I have found AI to be quite fun at times. To me, it is like an assistant that I can access for free. And today, I looked at the assistant and I asked it to write a poem about walking backwards through a cactus field in the style of Walt Whitman. I play and share my playing to encourage more playing.

I literally wrote, “Create a poem in the style of Walt Whitman about walking backwards through a cactus field.” And this is what came out moments later.

I laughed out loud.

Backward Through the Cactus Field

O soul, I stride backward through the cactus field,
My heels first, my eyes trailing the path already trod,
The earth’s sharp sentinels rise, prickly and proud,
Their spines glinting under the sun’s broad, democratic gaze.

Each step a defiance, a dance with the thorns,
I move not forward but in reverse, embracing the unseen,
The cactus, unyielding, whispers of endurance,
Its green flesh hoarding life in the desert’s fierce heart.

O my body! Scratched, pierced, yet exultant,
Each barb a testament to the will that presses on,
The pain is but a song, a chant of the earth’s rough love,
Binding me to the dust, the heat, the unbowed spines.

I see the horizon behind me, vast, uncontained,
The sky’s open mouth swallowing time itself,
And I, a wanderer, backward-treading, am one with the field,
Its thorns my companions, its silence my hymn.

O America! O wild, untamed expanse!
In this cactus field, I walk backward to know you,
To feel the pulse of struggle, the sting of being alive,
Each step a verse, each wound a line in the poem of the world.

The poem was created using Grok, which can be accessed for free on your computer or phone. I laughed out loud after reading it. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. Go have fun.

R. Dwain Minor