Torn Branches: A Science Fiction Review

An Edgar Allen Poe poem. Reminds me simulation theory. Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow — You are not wrong, who deem That my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away In a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none, Is it therefore the less  gone ?  All  that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream. I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand — How few! yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep — while I weep! O God! Can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp? O God! can I not save One  from the pitiless wave? Is  all  that we see or seem But a dream within a dream?

Here is a poem to inspire Science fiction writers and readers out there. The dystopian language of Yeats in The Second Coming makes my skin crawl – I love it. This version of Yeats's apocalyptic poem was written in the aftermath of WW1. Yeats' vision is of an anarchistic world is full of new terrors bought about by technology and war. THE SECOND COMING Turning and turning in the widening gyre     The falcon cannot hear the falconer;     Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;     Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,     The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere     The ceremony of innocence is drowned;     The best lack all conviction, while the worst     Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand;     Surely the Second Coming is at hand.     The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out     When a vast image out of Spiri...