in a Chinese room
was I thinking? am I a
human or machine?
A haiku about the thought experiments, Chinese Room and China Brain to discuss consciousness and thought in machines
Category: 2026
in a Chinese room
Just To Say – 1st June 2026
Is this even a poem?
These are instructions for living a life!
So pay attention, be astonished!
There are lines to be read between
where secrets lie awaiting the skilled reader.
My second attempt at awesoku and inspired/paraphrased from this Substack post – How To Like Poetry, written by Isaac Kolding.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Always Have A Mental Reverse Clause
Things won’t always behave as instructed
Our reverse clause can be arranged
Our progress can be impeded or disrupted
But the mind can also be changed
Seed Fall – 31st May 2026
She cracked the dry seed pod open,
tipped the tiny black seeds into my hand,
closing my fingers around them—
a secret we both knew would not grow here.
Did she close my fingers to keep them safe,
or to make sure that I would feel them slip away?
I let go of the seeds—
but I kept the shape of her fingers closed around mine.
Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #229 – Letting go
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
We Have But One Obligation
In your life, there’s just one thing
That must be done to make it sing
Be a good person, make no excuses
Do your job so that no one loses
The In And Out – 30th May 2026
breathing
is really more important than the other in-and-outs,
and it’s never consciously thought about
until the final one, in that stark white hospital
room
where family sits together, in quiet grief.
the empty shell cleaned, now unfurnished of blood,
getting smaller and smaller and that
is
the way we all go after being, our undoing.
all the stories that made us us, told you what we were,
all connected by these little words
only
to be forgotten, not amounted to much, there
may be others but just a few who scratch
their name somewhere, to be seen to break through,
born
under the lights, to brightly shine, made all
fresh and new, furnished again with blood.
a tiny temple, a clean empty shell
with
first breaths made together, familiar families
sit again in familiar rooms, in familiar places.
going home with more to include, in this
space
where new blossoms bloom, grass grows,
streets lights wander up to the mountain skies
where new stories are born in the twinkle of an eye.
Shared with dVerse MTB: taking a fine line down where I have reused the line ‘breathing room is only born with space’ from my own poem from a couple of days ago, ‘On The Usefulness Of Emptiness’. This line is then used as a word acrostic and each stanza defines (somewhat, in my case) the meaning of the word. The prompt and my write was inspired by Laura Bloomsbury’s poem ‘An unbundling’.
I started writing this thinking about my mother passing away on the other side of the world from me. My cousin was there holding her hand as she took her last struggling breath after a couple of years of suffering with COPD. This then unconsciously took a turn towards the circle of life.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Working Hard Or Hardly Working?
Where is all the busyness taking you?
Is it really accomplishing very much?
You read and write, and work all night
Just to remain in place, as such
Three Interests – 29th May 2026
I have three main interests.
Together, they don’t add up to much,
but they keep me busy.
Maybe you’ll never guess what they are
because you don’t know who I am.
A first, somewhat trivial, attempt at an awesoku. Like a Tanka poem, it has a 5,7,5,7,7 structure; however, you count the words in each line, not the syllables. 5 lines with a total of 31 words. The first 3 lines must have a beginning and an end. The last 2 lines don’t have to stand alone; they can be one continuous sentence broken up into 2 lines. This is commonly referred to as a run-on sentence.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Work Is Therapy
Work nourishes noble minds
Is your potential being fulfilled?
Self-indulgence often finds
Any motivation is being killed
Let Them – 28th May 2026
Let them find the puddles
you pointed out —
what you call falling,
they call jumping.
Let them fly
to figure out fortunes.
Let them forget my name
and find their own.
Let me still be here
but let me let them go.
Shared with dVerse Poetics – Let them
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
The First Two Things Before Acting
In a short time, you’ll be nobody and nowhere
What’s the point in getting into a tizzy?
The task at hand, considered with care
Remember your purpose before getting busy
On the Usefulness of Emptiness – 27th May 2026
The abyss is not a grave, but loam,
where clarity grows in silence like a seed.
This soundless soil is your truest home,
and substance springs from this unhurried need.
The hour’s worth is found within its frame;
breathing room is only born with space.
The soul’s deep labour is to bear its name;
emptiness gives meaning to this place.
Inspired by a Substack article at Words of Taoism (link lost)
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Sweat The Small Stuff
All the small things underfoot
Soon becomes big enough
If you want to learn to run
Better sweat the small stuff
Waiting By The Sea – 26th May 2026
海
drawn by the ocean’s pendulum
one sea pulls two tides
ginseng from a foreign shore
so two oceans salt the skin
海漂
anchored by the absence
life woven with exotic light
a longitude of belonging
stretched over a starless map
海归
returning on an uncommon tide
new dialects translate as silence
roots return to familiar soil
a suitcase filled with the horizon
同河异流
we are the ocean’s answer to the shore
the dream of return, an anchor
the memory of departure, a ghost
two streams from the same river
Based on some research after reading this article by Jasmine Sun, and learning the Chinese word 海归 (sea turtle) and then its counterpart 海漂 (drifting at sea). In some ways, I am still the drifting sea turtle.
I also translated it into Chinese (below) and then back to English to see if there was any improvement with certain words. It seems to be a reasonable translation, though I have no idea how poetic it might be in Chinese.
海
被海洋的钟摆牵引
一海牵引两股潮汐
来自异乡的人参
两片海洋浸润肌肤
海漂
被缺席所锚定
生命与异域之光交织
归属的经度
延伸至无星的地图
海归
乘着不寻常的潮水归来
新的方言被解读为沉默
根回归熟悉的土壤
一个装满地平线的行李箱
同河异流
我们是海洋对海岸的回应
回归的梦想，一个锚
离别的记忆，一个幽灵
同一条河流的两条溪流
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Stop Caring What People Think
We love ourselves above all
But count our own opinions less
Don’t waste time on others’ thoughts
That will stop you in your progress
The Barkeep’s Lament – 25th May 2026
In city lights on borrowed dime,
A job you hate wastes all your time.
You dress the part and ‘network’ well,
In curated tales you choose to tell.
Posing like a cool performer,
Editing with filters warmer,
In shadowed light, on barstool found,
Two nights are yours to fill with sound,
You rate the world in practised prose,
While your debt and doubt quietly grows.
So welcome, friend, to tonight’s shrine.
Now, what’s your poison? I’ve got mine.
Inspired by the writing of C. James Desmond at The Barman Substack
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Where To Find Joy
Proper human work brings joy
See how far comfort will get you
Idleness will easily destroy
And develop things to upset you
Listen – 23rd May 2026
Inspired by a quote by Kate Murphy found at Maia’s Tiny Hearts.
I was surprised to find that I hadn’t already written a poem simply titled ‘Listen’
Listen, they said.
(The train pulls out of the old station)
Listen to your heart.
(Blood beats in disappointment)
Your inner voice.
(Whispered lies)
Listen to your guts.
(You found your way here)
They said.
When all I needed to do
was to listen more carefully
to you.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
1994ever 