Member Poem

I. "Virtual Yearnings"
Ethereal, yet longing for true romance,
We wander through this labyrinth of light,
Where every profile picture holds a chance,
And every private message hints at flight
From isolation. We swipe left and right,
Judging books by covers, lives by feeds,
Mistaking lust for love, day for night,
As if these electric dreams fulfill our needs.
But can an app divine compatibility?
Or are we simply playing to the odds,
Surrendering to coded probability,
While flesh and blood bow down to silicon gods?
In chat rooms and on boards, we vent and sigh,
Our modern love letters are "You up?" at 2 A.M., "Hi."
II. "Echoes in the Feed"
Our modern love letters are "You up?" at 2 A.M., "Hi."
Brief candles in the digital wind, they flare
And gutter out. We wait for a reply,
Our hearts suspended in the cybers-air.
The minutes stretch like years; we hit refresh,
Anticipation gnawing at our cores.
How strange that bodiless words should so enmesh
Our psyches, while our physical world bores
Us to indifference. We crave the ping,
The notification's siren melody,
More than birdsong or the breeze's whispering—
This is our new reality.
Yet still we sense a hole no byte can fill,
A human touch beyond the coder's skill.
III. "Reconnection"
A human touch beyond the coder's skill—
That's what we yearn for in our wired age.
When feeds and timelines cannot fit the bill,
When we tire of performing on life's stage,
There comes a moment: Clarity rings true.
We set aside our devices, look up, and see
The world around us, vibrant, lived-in, new,
Aching for genuine connectivity.
In parks, cafés, on streets and bustling trains,
Real voices call us back to the present tense.
We rediscover joy, confront real pains,
And slowly, life regains its lost suspense.
These glowing screens may light our sleepless nights,
But dawn still breaks, and human hearts ignite.
VI. "Full Circle" (ending with the first line of the first sonnet)
But dawn still breaks, and human hearts ignite
With hope renewed, with hunger for the real.
We venture from our caves of pixels, bright
Sunlight dazzling eyes grown dim at screens' appeal.
A friend's laughter—not typed, but truly heard—
Reminds us of the music we'd forgotten:
The subtle inflections of the spoken word,
The warmth of smiles too genuine for JPEG's bottom
Line to capture. Slowly, we awaken
To life's tangible, unpredictable sway.
Our digital towers, though not forsaken,
Now serve, not rule—tools for the passing day.
As dusk descends, bringing respite from light,
These glowing screens that light our sleepless nights...