The movement of my hand gives rise
Like Google to access and move
Something, a rake or a fact, to groove
Without stopping to surmise.

What have we lost? We need to ask,
Why is speed better than slow
Movements of thought’s mild glow,
Inconvenient, but essential to the task?

When my hand reaches for a book
Instead of surfing through the Internet
I’m halted to consider and to vet
And take a first and second look.

Moving fast and breaking things
Is the way of killing thought
That Facebook mastered but is not
The road that wisdom brings.

Efficiency, the foremost modern god,
Eats meaning as he prowls about
To cultivate the realms of doubt
As he administers his surly rod.

The slow food movement is a way
To meditate on what we eat
And as we dine, we taste the sweet
Labors of the farmer’s long day.

Ordained Servant Online, November 2022.