An Ode to the Ordinary

Can you identify which of the following passages was written by me and which one is a GPT-4 rendition? Additionally, please share which version you find more engaging and why. Enjoy the challenge!

Version 1

In this cold, wet North, spring unfurls with quiet grace.

A land foreign to me, where blooms blush and fade,

Soft shades, nameless, unlike my own fierce home.

There, winter and summer collide, a dance of extremes,

Where palms cast shadows, and flowers heavy with desire

Whisper their sweet, sultry secrets in the heated air.

But this modest English spring, it reaches out,

Seeking to tame the wild hunger gnawing within,

To quell the longing for oceans deep, and peaks divine.

Teach me, gentle spring, to cherish the simple,

The slow and steady pulse of life unfolding

In the tender embrace of your ordinary beauty.

Version 2

Much of the charm of this cold wet Northern country

is in the slow unfolding of its spring.

The waves of blooms, pastel pink and cream white,

delicate varieties that I cannot name.

For I am a native of the country of extremes,

where winter explodes into summer

through a leap of splendid stamina,

where semi-tropical palms shade the streets

and sweet fleshy flowers the size of baby's fists

dripped syrupy sensuality.

Oh, the mild and modest English spring,

perhaps you can tame the caged beast

that is my desire for the spectacular, the stupendous, the strange.

Tame me so that I no longer yearn for the seven seas

or the saintly refuge on snow-capped peaks.

Tame me with your love of ordinary things,

of slow and clear-eyed constancy.