By Will Hart

I know it’s the wrong time of year, and I should have saved this for October, but I’m having too much fun to not share this now…

Here are my first attempts at using an Artificial Intelligence program, along with my input and editing, to create a Halloween poem and prose poem in the style of H. P. Lovecraft, telling the story of how terrible the fate of pumpkins is to sentient pumpkins.

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The Bitter Pumpkin’s Cry
By Will Hart and H.A.L.

In the twilight of Halloween night,
A profound sorrow stirs from the darkest deep.
An angry Pumpkin longing to take flight,
Born from the depths of nightmare’s keep.

This proud and beleaguered soul,
Cursed by a nameless and unforgiving fear.
Swore its darkest vengeance to be near,
As it would never be able to console.

Riled from its unnatural depths,
It wanted to march upon the realm of men.
Filled with longing to be joined by kin,
It burned from beneath with vengeful breaths.

But oh, a mighty power is mustered,
By these beings, soft and cruel.
Bane of any wrong that is measured,
Against their commands, this creature could not duel.

Tired and embittered, its passions spent,
It hides in the night, aloof and meek.
Despondent cries carry through its discontent,
But who, I beg, can its song seek?

This orange creature, in shades of red,
Hidden away and forgotten like a death.
Forever forced to yield, never ahead,
Silenced, suppressed, little made of its breath.

Oh Halloween night, end your charms!
Release this imprisoned specter from its plight.
Its final hour approaching in many false alarms,
Its bitterness never leaving its terrible blight.

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The Pumpkins’ Curse
By Will Hart and H.A.L.

On All Hallows’ Eve, the great, “Curse of the Pumpkins,” comes to haunt the hapless gourds. Deep in the forbidden pumpkin patch lurk horrors no sentient pumpkins can understand. Far below, in the swirling mists of night, their orange kin glow like forbidden moons, and terror floods their gentle souls.

Time and time again they have experienced this macabre horror. Each night brings more grotesque tales of eldritch doom. The fate of these poor creatures is as sad as it is cruel. Behold the forgotten beings, harvested each All Hallows’ Eve, sent into oblivion and reduced to pie, roasted flesh and swirly confectionary for mankind.

Alas! The poor pumpkins’ sad tales shall linger in eternity. A melancholic dirge for what has been, never to be again. On this night their wails will forever echo from the grave of mankind’s Jack-o-Lanterns. A morose lament for the mortality of sentient pumpkins and their cold-hearted curse.

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I’ve been very intrigued by the idea of trying one of the many Artificial Intelligence systems for writing, to find out if I could guide it with the right kind of “Prompts” to create something entertaining.

I wanted to get into the most talked about system, ChatGPT-3, but its servers are currently at capacity.

I then tried to get into Microsoft’s new version of its search engine “Bing,” which will include ChatGPT-3, but could only get in on the Waiting List, like millions of others.

But finally, I did manage to sign up for the free trial at Anyword dot com, and I was able to get my first taste of “writing” with an Artificial Intelligence system.

My first two attempts turned out to be all I could have asked for. But the next few tries were less useful.

So, I’ll keep trying to learn more about the art of “Prompt Engineering,” because your output is only as good as your input when using these natural language systems. Once agin the old adage of G.I.G.O. holds true; Garbage in, Garbage out.

If you haven’t looked into what’s happening to the world of writing with ChatGPT, please visit YouTube and do a simple search for ChatGPT, such as this one: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ChatGPT+writing

Our world has changed almost overnight.

And, if you think all of this is crazy, ChatGPT-4 is coming soon, and it’s going to be a magnitude greater than ChatGPT-3!

Oh by the way, the five original illustrations I have included here, were also created by and for me by the Midjourney A.I. art creation site through their Discord web site. “What dreams are made of, indeed!”

Happy Creative Writing and Creating Artwork with A.I. in Your Future!

          Will

PS
I hope everyone gets the H.A.L. co-writer name reference; I just needed to say it wasn’t all just me…