Poetry Across the Span

The Lecture Collection

These poems were written after I left the church. Usually at uni during lectures, or when I should have been finishing assignments.

Software Engineering 2050

There exists a subject we know
As Software Eng. 2050.
It's run by a teacher,
(read pro-COBOL preacher)
Who's been round nigh since data has flowed.

(A twinkle in her mother's eyes,
When ENIAC ruled computing skies)

Mimicry

Oh where, oh where has my interest gone?
Oh where, oh where could it be?
I began my course with such get-up-and-go
Now I'm bored and I just want to sleep

To sleep or not to sleep.
That is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the
slings and arrows of outrageous boredom.
Or to listen to the thousand lecturing shlocks
that undergrads are heir to.
To talk, to sleep.

There was movement at the lecture,
For the word had passed around,
That fellow at the back just let one go....

Floating Point Overflow

I had written him a letter
For I had a want of better
Things to write during a lecture
When there's half an hour to go.

My heart for knowledge yearning
Spurred my interest to learning
I lifted my head enough to get,
"...floating point overflow..."

My concentration fading
Once again I took up wading
Thro' unmapped pleasant pastures
Memories of long ago...

The times of innoncence
Marked with nights of smoking incense
I spied the clock upon the wall
Still half an hour to go!

Assignment Blues

I've got the concurrent assignment blues
Three little projects to do
I've got the concurrent assignment blues
Got to start exam revision too
I'd better do them if I want to leave
This place 'n' try my hand at something new...

The computer subjects contain
Pictures, programming, and counting too.
The fun comes in hitting keys all day
To make the computer do
The tasks set out in monotones
By lecturers with nothing else to do

Poem

The fear that accompanies tasks undone
Can lead to great inspiration
As the mind works frantically to invent
New paths that I can flee upon

Procrastination, creativity's best friend
Yet man's worst enemy once he knows
The way he wants to live his life
Because it traps him in it's throes.

In my case it leads me to write
I wonder if I can make a life
Avoiding the things I'm supposed to do
If I could make a buck or two
From the poetry, verse, meter, and rhyme
I could make a profit from wasting time!

Poem

If a person chose their own life's path
Without parental pressure
Would they nought but waste away
Or would they come out better?

Would they find their happiness
Doing only what they wanted,
Or would they learn once their life was burned
Theirs folks advice was warranted?

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Document last updated 27 April 1997