The Modern Age

Living in the modern age,
death for virtue is the wage.
So it seems in darker hours
Evil wins, kindness cowers.

Ruled by violence and vice
We all stand upon thin ice.
Are we brave or are we mice.
here upon such thin, thin ice?

Dare we linger, dare we skate?
Dare we laugh or celebrate,
knowing we may strain the ice?
Preserve the ice at any price?

Li este poema pela primeira vez em "Dragon Tears" do Dean Koontz.
"Dragon Tears" ou "Lágrimas de Dragão" conta a história de várias pessoas que vivem aterrorizadas por um ser com poderes sobrenaturais.
No inicio de cada capítulo vinha um poema de um livro denominado "The Book of Counted Sorrows". Este poema em particular chamou-me a atenção, giro não é? Tão cheio de significado (e de verdades!).
Entretanto, com o intuito de encontrar este maravilhoso livro de poesia fui á net pesquisar. Resultado: O raio do livro não existe(!).

Aqui vai um excerto que acabou por resolver este enigma:
«For many years Koontz fans everywhere searched for this elusive book. Many librarians were frustrated in their attempts to locate it because it did not exist. This was confirmed by a librarian from Cedar Rapids Public Library who corresponded with Mr. Koontz regarding this mysterious book. Koontz himself stated that he received up to 3,000 letters per year inquiring about it. He includes a history of the poems in the beginning of the book, followed by the poems, some having never been in any of his books.
In a letter dated 8-10-92, Mr. Koontz stated:
"Actually, there is no such book. I made it up. The way you made up footnote sources for fabricated facts in high-school English reports. Oh, come on, yes, you did. Sometimes, when I need a bit of verse to convey some of the underlying themes of a section of a novel, I can't find anything applicable, so I write my own and attribute it to this imaginary tome. I figured readers would eventually realize THE BOOK OF COUNTED SORROWS was my own invention, and I never expected that one day librarians and booksellers would be writing from all over the country, asking for help in tracking down this rare and mysterious volume!"
Mr. Koontz went on to say that he would publish such a book in a few years when he has enough verses to fill a volume. According to Shannon Presley of Harvest Books, "Koontz himself wrote the poems, attributed to a Stephen Crane...»
Em 2003 o livro foi publicado sob a forma de e-book, depois de Dean Koontz ter reunido poemas suficientes para publicar e está na internet para quem quiser ver no seguinte site:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/90992/The-Book-of-Counted-Sorrows

Contém de facto os poemas maravilhosos que julgava ter. Porém, o poema que aqui postei continua a ser, de todos os que ele escreveu, o que mais gostei.