Virtually Human

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” - George Orwell

Deception mixed with emerging AI, and the above quote suggested as a prompt by Poets and Storytellers United, inspired my thoughts and poem. It is a time when late actor Val Kilmer allowed his Deepfake version to play the role he was too ill to finish. This had me pondering the degree to which synthetic people differ from the black and white film era actors who since died but still seem so alive. Nowadays, many of us appear synthetically through various processes on screens. Some fall in love with digital companions who mimic humans but feel nothing. Conversely, humans seem on the path to desensitization, emoting virtually but light on genuine joy or empathy for suffering. Even photos of my walk are paperless pixels. Indeed, the wildly imaginative Orwell might be amazed at how seamlessly the artificial has woven into the fabric of daily life where lines between the acceptably real and not, like truth and lies, blur.

Seemingly alive again as if I never left the stage

Gazing but not seeing, gasping but not breathing

The copy of my former self that delivers its lines

Pretend humans like rumours keep on spreading

Machines talk to machines as if person-to-person

A steady ongoing creep of neither living nor dead

Expressing, without tiring, every mortal sensation

Pixel emotion summoned from codes they are fed

My resurrection cast as a motion-picture miracle

My voice produced virtually, to my ears unheard

My salty tears not tasted, imitations of glee unfelt

Mirror reflections of my existence eerily preserved

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report and watch environmental activist, 90-year-old David Suzuki, in an interview.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

Divine Intervention

Conflict amid cries for peace, a house invasion of ants, and the Poets and Storytellers United prompt to "write about something deeply felt" inspired my poem below.

    

Clever enough to fly to the moon and foolish enough to bomb our own planet, I see the contradictions and feel them in myself. Hope and doubt exist side-by-side. I spare butterflies but also kill ants that invade my space. Struggles embed serene scenes. Amazing life forms consume other amazing life forms by design. We love peace yet wars roam the streets and forest floors in an ecosystem nurturing and indifferent. And when we could have done better sooner to keep the planet livable longer, many who naturally fear death refused to see a threat. While waiting for divine intervention, the divine spark of preservation is ready to ignite within the discrepancies of our lives.

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report and watch environmental activist, 90-year-old David Suzuki, in an interview.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

The Vancouver Art Gallery & Looking Back

Isn't it remarkable that we have an entire vocabulary and creative urges with which to express ourselves. Although existence is an integrated system where humankind must find common ground to survive, we contribute uniquely with a personal spin on things. 

 
The Vancouver Art Gallery I visited provided paper and pencils to encourage mini art projects and poetry. My poem below, written after the visit, was inspired by the Poets and Storytellers United prompt "looking back" and the multi-media displays at the gallery reflecting indigenous and like-minded holistic views from past to present.

 

I took many pictures that day but failed to photograph even a single painting by the great Canadian West Coast artist, Emily Carr, who conveyed her extraordinary enchantment with nature through luxurious, bold and motion-filled strokes.

Oddly enough, the original painting of my print copy (above) was not included in the extensive Emily Carr collection at the gallery. I learned there was a bit of a controversy about the painting's name, titled Indian Church and later changed to Church at Yuquot Village. You can read about the painting and the artist's evolving techniques HERE.

   

There was much to dazzle the senses, including this art installation by Jim Lambie described in detail HERE. Installing this work must have been a tremendous challenge.

   

Striking and thought-provoking indigenous art was featured from the gallery's permanent collection. The Pacific Coast themes of water and all nature as living entities show the profound interconnectedness of existence. My last photos at the bottom are of a beautifully rendered film of overlapping images by Sydney France Pascal called Distance which to me conveyed moods of both separation and of coming together.

   

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report and watch environmental activist, 90-year-old David Suzuki, in an interview.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

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The Way It Is

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." - Sun Tzu

   

New life has begun, as amid the promise and hopefulness of Spring brews the hopelessness of more war. The Poets and Storytellers United prompt "write what you most need to communicate" resulted in my words below inspired by bleak events and the cold shrug from some in leadership to the suffering caused by "collateral damage". Even more disturbing than human indifference is learning that AI is being used to choose and strike targets in a very major way.

     

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

Read more

Dancing Through Time

"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf." - Rabindranath Tagore

   

The prompt "dancing" from Poets and Storytellers United inspired my few words above. Dancing, like laughing, lightens existence. It is the nearest thing to skipping as a child, something we stop doing as adults for fear of looking silly. Skipping, laughing and dancing more would make this a much happier and probably safer world.

   

Along the way, I watched a cloud dance in the wind alone amongst the others.

   

At the Crescent Beach pier, I noticed a gull with blue and white bands around its legs.

   

It's a way for scientists to monitor migration and other significant data. I wondered if the Salish Sea Gull Project was part of these efforts and forwarded them my picture.

     

It's fun to swoop and glide. But when a dance is internal, wing flapping and toe tapping seems to matter less than the willingness to surrender to the wonder.

   

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters.

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

"May your cares be light as a raindrop." - Penelope Puddle