The Adopted Son. Poem by Michael Walker

The Adopted Son.

Rating: 5.0


(Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life'. Steve Jobs. Commencement Address at Stanford University) .

When cancer took Steve Jobs' life too early,
Silicon Valley lost an tireless innovator
an entrepreneur and CEO who was an enigma,
passionate and driven byexcellence.



He started life an unwanted child,
but adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs
who moved house a few times in California.
Steve moved around but ended up in Palo Alto


Where he invented the home computer
with his friend Steve Wozniak in a garage
then as CEO in sprawling offices at 1 Infinity Loop,
where he had hundreds of employees working long days.

Steve gave an actor's presentations of Apple's products:
the iPod, iPad, iPhone, i Cloud and iTunes
like an actor onstage, before his workers.
Those products took off like a rocket.

I was impressed by Jony Ive's memorial address
about his friend and mentor Steve Jobs
on Apple's campus dominated by a large portrait.
Did Steve change the world as he wanted to do? Yes.




- 3 August,2018.

Thursday, August 2, 2018
Topic(s) of this poem: life
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
I have long been interested in Steve Jobs since I began to use computers more and more in the last 8 years. Before that, I never used computers at all. To me, Jobs was the unwanted child, an outsider who achieved great wealth beyond his wildest dreams, so did many of his staff and Steve Wozniak. More than that, Jobs wanted to change the world, and I think that because personal home computers are used so widely now that hesucceeded. Steve worked on changing the virtual world, but you cannot separate this from the 'real' world. The two worlds depend on each other.
I read a few books before writing this. 'I, Steve. Steve Jobs in his Own Words', edited by George Beam; 'The Bite in the Apple. A Memoir of my Life with Steve Jobs', by Chrisann Brennan; 'Steve Jobs', by Walter Isaacson; 'Steve Jobs. The Man Who Thought Different', by Karen Blumenthal.
I watched the DVDs: 'Steve Jobs'; 'Jobs'-a movie, and the documentary 'Steve jobs. The Man in the Machine'.
'Steve Jobs. iGenius' includes a moving tribute to Steve, by his friend Jony Ive, an engineer at Infinity Loop.
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Rajnish Manga 03 August 2018

(2) 'In the darkness, I look at the green lights from the life supporting machines and hear the humming mechanical sounds, I can feel the breath of god of death drawing closer… Now I know, when we have accumulated sufficient wealth to last our lifetime, we should pursue other matters that are unrelated to wealth… Should be something that is more important: Perhaps relationships, perhaps art, perhaps a dream from younger days'.

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Michael Walker 04 August 2018

I agree. Steve did not really enjoy life because he worked too hard too many long hours. also, he did not give away some of his wealth to charities, as Bill Gates did.

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Rajnish Manga 03 August 2018

(1) You have succinctly encapsulated Steve Jobs' life, work and the success. He paid a heavy cost for what he achieved. I was also impressed by his last words a par of which is given below: At this moment, lying on the sick bed and recalling my whole life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in, have paled and become meaningless in the face of impending death.

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