Maura.H.Harrison vast

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Maura H. Harrison is a writer, photographer, and fiber artist from Fredericksburg, VA. She is currently an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at the University of St. Thomas, Houston.  Her works have appeared in Dappled Things, Ekstasis Magazine, Amethyst Review, Solum Journal, Heart of Flesh Literary Magazine, Trampoline, Clayjar Review, and others.

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30 Responses

  1. Phil L. Flott

    What a delight is Maura’s poem–yes, we are almost captives of our devices–and they never deliver what they promised.

    Reply
  3. Paul A. Freeman

    I live in a country where it’s normal to drive with your phone in one hand and virtually every shopkeeper and shop worker has their eyes glued to a phone screen every waking minute,

    Your poem says it all, Maura.

    Reply
    • m harrison

      it’s almost embarrassing to look at everyone on their phones while waiting at the doctor’s office

      Reply
  4. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Great title for your observations of using a mobile phone. When my wife died, I no longer needed one.

    Reply
  5. V. Paige Parker

    Awesome sonnet, Maura! I love your crisp iambic pentameter lines, your satisfying end rhymes, and your clever divided lines – the perfect form for this distracting subject. Well done!

    Reply
  6. Joseph S. Salemi

    Slavery to mobile phones is now a world-wide symptom of quidnunc-ism (the addictive need to to know “What’s up now? What’s happening? What are people thinking?”)

    I was forced to buy an i-phone during the Covid mass hysteria — the school where I teach insisted on it, so that faculty could photograph their vaccination cards, and show them to security guards when entering the school. Since the hysteria subsided, I have barely used the damned thing at all.

    About the word “thresh” in the middle of the poem: its primary meaning is to pound harvested grain with a flail or other tool to loosen the seeds from the chaff. But I have heard it used in the sense of “to produce or to make” (as in the sentence “When I need that material, I thresh it myself). I assume that in this poem the word must mean “to push” or “to work” the feed button on the device.

    Reply
    • m harrison

      re: “I thresh / the feed…”

      Yes, “to work” the feed. I’m also making a little pun by thinking of “the feed” as some kind of grain being fed to cattle–the “feed” on the phone reducing us to cattle or sheep.

      Reply
  7. Warren Bonham

    I was able to access your excellent poem on my mobile device but almost everything else that is accessible to me is at best worthless, and at worst is very harmful.

    Reply
  8. Norma Pain

    “Vast, Vacuous and Hungry” is the perfect title for this interesting poem which I enjoyed, and Evan’s choice of picture is also perfect. Is this a ‘boom or bust’ technology that we will eventually give up or will it continue to boom and drive us to insanity?

    Reply
    • m harrison

      at the very least, remembering it has the capacity to be both “boom” and “bust.”

      Reply
  9. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Maura, I like your poem. I like the layout of the poem. I appreciate the sentiment of the poem. BUT I feel compelled to throw a spanner in the works where the message is concerned. Here goes:

    Without modern technology, I would never have met the love of my life. My decision to move thousands of miles from my homeland would have been miserable. Modern technology has allowed me to speak to my family face-to-face; to witness wonders of my new granddaughter who has got to know me through modern technology to such an extent that when I visit, we just pick up where we left off on FaceTime with real hugs instead of screen kisses. It’s enabled me to share experiences as they’re happening with all my family and friends, and they love this connection. I share photographs. I share Christmas, Easter, birthdays and anniversaries… I even shared my wedding. I share pain. I share pleasure. I share love. I share grief… all instantly… and I have gained so much by doing so.

    One could argue that new technology has separated families and that is true in the literal sense. Families live further apart because of it. BUT in the emotional sense, it’s up to each individual to dictate their own circumstance in that regard. For example, I knew I loved my husband before I met him in the flesh… that’s because the power of our words came into play. We emailed and texted and sent communications in an ironic, Jane-Austen-like, old fashioned sense before lust intervened. We got it the right way round and true love is still going strong fourteen years later.

    I will end by saying that guns and knives are not responsible for deaths. People are. I will further add that guns and knives should never be left in the unsupervised hands of minors… neither should modern technology.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Susan, I don’t think anyone here would argue that technology doesn’t have some real advantages, and that the face-to-face communication over far distances that it makes possible isn’t a blessing for families.

      But just as guns and knives can be used for evil purposes, so can technology, particularly communications technology. World-wide propagandizing by major media outlets, censorship of opposing views, the instigation of hatred (look at the carefully orchestrated pro-Hamas demonstrations everywhere), and the sheer nightmarish mindfuck called “social media” — all of these things are the bad side.

      Our attitude towards communications technology should be one of careful use of its good offerings, and wary skepticism about its all-too-obvious abuses. I’m sure sensible persons said the same thing when the first matchlock arquebus was made.

      Reply
      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        I agree with you wholeheartedly, Joe. I’m simply tired of the endless excuses for the state of our society. Anything we turn our sinful attention to has a downside – drugs, alcohol, firearms, sex etc. etc. I believe focusing on personal responsibility rather than all the things we love to blame our ill behaviors on is the direction society must take if we want to rise above the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, Laurel-and-Hardy style. It’s time to stop blaming and start standing up and shouting down all those who have relinquished their responsibilities to the demons who want nothing more than our downfall.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Yes, you’re right. Everything boils down to the individual free-will choices that each human being makes in his lifetime. Our free-will choices for good, supported by God’s grace, are the only hope. We can’t opt out by blaming misused technology or stupidity.

      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Joe, your words hearten me. We have lost sight of personal responsibility in an age that promotes an ever-changing victim hierarchy.

    • m harrison

      I agree, modern technology has its blessings and positively transforming aspects. I agree, people are responsible for their actions and that adults/parents need to help minors navigate its use.

      Reply
  10. Margaret Coats

    A clever idea well worked into a competent sonnet. And with splendid extensive use of food, crop, and hunger imagery. I like especially the expression “thresh the feed,” literally meaning to separate edible bits of food for animals from foreign particles likely to be in the bag when large quantities of feed are bought. This pertains to the amount of information on a phone, the uselessness of much of it, and the quasi-animal identity of the phone user. Dining tables are turned when the phone itself is identified as a hungry hole swallowing the user’s time and attention. This is a good description of the problems accompanying use of technology. Its capacities are such that even a responsible user needs to waste time gaining experience before he or she can make intelligent (human not animal) decisions about how much to scan before one reaches diminishing returns. This is particularly the case when searching for the needle in a haystack (a specific result known to be present). Not just experience but search skill, which takes even more time to develop, is necessary. Thanks for providing a quick examination of the matter, Maura.

    Reply
  11. Adam Wasem

    Punchy, tight, timely and contemporary. I like it. I don’t, myself, use the Facebook account I set up 15 years ago, but I do remember the one or two occasions where I checked out what it involved, and I assume that’s what you’re describing here. As a description of Facebook addiction, it’s right on target.

    Reply
  12. Paul A. Freeman

    I thought the poem was more about addiction than victimhood, like the epidemic of opioid addiction in the US, fueled by doctors over-prescribing pain medication, now of course compounded by easy access to fentanyl.

    Maura is merely pointing out the prevalent mindset that leads to romantic meals in restaurants with both parties on their phones, or families sat around the dinner table (if they still do sit around the dinner table) scrolling through the dummy fodder on their feeds.

    I’m sure the author could equally write a poem about the benefits of the digital age.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Point taken, Paul. It’s a good poem, as I said, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like you, I am certain that Maura could take any stance on this subject she wishes to and entertain us equally. I just thought I’d make a few interesting observations concerning the message, as you yourself do frequently on many a publication.

      Thank you very much, Maura, for your inspirational poem. It certainly got me thinking… perhaps I should have put my thoughts in a poem of my own. My Muse is nudging me as I type.

      Reply
      • m harrison

        Can’t wait to see what the muse prompts you to write!

        I’m really not anti-technology per se. I am taking an MFA which is conducted as synchronous online classes. I am grateful for the technology that makes this possible.

      • Paul A. Freeman

        Thanks. I use the term in the dystopian stories I write.

        In 1984, Orwell called it ‘prole feed’.

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