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