Light Will Return

Wheelsong Books Ltd is excited to publish our final poetry collection for 2025. It is the debut collection from Oxfordshire poet Iain Strachan, and is intriguingly titled Light Will Return. 

Light Will Return contains diverse and thoughtful poetry that explores the nexus of spirituality, science, identity and technology. Moving smoothly between theology and mathematics, artificial intelligence, psalms and sonnets, Iain Strachan’s collection poses searching questions about personal meaning, faith and what it means to be human in an increasingly mediated world.

Alongside poems that engage with physics, algorithms, and digital culture sit deeply personal reflections about family, memory, love and loss. Childhood, parenthood, doubt, gratitude, and identity are explored with frank honesty and quiet curiosity, grounding the intellectual reach of the collection within ontology—the lived experience.

Playful, questioning and quietly emotional, Light Will Return invites us all to reflect on how faith and reason, science and mystery, and especially our past and future can shape our individual identities. Light Will Return is a delightful collection of poetry that is both intellectual and visceral—and is an offering which we can explore patiently for illumination. 

About the Author:

Iain Strachan lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and daughter. He is a retired computer scientist with a PhD in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI). He made a career out of AI for engineering and medical applications and now has a career keeping it out of poetry groups! He has been writing poetry on and off since 1993, and more regularly since joining Invisible Poets in 2022. His work, including the title poem for this book, has been broadcast on BBC Radio Oxford, and he has published several poems in the Wheelsong Poetry Anthologies. He is also a volunteer with the Samaritans, and an active member of Abingdon Local Quaker Meeting. 

Iain says: "I am interested in the connections between science, mathematics and spirituality, and combine these in my poems. I believe writing poetry allows us to discover things about ourselves; often lines or phrases seem to write themselves, and only on later examination do I realise what part of my life, my memories, or my spirituality they come from. A completed poem is like a mirror in which you can examine yourself. I call it 'The Lens of Me.' "

"My years as a Samaritans listening volunteer have also given me a passion for raising awareness of mental health, and many of my darker poems are driven by that desire and feelings of empathy for those who suffer."

"The two greatest things for me about writing poetry are the act of creating something myself, and then when someone says that my words spoke to them. It is my hope that some of my words will speak to you and bring some light for you."

You can discover more details about this book and how to obtain your copies at the Wheelsong Books website.

Steve Wheeler

Why people use AI to write 'poetry'

Note that in the title of this blog post I use the word people instead of Poets, and the word 'poetry' is in parentheses. That should tell you all you need to know about my personal stance on this issue. However, let's try to examine this question as dispassionately as we can. It's a question that repeatedly arises whenever AI (Artificial Intelligence) generated poetry is mentioned in my several poetry groups: why on Earth do some people use AI to write poetry?

Firstly, people who use AI to generate poetry seem to have no appreciation for good poetry. If they did, they certainly wouldn't put out the kind of facile, vacuous verse that AI algorithms generate. Any self respecting poet would hate to even be associated with it. AI poetry is emotionless, bland and predictable. Assumption 1 then, is that they either don't have a clue what good poetry looks like, or they are too stupid to realise what they are doing. 

Secondly, people who use AI to generate poetry realise they can simply write a prompt or two and then press a key, and the AI model will do the rest for them, churning out the rubbish it does. It's similar to feeding your dog, and then watching it dump out its excrement onto the ground a few hours later. It's the same kind of process. Assumption 2 then, is that these people are incredibly lazy, and don't wish to invest any of their time or energy trying to create their own poetry.

Thirdly, I have noticed over the last few years that the AI poetry frauds (because that my friends, is exactly what they are) can find a gullible audience who will like, love and share their drivel, feeding back to them a dopamine dose that fuels their fragile little egos. Some fraudsters have even gone on to sell entire books of AI generated poetry, under their own names. Assumption 3 then is that these people commit fraud deliberately so they can receive adulation and praise (and possibly even monetary reward) from ignorant saps who will suck up and swallow any putrid detritus served up to them. 

Finally, just to clarify a key point, I call AI poetry users fraudsters, because that is exactly what they are. AI algorithms work off the basis of trawling all  poetry stored anywhere on the web, and concoct 'poetry' from billions of lines of other people's hard work and creativity, just to satisfy the selfish desires of the fraudsters. 

So there you have it. You may or may not agree with me, but these are my analyses of what I know from a career spent studying the evolution of AI and my lifelong passion for poetry. I can't pull any punches on this, because it's a crime that is prevalent across all poetry communities, damages the reputation of poets everywhere and undermines what it means to be a creative human being. It's also theft and deception, and any self respecting poet should call it out publicly wherever they see it.

Steve Wheeler 

Image source with a Creative Commons licence

How to become an experimental poet

Wheelsong Books has published a new book. This one is not a poetry collection, but is a guide to experimental poetry. Consider it a companion to consult on your journey to becoming a better writer. For member of Invisible Poets, Wheelsong Poetry, Pure Poetry and Safe Haven, all copies can be purchased at half price (Amazon price) by emailing wheelsong6@gmail.com.

About the book

Creative Deviance: How to Become an Experimental Poet is an interactive textbook that empowers aspiring poets to break free from tradition and embrace the art of creative risk. Blending theory with hands-on practice, this guide explores the techniques, history, and philosophy behind experimental poetry, from dismantling conventional forms to crafting hybrid works that blur the lines between genres. Packed with prompts, insights, and more than 50 practical exercises, Creative Deviance offers tools to unlock your unique voice and push the boundaries of what poetry can achieve. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just beginning your poetic journey, this book is your blueprint for innovation and self-discovery. Read more at this link.

About the author

Steve Wheeler says he has never really fit in anywhere. He wears it as a badge of honour. He is a performance poet and creative deviant and loves to experiment with all forms of art. A former academic psychologist and lecturer, Steve now spends a lot of his time creating his own versions of music, poetry and many other strange things.

At 16 years, he attended Hereford College of Art where he studied fine arts, graphic design and photography. The latter led him into a career in learning technology, and ultimately a position as Associate Professor in Education at a large British university. He holds a Research degree in philosophy, a Bachelor degree in psychology, a Masters degree in research methods, and two Teacher certificates.

He lives in the Ocean City of Plymouth, on the beautiful southwest coast of England. During his career he has authored a multitude of academic texts and more than a dozen poetry books. Steve is founder of Invisible Poets, one of the fastest growing and most innovative poetry groups on the Web. He is has been a composer member of the Performing Rights Society since 1984, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2013.

A sample from the book 

Experimental poetry should be viewed as more than just a slightly oddball pursuit; the methods contained within experimental poetry can become vital tools for honing your writing skills. Further, it may even make your poetry stand out from the crowd. As we will see in this book, challenging traditional structures and conventions, experimental poetry encourages writers to think outside the box, bolstering their creativity and helping them to innovate their craft.

One of the key benefits of engaging with experimental poetry is the development of linguistic agility. Writing in unconventional forms—whether through fragmented syntax, nonlinear narratives, or abstract imagery—pushes writers to explore a vast range of expressive potential. Furthermore, experimentation with sound, rhythm, tempo and visual arrangement helps poets to learn how they can manipulate tone, mood, and meaning in a number of nuanced ways.

Furthermore, experimental poetry cultivates a deeper understanding of form and structure by requiring writers to invent or subvert them. Through this process, poets become more aware of the implicit rules that govern conventional writing and gain confidence to break them with purpose. This freedom opens the door to new styles, genres, and modes of storytelling.

Experimentation also increases a poet’s appetite for taking risks. By embracing uncertainty and stepping out into unfamiliar territory, poets learn to approach their craft with greater boldness and curiosity. The lessons learnt from failed experiments and crumpled sheets of paper under the desk can often be as valuable as those you gain from successful ones. Failure can foster resilience and flexibility. You should never fear it.

Steve Wheeler

Experimental Poetry 18: Interactive poetry

We explored installation poetry earlier in this series. One of the key features of a lot of installation art is that it's interactive. You don't necessarily stand there admiring the art as if you were in a gallery gazing at images. You delve in, and engage with the art using several senses. 

Installation art is not just visual. It can also be auditory, tactile, kinaesthetic, proprioceptive, and perhaps even olfactory or haptic. Interactive poetry also exploits these multiple senses to provide the reader with a participatory experience. 

In my own performance poetry I encourage my live audiences to become involved, shouting out repeated refrains, standing up or raising their hands. It brings the poetry alive and gives it deeper meaning through involvement. The audience get a work out too. We can do similarly with the written word... (even though this is a little more sedate than the ideas above).

In Gestalt psychology (the theory, not the therapy) there is something known as the law of closure. It plays on the human propensity to want to complete something that is otherwise unfinished. This can be exploited to benefit experimental poetry writing.

Method 35: Fill in the blanks. Write your poem to deliberately miss out key words. Place a blank where the word should be and ask your reader to complete the poem. The more surprising or unpredictable the word is, the better! 

Method 36: Complete the stanza. Do the same as above, but this time, an entire line is missing for the reader to complete. 

Method 37: Untitled.  Leave a blank where the title should be. Invite your reader to read the poem, and then create a title for it. Ask them to be particularly creative with this task.

Method 38; Switching words. Ask your reader to switch the position of two words in each line, or stanza of the poem. Again, the more outlandish the result, the better!

All of the above methods are great to promote collaborative writing, and are ideal for use in online poetry groups. Try some interactive poetry ideas today!

Steve Wheeler 

Previous posts in this series

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness
Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations
Experimental Poetry 4: Overlapping Voices
Experimental Poetry 5: Random Prompts
Experimental Poetry 6: The Movie Method
Experimental Poetry 7: Unexpected End Rhymes
Experimental Poetry 8: Calligrams
Experimental Poetry 9: Anarchic Poetry
Experimental Poetry 10: Timed Writing
Experimental Poetry 11: Paraphrasing
Experimental Poetry 12: Deliberate Malapropism
Experimental Poetry 13: Breaking Structure
Experimental Poetry 14: Speak out Loud
Experimental Poetry 15: Quantum Elements
Experimental Poetry 16: Random Interactions
Experimental Poetry 17: Installation Poetry

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Why AI Can't be Creative

From time to time, we invite members to write guest blog posts on topical issues that impact upon poetry. Here is a fascinating article on AI and poetry/creative writing by our very own Iain Strachan, formerly a computer scientist and always a poet!

One of the keys to original creative work is that it should be.... well, original. It should contain phrases that haven't been seen before - that take us by surprise and delight us. However, a program like ChatGPT will struggle to produce anything like this, because it can only really produce output that is resembles the text and poems that have been used to train it. 

I asked ChatGPT to provide ten possible completions to this line, taken from Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem "God's Grandeur" 

    It will flame out like ... 

Here is what it came up with: 

a comet streaking through the night. 

a candle in the wind. 

a phoenix rising from the ashes. 

the last rays of a dying sun. 

fireworks bursting in the sky. 

a shooting star's brief flight. 

the embers of a forgotten fire. 

lightning splitting the heavens. 

a spark in the dark, then vanish. 

the final flare of a burning match. 

These phrases are all well-known, and not exactly unexpected; they are bland and literal. Compare that with the completion in Hopkins's poem. If you don't already know the poem this will be completely unexpected: It will flame out like shining from shook foil. 

Why is it that chatGPT can't produce stunningly original completions like that? The reason lies in statistics. In generating continuations, it uses probability, and a random number generator that is tuned (like loaded dice) to be heavily biased towards more likely (and hence less surprising) continuations. Also, if it chose an unlikely continuation, it probably won't make sense at all. There are vastly more nonsensical unexpected continuations than ones that make sense. 

What can we learn from this and apply to our own poems? A lot of our writing can be automatic, sometimes creative, but sometimes commonplace. So next time you write a poem, go through the first draft and examine each word or phrase and see if you can make a better one, instead of the expected word, make it unexpected. Make it a metaphor, rather than literal. 

Here's an example from one of my poems, describing the grid system of roads in Washington DC:

Geometric city. Anonymous streets 

Labelled with letters and numbers 

????? the shops into blocks. 

Here are chatGPT's 10 boring suggestions: 

Neatly dividing 

Methodically carving 

Carefully segmenting 

Precisely arranging 

Artfully separating 

Rigorously partitioning 

Strategically placing 

Systematically organizing 

Elegantly splitting 

Thoughtfully grouping 

Here's mine: Cheese-wire. 

I'll bet you didn't see that coming! It was based not on poems I'd seen before but lived experience; how as a kid I was fascinated to see cheese cut up with a cheese-wire.

Iain Strachan

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Experimental Poetry 17: Installation poetry

Is poetry art? You bet your last Picasso it is! 

And, because poetry is art, there should be no limits to the ways you can express yourself. Written or spoken, your words should have no boundaries. One of the most interesting and creative art movements of the last few decades is installation art. Installation art is three dimensional and site specific. It often uses mixed and/or multi media. Examples include walk through displays, totally immersive exhibits and interactive artwork. One of the most famous, and poignant installations took place at the Tower of London in England in 2014. The display was progressive, commencing in July 2014 and concluding on November 11th the same year. Ceramic red poppies were gradually placed tumbling out of the tower and onto the grass verge, until by the conclusion 888,246 had been placed. This was to commemorate every single fatal casualty of British and Commonwealth servicemen during World War 1. 

Installation poetry therefore requires a physical space, an 'idea' and the materials or media that conveys that idea. As with any form of art, your creation depends entirely upon your ability to realise (ideate) and execute it (create). 

Method 33: Hanging verse. Use a clothes line or any other line on which you can hang strips of paper. Cut out lines of text, or phrases, or single words, and clip them with clothes pegs to the line. Invite people to create their own poems using as many lines as they wish. This is best done in a public place, like a garden, park or other outdoor space. 

Method 34: Imagens. Scatter pictures, cuttings from magazine and newspapers, images and photographs across an open space and invite people to choose as many as they like as the basis to writing a poem. This works well with children in particular, but can be used to encourage anyone to write poetry.

There are so many other ideas I could mention, but these two should get you going. You can be as elaborate as you wish with installation poetry. Bear in mind it's temporary, but then... nothing lasts for ever does it?

Steve Wheeler

Previous posts in this series

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness
Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations
Experimental Poetry 4: Overlapping Voices
Experimental Poetry 5: Random Prompts
Experimental Poetry 6: The Movie Method
Experimental Poetry 7: Unexpected End Rhymes
Experimental Poetry 8: Calligrams
Experimental Poetry 9: Anarchic Poetry
Experimental Poetry 10: Timed Writing
Experimental Poetry 11: Paraphrasing
Experimental Poetry 12: Deliberate Malapropism
Experimental Poetry 13: Breaking Structure
Experimental Poetry 14: Speak out Loud
Experimental Poetry 15: Quantum Elements
Experimental Poetry 16: Random Interactions

Image by Amanda Slater on Flickr used under a Creative Commons licence

Experimental Poetry 12: Deliberate Malapropism

A malapropism is an error in speech or text where a similar sounding word mistakenly replaces the correct word. There are numerous examples. Have you ever been taken for granite? 

The term malapropism derives from Mrs. Malaprop, a comic character who appears in the 1775 play The Rivals, by Richard Sheridan. She is constantly prone to using the wrong words in her conversation. She mixes up allegory with alligator, and illiterate with obliterate.  However, there are plenty of earlier incidences of comic word mangling in literature, including several found in the work of William  Shakespeare. 

Modern day malapropism can be hilarious... did you know that medieval cathedrals were supported by flying buttocks? Or that the fun we have in childhood is incomparable to the fun of adultery? 

Here's a recent poem posted in Invisible Poets. The poem is I am a Warrior by Chiledu Ohagi, and this is the first stanza...

I wedge a war against my feelings
pulling down strongholds
breaking the chains of depression
My pages, my battleground
My pen, my mighty weapon
and my ink's my ammunition

It's a very good poem, but it contains a small typographical error. I wedge war should be I wage war. The error was pointed out by another member, but when you think about it, wedging war certainly sounds surreally poetic. It's on a par with writing that you'll skew for peace, or astounding the alarm. I don't think he should correct it.

Method 20: Deliberate Malapropism. This got me thinking... how surreal and experimental can you get by using deliberate malapropisms? The trick is to make the error obvious, and create a phonetic switch. Wedge sounds like wage, just as skew sounds like sue, and as astounding sounds like sounding. These are instantly recognisable as phonetic switches, because the phrases are familiar. 

Waging war is a commonly used phrase. Wedging war is not. How do you wedge a war? It's a jarring word to use, and that makes it interesting, manifesting all sorts of images. Wedging is more poetically inventive than waging. How do you skew peace? Can you astound an alarm? Again, the text suddenly becomes a little more intriguing, because the meaning now needs to be sought out. 

Method 21: Reiterative Malapropism. What words can you use that are homophones (sound like another word) or similarly sounding, but with a distinctly different meaning? Can you strengthen your existing poems by changing words with other words that sound similar, or pun-like, and enhance the meaning of the poem?

If you deliberately use phonetic errors such as malapropisms in your poetry, you're bound to attract some attention. Just be prepared to correct the correctors when they scrawl out from under their woks to point out your 'era'.

Steve Wheeler 

Previous posts in this series

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness
Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations
Experimental Poetry 4: Overlapping Voices
Experimental Poetry 5: Random Prompts
Experimental Poetry 6: The Movie Method
Experimental Poetry 7: Unexpected End Rhymes
Experimental Poetry 8: Calligrams
Experimental Poetry 9: Anarchic Poetry
Experimental Poetry 10: Timed Writing
Experimental Poetry 11: Paraphrasing

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Experimental Poetry 11: Paraphrasing

A paraphrase or rephrase is where you re-write a text using different words without losing the meaning of the original text itself. It's an experimental technique poets can use to infuse a deeper level of creativity into their previously written words. It's a rich form of reiteration. In jazz music, especially the more experimental forms, you may never hear the same phrase played twice. This is because the musicians understand that within the tempo and root chords, just about anything is possible. It's the same with poetry, except there are even less constraints than in jazz! That should tell you just how free and creative you can be in your writing.

Method 19: Try this: Go back to one of your previously written poems and examine it. Are there words or phrases you could improve upon? Are there lines that could benefit from a make-over? Let me give you some examples of poetry that would not have been as impressive if it hadn't been developed by the writer...

There is a classic poem called Mandalay, by English poet Rudyard Kipling. It's a fabulous, entertaining poem containing many inventive lines... one that stands out for me is '...an' the dawn comes up like thunder....' He could easily have written '...and the sun rises in a spectacular way...' but it would not have been as effective. 

Another more recent classic by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas has the first line 'Do not go gentle into that good night...' Again, it would be simpler to say 'Do not fade slowly in death...' but this wouldn't have been as poetic. 

Are there words or phrases in your old poems that could do with a make-over? I know there are in many of mine! 

Steve Wheeler

Previous posts in this series

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness
Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations
Experimental Poetry 4: Overlapping Voices
Experimental Poetry 5: Random Prompts
Experimental Poetry 6: The Movie Method
Experimental Poetry 7: Unexpected End Rhymes
Experimental Poetry 8: Calligrams
Experimental Poetry 9: Anarchic Poetry
Experimental Poetry 10: Timed Writing

Image from pxhere used under a Creative Commons licence

Experimental Poetry 10: Timed Writing

There has been an increase in interest in the experimental poetry series that I began recently, and so, after a hiatus, I am back again with some more ideas about how to jump-start your poetry writing. All the previous posts in the experimental poetry series are linked below. Click on the links and they will take you to the posts in question. 

I have heard it said by some of my poetry friends that setting a time limit on the writing of a poem can wonderfully focus the mind. One of our published Wheelsong authors swears that if he hasn't finished a poem by the time 15 minutes has elapsed, he dumps it and moves on. A little severe perhaps, but the method works for him! Now, this may create some pressure on you, or you may feel a little stressed because you have set yourself a time limit. A sense of urgency can often bring out creativity in poets, but it may just as easily stifle creativity. You probably won't know until you try it, but timed writing not for the faint-hearted. 

Method 18: If you want to try this technique out, my advice would be to have a title or a theme in mind before you start. Set a timer to go off at a time of your choice. Begin writing, and keep writing until the timer goes off. At this point, you might wish to go off and spend some time doing something else. When you return, a few hours or even a day or two later, take a look at what you have written. It may make little or no sense, or it may be a fully formed poem! Usually it's something in between, and you may have fragments that can be transformed into two or more poems. 

Steve Wheeler

Previous posts in this series

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness
Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations
Experimental Poetry 4: Overlapping Voices
Experimental Poetry 5: Random Prompts
Experimental Poetry 6: The Movie Method
Experimental Poetry 7: Unexpected End Rhymes
Experimental Poetry 8: Calligrams
Experimental Poetry 9: Anarchic Poetry

Image by Garry Knight on Flickr

Experimental Poetry 6: The Movie Method

Some of my poetry is considered surreal and dreamlike. I've even published some of my more bizarre dreamscape style poems. Some appear in the collection Nocturne, which is a night-inspired panorama of dream-state poetry. But some of those dream-like poems were not actually inspired by dreams. They were inspired by random sampling of sounds and images while I was very much awake and listening to conversations, or in the case below, watching a movie.

Here's a brief section of my poem Strange Things Happen When You're Dreaming:

The cracks form into crevices like canyons drawn with crayons. The scorched mud coalesces into quintessential islands. Down from the highlands bitter winds are blowing in their surges, as they whistle into sand filled ears that nothing ever purges. You run, but shadows follow you, descending and ascending ... they lengthen ... as the sun goes down you see the light is bending, and you fly so high, so very high o’er land without a sound to keep your fearful feet a-running over barren desert ground, and in the distance, you can hear a thousand voices screaming: and everyone will tell you strange things happen when you’re dreaming.

The technique works like this:

Method 11: Movie Sampling. Choose any movie you like. Play two or three simultaneously if you wish. Begin to write, and as you do, randomly listen to the dialogue or glance up at the sequences of images and try to capture them. You won't have much time, so do it quickly because the scene or dialogue will rapidly change. As with much of the text you generate with a random writing method, you'll get a lot of seemingly unintelligible sentences or phrases. It really doesn't matter. Leave it for a while, and then return to it. Read it to see what emerges. With the poem above, I scribbled down many random ideas from watching the movie in real time, and then returned days later to transform it into some form or rhythmic narrative, with the internal rhymes added.

Steve Wheeler 

Images from Rawpixel used under a Creative Commons licence

Previous posts in this series:

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness
Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations
Experimental Poetry 4: Overlapping Voices
Experimental Poetry 5: Random Prompts

Experimental Poetry 4: Overlapping Voices

Many poets get into a rut at some point in their lives, and begin to churn out the same old stuff, time after time. You know how it goes... You try to take a different route, but end up reverting to the same old beaten track you've been down so often. You want to write something unique, different, but it ends up just like all your other poetry. It can be very frustrating. How about doing something extraordinarily different to write your poems? Are you up for the challenge? Then read on...

Method 8: Overlapping Voices. Have you ever been at a party, a shopping mall or other social gathering where you stand there and try to listen to all the voices talking simultaneously? This cacophony of sound feels like a waterfall of noise - a sonic wallpaper - and its usual to consign it to the background and focus on your own conversation as you block it out. But what if you listened more closely and tried to discern the things people were discussing all around you? 

Now imagine trying to capture all those words on paper. Transcribing at this level is utterly impossible, but that's the point... If you want some new ideas or lines for your poetry, listen to what's going on around you and try to grab the words. The voices will overlap, the topics will be diverse and the noise will be difficult to penetrate. It will be an absolute mess, but from out of that chaos comes order!  

Another less conspicuous way of doing the same thing is to record the multiple conversations from a party or a visit to your local coffee shop, or listen to several recordings simultaneously (e.g. Radio or TV news) and try to grab the words you hear from the hubbub of voices. The idea behind this method is that you either hear words or phrases you can capture, or you will imagine you hear those words. Either way, it doesn't matter because you'll be creating a new piece, regardless. 

Steve Wheeler

Image from Flickr used under a Creative Commons Licence

Previous posts in this series:

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness
Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations

Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations

Method 6: Fake Translations

Now here's a really strange idea for you (They will get even stranger, believe me): If you want to break out of a rut you find yourself in - especially if it's about something creative, like writing poetry - try this on for size. Grab hold of some foreign text - it really doesn't matter what the language is, it simply needs to be a language you are not very fluent in. Also, it doesn't really matter what the subject is about, it just needs to be a foreign language text.

Next, sit down and read it, and try to make sense of what is being said. You may recognise a few foreign words and know their translation. Use that as your starting point as you create your latest poem. Try to guess what is being said. It doesn't matter if you're wrong and the translation is false. That is all part of the fun and creativity of trying to create a poem out of a foreign language text. Language is language, and as we all know in poetry, words can be made to mean what we want them to mean. 

Method 7: Foreign End Rhymes

This is even stranger: Using the same kind of foreign language texts, look for words that appear to rhyme. Use them in your end rhymes in the poems you have already written. Replace the end rhymes you already used with the foreign end rhymes. It may not work, but have a go. You may create something unique and mysterious. It may start a whole new trend in poetry writing!

Have a go, try again, and then try again. The more you attempt these false translation techniques, the more they will begin to make some creative sense to you. 

Steve Wheeler

Image from Flickr used under a Creative Commons Licence

Previous posts in this series:

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness

Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness

This is the second post in my series on experimental poetry. There are many poets who, down through the ages, have tried to push the boundaries of poetry beyond what is expected, and in some cases, what some might consider acceptable. But poetry, as I will keep saying, has no rules. Look at the work of poets such as Ezra Pound, e e cummings and Edwin Morgan, and you will see this is true. 

One of the ways to break out of a poetic rut is to forget all the rules and techniques you already adhere to when you write (Yeah, I know. It's not easy), and just write freely and without any constraints. 

Method 5: Stream of Consciousness is a technique where you simply write (or speak into a recorder) at random, using whatever comes into your mind. Better still, try writing without even thinking - unconsciously.  Perhaps the results will be unusable or gibberish. It doesn't really matter. You are creating something. Just keep writing and do it very fast. Let your mind run away with you. Sooner or later there will be something that emerges that you could never have created by simply sticking to your tried and tested methods. 

This method might result in some really strange and original poetry, but even if it doesn't, the very act of writing freely without thinking too much will loosen you up as a poet, and allow you to exercise and develop your writing agility. Who knows, it might even make you stand out from the poetic crowd!

Steve Wheeler

Photo from RawPixel used under a Creative Commons Licence

Previous Post

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry

Poetry isn't rocket science. Poetry is about emotions, not about scientific formulae. And yet... and yet.... in poetry there are so many wonderful, weird and wacky techniques, it's very difficult to know about them all, or begin to fathom how you might use them. 

Many poets are happy with the way they write. They stick to their tried and tested styles and techniques and go merrily along their way. But if you're like me, you are constantly looking for new ways to express yourself through your poetry. If you're like me, you're always less than satisfied with the way you write and are always on the lookout for ways to stretch your abilities and skills. 

If you are like me, then this is the blog series you've been looking for. In the next (I don't know how many, I really don't) series of blogs I intend to explore experimental poetry in as many of its many colours as possible. And hopefully, you'll come along with me on that journey and push yourself to your poetic limits. So here's the first experimental technique... it's known as found poetry. I wrote about my own experiments in Found poetry in various blog posts including this one. 

Method 1: Open Books. Open up a few books at random, and lay them all around you. They can be books on any subject, including literature, recipe books, science manuals or magazines. Begin to write, and as you write, keep glancing at random at the open books and grab words, lines or phrases you see, and then incorporate them into your writing. It doesn't need to make any sense. Experiment to see the results.

Method 2: Read Out Loud. Find a magazine or other printed text you can tear up, cut up or otherwise vandalise. Begin reading our words, sentences or phrases at random. Record yourself and then listen back to see what sounds (phonics) have been generated. They don't need to make sense. They just need to make an interesting sound.  

Method 3: Blank Outs. Using the same materials above, blank out with white type correction fluid or colour out with a marker pen, or colour with a highlighter pen at random. Watch to see what patterns of words emerge and incorporate them into your latest poem.

Method 4: Cut Up Poetry. Cut out words, sentences and phrases and glue them onto a blank page and watch to see what patterns emerge, before using them in your latest poem. 

Go for it. There are no rules. Just experimentation and possible masterpieces of random, avant garde writing. 

Steve Wheeler

Photo (cropped) from Wikimedia Commons

The Soul of the Poet

Well, this is interesting... it's an interview I completely forgot I had done for an education magazine called Inspired Creative Minds. I was interviewed about my 'poetry career' by one of Tony Dukeva's students and this is the result (click the image to enlarge it for reading). You can also read the entire magazine online at this link. 

Steve Wheeler

Getting out of a rut

How long have you been stuck in that creative rut? You know the signs: the tendency to write the same old stuff over and over again. You can't seem to break out of the end rhyme scheme you're in. It's a never ending cycle and you can't break free from it. No matter how you try your writing keeps veering back toward that ABAB scheme. You can't think of any new theme or topic to write a poem about. You stare at a blank page and there is a nagging thought - that maybe your muse has left you and gone off to find some other poet to inspire. Writer's block! You overthink it; you contrive your lines, casting aside sense and purpose to try to force them to rhyme. It doesn't look very good at all. When you write your verse, it reads worse than ChatGPT on a bad day... boring and predictable, and full of cliches. Every poet goes through something like this at some point in their lives. Some are cursed with it forever, it seems.

Well, there are many ways to break out from this rut, so you can start to write creative, unique poetry. Here are ten cool tips to help you (if you know any others, you are welcome to add them to the comments section).

1) Keep writing. Write anything. It doesn't matter if it's garbage, Keep writing, and don't stop. Write down the first words that come into your head. Eventually, there will be a gem or two you can keep and build a poem around.

2) Keep a pad and pen, or your smartphone by your bed. If you wake in the night with an inspiration, write it down. Come back to it in the morning, and maybe there will be something your scribbled down in the dark that you can develop.

3) Ignore all the opinionated 'geniuses' out there who try to tell you what you can or can't write. They are usually pedantic hair-splitters anyway. There are no rules. You can write in any style and in any way you wish, to create your art. Don't stop because you think its nonsense, and don't listen to the poetry Nazis.

4) It doesn't need to rhyme. 

5) Try out some new formats and frames of writing. Experiment with a Pantoum or a Villanelle, or dabble with some Haiku or a freeform piece of writing. This blog is also full of ideas about how to work poetic devices into your poetry. Have a search around, and see what you can find.

6) Try writing from your stream of consciousness. Relax, close your eyes, and wait for the words or the thoughts to come to you. As they do, write them down. They may be disconnected from each other, and quite random. It doesn't matter. Write them all down. You can always edit them later...

7) Open a book at random, and with your eyes closed, point to somewhere on a page. Write about the word or phrase your finger has landed upon. 

8) Use cut-up poetry ideas - the concept of found poetry can have amazing results if you just go with the flow of what you discover. 

9) Ask someone to give you a topic or theme to write about. It can be one word, or a phrase, or a historical event or a person. Just write about whatever they have said. 

10) There are no rules. I have already said this in 3, but it's worth repeating - and this time, imagine an audience out there waiting to hear you perform that poem you're about to write. What do you want to say to them? How do you want to say it? Remember - there are no rules!

I hope these ten tips are useful to you, and help you to break out of the rut you might be in. Please add your ideas in the comments below. We would all love to read them, and try them out.

Steve Wheeler

Image used under a Creative Commons Licence by Smenglesrud

How to write mindless poetry

Do you want to write mindless poetry? Easy. Get a machine to do it. You won't need to think about it at all. You simply press the key and the computer will write your poem for you. Sadly, this is becoming a popular trend on Facebook poetry groups. 

Several people have asked me why we ban the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated poetry on Invisible Poets group. It's quite simple.

Firstly, it's very lazy. Anyone can click on ChatGPT for example, and ask it to generate a poem on any subject (many other free AI tools are available). This requires absolutely no talent or creativity.  Let's say you want a five stanza poem on love. In seconds you have something like this:

In the dance of hearts, a melody sweet,
Love's symphony, in whispers discreet.
Through moonlit nights and sunlit days,
A timeless bond that forever sways.

Eyes that speak in a silent prose,
A language only true lovers know.
In every touch, a tender embrace,
Love's magic transcends time and space.

Through stormy seas or skies serene,
Love's fortress strong, an eternal sheen.
A tapestry woven with threads so fine,
Two souls entwined, an intertwining line.

In laughter shared and tears that fall,
Love weathers storms, standing tall.
A journey marked by moments divine,
A love story, forever to shine.

So let the echoes of love resound,
In every heartbeat, in love, be found.
A poem written in the language of the heart,
A masterpiece, where love is art. 

Well, at first glance, it seems like a reasonable poem. But read it more thoughtfully and you'll see it's not very good poetry. It is literally mindless. It uses cliches in a predictable 8 syllable, 4 step AABB rhyme scheme. It's bland, soulless, and takes no creativity or effort on your part.  In ChatGPT-3, the same words seem to appear repeatedly, such as serene, tapestry, entwined, embrace, eternal, etc. These are all tell-tale signs the poem was not written by a human. 

Now why would you want to put your name to such drivel? 

Furthermore, you wouldn't do it if you knew how AI actually works. It spiders (searches) all the poetry on the web (other poets' work), gathers expressions, lines and rhymes and stitches it all together so you can pretend you wrote it. It's plagiarism. It's dishonest. It's theft.

Now why would you want to associate yourself with that? And yet... and yet... a small minority in the group still persist, thinking they can fool everyone. They end up being banned from the group, and their name forwarded to the Admin of many other groups. Game over. 

If we suspect a poem has been AI generated we remove it from the group. If the member persists and posts more, we eventually remove them from the group. We throw people out of the group every week for trying to pass of AI poetry as their own. We don't lose sleep over it. We want to protect the integrity of the group and the interests of our members. There is software that can detect whether AI has been used, and we also have computer scientists on our Admin/Moderator team who are experienced in the use of AI.

So please don't even think about generating poems using AI. Write your own poetry. Poetry you can be proud of. Express yourself in your own words. Steer away from the kind of bland, soulless AI lines you see in the verses above. We don't want mindless poetry. We want soulful, authentic, from the heart poetry!

Come back at me if you disagree with any of this. I like a good fight.

Steve Wheeler 

Image from Pxhere

Poetic devices 16: Euphony

Euphony is the opposite to cacophony. In cacophony, harsh, jarring, dischordent sounds are made, usually to draw attention to something unpleasant or dangerous. A siren wails to warn of impending danger. A harsh cry tells us something alarming is happening. In Euphony, rhythmic and harmonious sounds are made to draw attention to something pleasant or appealing. In movies, you'll note that mellow instruments such as flutes, strings or harps dominate music that illustrates a soothing, romantic or reassuring scene. 

In poetry or prose, a combination of words or a sequence of rhythmic sounds can achieve euphony. If they enjoy the sound texture or harmony, readers are more likely to enjoy the text of the poem too. The rhythm and tempo of the words in the lines is important. So too is the rhyme, whether internal or end placed. But not all poetry has to rhyme, so consonance and assonance are also important in creating euphony. Finally, repetition or refrain can also be used to create euphony. All of these have been described in previous blog posts in this series. Just click on the blue hyperlinks in the words to read those articles. 

To Autumn, by John Keats, features many of these devices to create a great euphonic poem:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Notice how Keats uses regular repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables. There is also a very soothing end rhyme scheme in play. 

One of my all time favourite poems is Do Not Go Gentle by Dylan Thomas, which is presented in the form of a very pleasing, euphonic form known as a Villanelle. Here's the final stanza:

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Note that in a Villanelle, some lines naturally repeat, but it is the poet's use of soft consonants (sad, gentle, fierce) and long vowel sounds (pray, rage and good) that really gives this poem its soothing euphony. 

Previous posts in this series

1. Simile
2. Metaphor
3. Repetition and refrains
4. Alliteration
5. Assonance
6. End Rhymes
7. Internal Rhymes
8. Rhythm and Tempo
9. Enjambment

10. Allegory

11. Metonymy

12. Cacophony

13. Calligram

14. Personification

15. Paradox

Steve Wheeler

Image by Pickpik using Creative Commons

Iteration

Albert Einstein once said: 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results'. Well, firstly, it might not have been Einstein who said this. Secondly, if it was, in this case he didn't know what he was talking about; and thirdly, this statement clearly doesn't apply to art, and even if it did, many artists are insane anyway, so it doesn't matter. Take the case of Andy Warhol and his multiple pop art depictions of objects and famous people like the one of Marilyn Monroe above. Insane or genius? Warhol's technique wasn't so much repetition, but iteration.

Iteration is a word borrowed from mathematics and computing. Iteration is where the same process or formula is repeated again and again in order to achieve a closer approximation to the solution of a problem. Usually, for example in the coding of an AI model, a small change is made for each iteration to improve the outcome. In the real world we might say 'Try, try and try again...'

Let's face it, in poetry, we craft our art using nebulous and imperfect objects... words, phrases, sentences, rhymes, tempo, meaning. If anything outside of mathematics could possibly benefit from iteration, it would be poetry.

There are few, if any poets who can write a poem straight off the bat, with no edits or changes. Many would claim they can do it, but most are liars. I often write a draft, leave it, and then return an hour, a day or a week later, to iterate it. To polish it up, write more, remove a line or a verse. And then I thought... what if I can write several versions of the same poem, in different sequences, to see what effect that might have on my creative expression? 

Here's an example of that process of iteration, using the same words, in five different iterations... 

AT FEVER PITCH

At fever pitch
a muddy ditch
annoying twitch
a burning itch

I run a mile
a heavy trial
I try to smile
and all the while

I set the tone
pick up the phone
sink like a stone
I'm not alone

We talk for hours
we drink in bars
I send her flowers
the world is ours

NB: this version is fairly basic, simply four quatrains of end rhymes really. I wasn't happy with it as it felt a bit of a lazy effort.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

AT FEVER PITCH (2)

At fever pitch
I run a mile

a muddy ditch
a heavy trial

annoying twitch
I try to smile

a burning itch
and all the while

Pick up the phone
We talk for hours

I set the tone
we drink in bars

sink like a stone
I send her flowers

I'm not alone
the world is ours

NB: Hmmm...not fully convinced by the structure of this. Do the couplets work? However, I've mixed up the lines to see what emerges, and it's an interesting development...

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

AT FEVER PITCH (3)

At fever pitch we talk for hours
a muddy ditch we drink in bars
annoying twitch I send her flowers
a burning itch the world is ours

I run a mile pick up the phone
a heavy trial I set the tone
I try to smile sink like a stone
and all the while I'm not alone

NB: This version  seems to flow well  and the end rhymes work well, but I was still not satisfied with the structure. 

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

AT FEVER PITCH (4)

At fever pitch we talk for hours
we drink in bars a muddy ditch
annoying twitch I send her flowers
the world is ours a burning itch

pick up the phone I run a mile
a heavy trial I set the tone
sink like a stone I try to smile
and all the while I'm not alone

NB: This version, I think, is better. It has a pleasant ABAB rhyme scheme, and the internal rhymes also align to provide line balance. It's not perfect though... one more iteration maybe...

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

AT FEVER PITCH (5)

We talk for hours at fever pitch
pick up the phone I run a mile
sink like a stone a muddy ditch
we drink in bars I try to smile
I send her flowers I set the tone
a heavy trial annoying twitch
the world is ours I'm not alone
and all the while a burning itch 

NB: Even this final version is imperfect. What art is? But it tells a story, it has a flow and it has enough intrigue perhaps to draw in some readers.

Steve Wheeler © 28 December, 2023

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

Which of these five versions do you prefer? On what are you basing your choice? Maybe you don't like any of them. Here's the key question for you: would this process of iteration or re-working of a poem offer you an improved creative expression for your writing? Have a go! I would love to see your results in the comments section below. 

Steve Wheeler 

Overcoming writers' block

Today's blog post is a guest post written by one of our Invisible Poets moderators Donna Smith. It contains some great advice and encouragement for all writers about a topic with which we are all very familiar.

-----------

I have seen a few post recently where people are having writer's block or losing inspiration. 

As writers this is something we all go through and every one of us can relate to this feeling. Our brains sometimes need a switch off. We  can't be constantly thinking of the next poem or project as we have other 'stuff' going on too. 

Therefore we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves when it happens. Here are my top tips to deal with it when it does happen.

1) Don't stress or worry when it happens. Remember it happens to us all and it's only a temporary state.

2) Do what works for you. If reading others poetry helps to re-ignite the spark, all well and good. If not and reading others brilliant pieces is making you feel worse, switch off your phone and don't engage for a while and give yourself a break. 

3) Ask for a prompt or a title. When you have the theme given to you, half the job is already done. 

4) If you do want inspiration go to Matt Elmore pinned post at the top of Invisible for all the exercises. There are loads of different themes/exercises that may set you off on a specific poem and it may be a style you've never tried before. They also lead you to the wheelsong blog which is full of useful tips to help with your writing. These exercises have helped me to come up with a few poems and some have been my best work. 

5) Re-visit your own old work and correct spelling mistakes and grammar. This way you are at least doing something constructive with your writing. You may even see that a word needs adding or a different sentence would make it better. You could even end up with a completely different poem at the end of it. 

6) Delete, tidy, organise your work. Put your work into categories, genre, etc so that if/when an opportunity arises for a competition or publication for a specific type of poem, you can quickly see what you have got in that field.

7) When you can, tune in to Live Poets Society with Steve Wheeler on Invisible Poets. UK time 8pm on Fridays and new from today 8pm on Tuesdays with Matt Elmore and Brandon Adam Haven. Listening to other people's work being read out is a massive inspiration. Sometimes just hearing a certain word can set you off on your own journey.  

8) Going to go back to number 1. Just try not to worry. Know that we have all been in the same boat at some point and we understand how you are feeling. 

If anyone else has any more tips, please feel free to add in the comments section below. Happy writing. Xx

Donna Smith

Image from pxhere used by Creative Commons licence