Posts Tagged ‘SIGPOET Series’

In plain sight

Friday, October 25th, 2013

It once made you powerful,
Now it only makes you feel that way.

Deficient in daylight,
In bunkers sealed airtight,
Strength drained as you cower;
A precious guard around your own weak heel.

Observers, silent, underground,
Huddle around glowing transcripts;
As, with one foot severed,
A new enemy prowls.

Knowledge unshared,
Is power impaired;
Friends become foes,
And adversaries real gorge on your frenzy.

In a parallel world,
Adapted to your thought blockade,
People just get on with it;
And walk in plain sight, unafraid.

Gloss

Tuesday, October 15th, 2013

XCorporate social responsibility,
Floats on a soft breeze,
In through a high window,
To land delicately,
Bold and beautiful,
In the middle of a matrix,
Of meaningless aspirations.

Spun beyond substance,
Words betray readers,
Who do not ask questions;
And the buzzwords sit,
Meaningless on the manifest,
A lofty detraction,
From aggregated ambition.

Out from within

Wednesday, September 18th, 2013

Shout louder,
Listen less;
A tribe in a bubble,
The other side can hardly hear you, you know…
Step out from within,
Away from the raucous din…
They hate you,
As much as you hate them;
And them over there,
Well, they despise you both.

Outside,
Up here;
You’ve got more in common,
Far more than you dare admit, even to yourself…
Yet you strive to demonstrate,
Differences that separate;
Shout louder,
Die with a sore throat!
The first to shut up,
Must surely win.

Electrical illusion

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013

X
Immediacy alludes power,
Glimpsed through slatted bits;
Drawn close we matter,
Yet power rests unmoved;
On the boldest shoulder,
Benumbed by glare;
Guns unaffected,
By people who care.

Patrons

Monday, July 1st, 2013

X

Succumb, my loyal populace!
Line up and be defended;
Together I am stronger,
And my enemies extended.

My watchers are amongst you,
But fuss not at their goal;
Enjoy the playground made for you,
The freedom I bestow.

I tell you where all dangers lie,
You need not be afraid;
For every foe you know about,
Are traps already laid.

My strength lies in your weakness,
Your weakness in my power;
Critics flip as fawning patrons,
Come the zero hour.

Data, power!

Thursday, June 27th, 2013

XClung on because I couldn’t let go,
Hung on because I could;
I daren’t delete, and nor dare you!
A disk for me, a hall, or two.

Our future but a hoarders’ folly,
Brought together without remorse;
Fragments here, remnants there,
Archived underneath the stair.

Trawled, collected, trapped and tapped,
Idle hunters gather prey;
Enough to feast for many years,
We are Big Data pioneers!

Made sense to all but everyone,
As truth defied the human state;
The logic held: it told a lie,
Made flawed men rich and rich men die.

Bootless bits can’t walk too far,
Can’t talk without a translator;
Latent bytes a spies best friend,
Revealed what, exactly, in the end?

Absorbing as confusion is,
Drawn together made no sense;
We sought to seek and built to scour,
In vain to harness data power.

Knowledge

Friday, June 21st, 2013

X

“Knowledge,” said the slightly drunken grey-bearded man, “is the pursuit of anger.”

“Anger?” I challenged.

“Anger.” He confirmed.

A pause.

A sip.

He contemplated.

“You can’t be angry ’bout stuff you don’t know. Kids these days, they’re only angry ‘cos they know… Or think they know.

“Take that whistle-blower guy…”

“Edward Snowden?”

“No, that other one.”

“Bradley Manning?”

“Not him… The one in the embassy; let him rot, he’s made a generation miserable…

“Kids getting angry at the government when they should be out living… Never concerned me what no government did… Didn’t ask questions, just kept us heads down and was grateful for what we got.”

Civil, war

Friday, June 14th, 2013

XSat high in the hills where love is norm:-
The basis for life, everyday.

Where the absence of love fuels a desire to love,
And love a desire to live.

Over, again, looking down on crater lakes;
On flora vivid in the equatorial sun.

Yet, unseen, deep in the valley, grouped and in convoy;
A void of permanent want.

Of fear, and poison;
Hatred flows and the cities crumble.

Cruel meager lives,
Punctuated only by acts of extreme violence.

The old man dreams of nothing but peace;
But his boys know nothing but war.

Nobody will miss me

Monday, June 10th, 2013

XI can’t got home,
And I can’t stay here;
I have nowhere to hide…
My heart beats faster,
Each day lived in fear.
When the hit-man calls,
You won’t learn what I’ve done.
When the drone strike hits,
Nobody will miss me.

I spilled your secrets,
Put at risk your defence;
The valiant protectors of state,
Don’t like it up ’em;
At great expense,
They will get me;
With a bullet, a toxin,
A false charge or a blast;
I can’t hide.

Though I thought I could,
I can’t lay low;
The worst, worst option:
A nonentity erased.
Nobody will know,
So I’ll tell you myself.
The whole world can’t guard me,
But my guardians may witness,
How they destroy me.

Written by hand

Friday, June 7th, 2013

XSend me a letter written by hand;
Ink won’t betray,
Or misunderstand.

In a land where they watch:-
Watch what you send;
And send what you watch:-
To see what you like.

Watch what you like,
To guess what you think…

Think what you read is their concern;
Concerned what you think, or what you might learn.

What you buy,
What you eat;
How you vote,
Who you meet…

What you spend,
What you earn;
So machines can learn.

Your fate laid out in trillions of dots;
Incomplete logic could cost you your job.

No credit,
No loans;
No access,
No-flying…

Remember this,
As the ink is drying.

The 5th of May

Thursday, May 30th, 2013

XOn the 5th of May I didn’t wake up,

My eyes stayed shut and my kidneys packed up;

My lungs didn’t breathe and my bowels didn’t grind,

My ears heard nothing, and nor did my mind!

 

The broken fence, the creaky gate,

General repairs would have to wait;

I wasn’t about to paint the shed,

I couldn’t buy paint – because I was dead!

 

I’d slipped away, and I never knew;

Nobody told me my time was due!

The things I had planned mattered no more,

And Daisy slept with the angels, cos I didn’t snore!

One hundred and twenty two

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

XOne family,
one car;
one family car,
one forty-tonne truck.

One quarter,
of one percent;
of the annual price,
of one freedom.

One careless word,
one silly post;
one early morning knock,
one costly mistake.

One threat: eliminated;
one risk: unmitigated.

You remind me,
you protect me;
from threats,
I do not see.

One hundred and twenty two,
remind you;
of just one,
I do.

w.21

Saturday, March 10th, 2012

X21 years ago it was all you could do to keep me alive. I devoured your time, precious little bar a gurgle and brief smile in return; a flashing glimpse of the dynamic force I would become.

You fed me code, patched my wounds and watched me crawl, and boy did I crawl.

No faster than a slug in glue but still you persevered, knowing one day I would be up on my feet causing headaches for oldies as they sat sipping tea, reading newspapers and hardback books.

As a child I was everyone’s darling.

I was the future, the bright kid who would change the world. Everyone wanted to be part of it; the world invested in me.

But a darkness developed deep in my soul. Powerful unnatural urges bubbled under the surface, popping up briefly to be walloped, thankfully, down into the fires of hell.

Cleansed of the worst yet my rebelliousness persisted, dismissing each and every rule and social norm as a product of bygone era.

I could say what I liked.

I would take what I wanted, giving nothing in return.

I cowered behind my friends, hiding my face with a scarf and hood.

I shied away from social intercourse, preferring instead the solitude and comfort of my room, writing poisoned letters spitting bile at anyone I suspected of standing in my way.

I cared little for those I upset, for I was the young noble warrior riding a righteous path to battle; to correct injustice and slay the dragons of oppressive tyranny.

Yet I never signed by name, for deep down I knew. I knew I had to live to fight for a lifetime and beyond.

Though these years just behind me I cringe at my naivety, my teenage ideals. A decade shredding the rule book I now find myself piecing it together, re-establishing many of the principles taught by my parents.

Not that I can bring myself to admit this to them: Mum, Dad, you were right. Well mostly, for the newly reconstructed order isn’t quite a facsimile of the old institutions.

I’ve been a catalyst for obsolescence and a facilitator of innovation; a massive disruptive force connecting billions to each other and to a universe of knowledge; challenging, and, for the most part, improving global society.

And I’m only 21, or thereabouts.

 

Apologist

Friday, November 18th, 2011

XI love peace, but see the necessity in war;
And believe in equality, yet make excuses for greed.

Locked in

Sunday, July 17th, 2011

XWhere shall we go on holiday, dear?

We often like Turkey at this time of year…

I don’t know about you, but I fancy.. Something new!

Have a look on the ‘net, see what’s to do?

So I pulled up my chair and opened a query;
My search engine loaded, the answer was speedy:
“Autumn holidays, not too pricey”
30 million results, that’ll do nicely!

Kalkan, Dalaman, Ankara, Antalya;
Something about these sound quite familiar?
Places we’ve been to, things we’ve seen…
Top of the list from the Google machine.