Has AI Made Poetry Obsolete?

Eric V.D. Luft

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A chatty robot can write free verse
Indistinguishable from whatever
Humans can produce

It can write in meter
Write in rhyme
Dissect prosody
Imitate forms
Obey logic
Free associate
Create nonsense
Import inkhorn words
String inscrutable phrases together
Just like humans do

But does it have a sense of humor?
Can it think in metaphors?
Convey sarcasm?
Realize irony?
Smell tragedy?
Understand fear?
Cohere allusions?
Diddle with diction?
Deelibberately miss spell?
Imagine interrelationships?
Synthesize provocations?
Appreciate absurdities? 

A football player's helmet flies off
I wonder if his head is still inside it
Would a robot wonder that? 

Are human emotions so shallow that AI can feel them?
Have poets already expressed every human nuance?
Is nothing left to say? 

Does AI own the leash but not the puppy?
Does the brain contain the skull?

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eric v.d. luft

Eric v.d. Luft (B.A. magna cum laude in philosophy and religion, Bowdoin College, 1974; Ph.D. in philosophy, Bryn Mawr College, 1985; M.L.S., Syracuse University, 1993) was Curator of Historical Collections at SUNY Upstate Medical University from 1987 to 2006. He has taught at Villanova University, Syracuse University, Upstate, and the College of Saint Rose. He owns Gegensatz Press, is listed in Who's Who in America, and is the author, editor, or translator of over 690 publications in philosophy, religion, librarianship, history, history of medicine, politics, humor, popular culture, and nineteenth-century studies, including 50 books and 48 peer-reviewed works. His poems have appeared in Blood and Thunder, Dadakuku, The Decadent Review, The Dillydoun Review, DoveTales, The Healing Muse, The Taj Majal Review, The Wild Goose Poetry Review, several other literary journals, and two chapbooks: Don't Complain That There's No Sauerkraut! and Maybe It's Too Early.