Net Nirvana

Electronic pulses traveling in light
Breaking barriers of sight, sound and mind
Sending packets of data over ether
Creating virtual pockets of life

Minds warps, time warps, sub-atomic quarks
Wi-fi beacons streaming a virtual world
Videodromes and arcades for mental stimulation
Cyber calisthenics for the electronic generation

Boss at office eschews Munchausen syndrome
Virtual reality creates quantum teleportation
Lonely wife pops pills to quell frustration
As cyber intimacy supersedes physical connection

Mitty's syndrome leads to online aggression
Cyber bullying removes pent up frustration
Group suicides make for strange death-fellows
Jumping lemming like searching for salvation

Masked faces showing emotions in iteration
Connected world manifesting itinerant confusion
Running on auto-pilot, freed from imperfection
Shallow rewards without the joys of relation

Reviews

[Rick Puetter]

Dear Siddhartha,

A noble name!

Now I am a bit perplexed about "electro-magnetic quarks"? What is this all about? Quarks have so little to do with Electro-magnetism. Yes, they have electric charge--not magnetic though. But so what? This is really insignificant relative to their chromodynamics.

And I like "Munchausen syndrome" but what about "quantum teleportation"? What do you mean here?

I generally like this poem. However there are sweeping phrases that simply don't make sense to me. If I could understand what you were aiming for, this would perhaps be wonderful.

Please educate me.

Giving you a high ratng, expecting that explanation will be forthcoming. A 96% for now.

Very best regards,

Rick

[John Jackson (El Juero)]

Very entertaining and sadly, totally factual. A masterful tiptoe between rant, reality, and the Borg.
Most excellent!

[Robin]

as much as I am creative and poetic , I am also techno-logical , the beauty of this piece is the capture of that relation of the mind to the IMMENSE amount of information that is present everywhere - virtually and in our perceptive reality . your delivery fit the subject , as I compare your stream of consciousness to the "data packets over the ether"

I enjoyed this . well done

[Joiedevivre]

hmm really interesting made me think about a topic so prevalent in my life. You have a knack for turning difficult subjects to sublime poetry.

[An owl on the moon]

What a powerful write on the modern mind.. the modern life... In this age that would seem as magic just 100 years ago, so many are brought to their knees in a world that at times simply overwhelms.. washes over us in waves too strong to ride out. This is magnificent instrospective writing, my friend.

[Sel Whiteley]

This is a wonderful poem that eloquently expresses the fear many of us have of an almost Orwellian, Wellsian "the machine stops" world becoming evermore the reality. The auto-pilot metaphor and the citing of syndromes associated with the anti-social nature of the web are harrowing details. The power and immediacy is reinforced not only by the collocation and absence of punction but also by the "ion" rhyme, a stunning poem.

[Nothing Personal]

It's damn irritating. I wrote a long review to this piece and it got swept away in the web before getting published here. Anyways, I noticed it much later and I will try to make amendments :-) The poem struck me in two different layers- One in the obvious literal way and the other in a kind of figurative way. Of course, you are talking of the cyber world and the tech savvy life we lead these days..the masks, the concealment's, the obscurity, the pretense, the hypocrisy and yet people rate themselves so much on social networking Quotient- and how they can find a world within a world so easily..Also your poem touches base on the unrewarding outcomes these shallow processes have led to..But beyond that, I discovered a scare, a premonitory warning that this tech/net madness ultimately is headed to a cataclysmic calamity towards the end..where machines and e-pulses rise above the ranks and take over- where the evils of sci-fi flicks really come true-- a true reminder..I liked your range here..you took up each line and they mean one form or the other of cyber terror (not literally) that we face and yet so lovingly enjoy..But also you and me would never have this conversation without it-- which is unmistakably the reason we haven't been able to do without it..All in all, an excellent engaging work.. thought provoking for Neo realists like us I daresay

[Reena]

Amazing poem! Virtual reality where everyone lives in their blogs and suffers from an overdose of cyber fixes. I am in awe of your imagination -such a poem does make the hair stand up on end , as I realise that it is actually very close to reality- are we not already on auto-pilot?

[OT]

the move towards electronics and a net nirvana indeed (love the title) - great poem! (aren't they all?) ha - you highlight some of the issues facing this web-based world - for all the good opportunities - it opens a whole load of bad too - a life in auto-pilot an automaton in grey with wires for life! nice!