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This page was last modified on 16 October 1999
Babylon 5 is my favorite television series, so I have decided to write a poem based on each of its episodes. This is no small task, since there are five movies (including the pilot) and 110 episodes.
For the pilot, I chose to write a traditional Italian sonnet. This form should work very well for those episodes dominated with a single main plot.
Written: 24 July 1999Ambassadors will gather in a place
Called Babylon, the fifth of its great name.
They seek to bring an end to war's great flame,
So all may thrive, no matter what the race.
Yet evil forces lurked within the base
And poisoned Kosh, to make the Vorlon lame.
They chose Sinclair on whom to lay the blame
In what did seem to be an airtight case.
Sinclair did learn just what disguise was used
To bring about this most dishonored deed,
It's power source allowed Sinclair to find
The one that should in truth now be accused.
Before he died, the killer sowed a seed:
"Sinclair, a hole there is within you mind."
Midnight has three major threads, so I chose the English sonnet and covered each thread in a single quatrain.
Written: 25 July 1999At Raghesh Three, the Narn did come in arms
To take a world they owned in the distant past
This sent into the council great alarms
That Babylon's great hope would never last.
Yet Narn were not the only ones to bring
Great fear to those who travel out in space,
For Raiders kill the transports with their sting
And take from those too weak to hold their place.
Yet Susan holds one group in worse esteem
Than Narn and Raiders that do waste the lands.
For the corps of telepaths to her do seem
To rip out normal life with black gloved hands.
Despite the troubles brought at varioius scopes,
The station stands as one of our best hopes.
For Soul Hunter, we return to the Italian sonnet form.
Written: 26 July 1999The hunters seek the ones whose minds are great,
And choose the ones whom they feel are the best;
To find great souls is their most sacred quest,
Which they do rescue from death's darkest fate.
Most hold the hunters with the deepest hate
And see them as a most unwelcome guest;
One hunter saw that he did fail the test,
For often he did reach the soul too late.
This hunter chose to kill to gain his prize
An saw Deleen as one that he must take
And keep in glass to cherish for all time.
Yet this new hope he would not realize
As Geoffrey stopped the hunter and did make
The mad one pay for his most dreadful crime.
Born to the Purple refuses to allow a respectable poem, so I have selected a limerick. I am still not completely satisfied with the result.
Written: 12 September 1999Mollari saw a dancer
That looked like his heart's answer,
Yet she took from Mollari
The files of Centauri
That showed the nobles' cancer.
Infection is not one of JMS's favorite episodes, so perhaps it is appropriate that I had so much trouble with this poem.
Written: 16 October 1999Ikaara died from causes now unknown
And left a host of new technology
That tempted those in archaology,
To whom dead secrets often will be shown.
To Nelson these new weapons did take hold
And sent him through the station in a rage.
A war forgotten he did seek to wage
Against those who were not in Ikarra's fold.
The crew did learn that the weapon sought to kill
All people that it felt were less than pure
So from all threats Ikarrans would be freed.
The standards for the pure, no one could fill,
That made the killer a plague no one could cure
And late Ikaara a warning that we must heed.