Lust For Words 2

There must be a shift in the kaleidoscope because this week Vocal have been suggesting a wonderful selection of poetry to me (at the bottom of the page after reading an article) that I can only describe as beautifully delicate and sweet.

So this is a selection of my favourite unseen finds that fit that profile this week. This is poetry that evokes that cosy feeling of looking out your patio doors to white grass, evergreen treetops and falling snow whilst being warmly draped in cashmere and have a mug of sweet peppermint and honey tea in hand.

Okay, so I’ve never actually been draped in cashmere whilst looking out upon snow like this but I do fantasise about it frequently. I have always lived in cold houses that had me cursing the winter. Usually wrapped in my furry dressing gown at any hour of the day (which was of a Primark number than House of Bruar).

The Selection

Drumroll and jazz band please!

They deserve such an introduction ✨

by Joelle Nanula

I believe this is the first Haiku that I’ve read which has verses. Or if not, it’s certain the most memorable! This is a work of art. It’s one that surprised me greatly to be devoid of the Top Story label that could have prevented it making my list. I spent a leisurely afternoon perusing Joelle’s work and I sincerely enjoyed doing so. She is a beautiful soul who knows how to express that through her poetry. Please do check her other work out.

by Ava Mack

Ava manages to take us on an epic journey in such few words. This impresses me greatly. There’s love, there’s longing (but in an accepting rather than pining way), there’s philosophy… there’s more but with those three combined anything else is just a fancier plate to put that already iced and sugar dusted cake on. This is a modern work of art and I truly loved it.

by Holly Pheni

I love a poem that evokes long slumbering memories and inspires me to grab my pen and notebook before I lose the spark of inspiration that is running through my veins. Thank you Holly! I am certain all writers start life as readers and therefore all of us will relate to this poem.

by Dana Stewart

The reason this stood out to me? Because that same picture features on one of my own recent poem Seasons of Perception, which was one of three that I’ve now submitted for the Ode to an Ordinary Object Challenge.

In all honesty I feel really good about each of the three I’ve written. I put a lot of heart and time into each and I hope you will check them out and leave your comments at the bottom ❤️✨.

Back to Dana’s work, however!! It made the list not because of that rather eye catching unsplash photo but of course because the writing. Haiku’s didn’t feature on this list last time and if I’m honest I hadn’t intended to put any on it. I certainly hadn’t intended to be putting two on! They are fun and I enjoy them but they rarely connect with me in a meaningful way. Until now!

This haiku was all about the last line for me. I love poems that make me pondering the author’s meaning. Did she mean it this way or that? Because it can be read in two opposite directions. I realised this after reading another writers comment that made it clear she had taken a completely different meaning to me.

I love that!

by Kelly Robertson

This poem is sweet, short and made me remember being Alice in Wonderland, lost so deep in my book that I left reality entirely. It doesn’t exactly match the brief but maybe there is a cashmere scarf somewhere as an afterthought wrapped around me as I remember being Alice looking out at snow. It’s Wonderland. Wonderland can be warm and have snow. Anyhow, I enjoyed that feeling and memory.

And so the poem makes the list!

This choice is actually another by Kelly. Which is something that I thought went against the rules… until I remembered I make those. And if I choose to feature two epic poems by one talented writer then so I shall 😉 .

Whenever I randomly stumble upon poetry that I like (or another trusted author like Paul Stewart or Jazzy has recommended to me through their generous features) I always go to the author’s page, select the Poets tab and open up tabs of those that stand out to me. I leave them open on my phone until I read them.

There is a method to choosing these.

I refuse to open anything dark or dustpan (that is how autocorrect interpreted my phone keyboard swiping for dystopian, which feels fitting!) unless it is looks like something genuine, real and personal to the author and their life story.

These can be trickier to spot but they are always worth finding. You learn far more about a person’s true nature through how they deal with their hardest moments than you do anything else. It’s a fast pass character reveal that works extremely well.

[if you wish to better understand why we must stop unconscious creation - please read ARC’s brilliantly written article titled Stop Creating Dystopian Stories. Stop it. You're not helping offers an insightful introduction. Create from conscious love or share your vulnerable and genuine pain. But please don’t invent pain to share 😞]

Kelly has a beautiful collection of poetry on her page and I genuinely enjoyed my 20 minutes or so exploring it all. Or almost all. I always skip the poems that have all words beginning with the same letter. I think we all did these for a past Vocal Challenge? I’m sure I did one too but I’m not a fan.

When Sea Met Sky is beautiful. It captures the essence of it’s title perfectly and takes you on the journey of sensory magic that we came to earth to experience.

Finally

The article linked below is last week’s Lust For Words that was written with the sole purpose of shouting from the rooftops in celebration of the first two poems on the list. After finding those I truly wanted everyone to read them because they are magical.

From this, I began searching for more poems to join them and make it into an actual list. It is sadly now evident that I completely failed to do my due diligence. Due diligence that I didn’t realise was even necessary a week ago.

In spite of having eliminated 2 poems from the original article immediately after publishing (after reading Ashley Lima’s How To Spot AI), I can now see that only 4/7 of them that made the list are actually human generated.

I’m so sorry.

This is hugely disappointing to me and I really hope that Vocal begins properly policing AI content that is not labelled and banning these spam users. Having to copy and paste each poem into copyleaks prior to (potentially) wasting my time reading them is not what I joined Vocal for. This is not helping writers celebrate writers or fostering the community we came here for.

The platform is now flooded in spam, advertising bots and AI content. As soon as the new Writers community went up? The first four articles I picked from the 10 there were unmarked AI content posing as genuine. I hate feeling like I’ve become the unofficial AI police but it annoys me that I feel drowned in it.

I’m sure every genuine writer on here who enjoys connecting with others on the platform is as irritated as I am by this. Let’s hope it’s just a transitional phase and Vocal will soon be employing the software to police this correctly prior to publishing stories to the site.

The silver lining to it all? I have very quickly developed and polished far better AI netting skills and will not be duped into sharing such content ever again! Another difference on this new and improved week is that I have posted these poems as I discovered them rather than trying to seek them out. The ones that are meant to be here gravitated to me over the course of the week. 😉

P.S

I’ve also learned that the best place to explore new (to you) writers is actually in the comments section of the writers you already follow. The people who care enough to send love, encouragement and support to fellow writers are of course the ones who are producing the best poetry! And then check out their comments section.

Why do things always seem so obvious after you realise them?! ✨

Last week I ended with an AI poem for fun, but it’s safe to say that I’m sickened of it right now 🙈 So instead, I will link you to one of my own that I hope you enjoy ❤️✨

[I go to link my latest poem that took me the whole day to compose with its many verses and it’s unique composition that I repeated for each verse - not an easy feat! And it’s been rejected as AI content. In disbelief I just ran it through two separate AI content checkers which of course verify it is human text. What is going on here Vocal?!?!? Hopefully I will be back later to insert the link once my email reaches a human being!]

-it’s finally published-

Much love,

Kayleigh ❤️