John values human-written poetry. We are going to give him a present: a poem dedicated to him.

Here is the twist: we have two versions of the poem—one written by a human and one generated by AI. Both poems are of similar quality, length, and style.

John will receive one poem—either the one written by the human author or the one generated by AI. You can click here to read the two poems.

Small Hours

The kettle hums its one familiar note,
steam curling past the window's dusty frame.
Outside, the sparrows quarrel over crumbs
as if the morning needed to be claimed.

I wrap both hands around the cup and wait.
The warmth finds all the places sleep forgot.
The day ahead is neither kind nor cruel,
just ordinary, which is quite a lot.

A crack runs through the ceiling I should fix,
a letter I keep meaning to return.
The stillness holds its breath and whispers: wait.
Some lessons take their time before you learn.

Light inches through the room the way thought does,
across the books, the dust, the unmade bed.
I used to rush through hours just like these.
Now I sit still and hold them close instead.

What the River Knows

The river takes its time around the stones
and learns the shape of everything it meets.
I leaned against the railing of the bridge
and watched the afternoon begin to leave.

Below, a woman sat among the reeds,
a paperback held open on her knee.
Her dog slept in a circle at her feet.
She never looked up once. She didn't need to.

Maybe contentment arrives like that:
not sudden, not announced, just plainly there,
the way a river doesn't choose its course
but finds it, bend by bend, without a care.

The light pulled back. The air turned slightly cool.
I walked home carrying nothing much at all,
just a small, unreasonable gladness,
ordinary as a stone, and just as real.

John cannot tell which version he receives unless we tell him. Even poetry experts cannot tell which poem was written by a human and which was generated by AI.

John has agreed to all of this. For example, he knows that the poem he receives may be the human-written version or the AI-generated version.

When you are ready, click "Next."