How to Write Software
First feel. Shape the solution.
No different
from the flint knapper
sitting with his rocks;
seeing the skin scraper’s
hidden form.
Or the weaver woman
stringing her loom.
the finished kelim
in her mind’s eye.
Then you must consider
the architecture; how
different functions
operate within the system.
And so with wiring diagram
in hand, you can start to write.
The metre and form tighter
than any villanelle.
You sculpt and define
with strong brackets;
forcing meaning
with curt commands
and objects whose design
you embroider into
the fabric of the code.
Whirring functions:
inputting, outputting,
data transforming.
Lying under the moon’s bright
eye. Remembering the script;
seeing the data flow
as your program
moves toward solution.
So sad to think
this lean elegance,
this poetry of form and function,
will only ever be read
by blind electrons.
Helen Campbell is a new voice; a technologist by profession living now in Madrid after adventures in other places including the USA, Berlin and most recently London. Two of her poems are appearing in forthcoming anthologies published by Arachne Press.