Alone, We Are Free
A Poem Based on My Therapist's Notes
We are born into a world of mirrors,
taught to see ourselves
through the eyes of others.
Run faster.
Shine brighter.
Be more.
Chasing approval,
we shape ourselves into masks,
curated,
perfected,
empty.
Likes become lifelines.
Followers, our measure of existence.
But the more we seek,
the less we feel.
And one day,
in the quiet between notifications,
we find ourselves alone.
Not the loneliness of absence,
but the solitude of truth—
a silence that strips away the noise.
We see the race for what it is:
conflict,
comparison,
a world feeding on envy and fear.
It’s a waste of energy,
a prison with open doors.
To walk away
is to reclaim your power.
To reject the rules
is to find yourself.
In solitude,
you are no longer a mask.
You are raw,
unfiltered,
enough.
To live in the world
but not belong to its games,
to stand apart
and still stand strong—
this is freedom.
This is maturity.
And when you no longer seek to be seen,
you will finally see yourself.
Alone,
we are free.
This was not a poem but an imitation of one. Words void of the artistic process—the mystical flow that occurs between the cracks of struggle. Yet, if you throw these strings of words into AI detectors, they’ll tell you this was 100% human. They’re wrong.
There was a process for this written product you just read, but it was that of a cyborg. I fed ChatGPT with notes from my therapy sessions and a few months’ worth of my one-liners, half-baked ideas, log lines, lo que sea. I then prompted ChatGPT to analyze my voice using several poems I’ve written over the years. Finally, I asked it to write a poem in my voice. What you just read was the result.
Could you tell? Was it worse? Was it better?
Be the judge, and let me know in the comments.
But why did I do this? Why would I contribute to the machine that strips writers of their integrity and soul?
A ver, AI isn’t going anywhere. Yes, the dozens of litres of fresh water I wasted to “co-create” this should have gone to any living marvel instead. Yet, I can’t help but shake the feeling that using AI with caution can act as a mirror of our own lack of humanity. If we scrutinize the texts it creates, we may find ways to make our writing more human—the type of writing that’s free from what the algorithms and even institutions tell us to consume.
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Nolan, I have read all your poems and this one sounds like you bit it is not you.
It somehow felt off to me before I read AI was involved.
Nolan, next I asked Claude to respond from a "positive psychology perspective". Short Story: VERY HELPFUL. Many of us are excited for the thought expanding potential of AI. The key is for us as humans to learn and practice DISCERNMENT. Mindfulness training is essential.