On Writing Poetry in the Age of AI

Large language models can generate passable verse. They can rhyme, they can meter, they can even produce occasional images that surprise. But they cannot write poetry. The difference is intention. Poetry is not a pattern of words — it is a human confronting language and losing, beautifully.

The machine lacks the one thing poetry requires: a self that can be revealed. When I write about grief, the words carry the weight of my specific losses. When an LLM generates text about grief, it is averaging the grief of everyone and the grief of no one. The result may scan correctly, but it has no heartbeat.

I am not worried about AI replacing poets. I am worried about a culture that cannot tell the difference.