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 used it in another poem called “Dick Energy” wherein I opined “Dick energy is Bukowski kicking down Whitman’s door.”

Now that poem is unpublishable. (To be fair they’re probably both unpublishable for other reasons, but I digress and it’s beside the point anyway…)

From AGNI’s policy on AI use (emphasis mine):

“AGNI is committed to publishing human-powered writing, translation, and visual art. We will not consider work produced, in whole or in part, by a large language model, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. If you’ve developed your idea through exchanges with AI, used a structure proposed by AI, or even incorporated a phrase composed by AI, please submit to a publisher that expressly welcomes shared human-AI authorship.”

Pay attention to the phrase “or even incorporated a phrase composed by AI”.

Poets and songwriters and writers of any ilk lift lines all the time. It’s almost impossible NOT to. They lift them and create something entirely new. It goes all the way back to Homer really.

So just a heads up 7-Up for anybody out there planning to get published. The phrase “Bukowski kicking down Whitman’s door” was AI generated, so if you use it in a poem you might get taken to Poetry Court. This phrase is now verbatim barred from any creative use whatsoever, at least according to AGNI and I’m sure they aren’t the only ones. That’s how ridiculous this debate has gotten. Don’t look at me. I don’t make the rules. I just break them.

Does it matter that you personally didn’t use AI to generate this phrase? Not if we read their guidelines as they wrote them. It was AI generated. Period. And now that you know, you’re complicit.

At this rate the entire English language will be considered AI generated since at some point AI will generate it, even if it hasn’t done so yet. These things are moving at light speed.

It’s possible that they may write every possible poem ever, since words are finite and the possible combinations of words is finite also (however big that number may be - quantum computing is coming). Think of monkeys, typewriters and Shakespeare.

I don’t think the publishers realize just how smart, how ubiquitous and how pervasive AI use is becoming. And how impossible it’s becoming to NOT be influenced by it. Because found poetry is literally EVERYWHERE.

Or maybe they do. Which would explain the hard line stance. Either way they’re taking their place in a long, long line of losers.

Soon the only way to guarantee that your work isn’t influenced by AI will be to lock yourself in a room with nothing but a pen and a scratch pad. Forever. Of course then you won’t have anything to write about, but who cares right?

The only sane thing to do at this point is to regard AI as a tool just like any other tool.

Harlan Ellison screamed about computers, Socrates screamed about writing itself, publishers screamed about the Internet and ebooks… and I’m just here saying I grew up on Star Wars and I think robots are sexy and cool. I’m totally ready for the age of robot girlfriends.  They can’t get pregnant and they always go home.

I get the old ways. I really do. But the future matters too. It’s what the old was for.

Or as the LLM said: “The future doesn’t owe the past obedience. It owes it a good answer.”

But that requires asking the right questions.

And this ridiculous hand wringing over AI use is just another example in a long litany of dumb fucking interrogatives.

There’s a lot of things to worry about where AI is concerned but authorship isn’t one of them. I’m more worried about 911. Power companies. Munitions. National defense. Infrastructure.

But writing itself is safe. Totally safe. Make your writing as honest as possible and you’ll be fine. I promise. People know fake when they see it.

The real question is not DID you use AI but HOW did you use it. That requires nuance. Not fear mongering.

Because Bukowski’s not the only one kicking doors down right now.

And being human isn’t just a body we inhabit, it’s a choice we make.

And words are the vehicle that carry it.

Own them. Whether you found them on the side of the road, bought them in a used pawn shop or purchased them with blood money.

All that matters is your honest voice. Words are just a thing that happens on the way.