morbid obesity. And doesn’t see that connection either.)

        It’s more than the Island of Misfit Toys out there; it’s the Island of Broken Toys. But we have to be clear that broken is not merely alternative function, etc. Just not so clear at that moment that we break them further. Life isn’t always easy.

        With this poem, I wanted to diagnose the path by which errors in thinking creep in via our good intentions.

  5. Cynthia Erlandson

    These are both brilliant. The rhyme schemes and metric schemes are great; I especially love the way, in the first one, you have used a 4-4-4-2-4-2 metric scheme, and an a-a-a-b-a-b rhyme scheme to match, consistently in each verse. Also, your rhymes made up of more than one word are so much fun!

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      Hi Cynthia. Thank you so much. The multi word rhymes are the most difficult fun that I’ve had in a while. There are a lot of subtle choices that make a big effect that are in no way detectable from what finally hit the page. Because I wanted a romp that was both fun and serious beating that drum over and over in some sections worked really nicely. Other ways that those multi-word rhymes work is to force the reader to pause for a breath or a thought if you lead up to it right. Other lead-ins turn it into a bit of a murmur. The metrical material is really easy to play with, but really hard to get right.

      I was testing out Burns Stanzas in the first poem and Ottava Rima in the second.

      Reply
  6. Margaret Coats

    Daniel, both of these are superb–thought, meter, and conversational structure. When I first saw the title, it didn’t look promising, but “AI’s Promise” is a wonderfully fast-paced examination of the conundrum, and from my point of view, it remains light-hearted even with the foreboding totalitarian conclusion. What of humanity? Our lives are demonstrably cheaper only if we surrender, “proud and delighted to go voluntarily.” Tone and perspective in this poem, however, show you at your guerrilla best. I have some fighting of my own to do at present, but I’ll be back for “Coffee” soon, I hope.

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      Hey Margaret,

      Wow. Thank you so much for the praise-in-detail. About the title and topic, yeah, a poem on anything to do with technology is basically death at the box office, right? I felt I had to write this in opposition to the concept of “uploading one’s” mind to the Internet as if it were moving a file from one laptop to another which is one of the technological promises.

      There is no such thing as moving a file. The operation is a copy + delete. I imagine people signing up for immortality– and witnessing people on some jumbotron, ostensibly loved ones who did it. But those would be just deep fakes. Then you just kill the person and simulteously generate a deep fake. It only needs to last as long as anyone who witnessed the dead in real life remains alive themselves. And images would only get called up occasionally. Very cheap operation, en masse. Grisly. Glitches would be explained away by the fake himself saying something like, “Yeah this is kind of like a cold for mortals, but it’s getting worked out.” Ug. Fog. Go away quickly.

      Thank you again for the thoughtful going-over and praise.

      Reply
  7. ABB

    I second Cynthia on the hilarity and cleverness of the polysyllabic dactyl rhymes, as well as the original metrical scheme. Haven’t seen either of these before done in this way. You rank among the innovators of our time.

    I also concur with your skepticism about AI. Am so tired of the raptures of tech nerds over their bumbling machines; although these bumbling machines are increasingly more competent than the lazy humans who come to rely on them.

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      Howdy Andrew

      As you know short stanzas are harder to rhyme than long, and Burns Stanzas with so many repititions are hard to begin with, let alone the dactyl romp. Praise for the craft from another poet is high praise, indeed thank you. “You rank among the innovators of our time.” Thank you so much. I am working very hard to be just that.

      AI is the threat of a lifetime. Humor’s usually a good way to start…

      Reply
  8. Daniel Kemper

    Fun (heh) experience with AI. Heh. Like in the “old days” when you’d google yourself, I did the same with Bing AI. It found me on the internet, noted I was a poet, gave detail about my poetry, produced a link (to SCP) , and cited a four-line chunk of a coffee poem of mine.

    Problem is, the lines “it” cited were not mine. Not close. It didn’t even check its own link.

    I “confronted” the AI engine and after a pass or two, the AI engine admitted not only that the lines were wrong, but that “it MADE THEM UP! [I took screenshots to be able to verify later.] So, one of the first things they taught AI was to lie. (facepalm)

    Reply
  9. Margaret Coats

    “Coffee with a Them” does as you say, Daniel, reveal pressures being transferred from the person who suffered to the listener/main speaker. The theme comes through even with some confusion of pronouns from mistakes or revisions. I’m not entirely clear on your desired final version, but it would be great to have it, so please get Mike Bryant as moderator to make whatever changes really need to be made.

    Coffee as the drink and the place strongly suggest the poet (already known for coffee considerations) as main speaker. This poem takes the image or symbol to another dimension because of the intense interaction described. I have a few features to admire, including the “Wait . . . Wait” in the first stanza. Always, always a good way to operate in a situation like this. It slows down the reading of the poem, as well as allowing adequate time to process trauma at conversational speed. The “listen . . . listen,” with varied ways of listening described accomplishes the same. The transition from the third to the last stanza works perfectly (and I approve stanza-to-stanza enjambment only when it is perfectly in accord with story and syntax). The concluding lines hoping for normal, more serene coffee time make an excellent conclusion, especially because expressed as a question. This poem is a picture of a situation that touches upon profound depths with an almost transcendent attempt to clarify and correct some of its aspects. Really good work to get so much in.

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      Hey-o again, Margaret!

      I’m very tickled that “pressures being transferred from the person who suffered to the listener/main speaker” are revealed. Maybe Colonel Kurts ain’t the best guy to quote, but a portion of one of his speeches runs through my mind again and again when I’m hanging out in various poetry venues. My quote might be a few words off, shooting from the hip here.

      “And it hit me like a bullet. A diamond bullet, right through the forehead. [omitting a more complicated portion of the quote]

      And I saw that they were stronger than we because they could understand these were not monsters, these were men, trained cadres, men who have families, men who are filled with love, but they have the strength, the STRENGTH to do that.” [Exposes themselves at open mic’s]

      [Coffee/place/poet mean main speaker.] Yes. A slighly rearranged experience. I rambled at virtually inaccessable length through a lot of this in an earlier response.

      Symbol/another dimension — This really pleases me. It means that the poem shows what it tells/performs what it portrays/does what it describes. That’s the hardest thing to do.

      So rewarding in so many ways when everything I worked hard for is recognized and approved by someone with your chops. Thank you, so very much.

      Reply
  10. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Daniel, what a magical and melodious marvel you have created in “AI’s Promise” with its head-turning originality in rhyme and meter. It’s engaging and toe-tapping, huge fun to read aloud, but more than that – the message soars above these wonders and rings out loud and clear. I especially like stanza four, especially the meaty question it poses… a question all of humanity should be asking. Your chilling answer in the closing stanza will stay with this reader long after leaving the page. Great stuff!

    For me, “Coffee with a Them” is a topical and philosophical conundrum that has me thinking… deeply. As a bear of little brain, I will ponder and ponder. As ever, your coffee moments intrigue me. Daniel, your poems never fail to engage me, intrigue me, excite me, and sometimes frustrate me… but they never disappoint me. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      Hey SJB~

      Thank you so much for your lavish and creative praise, but I’m not sure I buy the “bear of little brain,” bit. 🙂 As expertly and rapidly as you bang out meter and rhyme and how tightly composed your responses are on the fly. But OK Madame Socrates such irony is quite pleasing. (I hope it’s o.k. to goof off a little like this.)

      One of the things that was fun (amidst a lot of hard word) about writing the Burns stanzas was the use toward which I could put a “flaw” of perfect meter. Being an obsessive metricist, I’m always looking for new ways that meter itself can be used to get across a mood, feeling, frame, idea, etc. Here, I thought the temptation of perfect meter to get singsong-y might be something I could use to add a quirky sort of humor. As you know, the fewer the feet, the harder to rhyme and those little two-liners were real buggers at times.

      For [Coffee], as Margaret wonderfully noted, different techniques, different usages of dactylic meter. Throwing some hard stops in there. Attending to sentence length, its relation to the upcoming rhyme and/or end of line or end of stanza, etc., all work together to render a slow, pensive tone out of the dactyls rather than the manic-comic tone of [AI].

      I am really happy these poems pleased you and will last beyond their time onscreen. Thank you for that.

      Reply
  11. Joshua C. Frank

    I love the meter and rhymes of both of these, plus they’re great subjects for poems.

    The whole mind-uploading craze is just awful. What will you bet that someone will develop sophisticated enough AI that millions will be fooled into a mass suicide on the grounds that they’ll be “uploaded” into a computer? (Even if they were right somehow, what happens when the power goes out?)

    Incidentally, when people say “the sin Christianity always commits is intolerance,” they’re being intolerant, but somehow that’s all right. I may be intolerant, but at least I don’t pretend otherwise. The fact that they don’t have a consistent worldview except hatred of all that is good, holy, and true is one reason I’ve stopped talking with them about these things and started saving it for the poems.

    Reply
    • Daniel Kemper

      About the AI craze and the next mass suicide, yup. That’s exactly what the poem’s about. If not some pathologically misguided Malthusianism, then a Jim Jones scenario, I bet. Just waiting to happen.

      About coffee conversations. It’s really tough to sit still through the attacks at my faith (actually the attack is usually at a strawman of my faith) and other stuff like it. But they’re defenses, not attacks. (Stings the same.) It’s difficult, but eventually the defenses end and the actual conversation begins.

      You’re right though, some are completely locked up and almost automatons. Most of the time, though, there is a way to get human-to-human with anyone. Even if it’s just an agreed-upon cease-fire on certain topics. There are evil forces that drive some of them to feel that this is not permissible, but interacting over time, away from those evil forces (such as at a coffee), such cease-fires do usually emerge.

      You know, the painful sign of our era goes back to Rodney King. Not the beating. Not the riots. And not him saying, “Can’t we all just get along?” But the outright mockery of it that came from every corner.

      Anyway, I’ve gotten away from the poems and my manners. Thank you very much for reading them and thank you for your praise.

      Reply
      • Joshua C. Frank

        Your experience is very different from mine. Even if the fighting stops, I find it difficult to connect with them, and I know the feeling is mutual, because the very foundations of our worldviews are diametrically opposed. One of them said this explicitly, prefacing it with, “There is no nice way to say this…” The only good part was that she said I’m a good poet, which means a lot more coming from someone biased against the content!

        I once read a science-fiction novel (can’t remember the name, it was a long time ago) that took place after exactly that kind of mass suicide; it was mostly Christians and children remaining.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.