Ted Torgersen

The purpose of a journey is the experience, not the destination; thus the spirit's wanderings can be long indeed, with the only motive to spread joy. This book and the one that follows represent my life's work. I wrote Fallen Empire after completing Out of Exile, which represents my attempt to recapture the internal harmonics that flowed so freely in my youth.

As a young man I was inspired by song lyrics, and naïvely entrusted what I wrote to individuals who simply stole it. I not only received nothing but was also persecuted, which resulted in my being blacklisted while at university. During my education I discovered that the use of rhyme, assonance, and meter that comprise internal harmonics were present in the lyrics I had already written. I present the best of them here for literary purposes only—though the songs have been sung and marketed long since, they are mine. I gave away the songs that I later wrote, most notably those that appear in the 1970s film The Harder They Come, starring Jimmy Cliff.

Babylon looks like a place to leave the road, but it’s a dead end. Once there, oppression traps the spirit, and the journey continues without the traveler. When the mind works a little, one thinks; when it works a lot, one wonders; but if you try to remember why, you will fail. Chief Seattle said it best, but my version is, “I will write no more forever.”