SO OMG QUESTION.
I have cracked the book during a boring bit in Dr. Who. And the first thing I see is the poem at the start.
What am I now that I was then?
May memory restore again and again
The smallest color of the smallest day:
Time is the school in which we learn
Time is the fire in which we burn
--Delmore Schwartz
Is this a reference to KIRK'S DEATH?! Could it be a piece of foreshadowing that Kirk is coming back just as Janeway has now returned? Coming back in prime Treklit, not Shatnerverse obviously.
I'm just laying this out here. I think the sales figures of modern Treklit would go through the roof if they brought Kirk back and just.. PUT HIM into every story. Kirk on the Titan. Kirk on Voyager. Kirk rebuilding Cardassia. This is a very good idea. And even if it's not it
seems that we are being teased with this possibility by the inclusion of this poem.