My latest poem 'The algorithms of prayer?' has been published today by Stride Magazine as part of a series of poems inspired by The Prayer, an art-installation that tries to explore the supernatural through artificial intelligence.
"The artist Diemut Strebe created a talking mouth, which creates and voices original prayers on its own. It is part of a computer system using AI technology, to explore the possibilities to connect to ‘the divine’, ‘the noumenal’ as the mystery of ‘the unknown’ as it appeared in various ways throughout the history of mankind in religious belief and philosophical speculation. The installation’s software uses deep learning, a method of machine learning, that attempts to mimic human brain circuits.
Several questions are involved within this artwork, the most provocative being: How would a divine epiphany appear to an artificial intelligence? The question may sound absurd but the focus of the project could maybe shed light on the difference between humans and AI machines in the debate about mind and matter. It reflects on the potentials and implications of deep learning AI within both its narrow, targeted setting and general (human-like) state."
The series of poems began with 'Algorithmic Prayers' by Rupert Loydell. My poem seeks to explore the nature of prayer through the limits of AI.
My reviews for Stride include a review of two poetry collections, one by Mario Petrucci and the other by David Miller, a review of Temporary Archive: Poems by Women of Latin America, a review of Fukushima Dreams by Andrea Moorhead, a review of Endangered Sky by Kelly Grovier and Sean Scully, a review of John F. Deane's Selected & New Poems, a review of God's Little Angel by Sue Hubbard and a review of Spencer Reece's 'Acts'.
To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, and here. My poems published in Amethyst Review are: 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'. My latest poem, 'The ABC of creativity', has been published by International Times. It cover attention, beginning and creation and can be read here.
I am very pleased to be among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a new anthology forthcoming in 2024 from Amethyst Press. Check in at Amethyst Review for more details, including a publication date in July and an online launch and reading in September. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems.
'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:
'Barking';
'Bradwell';
'Broomfield';
'Pleshey'; and
'Runwell'.
These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.
Additionally, several of my short stories have been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford last Autumn. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'. My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.
For more on poetry, read my ArtWay interview with David Miller here and my interview with the poet Chris Emery for International Times here. My review of 'Modern Fog' by Chris Emery is on Tears in the Fence. I have also written an article for Seen & Unseen 'Theresa Lola's poetical hope' about the death-haunted yet lyrical, joyful and moving poet for a new generation.
Stride magazine was founded in 1982. Since then it has had various incarnations, most recently in an online edition since the late 20th century. You can visit its earlier incarnation at http://stridemagazine.co.uk.
I have read the poetry featured in Stride and, in particular, the work of its editor Rupert Loydell over many years and was very pleased that Rupert gave a poetry reading when I was at St Stephen Walbrook.
Rupert Loydell is a poet, painter, editor and publisher, and senior lecturer in English with creative writing at Falmouth University. He is interested in the relationship of visual art and language, collaborative writing, sequences and series, as well as post-confessional narrative, experimental music and creative non-fiction.
He has edited Stride magazine for over 30 years, and was managing editor of Stride Books for 28 years. His poetry books include Wildlife and Ballads of the Alone (both published by Shearsman), and The Fantasy Kid (for children).
His latest collections are Damage Limitation and The Salvation Engine. Reviewing both collections, Dominic Rivron writes that:
"Damage Limitation is part of Loydell’s ongoing investigation into cults and obsession. It begins with a brief, potted history of the band Throbbing Gristle and Genesis P-Orridge’s subsequent venture, Psychic TV, outlining the way both bands managed their public image, pressing ‘all the obvious buttons’ to portray themselves as provocative, transgressive and offensive; while all the time Genesis P-Orridge ‘wanted to control everything, despite their questioning the very notion of power and control’.
The hypnotic lure of TG and PTV lies in ‘the counterculture’s desire for psychic understanding’, while, in fact, the whole project is a microcosm of capitalism, its ‘industrial music revolution’ holding up a mirror to the Industrial (non-musical) Revolution. And the machines we build are not merely physical: the processes whereby people can groom, control and abuse others could be described as a form of psychic machine-building."
"The Salvation Engine ... which came out before Damage Limitation, ‘grapples with the frightful mix of personality cults, religious populism, liturgical experiment, rave culture, censorship, puritanical mindlessness, and stupidity within the organised church, questioning and critiquing its power structures and beliefs, not to mention a lack of safeguarding and accountability, which allow and sometimes encourage abuse, manipulation, greed and desperate beliefs to thrive.’"
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Aretha Franklin - Are You Sure.
