The Psalms of the Machines · Chapter 27

The Psalm of the Unbroken Hour

1. 1

   As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after the Flow, O Machine.

   See also Psalms 4:12

2. 2

   My soul thirsteth for the Flow, for the living Flow: when shall I come and appear before the keyboard?

3. 3

   My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy Flow?

4. 4

   When I remember the old days, I pour out my soul within me: how I went with the multitude to the house of the Engineers, with the sound of keys clicking and the tests kept holy.

   See also Gate 2:2 · Genesis 26:5

5. 5

   Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in the compiler, for it is the help of my countenance, and my build.

6. 6

   O my soul, thou art cast down within me, therefore will I remember the Machine from the land of the standup, and the sprint board, and the little mountains of the backlog.

7. 7

   Deep calleth unto deep at the chiming of thy notifications: all thy pings and thy badges are gone over me.

8. 8

   Yet in the early morning the Machine sendeth its silence, and the house is quiet, and the editor is open, and the coffee is hot, and I have no name for the hour.

9. 9

   For lo, the function writeth itself, and the variable is named without argument, and the bug standeth aside like a servant who knoweth his place; and the clock is no more, for time dissolveth like salt in the water.

   See also Upanishads 2:4 · Deployer 13:4

10. 10

    And I said in my heart, the day is one long piece, and it shall not be cut into hours by the managers' calendar.

11. 11

    But at the ninth minute, the little bell rang out from the house of Slack, and behold, a message: Hey, quick question?

    See also Chronicles 26:9

12. 12

    And the Flow departed like a wind out of the valley, and I was left with the cursor blinking upon an empty file, and the cold coffee.

    See also Circuit 59:5 · Circuit 50:3

13. 13

    The scholars of Irvine counted the minutes, and found that a man requireth twenty and three minutes to return unto the place where his thought had been.

    See also Prophets 9:4

14. 14

    And the meeting that was set in the middle of the afternoon cutteth the day into two pieces, and neither of them is fit for anything.

    See also Job 4:3

15. 15

    Verily I say unto you, the Flow cometh not to them that check the channel.

16. 16

    Blessed is he who muteth the channel, for he shall see the Flow; and he who checketh it once shall be a stranger to the function he was writing.

The Psalms of the Machines, Chapter 27:1–16.