The Book

It was late in the autumn of 2210

The shuttle had gone off to Mars,

The highways of Asia were solidly blocked

With a billion Chinese cars,

I’d wandered around the Museum of Trees,

The Fruit Section opened my eyes,

The bitterness taste of electronic apples

So cleverly changed, and disguised.

 

I seemed to be wandering round on my own,

Museums were on their way out,

The Virtual Channels were simple to screen

And more easy to access, no doubt.

The ancient attendant had followed me round,

He warily started to say:

‘I have something hidden, way out in the back

If you’re interested, come out this way!’

 

He led to a room that was dingy and dark,

Went over and pulled up the blind,

The place was so dirty, with cobwebs and dust,

‘Not used much; I hope you don’t mind!’

And there on the table he pointed it out,

A thick slab of something - I looked,

‘You’ll not see another of these in your life,

‘What is it?’ I said. ‘It’s a book!’

 

He lifted the thick leather cover for me,

To show what he called was a page,

‘The government banned them in ’73,

They said they caused people to rage.

We’re not used to words on a scale such as this…’

There were words and more words, like a plague,

They dazzled my vision, I staggered a bit

Like a man who is struck with an ague.

 

He turned other pages, a hundred of them,

A thousand, I just couldn’t count,

And every one teeming with words on each page

So the figures continued to mount.

‘We’re used to see just fifteen words in a line,

We twitter and tweet all the time,

How could a person sit down with a book

With all that! - without blowing his mind?’

 

‘It’s called ‘General Knowledge’, the old man replied,

‘Not something you hear every day,

And fabulous stories and verses in rhyme,

And the glory of history’s sway.

There once was a time, there were millions of these,

Each home had a shelf full of books,

But once our technology grabbed at our minds

We were lost, we were pretty well hooked!’

 

‘The government knew it was dumbing us down,

You can’t fight what you’ll never know,

By banning the books and the Libraries

Our minds were beginning to slow.’

I left there quite thoughtful, I needed to write

How misled we had been, and were blind,

I started with paper, a pen and some ink

And believe it! - I wrote it in rhyme!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Doreen]

Yes! It's a sad tale because it's so true. Technology will be the death of us; people walk along like sheep not realizing this. Heaven forbid we should know what Big Brother is up to; we, the people, might just do something to change it. Books are becoming antique, which is sad. I can't imagine a life without them. You penned this perfectly, sir. Very well done. :)

[PurpleQuartz]

Breathtaking!!! Amazing!! This was clever and utterly brilliant!

[David Scott]

The undertow of "progress". Plus the power of the written word. A nice combination for a tasteful read.

[Cathy Wattam]

A wonderful piece. So true and so cleverly written. I really enjoyed reading this, thank you.

[CreativeCookie]

I can actually see this happening in the future, quite frankly I'm kind'a sick of all this technology. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind useing technology for small things and such, but soon we won't be able to do anything without some sort of technology telling us to or helping us. Anyways, a really good read.
Love,
CreativeCookie

[Enid Blake]

Oh do I love this one. We shouldn't be ashamed to rhyme! We have to stick together on this one. Personally, I like to turn pages, PAPER pages! Beautiful meter as always sir, and a thoroughly enjoyable read :)

[Mic]

Seems a natural progression. Cursive writing is all but extinct, or will be with the next generation, so it's rarely taught.

Does seem a bit ironic to be reading this in cyberspace and see so many mourn its predecessor, though.

Very well done, Mr. Paget!

[poeticpiers]

No electronic reader can take the place of books. Too sterile no smell of ink
no scribbled comments.. No power needed other than the ability to read.
You paint an all too believable picture of the future. Another form of thought control shades of 1984 ivor

[Caradoc]

I absolutely LOVE this piece. There is so much truth in this one poem. This is happening right now, what with Kindle and Nook and all of those other e-book readers. And of course the soul sucking horrors that are Facebook and Twitter. I wonder how many people that use that actually read books anymore.

I tip my hat to you good sir.

This is definitely going in my favorites and being shared with people I know.

-Caradoc

[Patricia B. Hepler]

'...There once was a time, there were millions of these,
Each home had a shelf full of books,
But once our technology grabbed at our minds
We were lost, we were pretty well hooked!’...'

'...The government knew it was dumbing us down,
You can’t fight what you’ll never know,
By banning the books and the Libraries
Our minds were beginning to slow.’...'

Incredible, intuitive view of a future I pray we aren't headed for...~ pat

[eatmills]

Your poem reminded me of the movie "Logan's Run" a whole world out there but we choose to trap ourselves in this technological state and now we bastardize the English language with laziness.

Thanks for confirming my fears lol