“While I nodded, nearly napping,
suddenly there came a tapping,
as of someone gently rapping,
rapping at my chamber door.”
From ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe
I watched the gentle tappings
And the pixellated rappings
Pointillistically spell
Words within and out of reason
From the silent cyber-well.
The piece of glass between us
And the miles of wire screened us
From each other’s voices screaming
With humanity and seething
With the life of every cell.
More words appeared like scratches
Of a cat’s claw from the blackness
That resides behind the screen
Reaching out to scrape a message
Barely close to what is felt.
When switched off they disappear
Lost somewhere or everywhere
Like radio to deepest space
Connected meanings lose their face,
The unknown source of breaths exhaled.
Poetry by Don Segal 