4 Words

“Shorter, shorter … until one syllable says it all.” Charles Simic

All creation is a beggar. It wishes freedom but also needs its jailer.

For the poet, form is a necessary delimiter - be it line breaks, rhyme, pattern, cadence, rhythm, length or style. Putting walls around your words, conditioning your meaning making - is primary to good poetry.

I was inspired recently by the Four Words experimental art exhibit which took place January 20th, 2016 in Liverpool, England. For one hour, between 3 and 4 pm GMT, a large billboard become a public messaging board where phrases consisting of 4 words were shown. It’s was a wonderful project.

I didn’t like the messages shown so much so decided to try to do something similar but with my own 4 Word messages. The above video is my first shot at this “format”.

It’s a challenge and also a good illustration of why ChatGPT is such a text diarrhead and garbage word generator. As I made the video - I decided to request from ChatGPT a list of 4 word phrases that might be usable. I was very specific and refining with my prompts. All I got back from him/her/it were cute, banal, pap. Here is a short list to give you an idea.

1. "Mind your own business."

2. "Look before you leap."

3. "Empty vessels make noise."

4. "Rain before rainbow comes."

5. "Fall down, rise stronger."

6. "Make hay while sun shines."

7. "Smooth seas never skilled."

8. "What goes around, comes."

9. "Gift horse, mouth check."

10. "Where there's smoke, fire."

And that’s just what we are up against, with ChatGPT. It’s banality. And that so many will default to using this banality and even eventually adoring it and honoring it.

I believe our own linguistic genome is at stake. The belief that human language as oppossed to artificial language is a core part of our soul, of who we are as humans. And once you start chipping away at this marvellously creative and mysterious “languaging” that we humans are capable of … we will soon turn into the robots we so dread. Our loss of poetic language will be a tragedy - I forwarn you, given the rise of generative AI and its dumbing down of language into gruel. Yes, it is nice we finally have technology that can do cognitive work - but lets keep it out of our poetic kitchen.

Anyway, I do hope you enjoy my poetic foray into this 4 Word genre. It’s a good exercise for any writer.