POETRY JAM
http://poetryjaam.blogspot.com.au/
asks us to consider something we both love and hate.
LOVE-HATE
This one's easy! I love and hate modern technology!
I love the fact that we're all together in one society.
I love the fact that the world has shrunk into a little village,
Even though there are still remains of tribalism and pillage.
I love my old-fashioned computer and the way my typing mistakes
Are very quickly obliterated, in just a couple of shakes!
I love keeping in-touch with relations who, otherwise, would disappear
Except for the standard Christmas letter sent dutifully each year.
I love to delve into Google whenever I need advice
And I love looking for hotel rooms and instantly knowing the price!
But most of all I love the fact that all my little rhymes
Now have an instant readership, not, as in long-past times,
When they languished on scraps of paper read by only me
And were utterly ignored by all, even my family!
*
But I hate that foreign voice I hear and I hate pressing Button One
When I phone for personal treatment and find that there is none.
And I hate the fact that tricksters are lurking in cyberspace
Ready to steal my details, with motives that are base.
And I hate the fact that riots can be organised on the phone;
Facebook advertises sprees, though it doesn't throw a stone.
And I hate the fact that I'm ignorant when it comes to understanding
The ins and outs of computing; the whole thing's too demanding.
I'm left feeling washed-up on life's shore because my generation
Was born too early for it all and it's all a complication.
I hate the fact that children, now, enjoy a virtual game
Instead of climbing real-life trees; I think that's a shame.
It's Ying and Yang, it's yes and no, I'm ambivalent to the core
And, if I live much longer, I'll feel love/hate even more!
*
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And I love looking for hotel rooms and instantly knowing the price!
But most of all I love the fact that all my little rhymes
Now have an instant readership, not, as in long-past times,
When they languished on scraps of paper read by only me
And were utterly ignored by all, even my family!
*
But I hate that foreign voice I hear and I hate pressing Button One
When I phone for personal treatment and find that there is none.
And I hate the fact that tricksters are lurking in cyberspace
Ready to steal my details, with motives that are base.
And I hate the fact that riots can be organised on the phone;
Facebook advertises sprees, though it doesn't throw a stone.
And I hate the fact that I'm ignorant when it comes to understanding
The ins and outs of computing; the whole thing's too demanding.
I'm left feeling washed-up on life's shore because my generation
Was born too early for it all and it's all a complication.
I hate the fact that children, now, enjoy a virtual game
Instead of climbing real-life trees; I think that's a shame.
It's Ying and Yang, it's yes and no, I'm ambivalent to the core
And, if I live much longer, I'll feel love/hate even more!
*
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Beach
MOTHER, MAY I....?
'Mother, may I....?' antique words,
One could say they're for the birds.
Nowadays a little child
Is rarely quite so meek and mild.
'I'm gonna!' are the words we hear,
Loudly shouted in a parent's ear!
But days of old were not so fine,
When children had to toe the line.
Fatherly love was rather frigid;
Rules were set in stone and rigid.
The happy medium is the best,
But how many parents pass the test?
*
