Performed by Val Cole

Submit to the Fantasy/Sci-Fi Festival today: https://fantasyscififestival.com/

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Get to know the poet:

1. What is the theme of your poem?

The exploration of power residing in a worthy person with a worthy purpose in an era where humanity is able to value such things.

2. What motivated you to write this poem?

I am working on a novel with a "star-captain" as the lead character, and she doesn't necessarily wear jewels or a crown, but I wanted a metaphor to symbolize her excellence and the specific forms of the quality of that excellence, and gemstones are often willing to oblige such imagery.

3. How long have you been writing poetry?

I have been writing poems since I was a child. I remember in second grade (back around 1990) we had an opportunity to write cinquains and get our poems published in a physical book that we could take home. In truth I am a prose writer, and feel much more comfortable working with prose. But poetry fascinates me, because its powers are a little bit mysterious to me, and I deeply admire the writers who are really good at it.

4. If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

I've thought about this before. Frances Perkins (FDR's Secretary of Labor and the key force behind such things as the minimum wage and the 40-hour workweek) would be a definite finalist. So would Joan of Arc, whom Mark Twain wrote about admiring above all other geniuses on account of the fact that she had no shoulders to stand upon and came to her genius entirely by herself. I would want to hear her actual thoughts about God, because she is said to have been driven by religious visions, but she was also the product of an era when you basically had to be a Christian on threat of persecution or worse. I would love to learn what it was that really motivated her, made her tick. The final finalist on my list would be Carl Sagan, probably the greatest spokesperson for science and humanism who ever lived. I always feel better about the world when I hear him speak, and in these dark times I could certainly use a dose of his cosmic optimism. Don't make me choose between these three; I'd have to roll a die!

5. What influenced you to submit to have your poetry performed by a professional actor?

There is of course the element of simply trying to get my work out there in the world in any form I can. But as far as seeking to specifically have someone recite it, I think I am not uncommon among artists in feeling like my work as created by me is only half-alive, and the other half comes from the human being interpreting it on the other end, and adding their own perspective and meaning to it. It is this two-part process that makes the artistic process feel less lonely and the artist itself feel more independently alive. I listened to your actor's reading of my poem and had a good conversation with a friend of mine about what she added to it.

6. Do you write other works? scripts? Short Stories? Etc..?

Yes! I am principally a novelist. I published my first novel in 2015, a fantasy epic about a group of people who try to take over the world to change it for the better. I am currently working on another fantasy novel, and the aforementioned sci-fi novel about my star-captain. I also published a book of essays in 2024 reflecting on 21 years of entries in my personal journal. And, currently, I am on something of a short story kick as well.

7. What is your passion in life?

I am endlessly fascinated by themes of power, wonder, and beauty of living and dying. Little things, like clouds floating across the sky or ships passing on the water, or even just a really cute flower, also give me a lot of joy and wonder.