POEM :
YOU HAVE UNREAD MESSAGES…
The messages keep coming in :
Nobody home…
To a new abode hath gone the poet…
New mails pile up
In the Inbox…
Computer servers enquire,
But get no responses…
The senders get intrigu’d :
What happen’d ?...
Why the silence ?
The regulations kick in :
After so many days of non-response,
You be archiv’d…
Then you be remov’d,
Delet’d…
You ne’er exist’d…
Your creations ?
Your writings ?
Your postings ?
Thrash’d…
All gone….
Like waves sweeping on the beach,
Disappearing shapes,
Melting all…
Your existence ?
Like the drawings on the beach….
Same fate…
Your falling snow was lovely,
But its time was short….
You left a void,
Your voice hath died down…
You be “the LATE….”
What a fate….
The human fate…
In the furnace,
The pitiless flames
Don’t mess around :
They know their job :
All be turn’d ashen…
Indeed, no need for a funeral pyre,
No need for the fuel :
The pile of boxes be enough…
Unknown books,
Litt’ring,
Gath’ring dust…
Fit for turning the creator
To ashes…
Fifty-seven books...
A lonely existence….
Heart-rending cries from some….
Fainting,
Collapsing…
But, too late…
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Soman Ragavan
16 May, 2025
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Author:
Soman Ragavan (Pseudonym) (
Offline) - Published: May 16th, 2025 00:08
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 5
- Users favorite of this poem: sorenbarrett
Offline)
Comments2
A tangential and coincidental connection today in our poems Damnatio memoriae comes to mind. The Roman custom of erasing one from history as a second death worse than the first. This what struck me in the first part of your poem. There is power in this. Further there is unauthorized decision making involved in what someone else does with your information. A dystopia where one is governed by sinister forces out of one's control. A well written piece that gets a fave from me
When we write on sites like this one, our writings are not under our control. If and when the site closes, other people will not spend a lot to keep archives. The time will come when they will delete all. Keeping digital archives comes at a cost. Therefore, if we don't keep copies of our postings, all might be lost. Even the copies we keep might not last forever. Our successors might lose interest at a distant point in time...
I have been thinking this for some time myself and have tried to guard against this by posting on several sites. Suspicion confirmed one site did close down. I also keep copies of my own but they are electronic on my computer and although I have back up I have had to make new from time to time as both computer and back ups have gone down. Short of carving in stone and even then erosion takes its toll the seems no way to insure permanence. As you have mentioned interest is also a feature that waxes and wanes over the years.
Yes, even digital copies have no guarantee of lasting for ever. Thus, I send free copies of my books to some Universities. Even National Archives and National Libraries stopped replying, though I send them free copies. I sent free copies by air to the National Library of India, paying the postage myself. Many months later the books were returned to me, with the stamp \"REFUSED.\" Imagine a national library REFUSING free copies of books sent to it by airmail... To rub it in, the local post office ordered me to PAY a fee for getting my books back...
\"If learned men force instruction into the ears of the ignorant and thereby incur disrespect, the fault is their own. Why blame others when with all their wide learning, they know not the nature of those others ?\" --(Ed) T. B. Krishnaswami : “TEN TAMIL ETHICS.” Madras, India : The South India Saiva Sidhanta Works Publishing Society, 1937. Full acknowledgements are made to the authors, publishers and rights-holders. SR.
A wonderful write , cleverly crafted, seems to be a hot topic today, enjoyed the read
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