Tribute to Speculative Poetry

Conversations with
Rhina P. Espaillat & Timothy Steele

So much of contemporary poetry is self-oriented, pseudo-biographical, and set in something like the present reality that it’s easy to forget that poetry doesn’t have to be so grounded—and that the current dominance of psychological realism is far from the historical norm. In fact, the oldest poems we still have—the ancient epics of Gilgamesh, the Mahabarata, the Iliad, and so on—might all be described by an impartial observer as  “speculative.” King Gilgamesh himself may have been a historical figure, but the gods and goddess, the wild man Enkidu, and the monstrous Humbaba are all pure imagination. Think of A Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Faerie Queen.

This is what we mean by “speculative,” a term often attributed to Robert A. Heinlein as a broader alternative to science fiction. Whether poetry or prose, speculative writing always creates a new world. Suzette Haden Elgin, founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, defines speculative poetry succinctly as writing “about a reality that is in some way different from the existing reality.” This includes science fiction (whether hard or soft), fantasy, horror, supernatural, superhero, utopian, dystopian, apocalyptic, alternate history, and anything else along those lines that’s yet to be defined.

But why speculate on what might be speculative? As always, we put out a call for submissions, this time for “otherworldly” subjects, and let the community of writers dictate where the boundaries might be. The result is the 50-page feature section—35 poems culled from some 10,000 offerings. A Viking party, broken up by police. A slime mold’s singularity. Alien frat boys. A garden of words that give weeds a whole new meaning. Androids, asteroids, X-Men. In one poem, never-ending stairs appear in a hole outside of town. In another, Rocket J. Squirrel goes (alone) to couples therapy.

Clearly this is a journey somewhere strange, which raises the question: Why embark at all? Isn’t speculative writing just a form of escapist genre fiction—daydreams of another world that help us avoid addressing this one? Quite often that does seem to be the case. Countless submissions constructed vast and bizarre universes with the deftest of verse, but left us wondering, what for? Other poems, though—those that follow, and more—managed the transformative magic that makes real poetry. They say what cannot be said another way; they construct new worlds in response to the confines of this one. They make what’s strange, and leave you feeling changed. And unlike the real world, it’s never a dull ride.

Issue #38 also includes a large selection of open poetry, interviews with formalists Rhina P. Espaillat and Timothy Steele, and the 2012 Rattle Poetry Prize winners. In addition to the $5,000 winner, Heidi Shuler’s “Trials of a Teenage Transvestite’s Single Mother,” subscribers are invited to vote for the first annual $1,000 Readers’ Choice Award from among the finalists.

= audio available

	Speculative Poetry
	Burt Beckmann	Howie Night Dróttkvaett
	Kristin Berkey-Abbott	Currencies
	Ash Bowen	The Astronaut Explains Divorce to Me
	Rachael Briggs	Singularity
	Chris Bullard	How We Knew Them
	Jeannine Hall Gailey	Elemental
	Rhonda Ganz	Cryogenesis
	Conrad Geller	The Destination
	Kim Goldberg	Green Thumb
	Benjamin S. Grossberg	The Space Traveler’s Moon
	Penny Harter	Blue Sky
	Rebecca Hazelton	Elise as Android …
	John Philip Johnson	Stairs Appear in a Hole Outside of Town
	Deborah P Kolodji	Bashō After Cinderella
	David Kutz-Marks	Seraph
	John Laue	The Poetic States of America
	Michael Lee	The Taking of Lead
	Ben McClendon	In Case of Unrest
	Ken Meisel	Reminiscences
	Dave Nielsen	Police Report
	Aimee Parkison	The Creature
	Ken Poyner	The Robotics Problem
	Richard Prins	The God Zoo
	Marilee Richards	One Possibility
	Howard Rosenberg	Unprepared for the Afterlife
	Noel Sloboda	Self-Portrait as a Raccoon
	Laurence Snydal	Eye in the Sky
	Claire Wahmanholm	Rooms, Atoms
	BJ Ward	Wolverine the X-Man Kisses
	Charles Harper Webb	Blackdoog™
	Lesley Wheeler	Science Fiction
	Corrie Williamson	Xanthus, Achilles’ Immortal Warhorse …
	Shangrila Willy	What to Say When Your Baby Sister …
	Natalie Young	Discussing Earth Insects
	Poetry
	Ruth Bavetta	Elegy for My 1958 Volkswagen
	Patricia Callan	Clerking at the Ideal Laundry
	Sage Cohen	What’s Wrong With
	Rhina P. Espaillat	Familiar Faces
	Robert Fanning	Watching My Daughter…
	Doris Ferleger	Lookists
	Megan Fernandes	The Flight to Sacramento
	Alan Fox	Together
	Ted Gilley	The People Across the Street
	Beth Gylys	Second Marriage
	Eloise Klein Healy	Spitball
	Edison Jennings	Blue Plate Special
	Glenn Kletke	Sledding
	Joanne Koong	Clockwork Conjectures
	Richard Krohn	Pancakes
	Danusha Laméris	Arabic
	Daniel J. Langton	Bosnia
	Bob Lucky	Wouldn’t You Confess?
	Michael Meyerhofer	Pasteurization
	Loretta Obstfeld	My Life with Jeff Goldblum …
	Christopher Presfield	Morning Riff
	David Rosenthal	Pretty Pair
	Anele Rubin	A Man on the Subway
	Justin Runge	History
	Barbara Schmitz	Pretty Sure
	Mather Schneider	The Mermaid of South Mark Road
	Phil Shils	Patient Encounter
	Martha Silano	La Gioconda
	M. Jeanne Skvarla	Some Degree of Shameful Relief
	Sarah Pemberton Strong	Another Thing That Amazes Me
	Emma Törzs	Watching Fireworks Alone
	Jessica Young	Instructions Included with Telescope
	Poetry Prize Winner
	Heidi Shuler	Trials of a Teenage Transvestite’s Single Mother
	Finalists
	Lytton Bell	Jane’s Heartbreak Yard Sale
	John Brehm	Time Out
	Norma Chapman	My 1930 Model A Ford
	Kim Dower	“How Was Your Weekend,”
	Anna Evans	Zeitgeber
	Catherine Freeling	The Robbery
	David Hernandez	Dear Proofreader
	Krista Lukas	Patio Tomatoes
	M	For Those Who Never Know …
	Kenny Williams	The Return
	Conversations
	Rhina P. Espaillat
	Timothy Steele
	Photography
	Stefan