writing and writers – Page 90 – don't confuse the narrator

april ‘ku

Sunshine and showers
the woods are awash
with bluebells

It’s April 23rd and that means there’s lots to celebrate. For much of the planet, it’s International Book Day, although the UK and Ireland have already celebrated that back on March 3rd. Perhaps they thought it was too complicated to have so many things happening on St George’s Day. (I’m not sure why that would affect anyone except the English, and as they don’t tend to do a lot to mark their patron saint’s day, even for them, it’s not really a strong argument.)
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power, pronouns and personal hygiene

In the glass beside the sink
my toothbrush
kisses yours.

I don’t think that counts as a haiku, as brushing one’s teeth is neither nature-related nor a seasonal activity; perhaps, though, it could be classed as a senryu – similar to a haiku but focused on human foibles. Either way, it is one of the pieces in Poems from the pueblo. Haiku and assorted fragments, which is currently available to download free from Amazon.
Continue reading “power, pronouns and personal hygiene”

another day

Once more, the Internet informs: apparently today is International Haiku Poetry Day.**

Since haiku should include a kigo – a seasonal allusion – I shall include some seasonal photos in this post.
Continue reading “another day”

hawks and handsaws

There are lots of stories on the web about automated translation, computer-generated writing, etc. but I for one am sure it will be a while yet before artificial intelligence is honed sufficiently to be able to do some of the things humans do without a second thought.

This week, people were talking about Microsoft’s CaptionBot – software that identifies the contents of an image and adds a caption. You are asked to give a star rating to the answer, presumably so the algorithm can improve over time.

I’m not sure that even a single star is warranted for the description of this photo of the statue of Hamlet in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Whether the wind was southerly or north-north-west, it seems CaptionBot can’t tell Hamlet from Hannibal; I wonder how it would do with a hawk or a handsaw.

P.S. Just a reminder that my poetry collection Around the Corner from Hope Street is free to download from Amazon until tomorrow. See last Sunday’s DCTN post for more details and please consider leaving a review if you like the book.