From the Desk of the Scarlet Shield
Quadrant Commander:
For ten years I've been writing poetry. I started when I was a
teenager dealing with angsty issues and not knowing where I
stood. Poetry was a release for me; whenever the world just got
too scary, I could write about it and some small way deal with
it. Through the years my poetry became a part of me and doing so,
evolved into an expression of myself. If I couldn't express
myself in speech, I could do it with words and verses. My poetry
never rhymed or told a story, it was just coming straight from my
heart.
When I joined KAG, three years ago, I wanted to write Klingon poetry. I
didn't know anyone in my area that was writing Klingon poetry and I
thought that it would be a great way to express myself as a
Klingon. It evolved over time and became a big part of the
character I portray every time I don the headpiece.
The first year, I ran the "Knight of Klingon Poetry" at a local
coffeehouse in the beaches area of Toronto. Only fellow warriors
showed up and participated in the evening and we read Klingon Poetry I
had found online and had gotten permission to read. I also read
some of my own pieces, but back then it was a small amount. The
second year, I ran Klingon Poetry evening; we had a bigger turn
out. And I thought it would be great to write a Klingon Poetry
book. That way the next reading we (Krikor, myself, and other
warriors) would have lots of Klingon Poetry to read from.
Thus the idea formed. I would write a book of Klingon
Poetry. I would self-publish it (that way I wouldn't get
Paramount wanting a cut of the profits). At first, I thought it
would only be my poems going into the book and then I thought it would
be better to showcase every Klingon poet out there. That way,
everyone could have a turn at having 15 minutes of fame.
I started by posting numerous emails to every Klingon list that I was
on, calling for submissions of Klingon Poetry. Then the waiting
period came and for awhile it seemed like no one was interested.
I got at least one Klingon turning me down but after that lots of
Klingons became interested. I received tons of emails of Klingons
wanting their poems published and I thought that, that was amazing.
The next step was finding the right title for the book. I wanted
other warrior's opinions, so I created a poll on the Crimson Knight
Fleet's yahoo group of possible title names. The winning title
was "Visions of Victory".
After that, I went weeding through all the poems, Filk and artwork and,
with the help of Krikor, I picked the best 36 poems, seven pieces of
Filk and eight different pieces of artwork for the section title pages.
I found that it would be easier to divide the poems into sections than
to have it in one massive pile. I concluded that the poems all
had a theme to them. And then I picked the main eight themes and
those become the sections for the book. The sections are
Klingons, Battle, Honor, Death, Love, Humor, Filk and Miscellaneous.
Each section has a different piece of artwork that matches it as a
title page.
To get the finished product, I used the Microsoft Publisher program and
formatted it all and printed it out. I then put it into a book
with clear plastic pages in it and made a title page for and voila it
was done.
For the mass production side to this, I thought that I would create a
pdf file and link it off the Crimson Knight Fleet's webpage. I
later found out, I couldn't do it myself, so I asked a fellow warrior,
qe'San to help me out. He runs the website "Stories to Enrich the
Klingon Spirit" at http://www.btinternet.com/~qeSan/EKS/index.htm
He did it up for me in pdf format and is now available on the CKF
webpage (http://ckf.kag.org)
sometime before the end of the month. You can go to the link
above and download it and print it off for yourself.
I would like to thank all the warriors who helped me make this dream
possible. Without their help and submitting their wonderful
Klingon poems, Filk and artwork, this would've never happened. Thank
you so much and keep on writing.
If there is enough demand, I might just make a second book and I would
like you all to be able to submit your work again.
The next Klingon Poetry night will be held on Thursday October 20th,
2005 at 2002 Queen St. East Toronto Ontario. If you live in the
area and feel like coming, drop me a line at [email protected]
Qapla'
L. Major K'Tallia sutai-jechwI'
Scarlet Shield Quadrant Commander
KAG: Crimson Knight Fleet*98*
