Many people nowadays like to believe that poetry is dead. I myself consider that to be a premature conclusion. Poetry has been around a long time and can definately find a way to return once it re-invents itself. That’s why I wrote The SkyPath Crusade. I wanted to show that there were still many options left for us to try that can successfully merge tradition with modernity. That is why I turned to science-fiction epic poetry.

Epic poetry, to me, is like some galliant quest to rebirth all the beautiful things from the past that we wish were still here. I can give an illustration of this from Chapter Four of The SkyPath Crusade itself. The scene I’m thinking of takes place in a castle on Earth’s moon. An English knight from Earth named Travers storms into the council chamber where the kings from Earth’s past empires are meeting together. They mainly represent the Romans, Chinese, and Egyptians, who had for hundreds of years been living on Mars, a moon of Saturn, and Mercury respectively since their empires had perished on Earth. When addressing these relics from the past, Travers says the following:

Travers is no doubt dissappointed by what he finds. He had heard many great stories of the “good old days” and was hoping to find that many of them were true. But once he entered the council chamber, many of his dreams were dashed. The ancient Romans and Chinese were fallable humans just like him.

Let’s not make the same mistake as Travers. I do believe that there is something glorious about the past, but let’s not bind ourselves to whimsical hopes for a return of the classical age. We are started out on a new path; but we can still reach back into antiquity for inspiration and guidance.

Long live the Poetry Revolution! Long live contemporary Epic Poetry!

-The Author