Super Dimensional Fortress Macross episode 29, "Lonely Song".
The Macross-inspired poem that won me 3rd place at Glendale Community College in 1996
April 2023
I wrote this poem in high school. I was a big Robotech fan. I have said this many times though, that once you see the original Macross in Japanese, it's a one-way street and you had best leave Robotech in your nostalgic memories where they belong because you can't go back. The original Japanese version is superior. So for my senior year Honors English class in 1994, I had to do a writing project on the theme of "power." I wrote a report on Jack London's short story To Build A Fire and how it pertains to the power of nature, I explored themes from the movie novelization of Star Wars regarding the Imperial officers' resentment towards Darth Vader who held no official rank yet gave orders to the military. I did some other assignments, one of which was a half-assed children's book (I can't remember what that entailed, but it sucked). And I wrote two poems. One was a poem inspired by a segment of episode 29 of Macross which lasted only a few seconds. It really was a powerful image that really struck me and left an impression, so I wrote a poem about it and my teacher, Mr. Bausch, was so pleased with my two poems that he read them both to the class, which humiliated me. I found out he read them to the other Honors English class and made the students promise not to tell me (but one girl did tell me and she told me that she liked them). I submitted this one for Glendale Community College's annual artbook Traveler and I was contacted by someone from the committee. He said that my poem probably had the most discussion, more than all poems submitted. To my pleasant surprise, I won 3rd place for this poem. I was then presented with an Outstanding Student Achievement Award in a ceremony at school.
So thank you, Macross. Behold the power of anime! I harnessed my poetic sense and my anime nerd energy to win third place in a poetry contest. Here is the poem, and the visuals that inspired the poem. (I mis-remembered about the soldier sitting cross-legged though, but whatever.) I was pretty proud of this award I was given. I do not know why I did not add this poem to Greg's Life way back then. I think at the time, I had a separate poetry page for my homepage. Then I got embarrassed of the poetry I had, and removed them all except for the SF haiku I'd written back when I still lived in Himeji. I think I will re-implement those SF haiku as a later Greg's Life chapter. For now, here is the poem that got me third place for Traveler '96.
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Monument of the Aftermath
Upon the wastelands
Which were once beautiful and green
Stand alien monoliths that
Remain as reminders of that
Apocalyptic day of the war
Which knows no specific end.
Crumpled, holed and battered are the hulks
Of these great warships which
Remain driven like stakes
Into the heart of the earth
When they fell from the sky.
Everywhere can these ships be found
That testify the horror of their own purpose
As they rise up like towers
From the barren ground.
At the base of one can be found
The armored, skeletal remains of a soldier
Sitting cross-legged as if
Lost in tranquil meditation.
And in this warrior's hand
Lies a doll that sang about love ---
The only love he ever knew.
And now the wind blows sand
Over his remains as his burial,
And the ship stands
As his grave marker,
And the doll sings his epitaph.
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This is a scan of the cover of Traveler 96.
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