The loneliness of the on-line poster

Yesterday my friend Keith Donovan wrote a poem, or to be accurate, a parody, which echoed my own feelings so closely that I decided to reproduce it here - with his permission of course.

We both subscribe to a rather small message board list on line called The Steamie, which on some days is very busy, but on others almost totally inactive. Keith posts from his office and I post from home, but we both experience those tedious expanses of time when nothing seems worth doing on the spot, and only a lively exchange with like-minded list members will mitigate our boredom. So here is Keith's lament:

POSTING INTO AIR

I'm posting into air
I'm writing to a silent site
The other Steamie folk are sleeping as I write

I'm posting into air
I'm writing but I don't know why
It really isn't fun if you get no reply

I'm feeling quite alone
I'm writing but without effect
I'm surplus to requirements, just an old reject

No one gazes open-mouthed
Taken by surprise
Nobody's on the board to use their eyes

I'm surfing on the 'net
I'm Googling in the knowledge space
Refresh, but there's no change; it's such a lonely place

I'm dawdling through the day
The seconds trickle past like tears
The minutes and the hours, the days and weeks and years

I'm posting into air
I'm posting into air

©KeithDonovanJanuary2006

The picture, by the way, should have given you a clue as to the right tune to go with Keith's lyric: "Walking in the Air", the theme from "The Snowman" by Howard Blake.