On Teaching and AI

AI isn't as good a teacher as a human being. It's just human beings have to be taught how to teach. Basically, a teacher listens to 30 people explain a concept, and condenses all of it into a simpler form, that is more concrete, so a student can understand it. Which we need people to do, because AI has a habit of hallucinating and drawing incorrect information from bad sources. I heard one AI try to say that Pushkin was black. Which was hilarious, but it drew that from a poorly researched website. It just can't curate information, or innovate it. It only does what its programming allows.

Poems Spring 2026

1. An Atheist's Proof of God

Take a square, and circumscribe a Circle's Diameter
Onto one of its sides.
Then, extend the Square into a rectangle,
So the square and rectangle fit to the golden ratio.
Then, make within the rectangle, the Golden Ratio arc.
Then, make a circle from the radii of one side of the golden ratio rectangle
And from its parallel corner of the circle, so draw an arc
To the other side of the rectangle.
Build a circle, so the diameter of a smaller circle
Is tangent to where the arc had crossed the golden ratio rectangle
And so its circumference meets the Golden Ratio Arc.
The larger circle will be exactly that of the Earth
Proportioned to the smaller circle, if it were proportioned to the moon.
And then draw an angle from the parallel corner of the golden ratio rectangle,
So that the angle meets at the place where the rectangle and smaller circle are tangent.
That angle will be equal to the Great Pyramids of Giza's slope.

2. Two Musicians

Banjos play their melodies, 
Echoing in the wind;
Each a different kind
Of plucking on the strings.
The two masters met
And music they did make;---
A style none had heard
Which echoed as they played.
Once, and only once, these two masters played
And the most beautiful music made everyone there so gay.
Never again would their song be heard
And a thousand like are so...
Musicians who form their songs
And humbly ought to know:
How many men have never played,
Or how many never would...
Oh!
If humble masters rolled
As each man's response so should?

3. Providential Guidance

Amazing to me, God brings me to a thing;
I study it there, and kindly unaware
He brings it to its peace.
There it is, which days later will be core.
How Providence guides me,
And helps shape my lore.

4. The Sum of My Politics

Silly conversations,
When two men disagree
On definitions, and cannot
Understand what is real
Leads to social calamity.
The arts, when it is ugly
Reflects the soul of a people,
Or when it is beautiful the same.
The will of a people determine
The force of a society---
No sovereign moves without his people
And he cannot sway them.
If they are good, the sovereign becomes good
But if they are bad, the sovereign becomes bad.
Tradition and innovation must work in balance---
Never forsake traditions, and enjoy them bountifully.
But innovate a little--not a lot--so as not to confuse
The elders, nor bore the youth.
Religion is good for a society,
And Atheism must subject itself to Religious laws of benevolence.
Women are not the master over men;
And children are not the master over adults.
God is to be venerated, and providence rules
Even over a people and its ruler.
Do not interfere with the peasant's timing.
They know the season to harvest, and the season to plant.
They know the season to weave, and the season to gin.
They know the season to eat, and the season to fast.
They know the season to breed, and the season to skillfully handle.
Do not interfere with them, and let them nourish themselves
Upon their own fruits. And do not make them dependent.
But, rehabilitate the poor, so they can be strong, too.
Plant a fruit tree every acre, and let the husbandman dress.
Then there will be fine clothing for all,
And a portion of meat on every table.

5. What I Wanted to Be When I Grow Up

As a child, I had no plan for the future.
I had no career, or wont for work.
I watched the A-Team and Star Wars
And Ninja Turtles. I ate hot dogs.
I'd eat apple sauce and tuna fish casserole.
I'd go to kindergarten, and fret about school.
There, even, it was too hard.
I'd write my letters on chalkboards,
And sound out all the letters,
And I'd put my number blocks together
In ones, tens, hundreds and thousands...
I'd play with playdough, and learn about division;
I'd learn about multiplication on our blocks.
I'd learn about addition on them, too.
I'd learn phonemes and suffixes and prefixes.
I'd learn about subtraction from apples
And grapes, by eating them.
I'd listen to the teacher read stories.
I'd learn Tall Tales, and about our Revolutionary War.
I'd learn about our Civil War.
I'd learn about Wright Brothers, Ford, Edison and Bell
Earhart, Robinson, King, and Tubman.  
I'd learn Mammals, and Fish, and Amphibians, and Birds,
And Reptiles, and Mollusks, and Cephalopods and Crustaceans
And Insects, and Arachnids and Anthropoids. Some Dinosaurs too.
I'd have little card catalogs with all the animals
And their species, classification and phylums.
I'd play Super Mario World and Donkey Kong.
I'd gaze for hours at the hollo sheets on my encyclopedias
That had the human systems, 
Digestive, respiratory, nervous, cardiovascular, skeletal, endocrine, reproductive.
I'd run with a stick in my basement, and make elaborate
Wars with Army Men and Star Wars action figures.
That was what I was good at, so I tried to turn it into a career.
I guess, that's what I wanted to be, was a professional
At taking all of this and creating something good.

6. We Know Not What to Ask For

Walking down the clay path,
I realize, "We know not what to pray."
For we want wives, and homes and children,
And for our hearts by these things made gay.
I then realize, we know not what to ask.
For, we must ask for peace-be-still,
And to love our neighbor as our last.

Then I see the hellborn servant,
The one who says this phrase,
"I know to hell I am going,
"So go big to win Satan's praise."
Yet there is all suffering,
And there you deserve to die.

So I ask God, I ask God,
"Should I be like him make me die."
For I wish to not walk another step
In this world of empty fame.
If I am a stumbling block to others,
Let me die LORD, if I have Thy Rage.
Yet, I ask for peace, and to be made righteous still.
That is why, the Servant of Hell,
Is going, for he is selfishly revealed.
The things of this life are his only treasure,
And to steal from me he will.
He will take all I ever asked for,
Except the heavenly hills I fill
My mouth with, and the roads of golden clay.
There I wish to walk, there I will some day.

7. Have You Ever?

Have you ever eaten a fine dish?
All your familiar flavors are there,
But enhanced to a degree greater.
Have you ever listened to flat music,
That has been played after a sweet
Melody? Such is life and heaven...
Life is a bland dish, cooked well,
Served hot, but heaven is augmented
A little brighter, and the flavors a little
More subtle, and the sights a little
Bit more beautiful than we see now.
And if you have ever heard a song
A fine church melody, play,
And then listened to this world's flat
Contemporary songs,
You shall know... yes, you shall know.
Yet, some are conditioned to prefer
The morsel that is not quite as sweet.

8. A Dream

I have two sins...
Bitterness and Idolatry.
I slept sweet last night,
And then tried to escape the essene---
And I saw Hephzibah in her olive skin,
And she did not want me.
For I idolized her.
And then, the prison house rapist
Mocked me, where the employer
Wished me to meet my fate.
And because he would not hire me, I had an outburst;
For though I knew his sons and daughters,
He did not wish to hire me, for my bread,
But wished me to be the Prison's Victim.
And I told the rapist, I'd like Brittos
Slay him, yet it was bitterness,
Even with a vile oath.
And then I fought the sith,
And ended up on a Morning Talk Show...
There I saw those same people,
But they ignored me, 
And when I talked,
They said, "This is a weak gospel."
And I saw my acquaintances walk by, downcast,
And I knew not how I offended them...
Was it my fault? I did not know for I could not recall the offense.
Yet, it was my gospel,
Of faith producing works....
They shunned me, though
And had their soldiering to do...
Who they fought I do not know,
But I do know it was not themselves.
And then, after the essene tried to grab me,
And I blurted out my idolatry,
I was bit by two Komodo Dragons,
And avoided a third.
And I walked to the snow, and washed the cankerous wounds,
I could feel my leg were swollen and numb;
Where before I were in the fires of hell so I could witness it were real.
And I asked the local, "Does this kill?"
He said, "No." in his ancient wisdom;
The White Evangelical told me to go see a doctor.
Yet, I washed in the snow.
And before that, I was talking,
And they were discussing the Apostolic Fathers.
And I knew a thing, and they knew a thing,
But they cared not for my thing, only theirs;
They said to respect the Crumbs at the Table; so I listened to their gospel, 
And knew I was but a man.
But then they asked me about the weeds.
To which, I told them about the weeds...
First all they knew were the Dandelions,
So I told them about the Veronica, the Mayapples, the Daisies, 
The Violets, the Broad Leaf Plantain,
But they said I talk too much.
But while walking a little further, I saw what I didn't tell them,
Which was Wolf's Bane, which I knew never to touch.
Yet I forgave my debtor of one hundred shekels;
And I told him, "You reap what you sow."
And the realization came to me as I awoke...
"I have two sinis. Idolatry and bitterness.
"But the rest of it is this faulty world and its ills...
"Most of this is not my fault, I now understand.
"It is just a cruel world."

9. Two Haikus

The farmer's soil
Can produce, yet every year
There is risk of drought.

Nature reflects us.
What it does, we do also.
Yet, it is still good.

10. The Wild Flowers

The rich man, with a beautiful face
Poses for a perfume commercial.
He says, "You get what you deserve."
I do not see this, anywhere, being true.
I see men like him, with no good,
Swimming in gold and whores.
I see men who have made less mistakes,
Though more taboo, destitute.
I've seen men, who did no wrong,
Still lost in a see of the world's forgetfulness.

I look at the flowers, they come up over the year
In their times. In little clusters they bloom.
Just like people, the more beautiful ones appear
For a short time, so distinct, but surrounding them
Are weeds. And the weeds thrive all year long.
But, the flowers are distinct in their times.
And they spring up, and they die... until winter
When there is only the Rose Hip and the Holly Berry.
He puts his finger to his mouth, and says "Be quiet."
Yet, I know it is not true, for people are suffering.
Yes, indeed, people are suffering.
And I see the autumn come, and the late Mallow and Chicory bloom.

And the rich men are like Barberries, invasive
With a rich, red, yet bland fruit.
And they sprout in the last months of fall,
And there they grow, not where they ought to be.
Yet, understand, the perfume of the Rose, or the Trumpets
Of the Currants, or the Daisies, or the Bluebells,
Or the Hyacinths, cannot be matched.
The oak of the forest, and the musk of the cedars
Are beautiful among all others.
Yet, the rich grow in wealth, and the poor feed their decadence.
And the writer is called a "Fool".
So what if he is? Was not Wordsworth a supporter of Liberty?
And then converted to a more conservative view?
No... for you cannot have the poets.
All must do their busy work...
Destroy art, history, literature, math, science...
All so the rich can eat, and the poor can feed them.
The peoples spring up in their generations...
And this generation there are the Chicories
With their bitter roots, though vitamin rich,
And they make a Coffee, and have a delicate flower.
They close during the hottest parts of the day,
And they open during the rain and are bright in the morning.

11. The Prettiest Face

A Prettiest Face
I saw in my life, slapped a
Man for saying that
Women shouldn't have suffrage.
He took her to court and won.

My honest opinion is
That people had decorum
In the past and would forgive.
I think of a Hippy saying 
It: this must have transpired
A hundred thousand times now.
Though, I don't think this would be.
A new world with new bounds.
So nobody has love.
Does anyone know how to forgive now?

Yet now I know what
Happened, radical left met
Radical right... war.
Calls it apolitical.
Beauty is only skin deep.

©2026 B. K. Neifert
All Rights Reserved

My Writing Journey

This was how I started writing a book.

1. I started writing a book. Lol. Wrote awkward sentences, with very bad spelling--was told I spelled like the Unabomber, which I didn't understand until recently--but I hacked away at it. Started in 2005 and continued until--that particular book which is my best--about 2020 when I did the final edits.
2. I took a Creative Writing Course and I took English 051. And I followed the Creative Writing Courses' directions. If he told me to do something, I did. That's important. You need to learn how to write in guidelines--except one time I broke one of his rules, and got one point deducted, which is when I really liked him, and found out he was a very honest grader.
3. I read classic literature. Really soaked in all their ideas.
4. I watched thousands of Edutainment videos and video essays.
5. I memorized about 40 Literary Devices.
6. I had a dictionary on my phone that gave me a word of the day, and always had a dictionary on hand, to read. So, I read the dictionary.
7. I wrote about 5,000 words a day, for 20 years. Still not selling, but have 24 books published on KDP.
8. I studied all the major philosophers, religions, economics theories, political theories and psychologists. Also Persian, Ancient Near East, Greek, Roman, American and British History, as well as Norse, Greek, Irish and Egyptian Mythologies.
9. I read the Romantic Poets, and learned how to craft deeper metaphors.
10. I was in love with the idea of love.

So, that's my journey. I say that, because 1 year sounds like a long time, but you could be going at it for a lot longer. I was just reading Van Halen's rise to fame, it took them about twenty years before they were on the Top Billboards. 

Also, make sure you're at peace with your writing. If you ever feel something makes you uncomfortable, don't hesitate to delete it. Before it becomes public knowledge, that's a good thing to delete writing that, maybe for some reason doesn't reflect who you are. But, once it's out there, it's going to be out there. So know that you could be a household name, you could be famous, you could be wealthy... remember those things when you're doing this, too.

God’s Economy

So... the best way to explain God's economy, is looking at a balance. You pay the right amount for a thing as it balances on the scale, and no more or less; and you pay for work the right amount, no more or less. And you forgive debts after 7 years, and you rest your land every 7 years to help the soil stop eroding; you give everyone the proper amount of vacation, one day a week and also mandatory holidays, and you give 10% of your money to the Church or the Poor. And the poor are rehabilitated and cared for by the King. Also, people are allowed to own private property, and what is yours cannot belong to someone else.

The Free Market

We need a stand in for labor and work, as a credit to hold a place and keep records of debts. In ancient times this could be preserved foods, or gold and silver, or sand dollars. But now it's dollar bills. And this money is the product of a company called the Federal Reserve. And this reserve prints money as their product--like Coca-Cola makes Coke--and they sell it to the bank at interest, and the bank then lends money to their customers, at interest, and accumulates interest in Savings Accounts, which then pay for the money that the Federal Reserve lended. Also, this money--which is a place holder--pays debts to other countries for goods and services, and this debt is kept on record, as a debt owed to those other Countries or Private Entities, in the forms of money, which gets used to pay for goods and services. And when we pay taxes, a portion of our money gets collected, and gets used to pay a portion of that debt. And we can run a deficit or surplus, of taxes collected by the Federal, State and Local government. And a deficit means the government spends more than it collects in taxes. And a surplus means it spends more. And debt, is how much accumulated deficit is collected over many years, and a surplus removes that debt, and if you collect a surplus in excess of your debt, your government then runs a surplus, which nearly never happens in human history. Also, this money can be a stand in for debts owed to private entities, like Banks or debts for goods and services like what you buy at the grocery store. And when you owe more money than you make, like the government, that creates debts, which needs to be paid back to that entity, so they can also make a living too. Also, you use it to buy things. As, if you didn't do this, stores would run out of stuff to sell, and there'd be problems with rationing because everyone would take more than they produced, and would cause a decrease in the living standards of our country. Some people, their goods they sell are art and entertainment, and others it's information, and others it's labor whether intellectual or physical, others it's logistics, others its producing raw materials, others its assembling and making use of those raw materials. And that gets paid with money, which is a stand in for labor and work, as a credit to hold a place and keep records of debts. Because if you didn't have a stand in for labor or work, you'd work and never truly have compensation. It'd all have to be paid for immediately, which used to be called a Bartering System, which still happens in a Free Market, but money is the main mode of commerce. Also, stocks are a thing. I should point out, that stocks are publicly traded debts, that private people buy and sell, and they fluctuate with the company's value, and are like a loan to the company, where the buyer intends on growing his wealth with the company, and when the company is failing, they sell their debts for what a buyer is willing to pay for it, and the buyer buys the debts for what they're willing to pay for them, which I think is regulated by the Market. And some stocks pay a dividend, or a small portion out to their debtors, to encourage them to buy their stocks in large volumes.

Planetary Idyllic II, Pentameter Form

Across the planes of a planet, the size
Of Venus, right in the goldilocks zone,
There is a Red Giant---so this planet 
Is where Pluto resides, and is well warmed.
The red giant casts a sunset like glow
Over the corn, and the Maize, with yellow sky
And pink clouds. Continual sunset, peaks
Of red clay stand on a plateau, across
The horizon, a plateau larger than
Everest in width, height and its red breadth.
Sun sails pull a hexagonal beehive 
In a mushroom, in the red atmosphere,
And there it pulls across the horizon.
Threshing buggies made of wood thresh the corn
And strong, farmer's bodies make the corn, throw
It into barrels. A winding river, pink
Swerves across the landscape, the grass a dull
Burgundy against the sunlight. The sun
High in the sky, at this planet's noontime...
The clocks set for twenty-four hours of
Babylonian base twelves. But it is 
Truly like a twenty-six hour day.