Now a question arises that may trouble
A poet delving through each day's rubble.
Is this a world of rosy hued romance?
Or funny pie-in-the-eye fast-paced dance?
Or a starkness that needs staunchness of stance?
Perhaps it's just a starless, muddy sty
Built on careless, indeterminate lies?

Fantasy, it may be, that gleams
Starbright in your dreams
With creatures alive but unforeseen.

Whatever you choose, be true to your muse,
And to Hades' vague shores consign
All those who will not imagine or be
The fresh new worlds that you only can see.

Author Bio

Pat Fredeman has published numerous poems and some short, non-fiction pieces in various literary journals and magazines. She has done editorial work, given poetry readings, taught university literature and creative writing courses, and conducted community workshop courses for the regional branch of the National League of American Pen Women, of which she is a member. She has degrees from the University of British Columbia (M.A.) and the University of Oklahoma (B.A.[Phi Beta Kappa], Ph.D.[magna cum laude], Dissertation: Ben Jonson.

Ms. Fredeman's Christian Romance Paradise Regained will be available August 1999 from Gemini Books. Pat has recently completed a contemporary romance and a fantasy novelette and she tells us she is currently working on another novel.

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