I am staring at blank screens
rotating through unrevised pieces of poems
eyeing word counts as I type, backspace, completely delete.
Grammarly tells me I'm a writing powerhouse,
4,142 words analyzed this week, but it doesn't tell me how many survived,
how many made it, how many I've locked away
unfinished, untitled, lacking direction,
but that line sounds so nice
I save it and move along.
I consider going analog, burning through pages and pens,
they'll end up under my couch, pushed off the coffee table and swatted away.
That wouldn't tell me I used 1,618 unique words over seven days,
but it also wouldn't criticize my mechanics,
artificially intelligent and ignorant to the concept of stylistic choice.
To fix one error, press Tab.
No, thank you, I do not wish to be rewritten by computer systems,
even if it means I finish nothing at all.
About the Creator
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Center Stage with Gina C.
*** I'm keen to republish the interviews I did for my series with Vocal creators. It's been a few years and I thought it might be nice to revisit these wonderful conversations. I'll be releasing them one at a time for a few weeks/months.
By Heather Hubler5 days ago in Interview
Comments (4)
The idea of being a “writing powerhouse” while still feeling stuck is something many can relate to. I especially love the line about saving a line even when everything else feels unfinished.
This is so relatable and powerful—from a writer being their own critic to the critique of Grammarly! Autocorrect is often more my foe than my friend, haha.
Cool poem
True on both points. Interesting poem subject