Information Age Poem by Jonathan ROBIN

The Age of Information dawned when war
saw systems seeming stable forced apart.
Urged by the need to ‘free ideals’ restore,
men sought through new technologies to start
accelerating change, which evermore
sailed deeper into waters none could chart.
Fifty years gestation has therefore
given birth to brave new world, - in part
a shadow of the past - yet what before
seemed certain, now reflects a phantom heart
beating like a final toast’s ‘encore’
when all is really ready to depart.
‘On such a full sea are we now afloat’,
and we must surf the tide, or miss the boat.


Afloat and driven by the winds of change
we venture onwards, - ‘whither, no-one knows’.
Although imaginations freely range,
few dare anticipate the future flows
which well may make most of mankind exchange
freedoms for safety net serf work bestows.
Curricula evolve to rearrange
the way in which Youth thinks, - the way Man grows
to grasp conceptions will seem ‘passing strange’
even to teacher who his creed seeds sows.
The generation gap will disarrange
priorities which once the old world chose.
The great leap-forward is already here,
as in Atlantis, much must disappear!

If climate out of kilter hots up pace
at which change is impressed upon mankind,
cocoons protective swiftly could unwind
find all unready for transforming face
of global village, ending state of grace
assumed by politicians’ predefined
priorities, through Internet designed.
The domino effects today we trace.
Some species are exinct, some more embrace
new hunting grounds with winter winds unkind
replaced with zephyrs somehow left behind,
in mid December, from September’s space.
With polar meltdown, sunlight once reflected
is more absorbed, in store: flashfloods projected.