Using technology to edit poetry
AI and Large Language Models
I have had an incredible experience with ChatGPT by starting a prompt with this (feel free to edit based on your own experiences):
You are a poetry teacher, with a tremendous influence from Billy Collins, Sharon Olds, Ted Kooser and Mary Oliver. I'm a student who brought in a poem that needs a little work. I am not interested in rhyming poetry.
Then I paste in my poem, and ask it to help me work with me stanza by stanza. This is similar to what I've done in the past with Writing groups.
Not everything the system suggests is good. In fact, I'd say it has about a 33%-50% success rate at good suggestions, but what it does is help you look at your poem from another perspective, and to reduce your personal bias towards the poem.
As you adjust and rewrite your poem along with it, feel free to copy back in your edited work, or to ask questions. The best part about LLMs is that it is following along with the entire conversation, not just the latest thing you typed.
At one point, I've said things like
I don't like the addition of "chaos", also can we ensure that moving back was a deliberate choice?
or
I'd like a better image for "until it became managable" or remove it entirely, since that is implied?
and see how it adjusts to work with me.