The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 12

Sunday, December 10, 1989 Novice poets get help from Hiram computer A12 The Beacon Journal When I started it I was just being playful. Now I know it's a very ustiful thing for my poetry courses, Hale Chatfield computer program's creator ills i I i 1 -Ti gram. Those words include age, beauty, death, color and melancholy. Ask the computer a question not related to poetry and it will answer you. Are you a real person? Of course, hah! Because students can ask the computer virtually anything, Chatfield said he included profanity in the program's vocabulary because he anticipated both serious and sarcastic queries.

Chatfield is founder and co-editor of the Hiram Poetry Review, an international poetry journal first published in 1967. He has published seven volumes of poetry including Poetry and Love and Possessions. His computer disk Is only available at the campus bookstore to students enrolled in his course. The disk costs about $26. But Chatfield is working with the computer firm INRAC based in Staten Island, N.Y., to get his disk marketed.

Those disks are expected to cost double what students are now paying. Chatfield hopes that one day anyone from across the country who completes the computer course will get credit at the college. Chatfield will talk about his Baann Journal photoOtt Oanft Computer program developed by Hiram professor composes a random poem Continued from page Al to change the nature of the work." If you question the wisdom, knowledge or ability of a mindless computer to write poetry, consider the words of the following poem, written by the Chat-field computer program: Age is a kiss, a marble desert Age silvers stillness; It waves as a howl in the flourish of fire. Age is the leg of all grasslands. Chatfield says his ingenious idea came about several years ago while writing a review about a computer firm and electronic language.

He said he became interested in the possibilities of new technology. At first he saw it merely as "poetry entertainment." But Chatfield said he then began to think that the program "might really be a useful part of the course in addition to being fun." It took three years of working many 12-hour days for Chatfield to perfect the program. "It's like writing a novel in a foreign language," Chatfield said of the process. "It's a monstrous task. I started to think I was really crazy." The computer Is programmed 60 that when a student writes a I line of poetry, it shifts to a vocabulary list that searches for key words and subjects.

Take, for example, the following first line written by Chatfield: The sea is full of signs of death "That's good," the computer writes back. The computer picks up on the keyword "sea" and writes the following second line: and if the tugboat blossoms then all of fantasy will darken forever The computer also is programmed to pick a certain number of verbs, consonants, etc. when writing certain types of poetry. For example, the computer is programmed to pick at random one of the words summer, or mellow in the first line of poetry and the words minor or natural in the second line. Two years ago Chatfield and students in one of his poetry classes researched words, ideas and phrases that reoccur in poetry.

That list of about 200 words also is part of the computer pro computer-written poem when he sees one because he is so familiar with the program and its capabilities. Any possibility of computer-written poems replacing those written by humans? "That's just out of the question," Chatfield said. "Part of the joy of any art is that we know a human being's behind it." my poetry courses." Chatfield admits that poetry partially written by a computer may one day find its way into print. He does not discourage his students from turning in computer-written poetry since they aren't graded on their poetry-writing ability. He grades them on course theories.

Chatfield insists he can tell a poetry computer program at the International Conference on Technology and Education in Brussels in March. Chatfield said his students think his teaching approach is great. "We're really tickled with it," Chatfield said. "When I started it I was just being playful. Now I know it's a very useful thing for Task force may give up search for serial killer Sega GENESIS SYSTEM The new dimension in video game play! Uses powerful 16-bit arcade technology plus stereo sound for the ultimate home system.

Includes Altered Beast game. NEC TURBO GRAFX-16 16-bit graphics processor allows faster sequences, new levels of play and a broader range of colors, images. Includes Keith Courage game card. SegaGeneai LAST BATTLE 5S83 nec TYPE NEC BLAZING NEC VIGILANTE SegaASenaskt CiJ GHOULS 'N GHOSTS IrlT SagaBaneakt SUPER THUNDER BLADE LASOROA BASEBALL 3 NEC iiiiliiii mml iiiuitmaft I L- CHINA WARRIOR Nintendo ACTION SET Amazing, lifelike graphics. With control deck, controllers, light gun, game pak.

By Tim Klass Associated Press 8attla With (15 million spent and no solution in sight, authorities are thinking of disbanding the Green River Task Force and say that the elusive serial killer of as many as 49 women may remain unknown forever. Forty to 50 people remain under investigation in the nation's worst serial murder case. Without some breakthrough, those queries should be completed in about a year, said King County Police Capt. Robert Evans, head of the unit. The task force was formed in 1984 to probe the deaths or disappearances of as many as 49 young women, most with links to prostitution, in the Pacific Northwest from the summer of 1982 to early 1984.

The case takes its name from the river near where the first five victims were found. Police spokesman Dave Robinson said the county alone has spent some $15 million on the case, which investigators admit could wind up as much a mystery as the identity of Jack the Ripper, the unknown person who mutilated and murdered five prostitutes in London a century ago, or the Zodiac killer who stalked San Franciscans two decades ago and sent taunting notes to authorities. Five months ago, a former law student who- was also a prison escapee was labeled a "viable suspect" by investigators. But William Jay Stevens 38, was cleared in the case Nov. 30.

Other men studied by the task force have not even reached "viable" status. For example, a 34-year-old man was arrested Nov. 16 in Vancouver, British Columbia, in a police-style car found to contain guns, knives, Mace, a machete, 10 feet of rope, pornographic videos and Identification listing eight addresses and various names. Investigators have speculated that the Green River killer posed as a police officer to trap his victims. But Evans said the man arrested in Canada apparently spent too little time in the Seattle area to rank higher than "not very likely." Evans and Sheriff James Montgomery said the 19-member task force probably would lose a detective or two next month.

A budget for 1990 approved by the County Council would cut two detectives from the major crimes unit, which houses the task force, and at least one probably will come from the Green River investigation, Montgomery said. At its height, the task force had separate offices and involved about 70 staff members from Seattle, Tacoma, King and Pierce counties and the FBI. Aecum nngq WRESTLEMANIA 09" Capcom MICKEY MOUSE Bandal Capcom USA BIONIC COMMANDO "I Commodore COMMODORE 128 COMPUTER WITH BUILT-IN-DISC DRIVE 128D RAM, high speed 1571 disk drive, detachable keyboard, 4080 color output. 80P WWVVVVVVVVVVl WIN: There a QVS WUS near you! ciif rcunssrai 1K2 TO ROLLING ACRES BELDEN VILLAGE NOW HIRING Full time Part time 2213 Romlg Road 4822 Whipple Ave. N.W.

CHAPEL HILL 590 Howe Road ml. nmt Hwf Ml baioia dwaal hm (tt mat tout of BKMn VHtaai MM) mil ra vs. rams Kvsai rra mm. ENTER AT TOYS US, 1130-123189. SEE STORE FOR DETAILS.

MONDAY SATURDAY 8:00 AM SUNDAY 9:00 AM 10:00 PM.