Max Reif - Philosophical Question

I check my website stats each morning
to see what people, and machines,
have been there drinking at my pool.

I also have a Guestbook on my site.
Some days I find a note
that leaves me glowing like
a warm hand's held my hand,
or someone's hugged me.

But those stats! They say a guy
in Omaha, and someone in Mumbai
have been there, and I even know
what pages have been looked at.
Yet these people haven't written in.
Did they absorb a thing?
What did they love? What did they hate?

It's like the question posed
by Bishop Berkeley, that you study
in Philosophy: a tree falls
in the forest, and no one's
there to hear — so, is it real?

Max Reif

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/philosophical-question/