Streaming Spam

It's all junk, this saturation of images
Sounds and messages are taking a toll on our collective conscience
Media networks overwhelm our senses
TV, radio, Internet, billboards, magazines, t-shirts, sides of buses
Flash all kinds of messages, infomercials
Luring our attention and claiming our eyeballs
They stream at us without limits and prior authorization
We enter into a forced contract with them for the opportunity of programming
Something to buy, scam to avoid, it's all junk!
A talk about the next talk show; a talk show that promotes itself
As the best show to watch; a fight here, a revelation there, a broken heart in the end
A message here, a code there and many offers over there
Innuendoes, arguments, discussions, use of profanity and rudeness
By guests as well as moderators

Our life is saturated with ads of products and services
Somebody somewhere always wants something from us
Unsolicited commercial messages constantly flash
In front of our kids' cartoon shows
Saturation of messages about products
Products that convey subtle and overt messages
Life at a fast pace, not an envied lifestyle
When do we have time to pay attention and act?
A non-verbal sound is now needed
Shhhhhh! Shush
We need shushers to deal with the unshushables

There are those who shush and those who get shushed
There are those who talk without stopping
Cell phones are convenient tech advances
They get in conflict with the shushers
No more respect for church, theater, cemetery
As supposedly well-known quiet places.
Noise infiltrates every aspect of our life
None of us is immune to the sensory overload
Information blur, data glut, high noise output, overkill!
Manufactured images, sounds, messages are promoted as true events
Requiring our attention
At the end of the day, mental fatigue takes over our body
Nothing of value is remembered
A new daybreak starts a new stream around the clock

Send Feedback To Farmers Below

In The Garden Of Eden

The bright sun in the Central Valley
The heat that makes everything grow
Also traps in and burns some bad pollutants
Out of a mixed brew
Its topography is such mountains rim the Valley in three ways
The odd weather patterns that surprise us with extremes
And test our rugged individualism
The faces of the people who never give up
The places we have come to love
The San Joaquin Valley is much more than all of that!

Oh, verdant Central Valley!
Your 240-mile-long stretch of farmland
From Stockton to Bakersfield
Helps make California the top farm-producing state in the nation
Each of your fertile counties gives us the top ten crops
Among them are the beloved stone fruit and vegetables
Vistas of green alfalfa, corn fields, neatly painted barns and grazing grounds
Set against the backdrop of the Diablo range, Santa Lucia range
And Sierra Madre mountains
Large varieties of commercial crops and commodities are grown all over the Valley
Peaches, nectarines, kiwifruit, apples, almonds, apricots, avocados, artichokes, asparagus,
Barley, dry beans, snap beans, blueberries, boysenberries, broccoli, cabbage, carrots,
Cauliflower, celery, sweet cherries, chickens, cattle and calves, cotton, lint, fresh market corn,
Cucumbers, eggs, eggplant, figs, garlic, grapefruit, grapes, hogs and pigs, honey, lettuce,
Lemons, lemon grass, melons, cantaloupe, melons, honeydew, melons, watermelon,
Milk and cream, mushrooms, nursery produces, oats, olives, onions, oranges, pears, pecans,
Bell Peppers, persimmons, pistachios, plums, pomegranates, potatoes, prunes, rice, safflower,
Spinach, strawberries, sugar beets, sweet potatoes, tangerines, tomatoes, turkeys, walnuts,
Wheat, wool etc.

How much longer will they be around for us and future generations to enjoy?
Are the soot and the darkness of the smog hanging over our Valley
Going to transform our Eden for ever?
Will we be forced to stay indoors more instead of going out to the dunes?
Instances of big-time farmers as well as small farmers selling out
To developers are telling signs of the capital loss
The loss of the prime farmland that we once were so proud of
May such a day never come!

© CA Specialty Produce Marketer 2002. All Rights Reserved. Permission for publication of poems and images is required!
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Read this poem while reminiscing about the Valley of a few  years ago

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