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Constance La France
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TO READ CLICK ON THE + BUTTON. I am a writer of poetry I come from a family of storytellers and this has helped me in my poetry. I have been writing since I could pick up a pen. Have written in all forms and won many, many contests with my poetry.  My poetry has been featured in lots of books.  I have created my own forms that are often used by poets worldwide. And I have extensivley studied the poems of old, the writers forms, word use, punctuation, rhyming and layout.  I have taken some Writing Classes and have been told over and over, I am a born poet, something that can never be taught.  Have been part of several poetry clubs locally. I have helped poets to edit their poems and helped them to improve their presentation. My own poems are quite often sad. I write of death and grief. You could say I write "graveyard poetry." And I write about experiences in my life, to complications of the world,  and not afraid to share my soul. But, I can and do write happy if I want to, and I love to write of nature and poems on spiritual introspective themes, sometimes I even write of romance. And people who know me, will verify that I like using quotes in my poetry and I enjoy writing for contest themes on Poetry Soup. I joke that I can make any theme sad. I enjoy sponsoring my own contests on Poetry since 2008 and have sponsored hundreds and hundreds of contests. I left the site for a brief time in 2011, removing all my poetry when my Muse went missing, but, after a near death experience returned later in 2012 and just picked up where I left off. I love art, all classical music, researching all things, nature, gardening, meditation, praying, peace and tranquility.  I collect books of all kinds, dictionaries, poetry books, art, even cookbooks,  I adore vintage jewelry, colored glass, and old dishes.  I adore the creaking, moaning old building where I live with a few mice.

Ten poems that define me as a poet . . . (from thousands)

1. The Dream Lingers https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/the_dream_lingers_408612 This poem was written after a near death experience, it stills haunts me, I could hear my mother calling me.

2. Safe In My Heart Forever https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/safe_in_my_heart_forever_549494 My mother was my anchor, the wings beneath my feet and my best friend, I miss her so very much.

3. Tattered Pages https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/tattered_pages_688344 At the end of the poem, a baby born, died and I was told he was adopted, my parents lied.

4. Dad's Workshop https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/dads_workshop_714811 I wrote this poem in 1997 but only posted it when I was posting on poetrysoup- it is about Dad.

5. Beautiful Scars https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/beautiful_scars_735565 This poem gives you just a small glimpse of the pain and grief I carry with me every single day.

6. And That Comes From Within https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/and_that_comes_from_within_1127173 My health is not that good, never has been and never will be, and no money will change my outcome.

7. in my green dream https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/in_my_green_dream_762889 I love this poem, dreamy and spiritual, I am all about nature in this one, come on a green journey.

8. A Lost Feather https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/a_lost_feather_783977 This poem is very meaningful to me, it speaks of my Ojibwe roots and of my ancestors in the sky.

9. "Kindness is the Key" https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/kindness_is_the_key_848785 When awful things happen to us in life it is easy to become mean and resentful but kind is better.

10. I Write Fragments https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/i_write_fragments_1243058 This poem sums up my journey in writing, fragments, snippets that drip, drip from my pen and mostly at night.

Constance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

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Posting this blog for Maclawrence Famuyiwa

Blog Posted by Constance La France: 7/27/2025 3:13:00 PM

Maclawrence cannot do a blog as he is not a Premier Member but I think what he is writing is something we should all read....

 

AI Detectors or Art Detestors?

I’ve noticed a recent craze among Soupers: an increasing, almost reverent, reliance on AI detectors to judge the outcomes of poetry contests.

The argument often made is that these detectors are among the best tools humans have developed to unmask identity thieves — those who supposedly use AI-generated poems to win laurels. To them, that amounts to dishonesty and open cheating.

But what they fail to understand is this: AI detectors frequently flag poems as AI-generated not because they are fake, but because they are written with near-perfection. These tools are programmed to raise red flags on poems that heavily utilize poetic devices — metaphor, rhyme, alliteration, and other classical techniques — since such devices are common in the very same classic poems on which AI models were trained.

I’ve personally experienced this many times. Poems I wrote 100% by myself have been classified by detectors as 100% AI-generated. I doubt I’m alone in this experience. It makes me believe that relying solely on AI detectors to distinguish human from machine may be — in the end — a spurious endeavor.

Let’s be clear: there’s no way an artificial intelligence created by humans can become more intelligent than the humans who created it. That would be like saying humans are now wiser than the God who made them. This kind of thinking, if left unchecked, risks replacing human discernment with blind algorithmic judgment.

If this trend isn’t curbed, we may soon see wishy-washy poems dominating winners’ lists — not just on PoetrySoup.com, but across other poetry platforms and magazines that rely blindly on these so-called “all-knowing” judges. And this age may well go down in history as the era when substandard poems took precedence over superior ones.

To those already hooked on this tech — tread with caution.
To those considering joining the craze — look before you leap.



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Date: 7/29/2025 3:22:00 PM
Thanks
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Date: 7/28/2025 6:17:00 PM
Thanks, Constance, for helping me to blog this. The developers of AI detectors had prose in mind when designing their tools, not poetry. And because poetry is an art that relies heavily on a copious use of literary devices to refine and elevate expression, these detectors will inevitably continue to fail in distinguishing near-perfect human-written poems from those generated by AI. Unfortunately, the more sophisticated they become, the more they will misclassify. In fact, it might soon become better for one’s poem to be flagged as 100% AI-generated than being flagged as 100% human. PoetrySoup can incorporate them but it will look more like joining the craze than an effort to improve quality.
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Date: 7/27/2025 10:52:00 PM
I whole heartedly agree with this blog. I have stated in my earlier blog, Judging Guide for Sponsors, that to use AI Checkers to detect AI users is ironic as it is outsourcing your brain to identify the ones who are outsourcing their thinking. As far as detectors which are reasonably accurate are concerned: Yes, they will false flag poems which are perhaps "mechanical" in composition such as Suzette Prime poetry. But there are so much more to determining AI - do read my abovementioned blog, and my article, Poetic Voice. I would not flag a poet as an AI user unless I have done an across the board check, and that includes an analysis of a number of sample poems. Why? Because it effects us all!
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Richards Avatar
Suzette Richards
Date: 7/28/2025 4:31:00 AM
I think that I speak for most sponsors when I say that we would rather judge than policing the entries - a situation that could totally be avoided if AI-generated poetry is identified as such by the poet. Judging contest entries has always entailed analysis and attention to the design whether it conforms to the contest requirements. Let me be clear: I do not criticise or condemn poets using AI for their own use—that is their prerogative—but am of the opinion that if posting on public platforms (especially as contest entries) it should ideally be identified as such. It should never become a witch hunt! Amen
Richards Avatar
Suzette Richards
Date: 7/27/2025 11:12:00 PM
In answer to Sara Jama below: AI detectors don’t “devour” data from Meta platforms like Facebook or Instagram to understand human writing. Instead, they analyze linguistic patterns—such as sentence structure, vocabulary, repetition, and predictability—to estimate whether a piece of text was likely generated by an AI model. These detectors are typically trained on datasets of known human and AI-generated text, not scraped social media posts.
Date: 7/27/2025 8:02:00 PM
Thanks for this. As I came to realize myself these past two days, we cannot rely upon AI checkers. That was the whole point of my earlier blog: to question how judges are dealing with AI checkers . I now realize I can't depend on them, so those of us who care about honest poetry must do our best to compete honestly in spite of the dishonest competitors.
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Date: 7/27/2025 5:49:00 PM
Maclawrence, thank you for pointing out the dark clouds of AI poetry. I agree. It does leave one depressed to insert one's poetry in an AI checker and it comes back 97% and higher that it's supplemented with artifical intelligence. Mine have..And it hurts..Because hand on a Bible I.write for fun and don't have to cheat..Yet with so much bad wind swirling around this topic it does take away the joy away from submitting poems all together (at least for me). When I look at.other members poetry I do see their fingerprint/signature styles of writing and applaud them.
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Pachecho Avatar
Connie Pachecho
Date: 7/28/2025 12:45:00 AM
To all the poets out there who walk a fine line but are gradually being turned off that their poetry contest submissions are going through the mill, bless you. When your heart is honorable and pure regarding poetry, and you hear all this talk about AI checkers, audits, and forensics, does it dampen your spirits to even enter the contest? Or be up against AI poetry. Yes.
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 7/27/2025 8:03:00 PM
I like what both of you are saying, Connie and Sara
Jama Avatar
Sara Jama
Date: 7/27/2025 7:58:00 PM
Exactly I agree. Plus since A.I Detectors devour huge amounts of information from Meta i.e. Facebook, Instagram, ect. and the like to understand human writing better it makes absolute sense that poems that are entirely written by humans come back as A.I as it has happened to all of us. To check and recheck our poems, write and rewrite until A.I. says it's not A.I takes all the joy, passion and creativity out of writing. It's also ironic we are starting to relay solely on A.I telling us something is A.I. I think as humans we need to use our best judgement whether a poem feels A.I or not and not relay only on the checkers. The checkers should be a tool not an end all and be all of poetry.

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