The Phrase “Bukowski Kicking Down Whitman’s Door” Is Taken. You Can’t Use It.
THE PHRASE “BUKOWSKI KICKING DOWN WHITMAN’S DOOR” IS TAKEN. YOU CAN’T USE IT. A warning for anyone out there trying to get published in the poetry world. The phrase “Bukowski kicking down Whitman’s door” is taken. You can’t use it. Not because it’s mine. I can’t use it either. That phrase was AI generated. Which kinda sucks because it’s a cool phrase. Here’s how it went down. I wrote a poem called “Ode To My Cock” in a kind of lilting Whitman style, ran it through an LLM for feedback and when we got to the line “I’ve got a snake in my britches” the AI had this to say: “This is not a tonal error. This is Bukowski kicking down Whitman’s door.” Keep in mind this was all part of a broader conversation, a back and forth that would probably fill volumes in its own right. And now you can’t use it whether you’re writing about my cock or not (although I strongly encourage you to - it’s a gripping subject. Really. I looked it up.) Anyway, I liked the phrase so much that I u...