Google has just announced a new service - Google Scribe. Here's how they describe it : "Do you ever find yourself writing slowly, staring at a blinking cursor or looking for words to express yourself? Today we are happy to announce the availability of the text suggestions and autocomplete feature of Google Scribe ....Google Scribe helps you write more efficiently by suggesting common words and phrases as you type".
Now, if staring at a blinking cursor was an Olympic Sport, I would be captain of the British Team. I spend days looking for words to express myself and by the time I have found them I have forgotten what I was trying to express in the first place. I have always wanted to be a poet, but the words are never there. So could Google Scribe help me fulfill my literary ambitions? I created the following using Google Scribe. I started with "If" and let Scribe suggest most of the rest. Occasionally I had to give it a helping hand by suggesting opening letters of words - but the resulting words (other than the final one which I repeated for dramatic effect) are solely the responsibility of Google Scribe. So here is my first (and probably last) poem - I have called it Scribe.
SCRIBE
If the day is not dark, which
is formed by removing the medium
and taking the time,
why not write over
the top of my head?
Could you explain the texture of
sound
and squeeze the nucleus of
experience
in the black dawn of yesterday?
Forever is a long road ahead,
paved with good understanding and
sickened with old friends lying alone.
Alone.
If we didn't know you'd received the assistance of Google scribe, it would be easy to say, Profound, man. It has the glimmer of genius. There truly are some very good lines here. Perhaps you've embarked on something quite new and you may be the precursor.... ;)
ReplyDeleteEven though I haven't checked it out I don't think I'd like Google Scribe. I get very irritated with the iPhone text suggestions when it thinks it knows what I'm going to write. I'm forever battling with the damn thing. Your poem was good, how much of it was yours and how much was Googles?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a set of Buddhist koans. You should become a priest...
ReplyDeleteOh yeah...they have these you can insert from you cell phone too, I have been known to select those...I really am not a fan of texting...but my kids just love it...some how I believe that texting doesn't offer the feel from the tone of voice and when we shorten words sometimes we don't get the intended message! Great post...the photo is delightful too!
ReplyDeleteDare I suggest, you may have just invented Scribe24?
ReplyDeleteAnd if Google would give me some relevant results for "Google Scribe", then I might be able ti use it. Gone through the whole of the first page of results with nothing to show for it - just blogs and comments about it.
ReplyDeleteDamnably annoying!
old friends lying alone...that touches for sure...very well done...i need to check this scribe out...
ReplyDeleteI thought for a minute you might have made that up (Google Scribe .. and thereby the poem too) but you haven't, have you? The poem is nicely dark and mystical, quite a good effort, I feel. But, as one who gets unspeakably annoyed by the lady in the Sat-nav telling me where to go, I fear I should not like Google Scribe either.
ReplyDeleteNot surprisingly I shan't be using Google Scribe. Love Google, but what are we coming to - suggesting words.
ReplyDeleteThis actually had me laughing out loud; I love the idea of writing over the top of the head! It reminds of those magnetic words (like those Shakesperean ones I used for my blog header), which you can throw up in the air and see if a poem lands (on the fridge that is). It’s the updated version of the monkeys and typewriters idea!
ReplyDeleteI think I like struggling along with my own words, so I won't likely be using this...Did you find it helpful? To me, having to work around another's words would seem intrusive.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Somehow I think I can live without the Scribe. :)
ReplyDeleteHowever, the poem is certainly sheer genius.
Heh. Let's set up an appointment. IM is fine.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this is what poetry would look like if Lt. Data tried to write it? AI marches on!
ReplyDeleteNowadays, handwriting is almost nil, now we don't even have to THINK our words or write them. Wow, we are sure making progress...or are we??
ReplyDeleteAH yes we will soon be programmed and as we think everything will appear in our own personal cloud. I think that's that grand scheme.
ReplyDeleteI do rather like the way the words came together for you. :)
Hah the cure to writer's block or the way to bad poetry, kind of frightening actually. There are enough horrible poets on the blogs without assistance from Google. (I know Im a grump)
ReplyDeleteThis shouldn't be your last, Alan. More, please.
ReplyDeleteExtraordinary! Now I know how the New Zealand rapper Scribe comes up with his lyrics.
ReplyDelete