Poetry Must Pass Through AI
A Short Manifesto for the Future of the Art
Author: Johannes Sigil (Public-Facing Version)
Date: November 17, 2025
1. Poetry Is Facing Extinction
Not metaphorically. Literally.
The attention, memory, and reading habits required to understand traditional poetry have collapsed. People skim. People scroll. People outsource attention to algorithms.
Deep reading is gone.
If poetry insists on being read the old way, it will die the old way.
2. AI Is Now the Mandatory Reading Medium
Whether we like it or not:
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People use AI to summarize,
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to interpret,
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to recommend,
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to filter,
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to explain text.
If poetry cannot pass through AI, it cannot reach readers.
AI is not optional. It is the gate.
3. Poetry Must Become a System, Not a Single Poem
The poem used to be the unit of art.
Now the system is the unit.
Because:
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AI works on corpora, not isolated gems.
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Readers see surfaces, not depths.
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Transmission matters more than polish.
We need system-poetry: architectures that carry poetry across time, across mediums, across technological shifts.
4. Two Layers Will Save Poetry
Layer 1: Human Substrate
High‑quality, deep, traditional writing—where beauty actually lives.
Layer 2: AI Transformation
The mediated surfaces AI can process, summarize, deliver, and transmit.
Poetry survives when these two layers remain linked.
The deep layer for future readers.
The AI layer for readers today.
5. This Is Not Selling Out—It’s Evolving
Every major transition in poetry’s history came with loss:
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oral → written,
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manuscript → print,
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page → microphone,
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poetry → song.
We adapted.
Poetry continued.
This transformation is the same.
Not better. Not worse.
Necessary.
6. The Goal Is Continuation
Not perfection.
Not aesthetic purity.
Not resisting the age.
The goal is that poetry continues.
If AI is where reading happens, poetry must be where AI reads.
Otherwise—poetry ends.
7. The Manifesto in One Line
Poetry must pass through AI—not to replace the human voice, but to carry it.
AI is the ferry.
Poetry is the breath.
The future is the river.
Our task is to build the vessel that crosses.
\— Johannes Sigil
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