I wrote this poem with the typical complaint of smalltime bloggers or website owners in mind. This is a complaint, not a cry for help. I mean to say that there is something wrong, when the system’s complexity obfuscates the very purpose it was meant for.
Also, to see what a very long way the internet still has to go, before it replaces the pleasure of finding and reading a good book, read my essay, linked below. And try sometime, for yourself, savoring the pleasures to be had in local bookstores.
PS the word “Quatsch” is German and means nonsense. It is used as an interjection, to condemn and ridicule timewasters and irrational arguments and excuses. Don’t know if it has made its way over to English yet, but it should. Thanks for coming by to read.
To search, I am invisible.
You’ll look, but never find.
Instead you will be had by ads,
Your purpose, redefined.
To search, I am invisible,
A speck of dust, alone.
A tiny glimmer in the shimmer,
By the sun, outshone.
To search, I am invisible,
Inconsequential quatsch,
For worth is measured out in coin,
Efficiency, by watch.
To search, I am invisible,
A child, in rumpled clothes,
Stuck hiding in a closet, dark,
All tears and runny nose.
To search, I am invisible.
Oh, lucky me! How kind!
A mockery it makes of ye
Who seek, so ye shall find.
Copyright 2022 Andrea LeDew
For musings on finding and enjoying a great book, and the joy of local second-hand bookstores, like Jacksonville’s local Chamblins, check out the essay The Realm of Words Gone By.
The Lawman
There is a whole army of mercenaries devoted to pleasing search engines it seems. Mercenary in the sense that for a fee, one can rise to the top of the rankings. It seems like suddenly the rules have changed and a generation of landlubbers is being forced to swim. Its ok for those born to it, but having to communicate virtually can seem like growing another limb. Unnatural and not strictly necessary. But who are we to decide? A new generation is making the rules.
I do wonder who is making up all of these new “rules” for writers. It’s exhausting.
And then there are all the people who trick the search engines with SEO. We can’t win for losing, it seems.
This is the first time I’ve seen Quatsch in a poem —but you and your poems are definitely not Quatsch, even if SEARCH makes you feel like that…
Thanks Margrit. I was just writing my intro to the poem in the newsletter and I think my irritation stems from a strain of egalitarianism, drilled. Into me in law school. Ive never been fond of the commercialization of ministerial or governmental duties, but my whole life has been spent, watching the country devolve into one big public- private partnership.
Sorry for the rant. I calls ’em as I sees ’em!
PS It does rhyme nicely with watch!