Meta poems too

by | Thursday, August 15, 2019

Layout is the first to go

Lines of poetry are sacred to both the author and the reader. To alter the specific construction in line length is to alter the look and rhythm of the poem. However, as ebooks and eReading devices have become more prevalent, readers have come to expect certain functionality, including the ability to resize the type in order to make it more legible… This may cause unintended line breaks to occur within the poems. — Billy Collins in a note to the reader in his ebook: The Rain in Portugal 

Layout is the first to go
That extra space 
between the lines

Calibrated

For the meaningful pause
Or maybe just for how 
it looks on the page

Gone. 

That little tab 
Pushing in the words
Of the fourth line
   Just the right amount

Gone as well. 

This is the price we pay
For going the digital way
Ceding the power of font
And design 
To the screen’s mighty sway.

And you pay too 
Dear reader
Limited as you are
In what you know
And what the interface
Lets you see.

Is there a metaphor here
One wonders
To be exploited 
The mind probes
(As a tongue does
A chipped tooth
Or a finger testing
a scab)
Seeking, a bigger story
maybe, about technology.
And the meanings we make. 
With choices that aren’t choices
Really. 

Weighing the gain, potential
Against loss, a certainty.
But maybe it is
Just how things are
And need to be 
If we are, today, 
To read 
poetry. 

*****

Bonus Content 

FYI: A flight of fancy if poems had post-credit bonus scenes (as in the movies).

This poem comes

(Yes!)

With bonus content

Which you can see 

If you are patient

Not wishing

To leave early. 

Hold on to your, 

Now warm, drink

And stale popcorn

Tuck in your knees

To let people leave 

Ones clearly not 

As committed 

As you and me. 

The credits roll

And you marvel

At all the people 

It took

– More than a village

Apparently – 

To make this poem

More than its intent.

And then finally

There it is…

The bonus content. 

Though truth be told

The bonus stuff, 

was oversold.

The offerings 

They were meager 

Even for us, 

Ones who were eager 

All it did 

Was make us wait

For the next poem, 

And ponder its fate. 

Topics related to this post: Worth Reading

A few randomly selected blog posts…

TPACK & More: Presentation at RemoteK12 summit

TPACK & More: Presentation at RemoteK12 summit

REMOTE K12: The Connected Teacher Summit, was a one-day virtual summit hosted by ASU, designed for K-12 teachers and those that support and enable teachers in district public, charter and private schools.  I presented a talk titled: Technology in teaching &...

Optical illusions go live…

If you love optical illusions you have to see this... just absolutely brilliant. The moment she pulls out the driver's license is priceless. And of course the face / vase flip-flop at the end is cool too. See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. This...

How to fix your Indian accent using AI

How to fix your Indian accent using AI

Featured image design © Punya Mishra (background image courtsey PxHere) There are many meanings to the phrase "having a voice." It can mean whether you are present and acknowledged within a space - but most literally it means what you say and how you speak? And...

Representing the election

How does one best represent all the voting information that we now collect as a part of the electoral process? Here are a few websites that really stood out for me. Send me any more that you have and I can add them to the list. The first is a series of cartograms...

India’s Silicon Valley

I arrived at Bangalore (now known as Bangaluru) this afternoon. Bangaluru is known as India's Silicon valley and this my first time here. I am here for a conference (as described here). Incidentally, Bangalore is also on its way to becoming a word in the English...

Jeff Keltner from Google Education to talk today

There has been a great deal of interest in the educational use of cloud computing tools such as Google Docs in the College (and at MSU at large). Though these tools are often free and easy to use, they come with concerns about intellectual property and ownership of...

Creativity @ Plymouth, year 3

I spent some time last week with each of the MAET cohorts at Plymouth England. I have blogged about my time with Year 1 here and Year 2 here (as well as some other posts here and here). This is about what I did with the Year 3 cohort. As usual, I did my TPACK and...

Appreciating Joel Colbert at AACTE

I just spent a couple of days in Chicago at the Annual meeting of the American Association for the Colleges of Teacher Education. On Friday evening was meeting of the Innovation and Technology Committee the highlight of which was a gift of appreciation that we gave...

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *