Sunday, August 4, 2013

Poetics & Mag 180 — Unplugged


The challenge, having begun three hours earlier,
(that task being to go unplugged for one full day)
invigorated many of those who decided to try.
They set upon the hours ahead with confidence
and ideas aplenty for ways to fill up their time.
Games of all kinds topped their lists,
followed by activities in natural settings,
followed by non-activity in unnatural settings...
the point being, when they logged off and
powered down they got off and got down without
needing prompts, pauses, or reset buttons... but
Hank felt no personal power surge, he who had
thought ahead that he might write on paper
with pen in hand, then when nothing came he
tried a pen in each hand to see what might come.
What became of Hank as he sank to new lows,
realizing he was not an unplugged sort; did he
abort the challenge or find in the day new highs?
It was the latter, you see, as in the course of
one day he conquered his slump, found reinvention
by way of those pens in his hands, and appointed
himself the Chairman of Doodle before honoring
his success with high fives and a solid fist bump.


Written for dVerse Poets Pub Poetics, where Hobgoblin2011's prompt is Unplugged. I haven't been unplugged, but have not blogged for one month (and this post shows it!) so the prompt had special appeal for me. The prompt is for us to write a poem having something to do with shutting off the technology that drives us through our days. Hobgoblin2011 actually did it for one month! Check the link to read his impressions.
    -ALSO-
Written for The Mag: Mag 180 that inspired with the above image prompt
(Drawing Hands, 1948 by M. C. Escher).

.

17 comments:

Brian Miller said...

its quite a challenge to go dark...i have made so many connections that i will never see because it is only through the internet that i know them...i did it for 9 days a few months back...it was no doubt refreshing....the king of doodle...ha...that made me smile...i love to doodle

Berowne said...

Sharply inventive; well done.

Unknown said...

I've doodled, but I've never been the queen of anything.

Silent Otto said...

Gday Lydia... Terrifying being cast back to the so called " dark ages " ...just finished reading James Howard Kunstler " The Long Emergency", some of what he says seems a bit crazy but even if half of it is true we are in for a wild ride , or as the chinese say " may you live in interesting times"..... An inner life will go a long way when the black stuff runs dry....cheers mate

Jinksy said...

That was a fun look at 'going native', as you might say!

gautami tripathy said...

I love doodling..:D

existenialism

Helen said...

Hi there! Nicely done ..I went 'off grid' for two weeks earlier this year. Whew .. glad that's over!

Lydia said...

Brian~ I know what you mean about our internet connections, and I missed every one of them while I took that blogcation. Thanks for being here.

Berowne~ Many thanks; that comment means a lot to me.

Faycin A Croud~ You have one of the most amazing monikers in blogland! Certainly you should be crowned in honor of that. Many thanks for the follow, too.

Kutamun~ "An inner life..." - what a great observation. I love your comments.

Jinksy~ "Going native" - now that's an interesting way to describe it! Fun.

gautami tripathy~ I have never been a doodler and admire those who are.

Helen~ "Off grid" is a strange place. You cannot say it is like returning to what we once knew because we have the knowledge of, and are missing, the technology we now have. How strange!

Unknown said...

Doodle on, Hank! Doodle on!

Trellissimo said...

Chairman of Doddle? I'd like that job!

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

Well first of all, of course, great to see you back and you didn't just creep back in via the side door oh no - you got me thinking straight away.

This made me think about a number of things
1) My general every day thought that i can't quite believe that we went from a society where mobile phones were a joke used by YUPPIES (Young Upwardly Progressing Persons In Executive Status) to being an indespensible tool - how did we cope in the days before we were able to call from the bus and loudly proclaim that we would be there in ten minutes and to take the pie out of the oven?

2)It made me think, not for the first time, how much i turn to the TV for company when i'm alone in the evening and should be writing, reading, painting or just fussing the cat.

3) as my friend Argent has pointed out in the past - what we both do for a living is entirely based on technology and if an EMP were to wipe out civilization we would be useless to any emergent society

4) and of course, to fall back on the words of Douglas Adams "writing is like staring at a piece of paper until your head bleeds"

lovely piece - glad you're back

Tess Kincaid said...

The Chairman of Doodle...I like that...nice to see you at Magpie, Lydia...

Margaret said...

I don't watch much TV. MAYBE 2 hours a week! (includes movies) I do watch more movies in the winter, though. A complete "unplug" of all electronics... wouldn't even want to do that :)

Rob-bear said...

Being unplugged means no electrifying writing. Or something like that. And then, perhaps, Hank was not only Chairman of Doodle, but Chairman of the Bored.

But who knows for sure.

Glad to see you back!

Blessings and Bear hugs!
desert.epiphanies@sasktel.net
Bears Noting
Life in the Urban Forest (poetry)

Lydia said...

Jerry E Beuterbaugh~ Thank you for being a kindred spirit for Hank!

Trellissimo~ I would probably like that job too, but no one would like me in it (can't doodle at all).

Pixies~ #1) You may be proud of me or may think I am nuts, but #1 still does not apply to me. My husband and I share a pay-as-you-go "dumb phone" that spends most of its time in the junk drawer! I shudder to think what would happen to me if/when I jump to a smart phone. #2) Guilty also, except Willow is one reason for it because she insists on having lap time! #3) I remember when the power would go out when I worked in the office and everyone would sit in their cubes looking dumbstruck. #4) Perfect quote!
Thanks so much for your comment.

Tess~ Ah, thank you. It was a wonderful prompt, as usual. :)

Margaret~ Your TV viewing time is admirable. I do watch TV in the evening, never daytime television though. And every year for Earth Hour we shut everything down and have an hour of candlelight, which I love.

Rob-bear~ "Chairman of the Bored" -well, of course! I wonder if we are more bored by technology than we realize. At the very least, we seem numbed by it.
Thanks for the well wishes, friend.

Unknown said...

A great post, Lydia. Unplugged has become unsustainable to most of us for any length of time, myself included, and no one mentioned the kettle!

Lydia said...

Sharon~ Thank you for your wise and whimsical comment. :)

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