IPhone Sestina

iPhones Keep Us Company

Off we drive to Albany Med with iPhone
in the pocket, ‘case we need to text
’bout surgeon, or surgery; a message
to the son, the daughter. Seeking privacy
on the speaker phone; I’m the speaker
of anxiety, reaching out to be touched.

In the surgery clinic, I am touched,
offered a pillow, soft like the iPhone
words that hold and soothe me (from a speaker):
Abbreviated, stroking, soothing text
from my loved ones cross Cloud’s privacy:
A sky drawn, cloud blown message.

“It’s the day and age for messaging”
the nurse approves, and nods, as touched
by digital strokes, cloaked in privacy
from family on the iPhone
held in my hand, an I-V text
to shore both hearer and speaker.

against the blood clots:they’re the speaker
of the need for I and D: thrombosis message.
Afraid to rest, afraid to text
All veins and tissues touched
by searches, findings on the iPhone,
settings preferred, protections, privacy.

The screen, it plots my journey privately
for our eyes only, doctors, nurses, patients speaking
the language of health, the language of iPhone,
the images of technology’s father and mother messaged
and sent with healing touches
forwarded, selected, deleted, texted.

OK to read, OK to key, OK to text!
The wonders of this room:window to privacy;
We’re touched by science winking on an iPhone:
honoring eons of evolving, human messages
from air to fire to bone to blood, touched
by all that served; the findings turned to text.

Touched centuries ago by sapient speakers;
text-grunts becoming words; from privacy
to messages, crossed oceans, isles and iPhones.

Dog

Design by Katharina Babanovsky

This poem is in the form of a graphic novel. I created it in 2008.



Virtual

Virtual

I went to Catholic school
Where virtues reigned!

Posture mattered.
Penmanship won medals.

Kneeling straight
Got approving nods.

Staying in line
Was the sole way to advance.

Now here I am in
Virtual reality.

With a universal view:
From Middle East to China.

USA – a passing view
From satellite.

Sandwiched in
Between script and ancient sages.

Bowing for my bread
Tiny steps to understanding

The power in the clouds
The virtual magnificence of virtue’s child!
9/11/12
All rights Jeanne Poland

I’m Apt to Adapt

I’m apt to adapt
When slapped by an app
That raps and raves
Upon my brave behind:
Adept!
Project!
Accept!

No Man Is An Island

For some,
financial stability
and spiritual autonomy
enable a solitary life,
a living single,
a “light on the feet”
free to climb stamina.

Living alone
provides
restoration, privacy,
solitude and space
but also hunger for contact,
and anxiety about crisis survival.

It cultivates the
cult of individual rules,
a sparsity of shared responsibility and
civic leadership.

Beware!
Digital communications are
ranty, dishonest and weird.
Real world interactions
force us
to deal with a diversity
not found virtually.

The virtual community
lives in
“the half light”.

Texting
doesn’t replace phone;
e-mail distracts from the face-to-face.

We need
to summon ourselves
by ourselves.

Trained by the Net,
solitude eludes us.
Without training,
we cannot manage the
complex forms of engagement,
and easily withdraw.

Without fierce autonomy,
we cannot heal our wounds.
Confessing on line
doesn’t work.
Healing needs a touch,
an organic space,
time to grow,
root,
blossom.

More than a whoosh
a beep
a ping!

A seed in the dark earth,
rain and sun,
dewdrops on seedlings,
new growth:
EARTHLINGS!!!!!!

All rights
Poland

I Offer You, My Queen

I offer you, my Queen,
All repititions from my life:
Wanderings, washings, wakings,
Willow strengths.

I offer you, my Queen,
All implants from my life:
Titanium, tenderness, tattoos,
Tweaked anatomy.

I offer you, my Queen,
Thesaurus, thyme, thrills,
Therapy, theology, technology:
Tactile tools.

Jeanne Poland

Then and Now

Quenby and Owen collaborate.

 

Oliver Smiles & Annika Frowns

Annika and Oliver Collaborate

Then and Now

Dimple smiles.
Forehead frowns.
Comedy
Drama
Evolve.

Thirty years later…

Dimple smiles.
Forehead frowns.
Comedy
Drama
Evolve.

All rights.
Jeanne 4/2012

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