“Google had discovered a way to translate its non~market interactions with users into surplus raw material for the fabrication of products aimed at genuine market transactions with its real customers: advertisers.The translation of behavioral surplus from outside to inside the market finally enabled Google to convert investment into revenue. The corporation thus created out of thin air and at zero marginal cost an asset class of vital raw materials derived from users’ nonmarket online behavior.”  Shoshana Zuboff, Master or Slave? The Fight for the Soul of Our Information Civilization

“Cambridge Analytica has sold itself as the ultimate hi-tech consultant, winning votes by using data to pinpoint target groups and design messages that will appeal powerfully to their interests, although it denies using Facebook information in its work.” MORE The Guardian

I.

[Nature is innoculation]

The sun, the moon, the wind, they never molder
They’re never persuaded off-course, let them
Be your tallit, your scapular, your prayer rug, be
The great ocean when it licks the shore with love
Unperturbed by difference . . .

II.

[Loneliness is your only friend]

In the face of algorithms, surveillance capitalism,
Political hacking, be in the world, not of it, the plague
Of lies and distortions, amoral predict-and-control,
Trust you to be the Truth and the Mercy, you are
The lived ethic  . . .

© 2019, Jamie Dedes

WEDNESDAY WRITING PROMPT

Well, here we are 2020, living in a hacked world that has been evolving for the past twenty years or so, hacking that is driving our consumption, our politics and policies, and that doesn’t represent us democratically and certainly isn’t representative our true values.  Your thought, defenses, potential solutions … Share them this week in your poem/s …

  • please submit your poem/s by pasting them into the comments section and not by sharing a link
  • please submit poems only, no photos, illustrations, essays, stories, or other prose

PLEASE NOTE:

Poems submitted through email or Facebook will not be published.

IF this is your first time joining us for The Poet by Day, Wednesday Writing Prompt, please send a brief bio and photo to me at thepoetbyday@gmail.com to introduce yourself to the community … and to me :-). These are partnered with your poem/s on first publication.

PLEASE send the bio ONLY if you are with us on this for the first time AND only if you have posted a poem (or a link to one of yours) on theme in the comments section below.  

Deadline:  Monday, January 13 by 8 pm Pacific Time. If you are unsure when that would be in your time zone, check The Time Zone Converter.

Anyone may take part Wednesday Writing Prompt, no matter the status of your career: novice, emerging or pro.  It’s about exercising the poetic muscle, showcasing your work, and getting to know other poets who might be new to you.

You are welcome – encouraged – to share your poems in a language other than English but please accompany it with a translation into English.

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12 Comments

  1. Hello Jamie! A late entry but I wanted to post it here and get back on track with writing and responding to your thought provoking prompts. No worries if it’s too late. This one is title:

    “Liar, Liar”

    Cough, cough, ahem,
    Excuse me,
    You’re on fire
    Yes, you, holding the cell phone
    And scrolling
    Scrolling
    Is it Facebook? Instagram?
    Twitter? Tiktok?
    Or maybe just the news?
    Oh, you don’t notice the smell?
    The smoke coming from your pants?
    Those pants twisted from all the gymnastics you do –
    Well, not actual gymnastics
    But the mental gymnastics you do
    So you can sleep at night
    Oh wait, that’s right
    You don’t sleep
    You’re scrolling
    At 2 AM
    Your body, your mind
    Your life
    Hacked
    Into believing
    You’re the only one entitled to the American Dream

    I hope you’re having a good start to 2020! – Irma

    Liked by 1 person

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        1. I remember what it was like trying to write and a day job, raising a child, caring for my mom. Not easy. I used to get up at 3 a.m. to work before the day started. When my son went to college, he said for months he kept waking up at three “hearing” the typewriter. Those were the days of Correcting Selectric before personal computers. Good luck with all. Seems to me you’re doing a fine job of it. The thing is, it just never seems perfect but whatever adaptions we make do work when we look back in retrospect.

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  3. Respected Jamie Ji
    Haiku

    E- Plague Massacre

    No hack ride nor tool
    a horse would pass through rush hour
    masked rider, no fool.

    No Pied Piper to kill
    wired theft e-connect exposed
    bankrupt, ethics raped.

    hotmail then Yahoo
    info data all gone, lost
    paper pen, safer?

    No! Black or White Hat
    safe, not kidnapped to Kenya
    e-mail hit by hack,

    This plague will not die
    communications may fly
    mouse lives in the wi-fi

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. Light in the darkness

    A hot smoke is emitting from our land
    Smoke of the volcano is terrible – its natural
    But fumes of pseudo politics-jelousy and diplomacy is more deadly
    The sun in the sky is the source of energy
    But today we need a sun on the ground
    A real politician
    A true leader
    Who can shine light in the darkness of despair
    He may the one who can bring a strong cool shower on the hot smoke
    From the wound of earthly heart .

    Kakali Das Ghosh

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  5. My first response Jamie :

    Light in the darkness *

    A hot smoke is emitting from our land 

    Smoke of the volcano is terrible – its natural 

    But fumes of pseudo politics-jelousy and diplomacy is more deadly 

    The sun in the sky is the source of energy 

    But today we need a sun on the ground 

    A real politician 

    A true leader 

    Who can shine light in the darkness of despair 

    He may the one who can bring a strong cool shower on the hot smoke 

    From the wound of earthly heart . 

    Kakali Das Ghosh 

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. “A PLAGUE O’ BOTH YOUR HOUSES!”*
    by Clarissa Simmens
    *Mercutio, “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare

    Email bloated with accusing words
    My own house, party,
    Insisting on money
    Issues like wet tissues
    Disintegrating like my love of democracy
    The issue is money to win
    Worse, the other house
    Opposing party
    Tweets full of hatred
    From a man I do not follow
    Yet due to dictatorial rules
    He raids my daily reading
    With pictures and vitriol
    Bacterial words of disease
    Slamming the republic
    Mocking my once-great land

    I will vote
    I will vote my house
    Though plagued
    Yet there is still a chance
    For healing
    Despite the unfeeling
    Of those we put in power…

    “We better stop
    Hey, what’s that sound?
    Everybody look – what’s going down?”**

    **Buffalo Springfield, For What It’s Worth
    YouTube: https://youtu.be/gp5JCrSXkJY

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  8. “The Good Old Days”

    A dry wind rushes the fallen leaves along
    Like a desiccated school marm hurrying
    Her children in from recess or maybe
    A frightened father calling his kids to the shelter
    During the insane oscillations of the incoming sirens:
    Choose your metaphor based on where you live,
    And I think about our politicians calling us
    To return to the good old days
    When people were nicer
    When they listened to each other before talking
    When they all knew what was right
    And it was pretty much the same for all folks
    But nobody tells them how to return,
    That to return to those good old days
    You have to be those good old people
    Instead of what you’ve somehow become
    Today.

    January 8, 2020
    (c) Mike Stone, Raanana Israel

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Thank you!