My computer allows me to see sights

Inaccessible to the naked eye,

To explore abstract worlds

Nevertheless real,

Traveling by will alone,

Viewing marvels via this wise window.

Part microscope, part telescope,

Depending on one's perspective,

It brings the tiny or the distant

Close up for inspection.

Unimaginable mathematical images

Of shapes, designs, and patterns

Are conjured in limitless diversity.

Making fractal pictures is like baking,

Successive enlargements

Of intriguing scene details

Often requiring hours to develop

In this warm metal box,

Just as long exposures

Of photographic plates or CCDs

Are needed in astronomy.

With increasing magnification,

What is at first invisible

And then a faint, fuzzy patch of light,

Like some remote galaxy,

Grows to fill the screen

With clear and colorful detail.

Points expand to become realms,

Whose own points blow up to great size,

And so on ad infinitum.