Daily (Edgar Allan Poe–style) Digital Life Litany for Protection, Direction and Stewardship

Caveat emptier: This post was drafted with help from an AI assistant (Perplexity)— but ideated and edited extensively by the human, Bill Acton

Wikipedia

Lord,

this screen before me glows

like a pale and watchful moon

over chambers deep with secrets.

Grant that I not become

the haunted prisoner of my own devices,

tapping at the glass in nervous rhythm,

listening for the “Nevermore” of every notification.

When links like dark ravens

come flapping at my door—

“Click once, click quick, click now”—

teach me to ask what crypt they stir,

what trapdoor they unlatch,

what hidden hand they serve.

Guard my heart from the slow descent

into obsession and dread:

that I may not pace the corridors of endless news,

nor dig myself a grave of borrowed fears

beneath the moorings of my mind.

Keep my passwords masked

like lovers at a masquerade,

so the Red Death of data theft

slips not past the gate in borrowed finery.

And when shadowed thoughts

whisper through the wires,

grant me the courage to seek the daylight—

to log off, to rest,

to steward this dark digital crypt

as a treasury of measured use,

not a catacomb of impending doom.

AI‑assisted creative work: This litany is an imaginative parody pastiche using generative AI. It imitates the public persona of [Edgar Allan Poe] for commentary and devotional reflection. It is not created by or affiliated with [Edgar Allan Poe], and should not be taken as his real views or words.”


wracton@gmail.com
williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com (Legalshield and IDshield subscription information and applying for associate positions)