SteemitPoetryContest #12: Vires in Numeris
Hello everyone! Today I, @lemony-cricket, wrote a poem for you-- for us.
It is, first and foremost, my post today for Steemit and my followers. That said, it also happens to be my entry to the Steemit Poetry Contest #12; this iteration's theme is "Future." I chose to write about the future I see for our decentralised society we are building together, with cryptography and blockchain technology. I hope you enjoy it.
This is my first contest entry on Steemit. The meter is pretty fast here, so I took artistic licence with the "quatrain" requirement. You will find that it would work in four-line stanzas if I rendered it that way. I played with this back and forth but I really feel it works best the way it is. I will post the three-quatrain version in the comments in case it is required.
Composite my own, of two images from pixabay
Vires in Numeris
Tomorrow, with luck, we shall all tell a tale
of a bear and a bull
and a fish and a whale
and a cat and a mouse:
how the old ones devised
to unravel our tracks
and defeat our disguise;
how their efforts had ended in vain.
Tomorrow, with hope, we shall all stand as one
giving freely to others;
no man with a gun
shall point it at us
and demand compensation
to rob and to rape
all the weak of our nations--
or natural-born rights to constrain.
Tomorrow, with triumph, we all shall declare
o'er the waves of the seas
and the waves in the air:
"Code is Law; Strength in Numbers!"
a people divorced
from unchecked central power
delivered by force,
though nary a bureaucrat slain. 🍋
How to get an upvote from me today: Do you like my poem? Hate it? Share my dream? Think I'm a nutjob? All comments are welcome!
It is the detail in writing that truly makes it create wonders in any individuals imagination. The rhyming scheme, syllabic rhythm and choice of subliminal references is what makes this such a compelling read! Very happy I found you. Hope to read much much more.
A comment?! On my poem?! About my poem?!
Up! Up you go! To the top! You win today.
Thank you for your kind words.
nice post please vote my comment, because your vote is very valuable to me
I upvote comments which have something intellectual to offer. Steem is a blockchain driven by "proof-of-brain" technology. This comment contributes the hashing power of a bog-standard scientific calculator.
And as promised, here is the strictly-formatted three-quatrain rendering (though I really think it takes away from the flow of the poem):
Vires in Numeris
[strict formatting edition]
Tomorrow, with luck, we shall all tell a tale of a bear and a bull
and a fish and a whale and a cat and a mouse:
how the old ones devised to unravel our tracks
and defeat our disguise; how their efforts had ended in vain.
Tomorrow, with hope, we shall all stand as one giving freely to others;
no man with a gun shall point it at us
and demand compensation to rob and to rape
all the weak of our nations-- or natural-born rights to constrain.
Tomorrow, with triumph, we all shall declare o'er the waves of the seas
and the waves in the air: "Code is Law; Strength in Numbers!"
a people divorced from unchecked central power
delivered by force, though nary a bureaucrat slain.
I had that issue the first time I wrote a poem for it the other week. I was double checking the rules and then I noticed oh I have to many lines!
Part of the fun I find is having restrictions put in place that cause you to rethink and reshape.
I noticed after I finished it and was checking the rules. It works, but not as well. But I already created something I was proud of. Plus, as I said, this was for my followers first, and the contest second. So I decided I'd go with quality first, and if I get DQ'd for that, I'll try again next time.
Nice job.