Poem fractal

Side by side

Random

0.027 apart. A smaller distance means the lines are built more alike.

This number is read from the build of the lines. The bright edge is that number, carried outward until the pattern repeats.

The Song of the Phone

by Richard

−0.3824 − 0.3952i

Drawing the boundary…

Another Spring

by Christina Rossetti

−0.3811 − 0.4220i

Drawing the boundary…

The poems

Each poem scrolls on its own, so the two texts stay beside each other.

The Song of the Phone

by Richard

With fingers weary and worn,
And eyes heavy and red,
A person sits, all alone, forlorn,
A phone held tight in bed.
Swipe! Scroll! Swipe!
Through the newsfeed's endless flow,
And still, with a vacant stare, they type,
In the phone's pale, ghostly glow.

Tap, tap, tap,
On the glass, cold and bright,
'Til the sun outside starts to lap,
And shadows yield to light.
Oh! Men with sisters dear!
Oh! Men with mothers and wives!
Is it not their souls you should hold so near,
Not the screens that rule your lives!

Swipe! Scroll! Swipe!
Through curated, filtered scenes,
Where happiness is always ripe,
And life's a highlight reel, it seems.
Compare, contrast, despair,
In this digital, mirrored hall,
Is it joy that you find there?
Or the seeds of a bitter fall?

Tap, tap, tap,
In the silence of the room,
While the real world takes a nap,
And relationships wilt in the gloom.
Love letters left unread,
Conversations left unsaid,
For the phone calls, a siren's spread,
A connection to nowhere, instead.

Oh! But to breathe the air,
And to feel the sun's warm kiss,
To escape this digital snare,
And find true human bliss.
But the phone's grip is tight,
A constant, hungry need,
In the darkness of the night,
On its endless feed, they feed.

Swipe! Scroll! Swipe!
From dawn 'til day is done,
A life lived in a digital stripe,
A race that can't be won.
Tap, tap, tap,
Though their spirit starts to fray,
They're caught in the phone's cruel trap,
And they can't look away, can't look away.

With fingers weary and worn,
And eyes heavy and red,
A person sits, all alone, forlorn,
A phone held tight in bed.
Swipe! Scroll! Swipe!
In a world that's lost its way,
They've traded their soul, swipe by swipe,
For a screen's cold, empty sway.

Another Spring

by Christina Rossetti

If I might see another Spring
  I'd not plant summer flowers and wait:
I'd have my crocuses at once,
My leafless pink mezereons,
  My chill-veined snowdrops, choicer yet
  My white or azure violet,
Leaf-nested primrose; anything
  To blow at once not late.

If I might see another Spring
  I'd listen to the daylight birds
That build their nests and pair and sing,
Nor wait for mateless nightingale;
  I'd listen to the lusty herds,
  The ewes with lambs as white as snow,
I'd find out music in the hail
  And all the winds that blow.

If I might see another Spring—
  O stinging comment on my past
That all my past results in "if"—
  If I might see another Spring
I'd laugh to-day, to-day is brief;
  I would not wait for anything:
  I'd use to-day that cannot last,
  Be glad to-day and sing.

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