The first offering is an anti-censorship poem. It is not a call to irresponsibility and license but, rather, to authenticity and the willingness to share one’ truth. It speaks of rejecting the herd mentality and taking personal responsibility for the stand one takes. These concepts should be very familiar to fans of John Norman.

The second is a collection of three images of cities. In the Gor series, the characters treat cities as if they were alive. That speaks of the recognition that cities take on a personality or character. The selections below characterize three cities according to some aspect. If you were going to describe your city in a short poem, what would you choose for its characteristic?

Authentic Voice
by Hersius

No more will I use passive voice,
nor be content with active voice,
nor tolerate with kindly smiles
the borrowed voices of our age.
I will speak with activist voice,
though speech be held in whispers,
and I shall use authentic voice,
though writings fall to censors.

Cities
by Hersius

I. Merida Midnight

Ayuntamiento
orange-clad men go
and wash the day off,
scrape the oil off,
scrub the smells off
Merida cobblestones,
then clatter into memory
as hollow echoes undefined,
chic against Colonial damp
and warm night air
you can almost wear.
Then Yucatec evocative
midnight whispers
sweep and brush and polish
the centuries off
glistening quarrystones.
The plaza, silent,
cleansed and purified,
strains in secret,
poised for arrivals
of the old gods.

II. Tokyo

Sensory City
never sleeps
as it keeps
dreams
- tradition’s faith and freedom’s promise -
visual.
The World in a City
offers all things,
proclaims all things,
is all things
to all people at once. The City that Time Favors
beholds,
and makes everything its own.

III. Denver

Network City
is always open
for under-the-table business,
bartering charters
and arranging Mile High franchises.
High Plains Commercial Central
boasts world-class business card collections,
for everyone makes sure
that somebody close
is a dominant gene
on the double-helix of regional commerce.
At the Cronyville
Shrine to the Spoils System,
telephone calls replace resumes
as the presumptuously under-qualified
hold court
in monuments to monetary manipulators.
In Nepotown West,
commercial bids are genealogy charts.
The Sweetheart Deal insures success
for the few proud moguls of Roll-o-Dexburg,
so if you are one of the Right People,
welcome home.