The Urban Elf

We are the Lost Souls, returned before our time to join the battle, to be soldiers of the Light against the rising forces of Darkness. Years ago the prophecy seemed unlikely; the Darkness appeared to be receding when in fact its forces were regrouping and laying groundwork for their current offensive. The picture may look grim, but we must be strong, we must be resolute. We must believe in ourselves and remember always the dire consequences that our failure will bring. The Shift is coming. The Light can yet prevail. Do not lose hope, do not lose focus and do not lose faith in yourselves.

[edited]

Pundits, prophets, possibilities
Questions, answers, peculiarities,
The surprise of the moment
The trick of memory
A dream of suspicion
And the conviction
Of drunken reverie.
And here we are
Beside ourselves
Besotted and beguiled
By a satyr in baseball garb
Fed the sacrifice to our denial,
Wheeling towards a moment
We hope hormones will resolve.
Bright as a beginning
Dire as a tragic end
Seeking a messiah
Satisfied with a friend.

______________________
[un-edited]

Crossed up and crossways
Lost and found
Wondering where the night goes
From here to beyond
With attendance
From our Bacchus
And confusion from within
Does it end in frustration
Or begin with
“Where you been?”

With the swirling whirl of controversy that is the Supreme Court vacancy the media has let slide the hottest issue of but a week ago. After much speculation and investigation we now know that Karl Rove revealed the identity of an undercover CIA agent to reporters Matt Cooper of TIME and columnist Robert Novak. It is clear that he did this in order to discredit a well respected and credible critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. The administration has consistently used the excuse of national security to silence its critics and steal the American people’s freedoms… Outing an undercover CIA agent hurts our national security. There needs to be a full accounting to the American people of how this disgraceful series of events transpired. Unless the president fires Karl Rove and all others connected with this assault on our nation’s intelligence gathering capability, our greatest weapon against real terrorist threats, there can be no other conclusion than that the elevated state of alarm fostered by the White House is only fear-mongering for political gain. It is the responsibility of journalists to assure that the public and history know the truth of this matter. Please, let them know we are counting on them.

Today James Doohan best known and beloved of many for his portrayal of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott of the starship Enterprise died at his home in Washington state.

He will be fondly remembered and well missed.

So, raise a glass to he who took generations to the stars. Kirk may have been in command, but Scotty made it all possible.

I have returned.
True, I was lax, not managing to tuck myself into some internet café and spin some on locale missives to you, mon petit bon-bons. But let us face cruel reality… I was on vacation. So, I will be mulling over my observations of this “restive” experience and fling them out thusly over the next few days. In the meantime I offer you…

Poolside Scrawl

coffee kissed
and hesitant before the rock
sun blind and scanning
for possibility
such a contrast to my chilled
and borrowed cave
holed up in the dark
weeping at the maudlin broadcasts
of other regions’ troubadours
sleep and its lack
conspiring with recurrent collisions
of expectation and reality
to send me slaloming through a course
caught between ebullience and despair
the farther that the joy slips
from my ever clutching fingers
further crumble
the often patched walls
keeping the dark voices silent
sun and breeze
fantasy and fellowship
draught and dream and laughter
carry me high into the light
fill my ears with music
that the ill-minded voices be drowned
allow me to fly
if only a little longer

boxcars sigh and hiss
biding time until purpose takes them
while passenger trains wail and roar
their goals as clear as the empty night
I wonder which am I
anxious to be moving
heavy with my dreams
waiting for a signal

What a weekend! Gaylaxicon is over, but oh, what a time we had. From Friday afternoon to late Monday night the ride careened from the intellectual to the inane, from the way cool to just a little creepy, from the deliberate and strategic to the drunken and serendipitous… and all of it topped off with a fireworks farewell. After slowly edging my way home through the post-Pops traffic I fell into my bed exhausted yet ecstatic. You know the kind of feeling you have when you think you’ve just met the boy/girl/entity of your dreams? Well, it was sort of like that. That alive and awake as if you’d never been before, that everything possible and everything is good kind of feeling… if I hadn’t fired my psychiatrist he might tell me this is what normal people call happiness… but whatever it was/is it feels great! So, anyway, as I lay in bed slowly letting go to my exhaustion, happy as a kid at Christmas, I stared at the ceiling reviewing the tapes in my head and thanking (my particular interpretation and construct of) the creator for a fantastic weekend, for all the great and glorious people, for the insight and opportunity to evade the few not so glorious people and for many other things people and moments. Here are a few.

- Lois McMaster Bujold’s personal insight into the world of Miles Naismith Vorkosigan
- Johanna Sinisalo’s moving and funny Tiptree Award acceptance speech
- Seeing Sorority Girls from Hell for the first time in YEARS
- The chance to spend time with Jed, Randy, David and all the other great guys I met at Noreascon 4
- Getting to see that The Doctor is back… even if we are being deprived of direct access to his coolness by the American media czars
- Getting to know the fabulous folks from Toronto – I am so there next year
- Finding a volunteer function I’m actually good at and like doing – thinking ahead to Arisia
- Meeting that terribly handsome author and sharing some laughs with that striking and witty comic creator
- The un-ending group participation Alan and Quincy Bear performance art experience and all that it represents

There were and are so many more, and so, attending to more prime material recognitions, thank you to The Con Committee, the volunteers and everybody else who helped make this weekend what it was. Special thanks to Jed, Randy, Woody, David, Alan, Jay, Johanna, Stephanie, Jack, Lars, Lois, Wayne and Walter… and as ever, thanks to Shanna and T for getting me here in the first place. See you in Toronto!

{Con pictures now up here} 7/22/05