Finally, allow me to introduce the strangely Irish-looking Edgar, as voiced by my decidedly London-born friend John Dobson.
Edgar reads three poems
Audrey reads two poems
Finally, we have an avatar with a real human voice, provided by my good friend Jo Matthews. Thanks Jo !
Hereward reads two poems
Young and Byronic, Hereward is the moodiest virtual poet since Speak & Spell
Ebba reads two poems
Death by Plot Device
Death by Plot Device
From Juliet to Cio-Cio-San,
By way of Emma Bovary –
They each were halted by a man
Who plots and spins their tragedy,
By ending them with his fatal pen –
All killed by their creator yet agen.
For Emmalene, no silver screen.
For Hannah Baker, life is shorter.
Ophelia is free to dream
With Bess, the landlord’s black-eyed daughter.
Giving up all they had to give,
Thus they must die so that a man may live.
Come Brünnhilde of the Norse,
Jocasta of the Greeks, come too,
And Thelma and Louise, of course –
Cecilia Lisbon’s joining you.
So young and clichéd, full of romance –
Farewell. Alas, you never had a chance.
For Anna Karenina and Hedda Gabler,
It will never be a wonderful life –
Each felt a fatalism grab her,
With a well-placed gun or foreshadowed knife.
Like all of the tragic women above
In their man-made sacrifices all for love.
Athelstan reads two poems
Winifrid reads two poems
Happy birthday, fivefold
Having completely failed to make my previous passing, I have decided to mark my half decade in style (is that a quintade ?, or is this the epitome of Unnecessary Latin ?)
Thanks to recent advancements in AI, it is now possible to create avatars of never-existed people in Midjourney, and voices of never-spoken tongues in Prime Voice, and then get the former to speak the latter thanks to D-ID. Although you won’t get to see that last part, as videos can only be included for premium WordPressers – after all they have to keep us riff-raff out…
And so, all this week I shall be unveiling my new Readers, who are definitely attempting to scale the slope out of uncanny valley and almost sorta kinda sound perfectly natural ! Well, as long as the poem doesn’t contain a question mark, as they can’t change their intonation. And as long as you don’t mind them sounding thoroughly middle class, as the British voice samples all tended towards the RP – which is a pity, as I always intended for my words to be read in an ‘Educated West Country’ accent.
However, saving the best for last, I have persuaded a couple of friends to read for me as well, and you can heartheir delightfully-human tones at the end of the week.
Sheep Music
Sheep Music
Camping by a field of sheep
That baa throughout the night –
The farmer says each ewe must peep
To check her lamb’s alright.
One wonders if they ever sleep,
Or keep a state of fright ?
But we are hypnotised by sweeping
Bleats by Luna light.
Until the dawn brings cheap-cheap-cheap
That sound too fresh and bright –
At least the sheep were slow and deep
As they camped besides the site.
Neptune’s Daughters
Neptune’s Daughters
As a kid, I used to believe in the Seven Seas –
But which on Earth were they ?
Clearly the Channel, the North, and the Irish,
But which were the other four ?, I’d say.
But then I learned there were dozens of others,
From the Med to Aegean to Adriatic –
Time for a rethink, I thought, to the map –
Clearly the rolling waves weren’t static !
Some people say they were numbered by the Arabs
From the Gulf to the South China Sea,
Others that they represent the oceans
In one big continuity.
But some say currents can separate them,
So some shall flood while others seep.
And others again say the seas are layers
From the sunlit shallows to Challenger Deep.
As a kid, I used to believe in the old salts’ notion,
Until I did no more –
And then I believed in the Panthalassic Ocean,
Lapping ev’ry shore.
And then I believed in gradients and upward swells
For the flows to surmount –
Yet the tides never asked their name as they rose and fell,
And the seas can’t count.
Rhyming Couplets 