A couple of weeks ago journalist Annunziata Rees-Mogg (sister of Jacob, if you were wondering) put a post on X saying “Asylum seekers make up 0.8% of Dorset’s population and 44% of alleged sex offenses.” Radio 4’s programme More or Less (20th May 2026) proved the claim was false, using data provided by Bournemouth police, who said they had no idea where the figure of 44% had come from. (The true figure, according to police, is about 1%.) Some X users tried to verify Rees-Mogg’s claim using Meta’s AI Grok, which assured them that it was correct. So even those people showing some scepticism before believing a big fat social media lie were then given false information by an AI.
This story leaves me with a paradox because, I believe, like Maggie O Farrell (Guardian 31st May 2026), that uncertainty is the very essence of creativity and also that poets have a responsibility to the truth. Here is how my thinking on this dilemma goes.
Obviously the discussion about truth is centuries old and has become crucial in our contemporary world where the tools made available by the internet and AI are used to deliberately to spread misinformation, lies and false rumours to make money.
In contrast, Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical last week: Magnifica Humanitas
(Magnificent Humanity), discussed and quoted in the Guardian by Francine Rose on 28th May. In her article she talks about the way the Pope refers to AI and its misuse and about Humanity and its uniqueness. Prose quotes the Pope as follows:
“So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean.” (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/29/pope-ai-encyclical)
As a poet I find that, believing I have a responsibility to the truth, the list of human qualities that Pope Leo identifies becomes a list of subjects that are bedrock of poetry; the body, joy and pain, love and friendship. Using these topics poets look for ways to express what it means to be human, and, to borrow Pope Leo’s words, to be magnificent.
This month, with the death of a dear friend, I have been confronted as a poet and a human being by the ultimate truth of our mortality. It has been a month of gardening, of the coming of spring and the passing of someone who lived 92 years of a good life as a musician and teacher. My poem for my Stanza group this month is in her memory and an attempt to capture the human truth of grief.
My reading life
I have almost finished reading Karen Lloyd’s Earthworks (Saraband 2025) her collection of environmental and ecological essays. I met Karen years ago as we were both members of Brewery Poets in Kendal, and her writing rings with her poetic sensibilities. Her essays are fascinating and beautiful, telling us the truth of the environment and climate as she researches alongside scientists and activists.
I subscribe to Katrina Naomi’s newsletter Short and Sweet and was greatly comforted to read that it can take her months to read a poetry collection. She suggests, quite correctly, it should be read taking time and attention. I have just embarked on Sarah Howe’s Foretokens (Chatto and Windus 2025) I am going to read it and take as long as it takes!
My writing life
has largely given way to gardening this month and been overtaken by life. Now it is raining I return to my desk with renewed energy. It sounds a bit of a cliché but actually an activity like gardening is a way of resting the mind and thoughts and ideas for new poems come floating up. I am about to submit some poems to another magazine building on some success in the last few months. I shall return to Kate Clanchy’s How to Grow your own Poem. She is a hard taskmistress.
Hare in the headlights
Two poems accepted by Dreamcatcher Magazine, due out later this summer!
Poem of the month is Bamburgh Beach first published in my pamphlet Testimony (Wayleave Press 2019) and the only Villanelle I have ever had published!
Till next time…