Fans across the galaxy celebrate Star Trek Day on September 8 to remember the date the television series began back in 1966. Trekkies know the TV show was more than science fiction; it was a visionary world of hope, unity, and equality.
Producer Gene Roddenberry created the Star Trek Universe from his personal experiences. He flew dozens of combat missions in the Army Air Force during World War II and served as a policeman in Los Angeles before becoming a screenwriter in the 1950s.
And we remember Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on Star Trek, who died this summer at age 89. She broke barriers for black women in Hollywood and vaporized prejudices across the cosmos with an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner.
Last year, Dr. Malia A. Perez and Juan Manuel Perez released Trek-A-Tanka: A Poetry Anthology, a collection of futuristic poems with a Japanese spirit. A tanka consists of five lines, the first and third of which have five syllables, the others seven, and giving a complete picture of an event or mood.
Strap yourself into a seat on the Starship Enterprise, make a glass of sweet iced tea or a cup of Klingon coffee, and enjoy some Trek-A-Tanka by Chief Crewman Don Mathis.
Mission
This is the voyage
of the Starship Enterprise.
Our quest is simple:
Explore new worlds, seek new life,
and to always boldly go.
Star Trek Quest
Space, the last frontier.
Strive to live long and prosper.
Words for all mankind:
Space is vast, planets are cold;
Let’s fill them with love and warmth.
1964, The Trek Begins
Gene Rodenberry
Sold Star Trek to NBC,
A future drama
A “Wagon Train to the Stars,”
And the aeon was altered.
A Vision of The Future
Never in the past
has the media offered
a tale or concept
or a set of characters
with the impact of Star Trek
The Mythos of the Enterprise
The myth is simple:
It encompasses concerns,
Immortal ideas,
Moral concepts and problems,
And how they can be resolved.
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The poems in this article originally appeared in Trek-A-Tanka: A Poetry Anthology.
Taken on 17 September 1976
Public Domain on Wikimedia