TOM SOLHEIM

Dan’s Introductory Note:

Tom and I have been good friends since law school and have been discussing foreign affairs for more than 60 years. He is the optimist. I am more pessimistic.I recently sent him Anatol Lieven’s article “The Mark of Imperialism” from the March 2025 Harper’s Magazine as my volley against American exceptionalism. 

https://harpers.org/archive/2025/03/the-mask-of-imperialism-anatol-lieven/ 

This is Tom’s response to the article.

Hi Dan,

It took me a while to digest the Lieven article.  Thanks.  Really thoughtful and provocative.  Also kind of hard reading for my old mind.

I think his assessment that we are on the brink is correct and incorrect (like just about everything else I assess). To say that there is any coherent doctrine behind Trump’s foreign policy is probably pretty generous. But for sure it is wrong to consider that the US is somehow exceptional, and capable of usually exerting a beneficial international influence.

That being said, just being the most powerful democracy and having the largest economy of any democracy means, in any major international situation, the US will have an influence, whether it is by action, inaction, statements of our intentions or wishes, or silence. It can’t be avoided. And now, as has always been true, the response to the situation will be the result of a messy, sort of democratic, political, media-influenced, process of flawed human beings more or less trying to do the right thing.

The results of those processes in the past have been good (rebuilding Europe after WWII), awful (decision to invade Iraq), horrible but instructive (Vietnam). Hard for me to understand whether a political theory of foreign policy (liberal internationalism) is helpful in assessing the situations.

But for sure it seems like we are in a volatile and troubling state of governance now. But at the same time I have to go way back to maybe 67 or 72 to remember a time when so many people seem so politically engaged, on all sides, and so bought in to the importance of being involved. That really is democracy. 

And more and more I am feeling like the people who supported Trump, although mistaken, must be recognized for having become legitimately disillusioned about their own limited circumstances and opportunities, especially in contrast to the comfort of the more urban, liberal, high-educated folks, and even more especially in contrast to the kind of messiness and inefficiency they perceive, and we really have, in government.

Hard to see what the result will be, but hopefully no worse than the shake-up during the New Deal, when a lot of things got done quick and dirty. Or that happened when the shady deal to end Reconstruction was struck. The world will go on and the damage will be dealt with. And I am pretty sure that the unbelievable arrogance and indiscriminate bullying and lashing-out by the new administration will soon succumb to the political result that is brewing.

Tom

Dan’s comment:

Because I believe that most Americans respect the Constitution, as they demonstrated during McCarthyism, the Vietnam War and Protest, the Civil Rights Movement, and Covid, I share Tom’s optimism that we will survive Trumpism if the Constitution remains intact. 

 Does Ai Mix with Poetry? My Interview with Tom Solheim on his AI-generated poem about Virginia Woolf’s death.

Tom and I have been good friends since law school at the University of Wisconsin. He edited the  Law Review and built a successful law firm in Madison. I highly respect his judgement and intellect and share his curiosity.

I would have thought that Tom agreed with my skepticism about any incursion by generative AI into the creative process. So, Tom’s ChatGPT-created poem exploring the Virginia Woolf’s last thoughts before she committed suicide surprised me. H agreed to an interview. His prompt to ChatGPT, the AI-gen generated poem, and our Q and A follow 

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The Prompt:

. Compose a poem. of 40-80 lines of free verse, expressing the thoughts that went through the mind of Virginia Woolf during the 30 minutes or so before she died, as she went to the edge of a pond, filled her pockets with stones, and walked out into deep water. Her thoughts might include her formation of an intention, observations, fears, perceptions of other emotions, sensory perceptions, planning, memories, directions to herself, questions, or other thoughts.

The Poem:

Beneath the Surface: Virginia Woolf

The world grows quiet,

a fragile hush,

the river a glassy heart,

reflecting clouds like thoughts—

so heavy, so scattered,

as I stand at the edge,

a realm between longing and release.

The stone I take,

a fragment of me,

cold, smooth,

nestled in my pocket,

its weight a whispered promise,

an echo of yesterday,

or was it a dream?

Am I seen by the trees,

their limbs outstretched,

guardians of this stillness?

Do they sense the tremor,

the dance of my heart

as it teeters on the brink

of something profound,

something final?

Memory floods,

the laughter of Leonard,

his gentle eyes,

the joy of words spilling

onto the page,

but shadows creep in,

a darkness that thickens

like fog rolling in from the sea.

What is it to be alive

when each breath feels heavy,

a burden wrapped in silk,

the ache of creation

clashing with the weight

of expectation,

a pendulum swinging

between brilliance and despair?

I think of the tides,

the pull of the ocean,

the way it calls to me,

a lover from afar,

its depths beckoning,

a sanctuary for all

that feels too much to bear.

In these last moments,

questions swirl like leaves—

Will they understand?

Will my words linger,

haunting the air like ghosts,

whispering secrets to the wind?

Or will they fade,

lost in the folds of time?

Here, the water shimmers,

a silken veil,

a promise of stillness,

and I feel the stone,

a testament

to the weight of my thoughts,

my fears, my hopes,

sinking deeper,

drawing me closer.

Am I a ship adrift,

lost in a storm of my own making,

or a bird longing to land,

to find peace in silence,

to dissolve into the embrace

of the liquid depths,

where pain transforms

into something ineffable,

something whole?

The sky darkens,

and I stand at the precipice,

between what was and what may be,

a tapestry of life

woven with threads of sorrow,

with the light of fleeting joy

flickering like candle flames,

fragile and beautiful.

What if this choice,

this descent,

is not an end,

but a beginning,

a shedding of skin,

a turning toward the unknown,

the unseen waters

that cradle my fears,

my fractured dreams?

And so, I breathe,

each inhale a prayer,

each exhale a release,

the world narrowing,

the river inviting,

and with each step,

I surrender,

a final dance with the deep.

What will they say of me?

Will they find me in the pages,

in the whispers of the wind,

or will I drift,

a shadow beneath the surface,

where silence reigns

and the stone rests with others,

each one a part of the whole,

each one a piece of my soul,

returning home.

This is unabridged except for Tom’s few minor changes: ” I edited only a little.  Changing from plural, stones, to one stone. A couple other minor changes.  The title came from ChatGPT, except I added the name, to make it more explicit.”

The Interview

Dan:

What inspired you to start this project?

Tom:

This project arose from a discussion about use of artificial intelligence for the production of poetry, initiated by my friend Dan Bell before this interview.
I am not a poet or artist of any kind, so this is done naively and without any urge to create. I like poetry but am an amateur, usually reading a curated poem every day. Curiosity about her thoughts is the motivation.

Dan

Why did you use AI?

Tom

I suspected that artificial intelligence particularly ChatGPT, would likely produce something that sounded and looked like poetry but would be fairly light on accurately or convincingly conveying thoughts and feelings. Lately I had also been thinking about Virginia Woolf’s end of life. Combining these thoughts, I wondered how effective ChatGPT would be at a poem that conveyed some of her last thoughts, given a rather detailed prompt. 

Dan

Hoe did you react to the poem?

Tom

My initial reaction when the poem first appeared was awe, a feeling that I was getting a little peek into another mind. The resulting poem strikes me as possible true thoughts.

Dan:

Were you concerned that used lines from other poems? 

Tom:

Some lines could easily have been copied from poems about death or Virgina Woolf.  Others have a feel of some originality, not words that many persons might say. I did Google searches on a couple of the lines that seemed unique and didn’t get any hits showing they were part of existing poems.

Dan:

How did this poem affect you:

Tom:

I am also satisfied, that by thinking hard about a prompt, and effectively using artificial intelligence, I have expanded my consciousness a little bit. This could be classified as creative.