4/3/4 (#6)

there is beauty
in trying
all this again

some poems were
unpublished
but now they’re not

and other ones
slightly changed
to fit this scheme

***

#131:

ahead of us
the journey
lingering clouds

***

#132:

across the path
fallen leaves
red against the soil

***

#133:

i am afraid
to begin
but i begin

***

#134:

under the bridge
cows gather
knee deep in mist

***

#135:

a cloud of thought
barely formed
like ghosts, like words

***

#136:

a white feather
floating past
catching the light

***

#137:

a frozen lake
lit only
by last night’s moon

***

#138:

a quiet scene
frost and snow
untouched by feet

***

#139:

through the mist
the border
we cannot see

***

#140:

and all around
frozen blue
mountain flowers

***

#141:

frost on the stones
by the fire
breath becomes smoke

***

#142:

often am i
quick to speak
too slow to stop

***

#143:

blood drops on snow
bleak roses
that do not fade

***

#144:

a sea of snow
rising up
ever higher

***

#145:

flesh like paper
on old bones
the heart beats on

***

#146:

luminous dreams
of a life
floating away

***

#147:

the restless dead
bury them
yet they linger

***

#148:

i felt quite sad
quite often
about many things

***

#149:

i wanted to
write something
so i wrote this

***

#150:

not enough to
see or do
here on the moon

***

#151:

nothing was said
everything
was clearly meant

***

#152:

i often feel
like i don’t
exist at all

***

#153:

upon waking
we wonder
is this the dream

***

#154:

yet in our dreams
never do
we even sleep

***

#155:

the grass grows long
beneath the
rains of summer

***

#156:

i am tired
more often
than i’m asleep

***

#157:

a paling moon
and the sea
a sheet of glass

***

#158:

all i want is
to make things
that people like

***

#159:

and instead i
make things like
this useless thing

__________

Notes:

1. These were written at various stages over the last four years
2. But mostly I don’t know exactly when
3. After the first five of these 4/3/4 extravaganzas I suppose (#1; #2; #3; #4; #5)
4. The first half of these (up to and including the luminous dreams one) were written for a novel that i never finished writing
5. But might one day
6. And the others were either uncollected ones posted here and there randomly
7. Often not even in 4/3/4 format
8. But close enough I could force them into shape today

Tales From The Town #123: The End Of Ignorance, or Technological Solutions To Previously Insoluble Problems

“AI is amazing,” Antione told the gathered audience of potential technological enthusiasts. “It can do anything! It knows everything! Never again shall we have to think and wonder when we can simply ask and know!”

There was a moment of awed silence that went on for quite a bit longer than Antione was expecting.

“So, c’mon kids, you must have something you want to ask it?”

“Dad, we’re playing with the campfire,” Claire said, as her and Daniel poked it with sticks and sent great clouds of smoke billowing through the cave. “We don’t have time to talk to a creepy dead doll with a phone in its skull.”

“It’s not creepy,” Antoine said. “I thought you liked dolls.”

“Wait, that doll’s yours?” Tina said. “I thought it was something Claire had stolen from the witch’s house.”

“I don’t steal things,” Claire said. “I take them.”

“That’s the same thing,” Ethel said.

“You’re the same thing,” Claire said.

“Maybe,” Antoine said, trying to return the topic of conversation back to its original path. “We could ask the AI whether stealing and taking are the same thing.”

“Couldn’t you just ask us, Dad?” Tina said. “Because we all know the answer to that. Even Claire knows. She just pretends she doesn’t.”

“I don’t pretend anything,” Claire said. “I just DO!”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Ethel said.

“You don’t make any sense,” Claire said.

“Maybe we could just ask the…”

“Shut up, Dad!”

“Claire! Don’t you dare tell dad to shut up!”

“I can tell who I want to shut up!”

“No you can’t!”

“CAN!”

“CAN’T!”

“Daniel,” Antoine said quietly. “I bet you’ve got a question or two about things, right?”

“In the mouth of the cavern a dragon sleeps,” Daniel said, throwing a pinecone onto the fire to make it belch flames and smoke out again. “And in the dragon’s mouth there’s a cavern you can sleep in.” Daniel looked up from the flames and stared through the smoke at Antoine. “So how do we know if we’re the dragon in the cave or the cave in the dragon?”

Antoine looked back through the smoke at Daniel.

“That question was for the doll,” Daniel added.

“Oh right,” Antoine said, slightly relieved, “Er, did you hear that, little dollAI? Are we the dragon in the cave or the cave in the dragon?”

The doll did not respond.

_________

Notes:

1. Written on 26th May, 2023

Shakespearean Sonnet Machine

The Shakespearean Sonnet Machine (also here) spits out endless variations of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. Well, not quite endless, but there should be 562,448,656 different ones in there if you’re patient enough to keep reloading.

__________

Notes:

1. I made this on August 16th-August 18th, 2023
2. This works best with the Luminari font.
3. Which can probably be downloaded form plenty of places
4. But I have no idea whats genuine and whats a scam in the world of font websites
5. Sorry.
6. I cut and pasted the sonnets from this collection at Project Gutenberg. Hopefully I haven’t accidently added any errors.
7. Occasionally this throws up an irregular sonnet, which is due to Shakespeare himself deciding for some reason to depart from his meticulous form on a couple of occasions – Sonnet 99 has 5 (five!) lines in the first quatrain, and then Sonnet 126 doesn’t even have quatrains at all, and is just 6 rhyming couplets in a row. Stupid bloody Shakespeare.
8. There’s also probably hundreds of these sorts of things all across the internet but I haven’t actually checked.
9. I apologise for my likely unoriginality anyway.

Above, Below, and Inbetween

Above, Below, and Inbetween (alternate link) is a prototype for a children’s flip book thing, where you can choose the three different sections of a scene by flipping either the top, middle, or bottom section over (this version just randomly chooses them each time you reload it).

Contains 18 aboves, 18 belows, and 18 inbetweens for a grand total of 5832 combinations.

(Also it runs better if you download it – either here or here – because then the images appear straight away instead of having to slowly load in.)


__________

Notes:

1. Made on August 15th and 16th, 2023