           Incident Along Fantasy Way 0055 hr 9/09/74
                        Convention Report

For a time I thought my Muse had deserted me.
But no, she had only gone to their convention
And she gave me a partial report.

The days were taken up with the official program:
Panels and seminars and papers 
On
"Estimating the Connectivity of Disparate Ideas"
And 
"New Techniques for the Management of Fertile Minds"
And
"The Topology of the Subconscious in Spaces of N Dimensions"
And so on, on and on and on,
Until at last,
The late evening social sessions.

Here were the constant arguments between the Muses
Of Crime
And of Punishment,
Juicy tidbits from the Muse of Gossip,
Rumors of parties hosted by the Muses of Sex
(Gay and straight and what-have-you),
The Muse of Animated Cartooning crying about hard times
And Saturday morning TV
And being promised help by the Muses
Of Electronic Design
And of Computer Programming.
Crowds held spellbound by the Muse of Witty Conversation,
And the bright child-fantasies of Muses
Of arts not yet invented.

And, over and through all, 
The Eternal Question,
About which even the gods can only speculate:
"Who inspires the Muses?"

                                   Thomas G. Digby
                                   written 0055 hr  9/09/74
                                   entered 2200 hr  2/08/92

