Member Poem

    *Except for changes in punctuation and capitalization, this poem is
     composed entirely from the titles of science fiction books and periodicals.

     Against the fall of night,
     across the wounded galaxies,
     envoy to new worlds,
     behold the man --he, she, and it!--
     born into light, dying of the light,
     becoming alien between worlds,
     a new species more than human
     always coming home
     alone against tomorrow.

     Time and again, those who can,
     change the sky and all between.
     We cast down the stars,
     four hundred billion stars
     on wings of song.
     Brightness falls from the air,
     downward to the Earth,
     down the bright way
     burning with a vision.
     Earth abides, a swiftly tilting
     planet in the ocean of night.

     Explorers of the infinite,
     exiled from Earth,
     dancing at the edge of the world,
     we call back yesterday
     in memory yet green.
     We return to Earth
     but we are not of the Earth.
     The future took us out there
     across the sea of suns
     in search of forever,
     beyond the blue event horizon
     where time winds blow.

     Lest darkness fall
     you shall know them.
     Strange relations. Strange
     ports of call. Strange horizons
     from utopia to nightmare.
     Star-line velocities ten thousand
     light years from home.
     Men like gods.  Women of wonder
     holding your eight hands.
     The shape of things to come.

     The stars are ours--take back plenty!
     Dream the creation of tomorrow!
     Dream the last dangerous visions!

(Appeared in Science Fiction Age)