1994This was our first attempt at the Christmas poem. In this one, we told the story of Darth Vader's attack on a small trading vessel. The attack is interrupted by a force of x-wing fighters led by Luke Skywalker. Here we followed the original poem as exactly as we could. Where the original described Santa, we described Darth. We worked to keep the sections and number of lines the same. We stopped worrying about that in later versions.
As a side story... The Darkover science fiction convention has an open mic session where anyone can go and perform. Usually, it is singing, but can be other things. A couple years after writing this, I signed up for open mic. I was going to read this to whomever was in the room. My friend Thomas went with me for moral support. When it was my turn, I got up and started reading. I was doing quite well, but I was getting a little concerned as my audience was silent. I didn't know if they simply didn't like it or what. There was absolutely no noise coming from them at all. I finally made my way to the end. For dramatic effect (and to see if anyone would come up with it), I paused before reading the last part of the last line. I was greeted with silence (even from Thomas who knew how the poem ended). I read the last line and was surprised. As I finished it was like the entire audience let out a collective held breath. Everyone smiled and clapped. Wow. I was very surprised. I hadn't realized that I had had them so mesmerized that they were hardly breathing. It was a very neat experience.
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T’was the night before Christmas, and all through the Void Not a creature was stirring, not even a 'Droid; The perimeter alarms were all set with care; In fear that Darth Vader soon would be there; The children were strapped all secure in their beds, While visions of X-wings danced in their heads; The First Mate and I had just hit the sack, And then settled down for a millennium’s nap, When out on the hull there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bunk to see what was the matter. Away to the viewport I flew like a flash, And pressed all the buttons to see out the hatch. The light of a nearby star gave a glow, And shown on what approached from below. I thought they were asteroids, but yet they were brighter; It was a Correllian Cruiser and a dozen Tie fighters! I thought it was finished, my life as a trader, 'Cause I knew in an instant, it must be Darth Vader. Quicker than light, the fighters they came, I hit the alert while cursing his name; Now Jantif, now Maru, take the guns fore and aft And hope we can manage to salvage this craft. If we put up our defenses and go through their wall, We might just escape without destroying them all. They came at us quickly, their attack doubled, then tripled, Before long we sat with our defenses crippled. And dropped from the cruiser, a ship at us flew, Filled with Stormtroopers, and Darth Vader too. And then came a sound, down below, from the bay, |
Copyright
Ó
1994 by Brian and Shirley Dean
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