Christopher Vera’s Mystic Nebula

From an Internet Cafe in Rome I sit and write this. The sounds of Roman streetlife drone outside: motorscooters, beeping taxis, an old lady shouting into a phone in Italiano. Lots of pictures, lots of food, lots and lots of €uro.

Its easy to understand if Romans in particular look at Americans as small children. To them, our culture is still an infant. Its easy for us to look at them as backwards or even a bit primitive. But this is a mistake that becomes clear when one realizes this city of Rome was old before most anything we can think of as civilized was old. The Romans are the caretakers of what we once were. Without their traditions handed down century after century, none of this, or us, might be here as we are now…

The Southland Poets of the Fantastic (SPF) met at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego on December 8th, 2008.

I was 45 minutes late and missed the whole thing! Well, almost. The air was cold but clear and I could see a storm coming from miles out from the Pacific. Rays of sun burst through the clouds lighting giant spotlights of ocean. Beautiful.

I looked all over for my fellow SPFers. I found out later they were down at the tidepools - too far to walk to from the monument to go check. I spent my time learning more about Cabrillo’s trip and the tidepools from some brief films in their auditorium.

The park closed at 5pm. My ride wasn’t there to pick me up. It’s three miles from the monument back to the gate. I had to walk in the rain…in the dark…through the Roscrans Veteran’s Cemetery. The road was dark - there are no street lamps on the path. The rows of bleached markers rose from the earth like whales’ teeth.

The walk was peaceful: The wind, the water, the sound of the ocean crashing far below. The view of the harbor lights while I walked gave me the feeling I was descending from the sky on a stairway of vapor into the city.

I loved every minute of it. Can’t wait for the next one! If you are speculative poet looking for like-minded folk in Southern California, be sure to drop a note and say hi. And consider joining the SPF.