Hugo poems
Mar. 7th, 2025 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraI wasn't going to attempt to nominate poems, but then a friend mentioned a hope of going through the spreadsheet poems, and I was like, self, why am *I* not even looking at the spreadsheet poems, and I had a weird little moment of, wait, am I intimidated by poetry? Do I feel unqualified to read poetry? That seemed incorrect - I keep a file of favorite poems. I occasionally write poems. Maybe I feel like I don't know what to make of *speculative* poetry? That also didn't sound quite right, I have no problem thinking about, say, Le Guin's poetry. Strange Horizons publishes poetry so I tried checking out some of their 2024 pieces and possibly part of the problem is that I just don't *like* a lot of poetry. (Although... I also don't like a lot of stories. Not actually sure if the proportion is different.)
Anyways here's some poems from the spreadsheet I liked.
The Last Voyage: Island Relocation Program, Steve Wheat.
sunday in atlanta, Kelsey Day. I'm not sure this is speculative. Also I'm not sure it's a poem and not a comic. Powerful piece, though.
Gaia Sings the Body Electric, Jie Venus Cohen.
there are no taxis for the dead, Angela Liu.
The Sail, Ian Li.
The Quickening Rachel Pittman. Is *this* speculative?
the office//the after, Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey. How about this, is this speculative? Maybe I don't know what makes poetry speculative or not.
The Lost Dead World Thing, Mari Ness.
Dodging the Bullet, Lisa M. Bradley.
Change Your Mind, Gwendolyn Maia Hicks.
A War of Words, Marie Brennan.
There were 62 things on the list, although some of them weren't available online, so I probably read more like... 55? ish? And ended up liking about one in five?
I have tentatively picked some that I think I'll nominate although I would like to revisit this list in a day or two and see which ones I still remember, or which ones still grab me on rereading.
Anyways here's some poems from the spreadsheet I liked.
The Last Voyage: Island Relocation Program, Steve Wheat.
sunday in atlanta, Kelsey Day. I'm not sure this is speculative. Also I'm not sure it's a poem and not a comic. Powerful piece, though.
Gaia Sings the Body Electric, Jie Venus Cohen.
there are no taxis for the dead, Angela Liu.
The Sail, Ian Li.
The Quickening Rachel Pittman. Is *this* speculative?
the office//the after, Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey. How about this, is this speculative? Maybe I don't know what makes poetry speculative or not.
The Lost Dead World Thing, Mari Ness.
Dodging the Bullet, Lisa M. Bradley.
Change Your Mind, Gwendolyn Maia Hicks.
A War of Words, Marie Brennan.
There were 62 things on the list, although some of them weren't available online, so I probably read more like... 55? ish? And ended up liking about one in five?
I have tentatively picked some that I think I'll nominate although I would like to revisit this list in a day or two and see which ones I still remember, or which ones still grab me on rereading.
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Date: 2025-03-14 11:01 pm (UTC)* La (Mal)inche, by Angela Acosta: https://www.radonjournal.com/issue6/la-(mal)inche
* The Last Voyage: Island Relocation Program, by Steve Wheat (https://www.radonjournal.com/issue8/the-last-voyage%3A-island-relocation-program)
* The Witch Recalls Her Craft, by Angel Leal (https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-witch-recalls-her-craft/)
* Journey, by Bindu Tiji (http://samovar.strangehorizons.com/2024/10/28/journey-%e0%b4%af%e0%b4%be%e0%b4%a4%e0%b5%8d%e0%b4%b0/)
Re what makes poetry speculative: Yeah, complicated. I recently read some surrealist poetry (published decades ago), and I don’t know where I would draw the line between surrealist poetry, speculative poetry, and regular plain old poetry with unusual imagery or word choice.