Tag Archives: opposites

Weekly AI Prompt Challenge Week of 7/26/26

This week’s prompt challenge was to write a prompt that will create a person who represents opposing concepts or elements, such as chaos and order, fire and water, etc. I chose sharp, rigid and bright contrasting with soft, curvy, and pastel.

“Curves & Corners”

Image created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompt using AI on ChatGPT.

Prompt – A front view surreal portrait of a beautiful African American woman with long, naturally curly flowing hair. The image is divided conceptually at her waist, everything above is soft, organic, flowing, and rounded, including the background image of flowing sky. Her clothing above her waist is loose and ethereal with flowing chiffon, billowing sleeves, gentle folds, swirling ribbons, soft curves, elegance, circles, orbs, swirling clouds, rounded forms, graceful waves, smooth gradients, delicate mist, pastel and muted colors, blended, dreamy, feminine, soft. Below her waist the skirt crystallizes into sharp angular geometry. Faceted polygons, jagged shards, triangles, diamonds, hard edges, sharp corners, fractured crystalline planes, sharp folds, Cubist architecture, geometric abstraction, rigid structures, loud clashing colors, black accents, bold graphic contrast. The landscape behind her lower half is angular buildings, polygonal streets, fractured perspective, sharp architecture.

Platform – ChatGPT

And here are some of the honorable mentions that I did not submit, but still published on my art website:

These images created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompts using AI on Gencraft.com website.

Hafiz – Poem 40

All images created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompts using AI on Gencraft.com website.

I am reading Hafiz’s Little Book of Life, poetry by Hafiz-e Shirazi. He is challenging me to become more comfortable with ambiguity. I will share his poem and some of my thoughts on his poem (sometimes with the help of experts when the concepts are too hard for me), followed by a poem and some art inspired by his poem.

Hafiz’s Poem 39:

Peace in both realms
Depends on your interpretation
Of these two utterances

“Be merciful with friends”

“Be tolerant of foes”

Some thoughts:

I’m not sure what two realms Hafiz is conceptualizing in this poem. There are so many options including: private life v. public life; religious life v. secular life; inner existence v. outer existence; human/earthly realm v. spiritual/divine realm; etc. I am going to keep it simple and consider the two realms “those who think like us” v. “those who do not think like us” as a simple way of saying “friend” or “foe.” That could apply to a number of different realms and is certainly relevant in current society where so much seems to balance on scales of dichotomy. Liberal v. Conservative; Rich v. Poor; Science v. Religion; Nature v. Progress; etc. We tend to be painted into black and white corners in nearly every conversation we enter.

I think Hafiz is suggesting that true peace depends on the way we perceive the gray areas that are not so easy to navigate. Can we be friends with someone who fails us? Those we love often hurt us the most because we care about their opinions and count on them. Can we be soft and loving to maintain relationships with those closest to us, even during the tough times? They are only human. And with our foes, can we allow for complexity and seek to understand without dehumanizing, othering, and judging too harshly? They are only human.

We will never have peace if we demand our way is the only way and there can be no other. Yes, we should have ideals, but then we must be merciful, tolerant, and gentle in our application of those principles as regards others. Can we hold compassion for those close to us and restraint toward those who oppose us? Will our differences and our interactions expand our hearts or harden them? The way we interpret these concepts holds the key to lasting peace.

My Poem 40:

Loving another means
accepting that they are human,
with all that entails,
including:
lateness, forgetfulness, distraction,
fear, ailments, impatience, frustration,
weakness, faults, arguments, disappointment,
and the list could go on…

The other we love may be friend or foe.
Both are in the same category of human,
with all that entails,
including:
beating heart, breathing lungs, thoughts,
opinions, feet to walk away, mouths that open,
hands that ball up into fists and clasp in prayer,
and the list could go on…

Hafiz. Hafiz’s Little Book of Life. Translated by Erfan Mojib and Gary Gach, Hampton Roads Publishing, 2023.