ONCE UPON A (UNI)VERSE

Read A 2009 Rhysling Award Winner Today!

2009-10-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

I never got around to posting about the Rhysling Award winners of 2009, but one of my fave SF poets got second place in BOTH categories. Go, Sam! And I apologize for my late congrats.

Make sure to visit the list of winners HERE, read a first place short form poem HERE, and read Sam Henderson's "Spell" (short form) over at Goblin Fruit and her long-form "Hungry: Some Ghost Stores" at Lone Star.

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SF Poetry at MINDFLIGHTS: Issue Two

2008-02-26T13:56:00.001-08:00

In the February issue of MindFlights, Joshua Gage's poem of historical fantasy will put a smile on the face of anyone who loves illuminated manuscripts: "The Illuminator."

A taste:

Candles perch like angels
beating back the night
with triumphant wings. The scribe
begins his work. “Formavit”
sprouts leaves beneath his quill,

It's a poem begging to be colorfully illustrated by a fantasy artist.

There Will Be Poetry by Dorine Ratulangie is the second of February offerings at MindFlights. The opening stanza:

There will be poetry
in the skeleton of androids
and the hull of stolen ships
as we flee. Outside
a starsystem
spills its essence in
tenuous trails of gas
dark and barren.

Drop by and read all of it--and the fiction, too.

Speculative Poetry at MindFlights Magazine: Issue One

2008-02-26T13:46:00.001-08:00

January marked the debut of MindFlights Magazine, the new creature that has been formed out of the merger of THE SWORD REVIEW and DRAGONS, KNIGHTS & ANGELS, both DEP magazines that offered science fiction and fantasy with a Christian-friendly worldview.

MindFlights continues that mission: quality SF that, while not necessarily needing to be overtly Christian in content, does need to be Christian-reader friendly (no gratuitous violence, no graphic sexuality, nothing that would qualify as "blasphemous" to a person of devout faith).

The first issue (January 2008) offered this poem by David Siegel Bernstein, Ph.D., entitled "In the Beginning." First stanza follows:

Once upon a time,
there was no time,
or even a
once
without a twice for reference.
There was,
however,
a beginning
and there were the Four
existing as One.

Also featured was "Yucatan" by John Kuhn, where lovely language takes a look at an ancient earthly upheaval. It begins:

Chaste Baptistina, untouched in an age,
Quietly glides past a ruffian’s cage.
Now--too naïve to imagine his mind--
She passes too close, trailing beauty behind.

G.O Clark's "Galaxy in a Matchbox" opens with the gorgeous image of the title:

She keeps a luminous,
spiral galaxy in a common
cardboard matchbox.

"Passionplay" by Runolfson and Crow

2007-11-20T11:01:00.000-08:00

Drop by Dragons, Knights & Angels as we wind down our last year of operation (and our staff joins with the TSR crew to launch MINDFLIGHTS). We have some excellent poetry coming out for your enjoyment.

Our most recent offering is "Passionplay" by J.C. Runolfson (whose Rhysling-nominated "Advent" was one of my fave SF poems of last year) and Jennifer Crow.

This was an entry in our 2007 poetry contest at DKA, with the inferno/paradiso theme.

The opening lines:

Within the eternal city,
the streets lead to shadowed alcoves,
to open squares filled with light.
The streets lie dappled below the coming storm.

John Kuhn's "Separado" and other DKA Contest Winners and Poems

2007-11-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

Last year, John Kuhn won the first DKA Poetry Contest with "Statuary." This year, he won it with "Separado." One word "S" titles are working for John, as is his fine gift with words.

The theme of the contest this year was inferno and/or paradiso.

Here are the opening lines of "Separado"--which means "separated" or "estranged" in Spanish:

Thirst—
On my tongue
In my tongue
All the way through
My salt pork tongue

Yes, he chose "inferno" as his focus, and it is one with one foot in the gospel of Luke and the other in the science fictional realm that he works through his theme.

Second place went to "Sky Vendor" by Holly Dworken Cooley, which opens thusly:

slowly
as if in a trance
she walks around the village
carrying the sun and the moon
slung at either hip like babies
for sale she says

The three honorable mention placements went to Karen A. Romanko's "Atlantis," C.K. Deatherage's "Black Hole," and Jenny Schwartz's "Paradise."

Please visit and read them all.
~

"Satanic, Versus"

2007-11-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

Talented Mikal Trimm takes a stab at "black as"...in "Satanic, Versus."

Read it at The Sword Review.

The first stanza:

they say black as night
but night is not black,
its dark vestments pierced
with moth-holes
where the brightness escapes
to burn and burn and burn

It's worth your time to read the rest...

Another Nifty from Samantha H.

2007-11-20T10:47:00.000-08:00

Be careful what you pray for

"The Werewolf Prince" by Samantha Henderson is another fine speculative bit of poetry by one of my favorite SF poets.

The last stanza will creep you out.

Read it at The Sword Review.

Revisiting a Rhysling Award Winner

2007-08-13T17:11:00.001-07:00

Read Joe Haldeman's "Eighteen Years Old, October Eleventh"

It's gorgeous. Here are the opening lines:

Drunk for the first time in her life,
she tossed her head in a horsey laugh
and that new opal gift sailed off her sore earlobe,
in a graceful parabola,
pinged twice on the stone porch floor,
and rolled off to hide behind the rose bushes.

It gathered dust and silt for two centuries.
The mansion came down in a war.

"The Ransom of Planet X"

2007-08-13T13:07:00.001-07:00

Karen Romanko's "The Ransom of Planet X" is up at Dragons, Knights & Angels.

A taste:

We were out Sol's way,
angling for goodies,
but Sunny's a miser,
and won't tend to share

"Freebasing the Moon"

2007-06-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

Mike Allen is a terrific and wildly imaginative poet, and he doesn't disappoint with his latest offering at STRANGE HORIZONS, which opens thusly:

Seek the pusher in the bands
of shadow cordoning the trees.
Silver glitters in his cratered eyes,
pockets pregnant
with moondust in dimebags.

--Freebasing the Moon
By Mike Allen

"Five Wisdoms of the Snow Queen"

2007-06-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Marcie Lynn Tentchoff lets the Snow Queen drop her icy advice over at Ideomancer with "Five Wisdoms of the Snow Queen"

Opening line:

Never, when you meet a soul mate
tell him so,

Choosing My Rhysling Faves: Hard!

2007-06-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday, I finally filled out my ballot for the Rhysling Awards, and this morning off it went in the mail.

Choosing short form poems was pretty much a cinch. There had been some I kept going back to reread--always with pleasure--so those were my top three.

Long form was harder. I really had five I loved, and choosing three, and putting those three in order was so hard. Still, there was one that, after multiple rereadings, kept yielding surprises and delight and made me feel things in that really deep place that poetry has a way of slipping into. So, that was number one. The others that didn't wear on me on rereading went to 2 and 3.

I did not vote for my own nominated poem, "Into the Heart." I like it. I think I did a very good job with it. I am proud of it. I like it better every time I read it. I done good.

But when it came down to it, I couldn't say with all honesty it was in MY top three. I suppose some poets will vote for themselves, and that's cool, but I'd have felt like a total dork.

So, best of luck to the nominees, and I hope my choices for number one win. Heh.

"Flyboy": A Sestina

2007-05-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

Lucy A. Snyder offers us a sestina--you don't get those every day, and I LOVE sestinas, but am too chicken to try writing one yet--called "Flyboy."

It's over at Strange Horizons. Here's the first stanza:

The baseheads call me Daddy Luzz like I'm fly.
I was my momma's first, a cream-faced baby boy.
Pops thought I was ace, raised me like a king,
named me for the light of the Las Vegas sun.
Or maybe pale Lucifer. No one would know
to see me now: sun burnt my skin as dark as Coke.

Four DEP Poems Nominated for Rhysling

2007-05-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

Here are the four poems published in DEP ezines that are up for Rhysling awards:

Short form:

Malcolm Deeley's "Two Cathedrals", published in DRAGONS, KNIGHTS & ANGELS.

Mirta Ana Schultz's (er, that's me) "Into the Heart" , published in THE SWORD REVIEW

Long form:

J. C. Runolfson's "Advent", published in THE SWORD REVIEW (make sure to click on pdf or html at bottom to see the whole of the poem)

Marsheila Rockwell's "Pilate's Wife", in THE SWORD REVIEW

~

John Kuhn and D. Kopaska-Merkel at TSR

2007-04-30T04:19:00.000-07:00

A couple of poetic goodies for you over at The Sword Review.

First, another rhyming bit of science fictional gorgeousness from John Kuhn titled "Modulation", constructed in parts that tell a stor and from which this excerpt:

She yet remained his wife, endured his chill,
and walked behind him cloaked from head to toe
to save him from temptation’s harmful blow—
for fragile grew the system from that pill
whose wiry tendrils pulsed to somehow still
the pulse of flesh and stifle ardor’s flow.
So fragile did the system in him grow,
and yet it bound like iron his once-free will.

~~

From Davic C. Kopaska Merkel comes "Leviathan, rising", which begins:

the pond, a dark fathomless pool,
pulls the house into its wild
fishy frontier, furrowing the garden,

I think you'll enjoy them both, the science-fictional and the mythical-fantastical. Go, read.

Pasadena Star News Article

2007-04-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

Nice little article featuring Debbie Kolodji and talking about speculative poetry:

"Temple City Woman has Passion for Sci-Fi Poetry"

DREAMS & NIGHTMARES's New Website

2007-04-24T04:06:00.000-07:00

Visit the new (and nicer) site for Dreams & Nightmares.

I still haven't read the latest issue I received, or my Mythic 2, but then, I'm so behind on my reading...

Patricia Kelly's "Hierophany"

2007-04-24T00:05:00.000-07:00

I like how this poem has that bit of mystery that the reader must puzzle out himself/herself:

"Hierophany"

WOOHOO! Spring GOBLIN FRUIT is Up

2007-04-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

I got so excited when I saw familiar and fave names on there: Valente, Romanko, Tentchoff, Kolodji, Simon, and a poet whose growing strongly on me, Vanderhooft.

Head over right now: GOBLIN FRUIT, Spring 2007 issue

And as a special happy bonus, a writer/poet I simply love, and a nifty blogger, Samantha Henderson, has won the Faerie Queen Contest over there with "Queen Elizabeth and the Fox." Marcie Tentchoff ranked third. Great showing!

Get a Poem A Day: National Poetry Month

2007-04-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

Knopf will send you a poem a day throughout the month. Subscribe by sending a blank email to this addy:

sub_knopfpoetry@info.randomhouse.com

Donna Royston Reviews MYTHIC 2

2007-04-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

In fact, Mythic 2 can be viewed as its own fantasy universe, with a heavenly realm of gods, a middle realm of lesser magic and human enchantment, and a lower realm where all the magic has drained away, leaving imperfect memories and forlorn longing for opportunities for erudite display. So why don't we, as a way of exploring what Mythic 2 has to offer, take a grand tour through all its mythic realms?

Follow Royston on that tour in "Strange Horizon Reviews Mythic 2, edited by Mike Allen"

Rush over to HELIX for a feast of spec poetry

2007-04-02T06:19:00.000-07:00

HELIX offers several poems in their current issue:

"What Happens in Space-Time"
by Greg Beatty

"Berry Cobbler"
by Samantha Henderson

"I Can Feel the Drilling"
by Drew Morse

"Prometheus Bound"
by Mikal Trimm

"Loup garou"
by Serena Fusek

"E-Meter Messiah"
by Mary Horton

The last listed by Horton and the one by Trimm both include some Christian references.

Check them all out.

List of Rhysling Nominees up at SFPA Site

2007-04-01T11:39:00.001-07:00

Visit the SFPA site for the list of Rhysling Award nominees in short and long form. All nominated poems are speculative and were pubbed in 2006, and all will be included in the 2007 Rhysling Anthology.

Yours truly is listed in the short form category for "Into the Heart."

More info about the Rhysling Award here.

Three Rapunzel Poems

2007-03-28T06:20:00.000-07:00

Hat tip to Jaime for these:

"Rapunzel's Mother" by Carolyn Williams-Noren

"Rapunzel" by Rosemary Dun

"Rapunzel" by Arlene Ang

"An Atypical Reaction to the Death of the Sun and the Moon" by Mikal Trimm

2007-03-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

Read: "An Atypical Reaction to the Death of the Sun and the Moon"
By Mikal Trimm at STRANGE HORIZONS

this is the shag-time, the leading edge
of oblivion, baby, I'm
not just making this up, tomorrow
we'll all be gone, dead
as karma and electricity, dead ...

A chilling poem by Jamie Lee Moyer

2007-03-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

This one you need to read out loud:

"This is the House" by Jaime Lee Moyer.

Ooh. Did I just shiver?

Alchemical Post-Its: A Primer on Fantastic Poetry

2007-03-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

Read Robert Frazier's article "Alchemical Post-Its: A Primer on Fantastic Poetry"

You can point toward the Odyssey and Tennyson and Blake and Poe and any number of precedents, but for all intents and purposes, science fiction poetry existed in a dormant state until the latter Sixties, when poetry began regular appearances in science fiction publications on both sides of the Atlantic. To cite two of several high profile examples, poems were consistently collected in the Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction anthologies and New Worlds.

Winter Issue of AMAZE: The Cinquain Journal

2007-03-14T23:15:00.000-07:00

Cinqains are cool. If you're not familiar with them, head over to read the winter edition of AMAZE.

I particularly enjoyed Zhanna P. Rader's two.

These aren't speculative or Christian, really, but they're still fun.

Karen A Romanko's "Rooms"

2007-03-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

DKA has published "Rooms" by Karen A. Romanko.

Spacers work to save a dying world. What will happen to those who must stay behind?

Here's the first stanza:

As our world prepared to die,
spacers on five-masted schooners
worked to save its mementos--us--
for transport to a promised land

She connects the science fictional with the spiritual in the closing stanza, and does it nicely, too. A conclusion full of hope and welcome.

The Scifaiku Manifesto

2007-03-07T19:33:00.000-08:00

A fun manisfesto to read, instructive and concise, graced with examples. If you've never read or written scifaihu, why not delve into this web page first:

While SciFaiku is open to experimentation and flexible in using the rules of its form, it nevertheless draws its inspiration from haiku. As with haiku, a poet strives to convey a sense of immediacy -- to capture a moment, to make readers feel that they are part of a scene. This immediacy might be obtained, for instance, by incorporating words that strike directly at the senses -- sounds, smells, visions... In striving for directness of expression, SciFaiku avoids abstract concepts and metaphors and describes rather than philosophizes. Leave the implications to the reader's imagination:

Digging up an ancient city,
finding the print
of a tennis shoe.

On Speculative Poetry

2007-03-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

Grasping speculative poetry seems to be a matter of what you read during your formative years; to me the idea of "speculative poetry" as a description of something distinct (or to continue my analogy, with a different taste) from "regular" poetry seems as obvious as daylight and shadow; to folks who haven't encountered the flavor before the idea can result in a blank stare. They're not at all familiar with applying the concept of world-building to poetry.

--from The Plasteel Spider Factory
~

"Moonology" by Albert Goldbarth

2007-03-06T23:36:00.000-08:00

Excerpt:

We think we see the "face" of the moon,
there isn't any culture's folklore
that says otherwise; but what if it faces
the other direction, mouthing something
dark to our understanding, against
its dark place on the night? The voice
in the belly. The sting in the conscience.

Read the entire poem at The Georgia Review.

I've Reviewed THE ALCHEMY OF STARS & the RHYSLING 2006 ANTHOLOGY

2007-03-06T12:32:00.000-08:00

If you don't have your copies of THE ALCHEMY OF STARS or THE RHYSLING 2006 ANTHOLOGY, drop by, read my review at amazon.com, and get your copies.

You may also purchase RHYSLING 2006 and THE ALCHEMY OF STARS from the SFPA. I'm sure it helps support this excellent organization.

And if you have these two wonderful books, please post a review. Mine are the lone reviews there, so far.

New Poetry Today over at TSR and DKA

2007-03-06T12:25:00.000-08:00

Visit Sword Review for David Kopaska-Merkel's "Dreams of Starlight", which opens with:

As the ship moved, or its frame of reference altered,
as the distance from here to here grew long,
the gaps in conversations grew like vines that strangle buildings.
She had no events to tell, while homebody he
had graduations, births, deaths, achievements and disasters.
Then the big disaster

Mr. Kopaska-Merkel edits DREAMS & NIGHTMARES, a long-running magazine of fantastic poetry.

Then drop by DKA for R.L. Copple's "Dimensional Shifts":

Dimensional travel at your fingertips,
Folding reality upon itself.
Live a cardboard life,
Or find Nirvana in pointlessness.

Read all of both. Enjoy.

Karen Romanko's "City of Imaginary Friends"

2007-02-22T22:15:00.000-08:00

The Sword Review has published this nifty poem. It's both sad and delightful. And I love her use of the h and c/k sounds in this stanza, which yet quiets down to a hush of sibilance when it's time to stretch out and catch the child's voice that summons them back:

They busy themselves with hijinks,
their hopscotch and their stickball,
with heads cocked, always listening

Nice.

Read "City of Imaginary Friends"

Why I'm Weeping Over My Keyboard

2007-02-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

Not to worry. It's for a happy reason. I got good news a few minutes ago:

I'm nominated for a RHYSLING AWARD!

Now, to understand why this would bring me to tears, when you're probably going, "What the heck is a Rhysling award?" you have to understand how much I love poetry, and how much I admire so many speculative poets, such as Joe Haldeman, Samantha Henderson, Mikal Trimm, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Deborah P. Kolodji, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Mike Allen, Karen Romanko, Bruce Boston, and a host of others who, in comparison to me, are glorious unicorns to my little mushroom gnat self.

At least, that's how I see it.

So, to have one of MY poems in the Rhysling Anthology for 2007, for short form poem published in 2006, well...

I cry. That's what I do.

Thanks to the person (or persons) who nominated me. I'm just utterly astonished.

(First posted to Mirathon)

"Basho on the Back Road to Camelot"

2007-02-10T11:00:00.000-08:00

Deborah P. Kolodji's scifaiku sequence, "Basho on the Back Road to Camelot" is up for your enjoyment at DKA.

Here's my fave in the sequence:

moving line of ants
the sword in the stone
remains still

You may also want to saunter over to The Sword Review, where Deborah's "The Launch of Red Spot, Jr." is posted, and whose opening stanza follows:

She wore red
to match the new spot,
we were all bored
with the white ovalness
of last year’s surface fashions.

Thirteen Ways, Times Two: Speculative Homage to Stevens

2007-02-03T02:36:00.000-08:00

Delightful. You really need to treat yourself.

First: Read the classic by Wallace Stevens: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird The first way of looking per Stevens:

Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

Then go over to HELIX and enjoy Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Holy by Lawrence Schimel. Here is his first way of looking:

Among the twenty billion stars
that hang like eyes up in the sky
the black hole is a wink.

Go. Read. Have fun.

"Return to the Mutant Rain Forest" ONLINE at CHIAROSCURO

2007-01-22T06:14:00.000-08:00

Bruce Boston and Robert Frazier's much-honored poem is online. The blurb at Chiaroscuro, where the poem appears, says this:

"Return to the Mutant Rain Forest" won the 1988 Odyssey Poetry Award. It first appeared commercially in Masques III (St. Martin’s, 1989) and was reprinted in Year’s Best Horror Stories XVIII (Daw Books, 1990) and Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror III (St. Martin’s, 1990). In 2006, it received First Place in the Locus Online Poetry Poll for "Best All-Time Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem." This is its first appearance online. For more on Frazier and Boston, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frazier and http://hometown.aol.com/bruboston.

The opening stanza:

Years later we come back to find the fauna and flora
more alien than ever, the landscape unrecognizable,
the course of rivers altered, small opalescent lakes
springing up where before there was only underbrush,
as if the land itself has somehow changed to keep pace
with the metaprotean life forms which now inhabit it.

S. Henderson's "Cinderella's Funeral"

2007-01-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

Loved this one, but I have a thing for fairy-tale milieu stories and poems.

What happened to Cindy after her royal wedding? Well, it's not probably what you think:

"Cinderella's Funeral"

Gorgeous final imagery.

SF Poetry at The Sword Review

2007-01-20T15:46:00.000-08:00

Two Scifaikus: "Flash Frozen" and "Common Cause" by Richard Magahiz

"For Love" by Jaime Lee Moyer.

Terrie Leigh Relf's "And Still I Breathe."

Paying Markets for SF Poetry

2007-01-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

The wonderful and talented Karen Romanko has updated the paying markets list for the SFPA.

See the list HERE.

"How Angels Fledge" by Jane Lebak

2007-01-07T07:30:00.000-08:00

Jane Lebak specializes, it seems, in writing about things angelic (and often speculative).

Her poem "How Angels Fledge" was chosen as an honorable mention in DKA's first poetry contest.

It begins:

I beheld God in full,
Eye to eye, witness to Creation.
But wrenched from the grasp of glory,
The itching in my heart
Compelled me into the gusts of time.
July first, if I'd kept track of days.
I landed and found you: New. Needy.
And me: Warm. Protective. Fierce.
Guardian?
Guardian?
Guardian--me. After so long, me and you.

Read it at DKA.

SFPA Dwarf Stars Award Winner

2007-01-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

From the SFPA site, news section:

The Dwarf Stars Award is given annually to the best short-short SF poem of the year. To be eligible, a poem must be 10 lines or less and first published in the previous calendar year. The winner of the 2006 Dwarf Star Award is "Knowledge Of," by Ruth Berman. In second place was "The Stepsister," by Peg Duthie, and in third place was "Prayer Causes Stars," by Greg Beatty.

The winning poem was published in Keren issue #10.

DKA Contest HM Poem: R. L. Copple's "Black Hole Relationships"

2006-12-19T06:33:00.001-08:00

Another of the honorable mention poems from the DKA Poetry Contest is up at Dragons, Knights & Angels.

This poem was nevertheless memorable to me because of one particular word which I couldn't immediately decide whether it was perfect for the subject and possibly brilliant, or ridiculous and out of place.

I ultimately landed in the position that it was fun and offered a precise image... and was assuredly different.

The phrase with the controversial word: inevitability of spaghettification

Read all of "Black Hole Relationships."

"On the Crest of Victoria Crater"

2006-12-12T12:56:00.000-08:00

Anohter of DKA's honorable mention poems from our contest is up, this one winking at us with a sense of humor:

"On the Crest of Victoria Crater" by Deborah P. Kolodji

WD Poetry Contest Deadline Approaching

2006-12-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

In case you're interested in entering the Writer's Digest Poetry Contest, find the particulars of when, what, and how HERE:

Prizes

First Place: $500

Second Place: $250

Third Place: $100

Fourth Through Tenth Place: $25

Eleventh Through Twenty-Fifth Place: $50 gift certificate for Writer's Digest Books.

* The names and poem titles of the First through Tenth-Place winners will be printed in the August 2007 Writer's Digest, and winners will receive the 2007 Poet's Market.

For entrants paying with a credit card, we will accept entries submitted online.

Entry Deadline: Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Hat tip to Vicki for the reminder.

Three Views of the Capture of the City of Bisanthe by Samantha Henderson

2006-12-10T00:06:00.000-08:00

Triptych: Three Views of the Capture of the City of Bisanthe

Not a pleasant subject, but beautifully done, and the last lines are unexpected and meaningful.

Very fast becoming one of my fave speculative poets, Samantha is.

Dragons, Knights & Angels: Poetry Contest Winners

2006-12-09T23:59:00.000-08:00

John Kuhn's winning poem is up. Here's the first stanza:

Shrouded, wound about in mists as ancient
as Leviathan, hidden as his yawning lair
Atlantis in clouded absinthian waters,
they lie, awaiting splendor’s blade to lay them bare.

Read "Statuary" here.

Malcolm Deeley's wonderful poem "Two Cathedrals" came in second. I really love this one, the mood, the mystery, the allusions. It's a winner with me.

The third place poem, "Transport" by Chris Mikesell, takes familiar, romantic terms that are cliche and makes them new by the literalness imposed by context.

Some of the honorable mention poems are also up at DKA. Drop by.

Margarita Engle's "A Garden In Cuba"

2006-12-09T23:58:00.000-08:00

"where tame human voices

fall silent

in the wild presence

of overgrown

beauty"

Read it here

Poetry For A Good Cause

2006-12-09T23:57:00.000-08:00

The Nox Anthology: Dark Poets Against Abuse

Experience the powerful catharsis of Dark Poetry - Live as a committed activist against despair and violence. These things are not incompatible. These pages are a non-commercial effort by a community of poets, who wish to contribute to the work of making safe havens for women and children who are victims of domestic and other violence. In lieu of payment to the creators of this poetry and art, a regular donation is made to C.A.S.A. (Community Action Stops Abuse).

ONCE UPON A (Uni)VERSE

2006-12-09T18:27:00.001-08:00

My focus here will be on poetry, and specifically speculative poetry.

If one wants to get even more specific--and why shouldn't one--I might say that Christian speculative poetry is of great interest to me, and I want to highlight it on this blog. Sadly, there isnt' a whole lot of it Christian speculative poetry, so I don't want to limit myself.

It suffices to say poetry is the subject here, and let that beautiful world--poetry--fill this blog's air.

While I tweak and rework and fiddle with colors and headers, please visit a couple of my poems that are available (free) online:

1. My contest-winning speculative poem, "Into The Heart." A stranded spacing crew, and a wild hope that seems very much like madness.

2. My poem "Monument." It's one fantasy answer to the real question, "Why did Lot's wife turn around?"

Feel free to comment and recommend speculative poems you think are good. I'm always looking around for fine reading.