meteordust | The embers of fandom never entirely go out...

I don't know if any of you have ever watched or even heard of Blake's 7. But it was, and still remains, one of my favourite shows.

What hooked me was an article I ran across in an SF magazine. It gave a retrospective on the show and talked about why it had had such an impact. Of course, it described the last few minutes of the finale. I was blown away. I knew then that I wanted to see it, and I wasn't disappointed when I did.

Anyway, while I was digging through some old notes, I found some, er, possibly dubious poetry I'd written back in the days when Blake's 7 was my shiny new fandom. (Six years ago, according to the dates, and has it really been that long?) I think I'd been planning to submit the poems to a fanzine, but never got around to it.

So here they are - for interest's sake and nostalgia's sake. Spoilers for the end of the series.

Wrong Kind of Heroes: Avon to Blake

We're the wrong kind of heroes for your ill-conceived crusade:
A band of convicts on the run--oh, what a crew we've made!
We quarrel and we bicker, we're constantly in flight--
Why should we stick together? Why should this be our fight?
But you looked at this ragtag lot and saw what we could be.
You put your trust in me.

I said you were a fool, I scorned you and I taunted,
I mocked your moves at every turn, yet still you were undaunted.
You had a dream and followed it, the light shone in your eyes--
What kind of man has faith when the world is full of lies?
Trust leads to betrayal, and fair promises deceive.
I didn't dare believe.

I have no time for heroes--all I want is to survive.
Wealth is the only power, and power keeps you alive.
But you gave me a vision, and I gave you my word.
What madness makes me risk so much for reasons so absurd?
Vicarious heroism's a senseless game to play.
Don't ask me why I stay.

Now here we are on Gauda Prime, and all the dreams fall down.
The image I once had of you lies shattered on the ground.
The doubt that I have long denied possesses me again.
Have you decided you were wrong? Have you sold out your friends?
I've followed you from hell to hope--was all this a mistake?
You *can't* betray me, Blake...

Starburst: Jenna's last message to Blake

I never dreamed I'd find
A man who dared to voice
The troubled stirrings in my mind
I'd drowned by conscious choice.

But by the strangest chance
Our paths came to be crossed
And in your every word and deed
You showed me what I'd lost.

Now all the time we had
Will always be too short
Our days and nights devoured by
The hopeless war we fought.

Too soon to say goodbye
Too late to tell the truth
See my star blazing in the sky
And know I burned for you.