Port Townsend Poem

This is a new poem I began during my creative residency last Fall in Port Townsend, WA. Think I'm ready to craft it into something, or at least try. Check back often for progress!
original impulse
deletion
new text


Why dDo bBeaches iInspire pPoets?

Can I see only p Purple-black crows pecking at bones,
at carcasses of coastal pine polished white
by the shore's persistent appetite of the shore.?.
But this is only the opening metaphor, of course.
Imaginative reasoning, at best.
Or Aat worst, a newsflash from the interior.

Farther up the beach, I find a bullwhip of sea carrot
lassoeds back around itself, encircling
an unlikely pile a pyramid
of rose quartz. A An unlikely
miracle of nature? Or merely the yet
another ghost
of human thought
hovering in the landscape?

Clouds dart, and a sudden sunbridge
throws offers an invitation to crossover the ocean
to explore a farther, unseen shore.
But that is tT Is that alsoT But that is too great a leap
of faith?. AOnto a tenuous layer of sunflakes?
Glimmersings on a watery surface, golden ephemera
that offer no sure foundation?
Only more metaphor?.
No human ever walks on water.

Where a drainage pipe juts
from a descending hill
I hear singing, an unexpected
polyphonic chorus of
monks intoning OM, shifting, layered timbres
of wind echoing through an open pipe,
a kind of Genius that fades
to a whisper and then silence, almost telling me:
Time does not start here.

Kneeling down, Awed Inspired, nonetheless, I kneel down
I to reposition a clam shell
to its best advantage.

How Battlestar Galactica Should Have Ended, by Frederick Mead

With humanity reduced to only 39,000 refugees--a barely sufficient gene pool to ensure survival of our species--a new solution is required. Constant war upon ourselves and with our Cylon creations prove that neither species, human nor Cylon, can overcome our inherent limitations. We are doomed to mutual annihilation. Humanity barely exists. Cylon regeneration is destroyed. At this critical juncture, intervention is required. This intervention comes from the future.
Seraph "Ship of Light" from the original 1978 series.

SERAPHS
The pursuit of Cylon technology is a pursuit for perfection, in a word, God. Cylons understand this better than humans. However, neither species alone can achieve perfection. Only by combining human and machine can physical endurance, unlimited memory-capacity, and instantaneous recall coexist with compassion, curiosity, and creativity.

In the future, a new, blended species, Seraphs, will be capable of both procreation of the species and reincarnation of consciousness. Eventually, Seraphs will even learn to network their minds into a single, unified consciousness akin to God.

PROPHECY
Future Seraphs will develop Cylon projection technology to its peak--using nutrino particles to transmit images and to stimulate experiences in other minds. Because nutrinos are unaffected by electromagnetism, these particles can be projected backwards in time.

Using Cylon projection, Seraphs sent nutrino messages back in time to the original Lords of Cobol, who interpreted these messages as prophecies from their tribal gods, and thus humans developed a polytheistic religion. Similar messages were sent to Cylons, but their positronic nets were able to perceive the unity of Seraph consciousness, and therefore Cylons developed a monotheistic religion. President Roslyn and other characters also received these "prophecies" from future Seraphs.

WHAT IS THAT FRAKKIN SONG?
The intent of the Seraphs is to bring humanity and Cylons together, at the fulcrum point in history when survival of both species is at greatest risk. The song that numerous characters hear is a complex message from the Seraphs that serves multiple purposes, but most importantly to provide the key to combining the species. What looks like ordinary musical notes on sheet music, when lifted off the page and shown in 3 dimensions, is actually Seraph DNA, highlighting genetic markers necessary for a combined species.

This is why Gaius Baltar, humanity's greatest geneticist, "will write the last chapter of humanity." He will understand the message. As an act of contrition, Gaius begins the work of unifiying the species. He uses himself and Caprica 6 in his early experiments, and thus, those 2 become archetypes for future Seraph models. This is the reason another Caprica appears in his mind. She is a highly-focused Seraph projection sent back in time to guide him.

THE FINAL 5
Just as President Roslyn was chosen to lead humanity, the Final 5 were chosen to lead the Cylons. They are like Moses leading the children of Israel through the desert to the Promised Land. Seraphs selected the Final 5 from the 13th colony, the only colony to develop a pure Cylon civilization. Ordinary Centurion models would be insufficient for genetic combination with humans. Only the Final 5 and the 7 models they created are evolved enough for this combination.

On Earth a thousand years prior, guided by Seraph messages, Ellen Tigh experienced the "intuitive leap" necessary to rediscovery Cylon regeneration, which proves to be a bargaining chip for peace, but is also a fundamental technology for genetic combination to work.

WHAT IS KARA THRACE?
Kara Thrace is an ordinary human who received prophetic messages from the Seraphs as a child. Her father also received messages in the form of a song that he taught her. Kara is called the "harbinger of death" because she leads Galactica to a dead world, and to the death of their faith in Earth. This is a necessary death. Earth is not the final destination for humanity, but instead serves as an object lesson of our destruction.

Kara arrived on Earth by traveling through what appears to be a collapsing supernova, but is actually highly-sophisticated Seraph technology--a complex, self-executing program that stimulates subatomic particles, initiating a chain of reactions that results in a stable singularity. The singularity functions as both a gateway to Earth and an enormous turbine, with the energetic potential to perform the most advanced Seraph miracle of all--the imitation of life. Kara Thrace dies on Earth as a result of her hazardous journey. The Kara Thrace who returns to Galactica is a living copy. When she passed thru the singularity, the Seraph program duplicated Kara in such detail that her copy is essentially the same woman, who can complete her mission.

Kara arrived on Earth by traveling through a quantum singularity. She dies on Earth. The Kara Thrace who returns to Galactica is the same woman, but from a different timeline. When she passed thru the singularity, the timelines shattered, and a Kara from an alternate timeline entered ours.

WHAT IS HERA?
The daughter of a Cylon and a human, Hera is evidence that genetic combination is possible. She is a template. Because Hera wrote down the song, Gaius Baltar will use her DNA samples to confirm his hunch about Seraph DNA.

Hera will still be alive far into the future, by downloading her consciousness into Seraph bodies. She will provide future Seraph generations with detailed information about Galactica, its time, and its heroes.