Science Fiction Poetry? Yes, Indeed!
AUTHOR: Jody Wallace

Romance novels, as you all know, are defined as ?genre fiction?, meaning that they are fiction with a certain slant. Other genre fiction would include science fiction, horror, mystery, etc. And within the genre of romance there are several subgenres like medievals, regencies, contemporaries, time travels, and our wacky favorite, science fiction romances. But in this article I?m not going to talk about fiction. Instead, I?d like to introduce you to a type of poetry that perhaps some of you are not familiar with: science fiction, or speculative, poetry.

Why should you, a science fiction romance writer and/or reader, be interested in genre poetry? I don?t know about you, but sometimes I want something shorter and more concentrated than a 75,000-120,000 word novel. While there are anthologies of romantic novellas or short stories which would be appropriate, I also like to indulge in a good bout of poetry, and not just because I got a degree in it. Poetry tends to exercise our brains and invoke our imaginative powers in a way that short stories are not as likely to do.

I have always thought of poetry as the liquor of a story -- a narration or happenstance distilled down to its most important, poignant or significant bits. It?s like eating a very expensive, cocoa-coated, dark chocolate truffle instead of a slice or two of cake. You get the whole, succulent, rich taste in your mouth and your belly, but you get it in one or two bites.

On a less fanciful level, for writers, reading and composing poetry can help hone your ability to choose just the right word. Not that the vocabulary does not matter in fiction, but in poetry, since your words are fewer and generally more imagistic, they have greater impact and must be chosen with extreme caution. The exercise of writing poetry can train you to condense and describe instead of orient on plot. And for readers, poetry can teach you new ways to appreciate language, metaphor and expressiveness. And then, it can also teach you that you hate poetry and prefer fiction, but I?d just argue you aren?t reading the right poetry!

Science fiction poetry, as near as I can discover, exists within the larger category of speculative poetry, which I?ve also seen called fantastic poetry (http://dm.net/  bejay/rhyhist.htm). Also in the same category are fantasy poetry, science poetry, dark fantasy poetry, magic realism poetry and surreal poetry. Each year the Science Fiction Poetry Association (http://dm.net/  bejay/sfpa.htm), formed in 1978 by Suzette Haden Elgin, awards the Rhysling Award to the best work in the field of SF/F/Horror poetry (is there an award for *everything*?). For a very extensive discussion of science fiction poetry, check out the treatise at http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/sfpo.html.

And of what does science fiction poetry consist? Just like fiction, the poetry must exhibit aspects of science fiction or the fantastical -- depictions of the future, alternative histories or things that most people do not believe could happen in ?real life?. Roger Dutcher, editor of the Magazine of Speculative Poetry, explains that ?it is based on science (hard or soft) and speculating on or exploring that science for an outcome we, in our current world, have not discovered yet.? He describes fantasy poetry as, ?Fantasy from the realm of myth, fairy tales, and contemporary fantasy?Just because there is an elf doesn?t make it fantasy? (http://www.sff.net/people/roger-dutcher/). Another description, this one given in the Ultimate Science Fiction Poetry Guide, is that it ?tends toward the use of referential (cognitive) language, mixed with or replacing emotive language, often achieving a didactic tone.? And fantasy poetry, in the same work, ?exploits the realm of the supernatural and ?the far away and long ago? charted by the Romantics Keats and Coleridge, and/or the visionary symbolic prophetic poetry of Blake, Wordsworth and Shelley? (http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/sfpo.html).

And if the science fiction poetry you come across is too long or too scientific for you, there is always scifaiku -- science fiction haikus. As stated in the SciFaiku Manifesto (www.scifaiku.com/what/) this is a ?distinctive and powerful form of expression for science fiction [that] packs all the human insight, technology, and vision for the future into a few poignant lines.? If you do a websearch on ?scifaiku? you will find many sites devoted to this obscure art. So far, however, I do not think there is a specific award for scifaikus.

But the very best way to define science fiction poetry in order to decide if you want to write it or read (more) of it is to find some. There are numerous respectable print and web markets specifically for science fiction poetry, and many of them are paying. (A note on payment for poetry: 5 bucks good. 25 bucks amazing.) One word of warning: if you are planning to submit, you should very carefully read the editors? likes and dislikes or else you will be wasting your stamps. When these magazines say they prefer LITERATE poetry and not love poetry that mentions the heavens, Star Trek fanzine poetry or vampire poetry, they definitely mean it. (A contributor to the new Black Gate magazine, Steven M. Davis, comments that, ?regardless of what you?ve heard, most poetry that ?comes from the heart? is positively dreadful? when discussing the quality of much poetry he observed in his research for the following article: http://www.blackgate.com/oct00/articles/poetry.htm.

The most often cited publications seem to be the Magazine of Speculative Poetry (http://www.sff.net/people/roger-dutcher/), the Star*Line newsletter published by the Science Fiction Poetry Association (http://dm.net/  bejay/sfpa.htm), Mythic Delirium (put out by the people who bring you Aboriginal Science Fiction, Fantastic Stories and Weird Tales at http://www.dnapublications.com/delirium/) and The Leading Edge (http://tle.clubs.byu.edu/). However, for these you have to pony up some cash to see a copy. I?d like to make special mention of the website http://members.aol.com/rbeyond/romance.html -- The Speculative Romance and Beyond Magazine -- which seems especially designed for subscribers to this newsletter.

Please feel free to contact me concerning this article and science fiction poetry -- perhaps to give us a market update, mention a successful submission or point out a good poem you saw on one of these sites. And until next month, happy reading!

Random Authors of Science Fiction Poetry
Jane Yolen, Bruce Boston, Laurel Winter, Brian Aldiss, Diane Ackerman, Charles de Lint, Steve Sneyd, Clark Ashton Smith, Roger Zelazny, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, and Michael R. Collings

Other Science Fiction Poetry Markets:

http://www.strangehorizons.com/ Strange Horizons, a webzine, boasts a very attractive website and lets you read poetry, fiction and articles for free.

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/4464/ This anthology, The A/A Productions H/F/SF Poetry Anthology, is split into six sections, and that means plenty of poetry to read.

http://www.icomm.ca/onspec/ On Spec (Canada) prints fantasy, horror, sci-fi, magic realism and much, much more. Pay to play.

http://www.planetmag.com/ Here?s a free one: Planet Magazine is ?the award-winning and groundbreaking electronic quarterly of short science fiction and fantasy by emerging writers and illustrators.?

http://www.electricwine.com/ This attractive online magazine, which features fiction and nonfiction as well, actually pays and is currently searching for poems to put in a series of genre poetry chapbooks -- one of which is a science fiction/fantasy/horror romance chapbook.

http://www.sfsite.com/darkplanet/ Another free one: Dark Planet calls themselves ?a webzine of science fiction, modern fantasy, poetry, and related nonfiction.?

http://www.wwco.com/scifi/ Singularities, formerly Event Horizon, has its first issue posted online as well as its archives from its Event Horizon days.

http://www.darklingplain.com/ Darkling Plain says it is ?the magazine of literate science fiction? and is a pay to play. They are not currently accepting submissions -- after their first issue.

http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/SFPoetry.html Susan Elgin?s page has a couple of science fiction poems.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Anamnesis/2001.htm A science fiction poetry anthology that Anamnesis Press is planning on putting out in March 2001 will include the winners of the contest described at this link.

http://home.earthlink.net/  dragontea/index.html Dreams and Nightmares says that it is ?one of the oldest SF, fantasy, and horror poetry magazines in existence?. From what I can tell, it?s a pay to play.