Mind Over Matter

1989 was a very productive year for me. I was well on my way to an undistinguished first year in university, reading Chemistry, Computer Science and Mathematics. It was all very relaxing. And on 3 Aug 1989 I finally took up the challenge of a friend of mine: "Write a poem entitled Mind over Matter."

We were all bored then. These were the days of green-phosphor visual display units, and of playing all-text games, or games in which the sprites were animated keyboard characters. Our other form of entertainment was exploring the nascent internet and playing pranks - including the sending of funny poems to (and sometimes, the receiving of not-so-funny penalties from) the programmers and administrators at the Computer Centre.

Here was my effort (I have even included the header, should anyone want verification). Yes, it is a very bad pun. I'm still not sorry. And Sally, wherever you are, this one's for you!

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There was a man who wove carpets:
Carpets of every shade and hue,
With a weave that was fine,
Showing shading and line,
And artwork too good to be true.

There was a carpet weaving man:
Carpets soft to the yearning touch,
Woven great in degree,
Woven when he was free -
They didn't cost really that much.

Carpets wove a man who was there.
Carpets were his life and his time;
You could look at your fate
If you dared contemplate
The silk as he wove it sublime.

Wove carpets a man who was there?
Carpets wove his life at the end:
Hand and eye did not fail,
But I tell a true tale -
And they drove him right round the bend.

A man who was carpets there wove -
Carpets himself three times or more
Each day. The buyers stare
As he dyes himself there
And wish he'd get up from the floor.