World Inside the Crystal

Beside the world we live in

Apart from day and night

Is a world ablaze with wonder

Of magic and delight

Like a magic crystal mirror

My computer lets me know

Of the other world within it

Where my body cannot go

You can only see the shadows

Of electrons on a screen

From the world inside the crystal

That no human eyes have seen

The computer is a gateway

To a world where magic rules

Where the only law is logic

Webs of words the only tools

Where we play with words and symbols

And creation is the game

For our symbols have the power

To become the things they name

Now you who do not know this world

Its dangers or its joys

You take the things we build there

And you use them as your toys

You trust them with your fortunes

Or let them guard your lives

From the chaos of creation

Just their final form survives

Call us hackers, call us wizards

With derision or respect

Still our souls are marked by something

That your labels can't affect

Though our words are touched by strangeness

There is little we can say

You would only hear the echo

Of a music far away