Kenya Starflight
Yes, I'm obsessed with Star Wars – obsessed enough to write poetry about it. If you've read "The Ballad of Anakin Skywalker," you probably already know this.
This first poem was written in seventh grade, when I was just beginning to get my creative juices really flowing. I needed to write a collection of poetry on various subjects for English, and seeing as I loved Star Wars so much, I wrote the following, my first Star Wars poem.
"A long time ago and far, far away..."
Those famous words still linger today
From the icy wastes of Hoth afar
To the Mos Eisley cantina bar
Droids of every shape and size
Imperial warriors and Rebel spies
Hunters and pirates at every turn
Dagobah's swamps of moss and fern
A young man born of dark and light
Seeks the power of a Jedi Knight
An evil man armored in black
Names like Vader, Solo, Dack
Skywalker, Antilles, Yoda, Fett
Jabba the Hutt and his rancor pet
Aliens, weapons, and planets galore
Massive starships and so much more
We start the tale, we give it a name
The world will never be the same
This second poem was written my junior year of high school, during our poetry unit. My teacher announced that, not only would we read and study poetry, we would write it (cue collective groan from everyone in the class but me) and read it aloud to the class (cue scream of horror from me). Yes, I did end up reading this poem aloud to the class, confirming my status as a geek. (How I can let complete strangers read this on the Internet with no problem but quail in terror at the thought of reading it to my friends is a mystery to me.) By the way, this poem was inspired by my first time watching Star Wars in a theater in 1997.
The sight of him on the screen
The first glimpse of his face
Made my blood pound
Not from fear
But from awe
All instincts screamed villain
But my fascinated eyes replied
Look a little longer
We see more
To this creature
Broad of shoulder and chest
Massive in build and height
Armored in glossy black
Masked in ebony
Cloaked in night
Fierce angular face frozen
In a perpetually undaunted snarl
An indomitable grace to his every move
Dignified, confidant
He fears nothing
I see a regal, powerful figure
Steadfast and courageous
With every appearance
I whisper again
Man he's beautiful
But my musings go ignored
Friends and family demand why
You're crazy – Darth Vader's evil
He's the villain
The dark one
Am I the lone admirer
The rebel of society
Can no one else see
There is beauty
In the beast?
I've always been sympathetic toward Darth Vader, even before I knew he was once a Jedi Knight named Anakin Skywalker. Maybe I have a gothic streak, or maybe it's my personal belief that there's no such thing as a totally bad person. But I have a profound (some may say obsessive) love for the man in the mask, which explains why he is at the center of most of my fics. This poem, written my senior year for no particular reason, reflects on the man so many call villain.
I hear your footsteps
Like the pulse of a dark heart
Hear your breathing
Like hollow wind in an abandoned canyon
You're black as space
Black as night
Black as sorrow
They see the black
Your blackness
They say it reflects your heart
Your soul
Your very core
They say you're evil
They tell me to fear you
They hate you
They fear you
They blanch at the sight
Of the skullish mask you're forced to wear
They don't know the story
Behind the mask
Behind the man behind the mask
The man in black
The man in the steel mask
The man betrayed
A master who maimed you
Body and soul
Two children in agony
Over the cruelty of truth
A forbidden love
Heart shattered by darkness
A man crushed beyond recognition
By the forces of evil
I know your story
I know of you
But I don't know you
You are untouchable
But if I could touch you
Would you recoil
Terrified of destroying me
As you destroyed yourself?
You wear black
But is black the symbol of your evil
Or of something else
Something bitter
Something tender
Something human
Is there any vestige of a heart
Beneath that armor?
Do you weep over your fate?
Do you feel the anguish
Of what you have become?
Could it be you wear your black to mourn?