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Variational sestinoid spiral (seed #281698895)

 

Radius: 0.00 The passing of the loveliness
Phase: 0.00
Radius: 1.25 And underneath the forest lingered away
Phase: 0.90 The passing of the dusky boughs
Radius: 2.50 The visible moon and moonlight lay
Phase: 1.80 The passing day of yester’d bough,
Of crystal moonlight lingering away
Radius: 3.75 The smallest day-wind’s cheek,
Phase: 2.69 A space of yesterday’s boughs,
Of a crystal forest lingered away
And underneath the moonlight lay
Radius: 5.00 His place is so late, and troddened,
Phase: 3.59 The light of barren’s blaze
Of a crystal moonlight still
Of crystal moonlight lay away
The solitary road and moonlight on him,
Radius: 6.25 His long-fickers of a boughs
Phase: 4.49 Of a crystal forest lingering away
Of crystal moonlight still
The mystic moonlight lay away
The solitary road and moonlight on him,
He found it up, and ’twixt anew,
Radius: 7.50 As a crystal glimmering stream
Phase: 5.39 Of crystal sunshine far away
Of crystal moonlight lay
The solitary moonlight shining down,
And leaving a week, and down a little boat,
’tis long ago and ’twixt anew.
Not a long sea-trees of the barley
Radius: 0.00 The passing of the loveliness
Phase: 0.00

Variational sestinoid spiral (seed #510616808)

 

Radius: 0.00 A thing is sweetness, sweet and light
Phase: 0.00
Radius: 1.25 A thing is sweetness, sweetest
Phase: 0.90 A thing of manly, like a cloud
Radius: 2.50 A thing is everlasting light
Phase: 1.80 A thing of earth, so far a cloud
A thing is still, as thou shalt find
Radius: 3.75 A thing of earthly blaze
Phase: 2.69 A thing of manly, as a breeze
A thing is sweet, if thou shalt behold
A thing is sweetest, sweet!
Radius: 5.00 Anon the fates of a breeze
Phase: 3.59 Without aught of man, who shalt find thee
  A thing may be, sweetness, if my heart
  A thing is sweetest, sweet!
  A bird is everlasting
 
Radius: 6.25 Without aught of him, and whirl’d
Phase: 4.49 Like goodness, if thou knowest it, and the sun
  A thing is sweet, sweetest, sweet is
  A thing is sweetness, sweet!
  A bird is everlasting
  And unto the frolic tide
 
Radius: 7.50 Like goodness, if I knowest, and a tear of
Phase: 5.39 A thing is still, sweetest, sweet, I know
  A thing is sweet, sweetness!
  A thing is sweetest light
  And o’er its waters
  And from the muteous trod
  Just as a word, and whirled in the air
 
Radius: 0.00 A thing is sweetness, sweet and light
Phase: 0.00

 

These poems (“variational sestinoid spirals”) are part of a series generated with a “variational autoencoder,” a type of machine learning model that learns to encode its inputs to a fixed-length vector in a latent space. The variational autoencoder can then generate new data that resembles its training data by selecting points at random in that latent space. (Nearby points in that space will generate similar output.) The program that produces variational sestinoid spirals first selects a point in the model’s latent space at random, and then decodes the poem’s opening line of text from that point. Subsequent stanzas are generated from points drawn in concentric circles surrounding that initial point. Each stanza's circle has one more point than the last, and its radius in latent space is correspondingly larger. The model was trained on a corpus of one million lines of public domain poetry, sourced from Project Gutenberg.



Allison is a computer programmer, poet, educator, and game designer whose teaching and practice address the unusual phenomena that blossom when language and computers meet. She is an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, where she earned her master's degree in 2008.
Current Issue
29 May 2023

We are touched and encouraged to see an overwhelming response from writers from the Sino diaspora as well as BIPOC creators in various parts of the world. And such diverse and daring takes of wuxia and xianxia, from contemporary to the far reaches of space!
By: L Chan
The air was redolent with machine oil; rich and unctuous, and synthesised alcohol, sharper than a knife on the tongue.
“Leaping Crane don’t want me to tell you this,” Poppy continued, “but I’m the most dangerous thing in the West. We’ll get you to your brother safe before you know it.”
Many eons ago, when the first dawn broke over the newborn mortal world, the children of the Heavenly Realm assembled at the Golden Sky Palace.
Winter storm: lightning flashes old ghosts on my blade.
transplanted from your temple and missing the persimmons in bloom
immigrant daughters dodge sharp barbs thrown in ambush 十面埋伏 from all directions
Many trans and marginalised people in our world can do the exact same things that everyone else has done to overcome challenges and find happiness, only for others to come in and do what they want as Ren Woxing did, and probably, when asked why, they would simply say Xiang Wentian: to ask the heavens. And perhaps we the readers, who are told this story from Linghu Chong’s point of view, should do more to question the actions of people before blindly following along to cause harm.
Before the Occupation, righteousness might have meant taking overt stands against the distant invaders of their ancestral homelands through donating money, labour, or expertise to Chinese wartime efforts. Yet during the Occupation, such behaviour would get one killed or suspected of treason; one might find it better to remain discreet and fade into the background, or leave for safer shores. Could one uphold justice and righteousness quietly, subtly, and effectively within such a world of harshness and deprivation?
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