Farewell

O generation of the constantly busy and constantly informed,

I have seen researchers slowly pouring over books in libraries;

I have seen novelists with pen and paper doing endless revisions;

I have seen them know all worth knowing

     and write the most timely things,

     and all outside, or on the edge of this electric web.

I am entangled, but less than most.

I see both more joy and fear than you,

     and I feel them.

The researcher and writer,

     they saw more joy and fear, and wisdom than I,

     and they lived it.

And the mice inhabiting the library,

     nesting in recyclable paper,

     don't know to read,

     but they know all they need.

(This is a revisiting of Ezra Pound's Salutation.)