How quickly the day is consumed
Minutia marching goose step command
I steal back the time
Just half an hour
To watch the glimmer of sunlight on steel
It fascinates
It is real
I imagine the journey it has been on
to arrive here
dropped under a tree
half buried in dirt
If it has thoughts
They only exist in my brain
Just as my pinned down prose
Exist on this page
Of digital dust.
It may last longer than that piece of steel
reduced to rust
but I doubt it.
At least that length is real
I can pick it up with my hand
injure myself with a misplaced kick
These words cease to exist
as soon as the internet falls down
*which makes me consider this intricate digital web that connects us all. But does it? When we can so easily turn off a phone, close the laptop lid. Walk outside and breathe deeply of reality. So why is it so pervasive?
For those that remember a time before, sometimes it seems madness
Yes, madness. I think along these same lines with music. The “art” of recording music is a mere 100 years old or so, yet many think of music as the media itself, a file, a vinyl record, the image of a singer. They are not music, but the medium in which we place it (music) upon. That reality changes the very style of what we listen to. Wonderful writing Kate!
Thankyou Ahzio and good thought regarding music and where we put our art
I know what you mean, Kate. But at least I get to read you and know you. I cherish that.
The one thing I love about the internet is how it puts us in touch with people who are “tribe” all over the world Yassy. I cherish that, and you Yassy.
We are of the same ilk, Kate .. that’s why we can bond. It’s good to know you ..a kind, gentle soul.
That closing thought is why I always keep offline backups of my stuff, because – as unlikely as it is – I know that everything online could vanish whether by accident, malice, or any other number of ‘catastrophes’.
As for the pervasiveness of the platform, it’s a human choice – which is pushed by design of those who built what we use most nowadays. Our attention is a commodity, so addiction to these platforms is fed.
I think the information overload really took off with 24-hour news channels, decades before the web became what it is now. The tech just enabled an explosion to the levels of hyper-connectivity we have now…so everything is reversed: 30 years ago, the web was a means to escape physical reality, but now, physical reality feels like a way to escape the web.
Your writing reminds me, so very often, to seek those moments of physical world experience, which is easy to forget when screens dominate both working and non-working hours.
I’m glad I remind you to seek out the touchstones of reality Yacoob, although you always come across as very down to earth. We are being encouraged deeper into the virtual world as we bank, shop, socialise and view so many “interesting” things on screens.
Thankyou for a timely reminder to backup. I write directly into WordPress and would lose everything if it failed me – almost a thousand posts and poems. I really should back those up somewhere. I will work on it this week-end.
Indeed. I love the existential musing here. (Of course I do. I ❤️ existential musing. 😉 )
Nice
Madness indeed, Kate. It connects and disconnects us.