Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
George J. Dance wrote:
Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
<quote>
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
</quote>
Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
<quote>
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
</quote>
georgedance04@yahoo-dot-ca.no-spam.invalid (George J. Dance) posted:
Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique
of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're
ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that
app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later. I had a better
idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker"
one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I
did, and here is its rating:
<quote>
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's
Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10
is awfu)?
https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate
the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation
scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to
do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to
everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating
based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses.
He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his
own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold
November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street
names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time
Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense
of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word
tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard).
Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and
pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul
Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat
Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational
approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In
Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit
it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly
encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some
pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered
sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of
love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I
should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal
structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like
Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and
musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the
fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the
margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this
list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would
you like to compare his style to other poets of his era? </quote>
Since the review is wholly positive, and was created (using AI) by
Will's publisher, one has to judge it as being slanted in Will's
favor.
The AI generated review I posted included my instructions to the AI
program and is a fair and balanced review -- as opposed to this
publisher's "puff."
Michael Pendragon wrote:
georgedance04@yahoo-dot-ca.no-spam.invalid (George J. Dance) posted:
Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
quote
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
/quote
Since the review is wholly positive, and was created (using AI) by Will's publisher, one has to judge it as being slanted in Will's favor.
The AI generated review I posted included my instructions to the AI program and is a fair and balanced review -- as opposed to this publisher's "puff."
George J. Dance wrote:
Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
<quote>
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery "
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
</quote>
Will-Dockery wrote:
Michael Pendragon wrote:
georgedance04@yahoo-dot-ca.no-spam.invalid (George J. Dance) posted:
Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
quote
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
/quote
Since the review is wholly positive, and was created (using AI) by Will's publisher, one has to judge it as being slanted in Will's favor.
The AI generated review I posted included my instructions to the AI program and is a fair and balanced review -- as opposed to this publisher's "puff."
I didn't expect you to agree with a favorable review, after all, Pendragon.
EfOe
Will Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
<quote>
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
</quote>
George J. Dance wrote:
Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
<quote>
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery "
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
</quote>
HarryLime wrote:
[snip]
George J. Dance wrote:
Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
<quote>
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery "
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
</quote>
That's probably your upper lip you're smelling. :)
HarryLime wrote:
[snip]
Artificial intelligence has definitely improved in just a short while, these are some interesting poetry critiques.
I have another in my email that George Dance sent me of last summer I'll look for soon.
George J. Dance wrote:
Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique
of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're
ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that
app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later. I had a better
idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker"
one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I
did, and here is its rating:
<quote>
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's
Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10
is awfu)?
https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery "
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate
the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation
scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to
do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to
everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating
based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses.
He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his
own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold
November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street
names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time
Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense
of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word
tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard).
Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and
pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul
Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat
Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational
approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In
Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit
it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly
encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some
pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered
sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of
love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I
should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal
structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like
Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and
musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the
fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the
margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this
list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would
you like to compare his style to other poets of his era? </quote>
[quote="Cujo DeSockpuppet"]
Aye jist lurves the stench of burnt kook in the afternoon.
That's probably your upper lip you're smelling. :)
Michael Pendragon wrote:
will.dockery@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (Will-Dockery) posted:
HarryLime wrote:
[snip]
Artificial intelligence has definitely improved in just a short while, these are some interesting poetry critiques.
I have another in my email that George Dance sent me of last summer I'll look for soon.
Yes, it's scary how well it can converse about poetry in-depth.
However, it still makes wild assumptions and mistakes.
Speaking of which, did Pickles ever claim (in the Dylan group) that a "Doppelganger Society" existed that was systematically spoofing the names and emails of Usenet users (including Bob Dylan) for unspecified, nefarious purposes?
I had asked AI if the "Doppelganger Society," a British writers group I belonged to in the 1990s/early 00s, was still active and got the above response.
Once I explained to AI that this was a new topic and had nothing to do with Pick, it was able to find information on the actual Doppelganger Society, but one needs to be careful what, and how, one asks.
It also mixes up AAPC history.
Will Dockery wrote:
georgedance04@yahoo-dot-ca.no-spam.invalid (George J. Dance) posted:
Will Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
quote
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
/quote
Yes, I'd like to see what the AI thinks of those poems.
--
Poetry & songs from Will Dockery & Friends: http://www.reverbnation.com/willdockery
George J. Dance wrote:
Will-Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
<quote>
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery "
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
</quote>
George J. Dance wrote:
Will Dockery wrote:
georgedance04@yahoo-dot-ca.no-spam.invalid (George J. Dance) posted:
Will Dockery wrote:
By the way, if you still have that artificial intelligence critique of my poetry from a while ago, feel free to post it when you're ready.
The one my "trusted source" AI did is in my "history" file on that app, but I'll have to dig it our and post it later.
I had a better idea: I'd ask for one using Google AI, which did the "tie-breaker" one of mine that opened the thread I pulled your request from. So, I did, and here is its rating:
quote
"Google AI, can you please read the poetry of Will Dockery on Penny's Poetry Blog and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is great and 10 is awfu)? https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/search/label/Will%20Dockery
On your specific scale where 1 is great and 10 is awful I would rate the poetry of Will Dockery a 4 out of 10. On a standard evaluation scale, this means his work sits comfortably as a 7 out of 10 "
it is compelling, highly distinct, and successful at what it tries to do, even if its hyper-specific "outlaw" style might not appeal to everyone. Here is a breakdown of why his poetry earns this rating based on the selections from Penny's Poetry Blog:
1. Strong Sense of Atmosphere ("Shadowville Mythos")
Dockery is incredibly skilled at world-building within short verses. He continuously returns to a localized, semi-mythic landscape of his own making ("Shadowville") filled with recurring motifs: cold November rain, abandoned trains, boarding houses, and specific street names like Mulberry Drive. Pieces like Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out) and On Mulberry Drive excel at creating a vivid, cinematic sense of place that feels deeply nostalgic and slightly eerie.
2. The Influence of Music and Spoken Word
Many of these poems function seamlessly as song lyrics or spoken-word tracks (frequently collaborating with musicians like Brian Mallard). Poems like Morning of My Life utilize rhythm, cadence, and pop-culture/historical nods ("Black Betty", "Taxman", "J. Paul Getty") that mimic the stream-of-consciousness style of the Beat Generation or classic folk-rock lyricism. It is a raw, conversational approach to writing.
3. Vulnerability vs. Rawness
At his best, Dockery captures powerful, unedited human emotion. In Ritual Memory, he writes: "It is an honest poem / so I will not edit it. / Why would I even want to do that?" This line perfectly encapsulates his style. The tradeoff to this approach is that some pieces, like Poem for Kathy, lean so heavily into raw, unfiltered sentiment that they can border on simplistic or unpolished ("lots of love to you " / you're great. / I can't think of / anything else I should write.").
Summary
Dockery's poetry does not aim for pristine, academic formal structures (though he occasionally writes a traditional piece like Sonnet 1977). Instead, his work is grounded in grit, memory, and musicality. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do: capturing the fleeting, gritty imagery of a life lived on the road and in the margins of small-town mythologies.
Would you like me to analyze the themes of a specific poem from this list, such as Winterworld Descending or On Mulberry Drive, or would you like to compare his style to other poets of his era?
/quote
Yes, I'd like to see what the AI thinks of those poems.
--
Poetry & songs from Will Dockery & Friends:
http://www.reverbnation.com/willdockery
I asked it only about "Winterworld Descending". Here's what it gave me:
<quote>
<quote>
"Could you rate "Winterworld Descending" on a scale of 1-10 (where 10 is best)?
https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2017/10/winterworld-descending-will-dockery.html "
On a standard scale where 10 is best, I would rate Winterworld Descending an 8 out of 10.
This four-part suite (Stopwatch, She Loves Bossa Nova, Black and Blue Night, and Swamp Street Exile) represents some of Will DockeryrCOs most complex and evocative writing. It brilliantly showcases his strength in building a surreal, noir-like atmosphere.
Here is a commentary on why the poem earns this high rating, broken down by its key elements:
1. Masterful Atmospheric Shift (The "Descending" Theme)
The poem perfectly captures a transition from physical autumn to a psychological winter. The phrase "Time for Winterworld descending" acts as a powerful catalyst. Lines like "A mute passing notes to a blind man" and "shutdown clocks frozen at noon" excellently establish a landscape where time, communication, and memory are fractured.
2. High-Stakes Emotional Urgency
Unlike some of Dockery's more gentle nostalgic pieces, there is a sharp edge of panic and grief here. In She Loves Bossa Nova, the juxtaposition of smooth, sensual imagery ("Bossa Nova / rare steaks... And red red wine") against unexpected heartbreak ("I didn't know / she was crying") creates a tragic, relatable disconnect. The speaker is taking the "long way around" just to process the weight of what was lost.
3. Haunting, Layered Symbolism
The imagery in Black and Blue Night and Swamp Street Exile is striking and cinematic. Phrases like "poker faced with tears," a "Werewolf bullet," and a "Night owl on my back" feel pulled from a dark, Southern Gothic dreamscape. The recurrence of the "low rust moon" and "leaves spinning by" ties the entire four-poem structure together seamlessly, making the suite feel like a unified concept album.
Why it Misses a Perfect 10
The stream-of-consciousness style occasionally introduces abrupt shifts that can briefly disrupt the emotional momentum. For example, the sudden references in Part 3 to "pirouetting hoodlums" and the "battle of Jericho" introduce a chaotic local folklore that, while fascinating, slightly pulls the reader away from the intimate heartbreak established in the first two parts. However, as a pure exercise in mood and unedited raw emotion, it stands as a triumph in his collection.
"Can you analyze " Winterworld Descending" and show why it deserves that rating?"
To see exactly why Winterworld Descending earns an 8 out of 10, we have to look at how the poem functions as a multi-part suite. Dockery uses a technique called montage poetics"layering imagery, music, and local geography to create a specific emotional state.
Here is a deep dive into the four movements of the poem, analyzing the specific mechanics that make it work so well.
Part 1: "Stopwatch" " The Anatomy of Time and Memory
The first section is highly successful because it establishes the thematic framework: the breakdown of time.
rCo The Inability to Communicate: The line "A mute passing notes to a blind man" is a brilliant, tragic metaphor for human disconnect. It sets up a speaker who feels entirely unable to convey his internal reality to the outside world.
rCo Visualizing Stagnation: Dockery writes of "shutdown clocks frozen at noon" under a "low rust moon." By halting time at midday but placing it under a nighttime moon, he creates a surreal, dreamlike space. The "rust" imagery suggests decay and neglect"the landscape of a mind trapped in the past.
rCo The Cinematic Shift: The transition to "Winterworld descending" acts like a movie camera panning down. The phrase "Ignite time with a Werewolf bullet so slow" adds a gritty, B-movie pulp flavor that contrasts beautifully with the delicate image of "flaky leaves spinning by."
Part 2: "She Loves Bossa Nova" " The Tragedy of the Disconnect
This is arguably the strongest section of the suite because of its sharp contrast between sensory pleasure and sudden grief.
rCo Rhythmic Cataloging: The opening lines read like a jazz rhythm: "She loves Bossa Nova / rare steaks / rain sticks / Sinatra / And red red wine." The repetition of "R" sounds creates a smooth, seductive cadence.
rCo The Deflated Romance: The poem shifts from this smooth atmosphere into raw vulnerability: "On the long way / overheard on the sidewalk / she said 'I love you'... I didn't know / she was crying."
rCo The Spatial Metaphor: Repeating the phrase "the long way around" acts as a physical representation of avoidance. The speaker is literally and figuratively taking the longest route possible to avoid facing the reality of a dying relationship.
Part 3: "Black and Blue Night" " Noir Symbolism
This movement leans heavily into a gritty, nocturnal aesthetic, using color and sound to simulate a psychological breakdown.
rCo Double Meanings: The title itself is a clever play on words. A "black and blue night" evokes the darkness of midnight, but it also heavily implies bruising, pain, and trauma.
rCo Sensory Overload: Dockery pairs internal blindness ("tears blinding my sight") with external rain and flashing light ("crank up that light / Something in here / and I want it in plain sight"). It reads like an interrogation of his own memories.
rCo Surreal Folklore: The introduction of "pirouetting hoodlums" in a dirty town mixed with biblical imagery ("battle of Jericho") gives the poem an erratic, unpredictable energy. While this sudden shift to local chaos is the reason the poem misses a perfect 10 (as it disrupts the intimate tone of Part 2), it successfully conveys a mind spiraling out of control.
Part 4: "Swamp Street Exile" " The Haunting Reprise
The final section functions like the outro of a concept album, echoing and remixing the best lines from earlier to achieve closure.
rCo The Weight of the Past: Images are recycled but condensed: the clocks at noon, the snow dust, and the request to "Come sit with me a while." By repeating these lines, they morph from mere descriptions into a comforting, rhythmic chant.
rCo Acceptance of the "Bewilderness": The suite ends on a note of submission to the fog of memory: "Still in the bewilderness, / Still too blind to see." The speaker doesn't solve his grief; he simply learns to live inside it.
Conclusion
Winterworld Descending deserves an 8 because it does something incredibly difficult: it stretches a single mood across four distinct poems without becoming repetitive. It reads like a short, dark vinyl record where every track feeds into the next, cementing Dockery's ability to turn local nostalgia into a universal feeling of seasonal heartbreak.
</quote>
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