This page contains reviews of books, chapbooks, anthologies, and collections containing or related to poetry within the SF/F/H/spec genres.
Books on this page were published in 2025.
Cats and Dogs in Space by Lisa Timpf, cover and illustrations by Marcia Borell
(Hiraeth Publishing, 2025). 67 pp. $9.95 paperback. https://www.amazon.com/Cats-Dogs-Space-Lisa-Timpf/dp/B0DV6Y19YG
Cats and Dogs in Space is not the kind of poetry I write, in which, like as not, everyone comes to a bad end. This is also not the kind of sappy sentimental crap you might expect on a H------- greeting card. Timpf loves animals, that's clear, but these are real poems about almost-real cats and dogs. There is honor, love, and loss, with a double helping of realism, both about the characters and the situations. I couldn't have written these poems, but I loved reading them.
Cats and Dogs in Space begins with a series of poems derived from news headlines (references cited at the end). Laika is here, the first dog in space, who didn't know she was on a suicide mission (I wonder how many poems have been written about her), but other heroes, of one kind or another, are represented too. For the most part, Timpf interrogates the animals as if they could respond in ways intelligible to us. Even where the animals are not really animals! From “Canem Roboto.” Here, a tech has just “put down” aged robot dogs, and feels some kind of way about it, as they say in the Deep South. I've learned a lot of new-to-me idioms living down here, but I'm fixin' ta stop inflicting them on you.
Had he asked, Ace and the others would have told him not to worry. Told him that there is no fault in mercy. In providing dignity at the end.
to everything its time—
called home
like all good dogs
Section two contains poems based on legends, myths, and so on. These include a fiddling cat and a laughing dog, having one of the most carefree parties on record; Cerberus from the point of view of pet owner (but I wonder who takes his place when he takes walks); the tale of how wolf became dog, from the point of view of dog, not wolf; and more.
From “From Cat to Fiddle”:
the stark light
of morning-after, cow
nursing a sore leg
from a rough landing,
dog holding her aching sides—
The original poem glossed over the aftermath of the party. Good thing none of the players were into the hard stuff before the extra-planetary foolishness began!
Section three: partings. These are inevitable, and always sad, but these poems are not all speculative. They do not take place in space, and actually seem autobiographical. To the extent that this is speculative, it is because in some of the poems, inferred thoughts of the pets are put into words, and, in some, there are ghosts. I guess that's enough, although dog thoughts and dog ghosts are pretty pervasive in modern literature about pets. From one poem that seems to lack any speculative elements, “Without Her”:
I’m no longer on call
for nature’s call
doesn’t feel like a luxury—
I’m left behind, bereft,
like an unpaired sock,
Reminds me of all my pet partings, past and impending. Each companion individual, and too quickly gone.
Section four: Cats and Dogs of the Future
Maybe some day animals will be uplifted, perhaps via gene splicing, a wonder drug, embedded chips, or some esoteric method we've not thought of yet. Some people say you can always tell (remember when some learned folks said skull shape was a tell-tale clue to personality type?) Maybe there will be more reliable signifiers.
From “The 22nd Century Guide to Purr-sonality Types”
Excerpted from HR Today, July, 2120
How to know
if you have a plethora of cat people?
Check out the cafeteria’s sales trends
for fish Fridays. And there are other clues.
Shredded memos in the copy room,
when you know the shredding machine
has been broken for months.
Cats and Dogs in Space is a paean to our favorite pets, with a generous helping of what if. Timpf could have followed a darker path here, or looked into the far distant future, but she did not. She stayed with the relatable recent past and near future. If your dog went into space, her story would fit comfortably amongst these poems.
- David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Dream of the Bird Tattoo: Poems and Sueñitos by Juan J. Morales
2024, University of New Mexico Press. 136 pp. $18.95 paperback, 9.99 ebook. https://www.unmpress.com/9780826367587/dream-of-the-bird-tattoo/
The author and publisher of this book seem to be eager to market it as SpecPo, and a small amount of it is. The acknowledgments include “Thank you to Andrew Jones for talking ghosts, UFOs, cryptids, X-Files, creation, and process” as if this book was about those things. The publisher has chosen a blurb that claims the book “guides the reader through ghost hunts, conversations with mediums, a series of dreams in which he and his father work through his father’s crossing over together” and the publisher repeats much of that in the Amazon blurb. Fifteen of the poems are dreams written down, so it is up to each reader to decide whether these are speculative. They all use the word dream in the title. Some dreams are more SpecPo than others. For example:
“Don’t be surprised when all this junk moves on its own,” one of them snarls.
from “Dream of the Old Antique Shop”
and
I wander the night made of many fragments that assemble into a flea market full of my students. The most important object is the old coat I am wearing. Someone declares it magic.
…
They call me unworthy because I still don’t know how to unlock its powers.
From “Dream of the Magic Coat”
Besides the rest of the dreams which are SpecPo to some and not to others, there are two poems about the cryptid Chupacabra, who is also mentioned in the poem “Looking for Duende” another cryptid.
I find disappointment in the Midwest—how they keep wanting
me to be Mothman. We both wear read eyes and wings, but I take no joy in knocking down bridges
from “El Chupacabra Visits Chicago”
There are also two poems about the medium.
On the ghost hunt, in the abbey’s basement,
our hosts invite the dead
to wake up motion sensors
from “The Medium Speaks of Birds”
These five poems are easy to categorize as specpo. Other poems explore the uncertainty reality gains after the loss of a loved one, such as:
We accept his bread crumbs
from the afterlife,
as reminders that
we are together now
and lucky to be here.
from “Grandpa Money”
My sister’s home security footage
records orbs and streaks
of light manifesting
in her kitchen and living room.
from “One Year Later”
Overall, this is a lovely book inviting the reader into the poet’s life and family. There are moments that feel like magic realism. But the truth is that a generous accounting might consider twenty-two of the sixty-seven poems speculative. That includes the nebulous realm of dreams. The reality is that this is a mainstream collection reaching out to the speculative poetry field. That may be a mark of how far the academic reputation of SpecPo has risen. That said, I will be surprised if the book manages to grasp SpecPo audience.
-Herb Kauderer
The Future is Brief by Jean-Paul L. Garnier
(Space Cowboy Books, 2024). 96 pp. $9.99 paperback. https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-future-is-brief-jean-paul-l-garnier/22134316
Musings about the dangers and wonders of space, insights into human nature, and humorous twists are some of the features readers will encounter in Jean-Paul L. Garnier’s scifaiku collection The Future is Brief. The book is divided into five sections: Time, Transhumanism, Space, Aliens and Robots, and Science. Some of the poems have been previously published in Altered Realities, Dreams & Nightmares, Eccentric Orbits, Radon Journal, and other venues.
There are plenty of insightful musings on human foibles in The Future is Brief, including “younger and older / selves meet up for the first time / and cannot relate”—a phenomenon all too easy to envision for some of us. Likewise, one of the entries in the Aliens and Robots section comments on armed conflict: “… galactic war / by the time we arrive / reasons forgotten.”
Humor is a feature of many of Garnier’s poems. As humans have made advances with cloning, there has been more and more discussion of bringing back once-extinct species. Garnier pokes fun while revealing the underlying pathos of that notion: “revived dinosaur / Lazarus of a past age / finds meat but no mate.”
Another humorous example: “next time, if you please / wall me up on the side with / all that lovely wine.” Like many of the collection’s poems, a twist at the end of [radio signals] provides a delightful conclusion: “radio signals / reaching through space to the Earth / xeno top- forty.”
The poems in The Future is Brief contemplate familiar speculative themes in new ways. Several poems deal with the nature of time and thoughts about the end of the universe, sometimes with a human-nature reflection added: “last day of the Earth / isn’t there anything else / on Television.”
The risk/reward of space travel is also explored. Several poems deal with perils like “burnup reentry / yellow streak across the sky / mankind’s falling star.” Others evoke a sense of wonder: “radiation bath / ice skating on Europa / worth a shorter life.”
Garnier considers the inherent difficulties of first contact, and the possibility that alien entities might differ from us in significant ways. In one poem, he depicts “a foreign race with no ears” that “hears architecture.” Another poem contemplates interstellar travel: “warp drive folds spacetime / origami universe / unseen from outside.”
Well-written scifaiku offers a compact gift for the reader to unwrap, often punching above its weight in words. Creative, insightful, imaginative, and funny, the poems in The Future is Brief should appeal to readers who appreciate scifaiku’s pithy brevity.
- Lisa Timpf
Gathered Here Today: An Open Casket of Art and Poetry eds. Kala York and Kelly Grodin
(Graveside Press, 2025) 257 pp. $4.99 ebook, $15.99 paperback, $32.99 hardcover. https://graveside-press.com/product/gathered-here-today/
Reviewed by Denise Dumars
Somewhat uneven in both form and sophistication, Gathered Here Today, oddly, has something for every poet of the macabre to enjoy! While the first poems might lead you to think that this might be exclusively formalist poetry and/or humorous poetry, you’d be wrong. I took the poetry lightly until I ended up skidding to a stop when I read Alex Carrigan’s “Wicked Stephmother, A Golden Shovel After Brennan Lee Mulligan,” which is very dark and very artful. A few lines:
Even from the corner, you feel compelled to worship
her, and compelled to placate her growing wrath before she enters the
range of candlelight. You have probably realized that you are fucking
dead once you can make out the sharpened tips of that insatiable smile
The art varies as well; I particularly liked the detail in Natalia Díaz Jiménez’ drawing “Devious Dining.” Some of the art seemed simplistic, and other art was quite sophisticated and impressive.
The poems go back and forth between the tongue-in-cheek formalist and the dark romantic horror, much of it free verse. The whole thing has a decidedly Halloween atmosphere, and would be a wonderful gift for someone who enjoys, for example, the Halloween poetry books of Kyle Opperman. Most of the poetry really screams to be read aloud, and that, too, would make it a Halloween treat.
I liked Kurt Newton’s “A Cold, Windswept Place,” so here’s a sample:
But seduction is a feral beast,
With fathomless eyes and supple lips.
Once attached, she began to feast,
Slowly, drip by drip
A bit of a nice surprise was Ritishka Sharma’s “Specimen 401 (A)” and its clinical, Frankenstinian approach:
At first, Hector was born,
With extracurricular stimuli, having been had
Like a dinner table fool, consuming
an intellectual protest
I Wrote
Specimen 401 (a) woke up disoriented.
As we pity poor Hector we can move right along to the charming illo “Date Night” by Camellia Paul and its cats and bats and then cringe when we view the truly disturbing photo montage “A Slug in the Eye” by Joshua Dobson. I wouldn’t normally discuss the art so much in a review, but since the book prides itself on being both a collection of poetry and art, I must say that the art selections, although varying in sophistication, were all certainly food for thought and did add to the atmosphere of the poems quite a bit.
One poem that really made me laugh was the parody of Poe’s “The Raven,” called “The Crow,” by Terry Campbell, and it’s a standout of the humorous verse:
I think it must’ve been late December
It was cold enough to freeze my member.
The kids must’ve kicked so hard they blew open the door.
I wished like hell that it was morning,
This same shit was gettin’ boring.
Just thumbin’ through my Penthouse and Hustler,
Thinking about that freakin’ whore.
She done me wrong, I’ll say no more
On that happy note I’ll say that this is quite a varied collection of both serious and humorous verse on horror topics, much of it Halloween-oriented. I’d estimate about 50% is formalist verse in one way or another, including not only rhyme and meter but also concrete poetry and even haiku. Worth buying, especially as a gift for that Halloween-lovin’ friend or anyone who likes dark and spooky poetry.
The Limerick in Chains ed. Jacob Bergstresser
(Lightning Cellar Publications, 2025) 100 pp. $9.00 ebook, $13.99 paperback. https://www.amazon.com/Limerick-Chains-Jacob-Bergstresser/dp/B0FG6QSNPH
Review by Art Holcomb.
Let’s be honest: nobody expects much from a book of limericks.
You hear the word and immediately think of bad puns, worse punchlines, and maybe your uncle trying to rhyme something with “Nantucket” after his third beer. So when I picked up The Limerick in Chains, I figured I’d get a few cheap laughs and move on.
I was wrong. And weirdly glad about it.
This book is a strange little miracle. It takes one of the least respected poetic forms in English and uses it to explore time travel, trauma, AI ethics, love, betrayal, metaphysics, dead astronauts, mutant cats, and—yes—dirty jokes. But it’s not just jokes. The writers here, somehow, managed to turn a literary bar trick into an actual stage.
The Concept
The editor, Jacob Bergstresser, kept the rules loose on purpose. The only real requirement: the poems had to be “chained limericks.” That means more than one limerick per piece, connected in some way—through rhyme, story, theme, repetition, or structure.
But beyond that? Chaos reigns. And it works.
Some poets play it straight: classic rhythm, snappy punchlines, tight form. Others take the format and twist it into narrative poems, love letters, space operas, even Dadaist nonsense. There are poems here that feel like science fiction episodes, some that read like personal confessions, and at least one that belongs on the wall of a dive bar bathroom—but in the very best way.
When It’s Good, It’s Very Good
There are a few poems here that don’t just rise above the gimmick—they own it.
Take “Paradox” by Robert Dawson. It plays like a science-fiction comedy: a time traveler keeps interrupting the night of his own conception to prevent his existence. It’s tight, escalating, and deeply nerdy. Here’s one of its most perfect moments:
He (or she) reappeared to the twain,
Interrupting again and again,
Till, annoyed and distressed,
They got up and got dressed…
And cheerfully childless remain!
It’s funny. It’s logical. And it’s built on a real speculative “what if?”—the kind of thing SFPA readers live for.
On the other end of the emotional spectrum is “First Officer’s Dirge” by Gerri Leen. This one surprised me most. It uses the limerick form to explore grief, respect, and unresolved emotion between comrades-in-arms—something like a farewell eulogy in staccato. It’s raw without melodrama. Here’s one of the stanzas:
The secret that I’ll never tell
Is that I might have loved you as well
If we’d just had more days
With our walls blown away
And found something good in war’s hell
That’s not parody. That’s a real wound rendered in rhyme. And it works—because it doesn’t try too hard. It just speaks plainly.
Finally, “Pluto Persists.” by Veda Villers gives us cosmic loneliness dressed in quiet defiance. Pluto, stripped of its planetary status, just keeps orbiting. The voice is small, distant, and dignified:
Though they shift and redefine,
Steadfast, I hold my line,
Steady in orbit,
resisting their note.
I persist, unchanged by their vote.
This is what happens when metaphor, science, and form line up perfectly. It’s not flashy—it’s true. And that’s rare.
When It Doesn’t Work…
Not every poem in here hits that mark. Some go straight for the gross-out (Pinocchio’s Nose Job), some collapse into nonsense (The Boy Toy), and a few read like inside jokes that should’ve stayed on Discord. The form allows for failure, and this collection lets that happen. Which, honestly, I respect.
You don’t have to love every piece. That’s not the point.
Bigger Than It Looks
What really impressed me was how much this anthology manages to do. Some poems are comedies. Some are prophecies. Some are weird little love letters to planets, programs, or people. And the “chained” form—the series of five-line stanzas building across space and theme—lets each poet play with shape and escalation.
And yes, a lot of these poems will land especially well with speculative poets. Time travel, AI, planetary grief, cyberpunk revolutions, and metaphysical riddles—they’re all here. And somehow, they all rhyme.
The Takeaway
The Limerick in Chains isn’t perfect. But it’s not trying to be. It’s ambitious, unfiltered, full of risks. It lets poets fail, succeed, contradict each other, and go weird on purpose.
And that’s what makes it fun.
It’s also very clearly—and proudly—human. You can feel the fingerprints on this thing. These poems weren’t written by algorithms or machines. They were hammered out late at night by people with real voices, big ideas, and a sense of mischief.
So if you’re looking for poetry that plays it safe, you won’t find it here.
But if you want a book that smashes form, breaks tone, and still finds a way to say something true—sometimes in five lines or less—then The Limerick in Chains is worth your time.
To Love Unquietly by Deborah L. Davitt
(2025, Island of Wak-Wak, 2025). 42 pp. $15 paperback. https://www.amazon.com/Love-Unquietly-Coffee-Table-Chapbook/dp/9198959905/
This is a collection of speculative poetry related to love and romance, that eases into its speculative nature. It lives up to its unquiet title from the first lines of the first poem, “Patchwork Girl”:
Set a stitch into my skin
press the needle in
The second poem is a burning minimal titled “The Quarrel,” while the third, “A Garden of Flesh” is full of thorns. This is not to say that all the poems are painful, or even speculative. Many of the early poems could be metaphorical. The third poem is clearly speculative but does not use any notable speculative tropes.
Some poems are gentle and kind such as this minimal:
Sipping Sunlight
from your lips
at midnight.
Poems such as “Losing You” are powerful works on the edge of spec, including:
It would have been a chalk outline
if we lived in some ’40s noir,
all black and white with fog-like shroud
sidling through the streets—
The early portion of the book was interesting but not its final destination. It eased into more speculative areas such as the long dark fantasy “Red Blood, Dark Water,” which is about a maiden accidentally summoning a supernatural being. There is more dark fantasy in the book than anything else, which makes sense given Davitt’s scholarly work in Medieval and Renaissance literature. But it contains a good variety of different kinds of poems gathered around the title theme. The mix of spec and spec-adjacent verses builds something of a secondary world rooted in medieval magic, but reaching into the stars, and spanned by the wonderful poem “Not the First” which begins:
Each generation thinks that they
are the first
to have invented sex
—that they came immaculate
from some cabbage leaf—
Despite the prevalence of dark (and often high) fantasy, Davitt choses to end the book with “Cold Motion in the Universe”, a poem steeped in the language of science, and nicely exploring a relationship without removing too many veils. It begins:
What are you?
Too large to be a planet
too small to be a star
and ends:
we can only infer,
but never truly know—
one more great, grand mystery,
like every stranger that passes by.
This chapbook is a rich experience for such a short collection. Davitt is a major specpo author, and this is a major work by her despite its brevity. I look forward to seeing it again when the Elgins are nominated next year. It also represents a new publisher who promises to become a big contributor to the field.
-Herb Kauderer
Midwest Futures: Poems and Micro-Stories from Tomorrow’s Heartland, ed. Randy Brown
(Middle West Press LLC, 2025). 90 pp. $14.99 paperback, $9.99 ebook. https://www.amazon.com/Midwest-Futures-Micro-Stories-Tomorrows-Heartland/dp/1953665322
Farms, floods, fields, and funnel clouds—these are some of the phenomena readers will encounter in the 29 poems and ten micro-fiction pieces that make up Midwest Futures: Poems and Micro-Stories from Tomorrow’s Heartland. Edited by Randy Brown, Midwest Futures uses a strong sense of place as a springboard to futures that are, by turns, haunting, hopeful, or despairing.
In the Foreword, Brown notes that the anthology offers “new visions and interpretations of the American Midwest’s character, population, and landscape.”
Midwestern pluck is seen in Herb Kauderer’s “Flight Attendants,” which states that “Iowa ethanol is the best for rocket fuel” because “it pushes ships outside the atmosphere / with a meat and potatoes practicality.” In “Dust Bowl Revisited,” also by Kauderer, an aquifer running out of water prompts a return to “dryland farming methods” that in turn are used on Mars, with a surprising twist: “And that’s how / the capital of Mars came to be / named Kansas City.”
The collection kicks off with a bang with “Rain Country,” by Bella Rotker, which notes, “The clouds are always thick like dark feathers.” Rotker writes about
… Clouds
twisting into funnels against dark sunsets. Cattle
running for the hills. It’s not beautiful but I wish
it was.
The poem also includes the resonant lines “I am a servant // to this world of hurt. Always something / undoing.”
“A Tale of Acceptable Loss” by D.A. Gray begins:
Organizers planned a parade
for the coming extinction
though we called it something else,
even decorated with flags.
“Stealing Raspberry Kisses” by Maggs Vibo juxtaposes thoughts of innocent times with dystopia. The poem opens with the lines, “Corn-fed cattle rattle inside their steel boxes / Wages stagnate again.” The narrator remembers a time
Back before autonomous wars scarred the fields with ash
Back when the soil was rich in Iowa
When we’d barefoot-wander—never considering landmines
Before the age of tracking devices
And satellites scanning our whereabouts
Some poems hold out hope for the future, like “Minneapolis 2064,” by Casey Fuller: “Your garden will grow / in old ways in bright green.” “When first the winds of change return home” by Brittany Redd describes “Seeds scattering solarpunk dreams—a vision of sky: the night sky a beacon,” and “Giving Years” by Jared Spears envisions activity “hastening the reclamation.”
Still, there is human nature to be considered. “Texas Innovation” by N. Jed Todd imagines the first person to be convicted of insider trading against climate change: “He was careful to follow the science / All the way to the bank.” The poems begins
There is a market for weather derivatives, did you know?
A way to insure that even though the rain falls
On the just and unjust alike
It still profits mostly the rich
And well-connected.
Many of the micro-fiction pieces have a lyrical flair as well. “When the mayor tells us to shower with a buddy” by Bethany Tap imagines a future that includes flooding: “Knee-deep in our wet former-lawns we will wander and wonder at the landscape transformed, at this brave new watery world, at the assumption we’ve always held: that we are the masters, that any of this is ours.”
While rooted in place, many of the poems also muse about universal topics and concerns like climate change, how we change the land and it changes us in turn, environmental and man-made catastrophes, hidden truths, the barriers that separate us, and the difficulty in deciding whether it’s better to stay in, or leave, a familiar place. Though the poems and stories resonated with a flair of the Midwest, I found them sufficiently universal to appeal to someone outside that demographic. Some of the futures depicted, unpleasant as they may be—aquifers running dry, widespread recurrent flooding, and so on—seem plausible given the events of the here-and-now, and many of the pieces feel very in-touch with the present.
Included at the end of the anthology are seven “discussion-starters and prompts, for use in workshops, book clubs, classrooms and other gatherings.” The prompts use some of the stories and poems in the anthology as a springboard.
When I started reading Midwest Futures, I figured I’d work through it a few poems at a time. But I found myself thinking, “just one more,” and before I knew it, I’d read the whole thing. Will it be equally compelling for other readers? Grab a copy and find out.
- Lisa Timpf
Pit Stops and Proton Beams, by Aurelio Rico Lopez III
(Hybrid Sequence Media, 2025). 86 pp. $14 paperback. https://hybridsequence.wordpress.com/pit-stops-and-proton-beams/
Fans of speculative haiku are in for a treat with Aurelio Rico Lopez III’s Pit Stops and Proton Beams. The collection includes more than 200 three-line poems, arranged three per page. This layout struck a good balance between frequency of page-turning, versus readability and aesthetic appeal.
While some poems are spooky or foreboding, most contain elements of humor. Whether the humor is sly, ironic, clever, subtle, or makes you laugh aloud, the collection is entertaining as a whole, with some gems among the content.
A number of science fiction tropes are explored, with frequent references to aliens. There are poems about war with aliens, first contact, misunderstandings, mishaps, and odd encounters. There are even aliens snubbing Earth as a honeymoon location because it’s so passé. One of my favorite alien-related poems was
Martian steps on Lego
blame Lucy’s kid Josh
for the end of the world
There are poems referencing space, as one might expect from a speculative collection:
NASA launched time capsule
of goodwill
smashing into warship
There are also poems about class trips, dump sites, and human customs (which, understandably, may seem bewildering to those coming from other worlds.) What will extraterrestrials think of our writing? Here’s one take on that question:
inside used bookstore
aliens browse sci-fi section
with stifled laughter
As someone who struggles to rein in their wordiness, I admired the economical, spare nature of many of the poems, which leave the reader to fill in the blanks. As an example:
harness tears
spinning towards black hole
well, this sucks
The poem could have provided more background, but why? We don’t need to be told that the narrator is in space. That becomes evident, as does the nature of their predicament.
Because of their compact nature, many of the poems bear lingering over, not because they are obscure, but so the reader can savor them more deeply. I found myself enjoying Pit Stops and Proton Beams even more on a second reading.
Those who appreciate compact, humorous speculative haiku should find much to like in this collection.
- Lisa Timpf
The Reducing Flame by Richard Magahiz
(Space Cowboy Books, 2025). 12 pp. $6 pamphlet. https://spacecowboybooks.bandcamp.com/merch/the-reducing-flame-chapbook
I first encountered Rich Magahiz' poetry in the late lamented scifaiku list. I found most of his poetry there to be nearly incomprehensible. A mystery wrapped in an enigma, as the saying goes. For a year or so I didn't know that he wrote any other kind of poetry. After a while I started to see longer pieces here and there, some narrative and some not, and I thought huh. But this book, The Reducing Flame, is both insightful and pellucid. In this way it reminds me of Bryan Dietrich's poetry, which is otherwise quite different. Now some folks like to work to understand poetry, but to the fan of speculative literature, these poems elicit the Oh yes! Hit me again! response.
Some poems seem whimsical, but are actually incisive social commentary. This book demonstrates that it's possible for a poem to be both. From “Winning Chess Brilliancies for the 21st Century:”
4
from an attack submarine
under the fourth rank
launch cruise missiles
at the enemy's back rank
5
infiltrate
the knight's water supply
with a slow-acting toxin
with a secret
antidote
Other poems are metaphors, but are not easily sampled in intelligible ways. They present indivisible gestalts. But some of these can be sampled. From “Oath”
I'd share that sacred sound
with seven billion friends,
some smacked by black storms,
others standing in hot shame
when soldiers have had their fun.
Magahiz reaches into the hidden places and shows us what he finds, like we should recognize it. And we do. From “The Irresistable”
with amnion and chorion cleft
she has only the very little time
she has grasped every future need
she fetches it from the dank cellar
The chapbook is thin and has a monochromatic cover illustration. You'd be making a mistake to ignore this slim volume; it's likely to be an Elgin contender.
- David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Science Is Not Enough: Speculative Poetry by Ken Poyner
(Barking Moose Press, 2025) 158 pp. $2.99 ebook, $13.99 paperback. https://www.amazon.com/Science-Not-Enough-Speculative-poetry/dp/B0FGJB125T
Reviewed by Lisa Timpf
Robots as you’ve never imagined them. First contact with aliens that range from inimical to inscrutable to underwhelming. Generation ships, space-faring vessels, and space junk. All of these, and more, are present in Ken Poyner’s Science Is Not Enough: Speculative Poetry.
A number of the poems centre around robots, exploring how they might evolve, what their behaviours might tell us about our own, how they might mimic humans, and how they might choose to differ from us, as well as other notions.
“The Symbiont, Cyborg, Robot Enfranchisement Workers Union” envisions the future as robots become more intertwined in our daily lives:
We whirl about your world, turning it from raw into
The mature success you enjoy and expect,
A hive of intertwined processes, one misstep
From chaos, but a howling perfection nonetheless.
Having worked in a manufacturing facility that used robotic equipment for some of the processes, I can identify with this assessment, which may become magnified in the future as robots are used in more and more applications.
The potential for robots to carry on long after their makers is captured in “Automated”:
Our serviceability
Is legendary; and long after
The tasks we were manufactured for
No longer need to be done, we will be
Doing, doing and doing.
Doing, in memory of you: you,
Who, in the natural order of all things,
Comfortably kissed extinction,
And left us to putter companionless on.
And there’s more: dancing robots just this side of creepy, robots achieving sentience, robots on strike, and so on.
Encounters with extraterrestrials is also a frequently-visited theme. As with the robot poems, Poyner demonstrates an ability to succinctly outline thought-provoking images. “Alien Found,” for example, includes the lines, “Why we thought you would be / Like us, I do not know.” Later in the poem Poyner muses, “How long is it that we have missed / Your shout? Atmospheric electricity dances: / Do you visit us, or do we visit you?”
In some poems, we find that aliens do not live up to our expectations. In others, it’s the aliens who find humans disappointing or even insignificant. In “First Landing,” extraterrestrial visitors are more interested in the plant life than in the humans who are trying to get their attention.
Space travel, living on other planets, and generation ships are also among the topics examined. In “Moisture,” someone who has relocated to an arid planet ruminates about their former home:
. . . I cannot reform the memory
Of once, on another world,
A hurricane warning, three days
Of rain, water in the kitchen
Speckled with floating shoes
And socks, a cat’s bed,
A cork drink coaster. We
Did not know how wealthy we were;
We thought we knew excess, and were lying.
The images bring home the point, and the poignancy is echoed in some of the other entries in the collection, like “Place,” which is about a generation ship.
Humor is a feature of many of the poems. In “Space Junk,” an outdated deep space probe comments:
If it will help you, you can copy
my logs from origin to here.
Could be it might orient you and you
can tell us both where we are.
“Building a Ready Workforce” begins, “The last person to see Nicholas alive / Was also the first person to see Nicholas / Automated.” “Robot Motivation” observes, “Robots can be as maddening as they are useful, / As fascinating as they are diligent.”
Some of the poems have offbeat or surreal tinges. “Ineffective,” for example, begins,
Tuesday, they broke the light.
The next three days they tried to fix it.
Staples, paperclips, hairpins, glue;
Nothing would hold it together.
Later in the poem, “People were publicly serving / Cups of broken light at corner / Photon bars.”
The poems in Science Is Not Enough whisk us from the familiar to the strange, exploring concepts and themes in new ways. Humorous, imaginative, and original, Poyner’s poems provide unexpected twists and clever observations, sharing intriguing stories about the future and about humanity. Speculative poetry fans should find Science Is Not Enough an enjoyable read.
The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee
(JABberwocky Literary Agency, e-book 2020, print edition 2025). 27.99 paperback, $6.99 ebook. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-sign-of-the-dragon-mary-soon-lee/1136903418
The print version of Mary Soon Lee’s The Sign of the Dragon will likely have two potential audiences: people who have read, and enjoyed, the e-book, and readers who are new to The Sign of the Dragon.
First published in 2020 as an e-book, The Sign of the Dragon is an epic fantasy told through poetry. Over 300 poems make up the work, with a number previously published in Uppagus, Star*Line, Tales of the Talisman, and other venues. The Sign of the Dragon earned first place in the 2021 Elgin Award Book category for works published in 2019 and 2020.
The Sign of the Dragon, which draws on Chinese and Mongolian elements, tells the story of the fictional King Xau’s reign in Meqing. The presence of dragons and demons, and Xau’s uncanny ability to win the loyalty and obedience of horses, are among the magical elements.
Individual poems deal with heroic exploits as well as the everyday. We see King Xau’s struggles and uncertainties as well as his victories, large and small. While most of the poems revolve around Xau, some provide us with insights into other characters’ thoughts and experiences. We get a peek into the lives of members of the royal guard, Xau’s spouse and children, his allies and enemies, and even the palace cat. The multiple viewpoints add texture and context to the story.
Using individual poems to portray the narrative gives the reader snapshots in time, flashes of mood and emotion. In this case, it proves an effective way to tell the story. We experience, among other things, the camaraderie between Xau and his guards, the weight of leadership, and the joy Xau takes in spending time with his family. Some poems also make us privy to action taking place elsewhere, creating foreboding as we become aware of threats that are not yet on Xau’s radar.
The poems are mostly free verse, but line length and stanza format vary from poem to poem, providing variety. Poems like “Target” and “First Lesson” are presented more like scenes from a play, with dialogue between characters. There is also the occasional rhyming poem like “Rope Skipping Chant” and “Cure,” which includes the lines “Not healing herb, nor dragon’s wing, / nor surgeon’s skill, nor serpent’s sting, / nor spell, nor ghost, that healed the king.”
Lists, alliteration, and metaphor are used to good effect. “Wedding Gifts” itemizes gifts given at King Xau’s marriage to Shazia, beginning with “Bows, breastplates, broadswords, / spears, scabbards, shields, / helmets, horses, harnesses.” The concluding lines, as is often the case, add a twist. The final item, though not the least important, is “One treaty, long sought.”
Though events of war and bravery are depicted, some of the poems also deal with small, everyday happenings. A short poem titled “Pigeon Six” portrays a pigeon sent to carry word of an invasion:
Pigeon Six: no honors,
her message all that mattered
to any but the pigeon-girl
who cleaned her empty perch.
As the story progresses, Xau, who took the crown reluctantly, matures into his role. He demonstrates strength and courage, as one might expect from an effective ruler. But right from the start, Xau also shows humility, compassion, and empathy for others. In this way, The Sign of the Dragon is also an examination of what makes a good leader, one whose followers willingly obey not because of fear, but because of love and respect.
Many of the poems are insightful, and some contain beautiful and compelling imagery. “Micha,” for example, depicts King Xau watching the birth of a foal:
Dawn floods the river of stars;
the foal born, the mare resting.
Khyert beside his king, his heart full.
A night worth a month of days.
The poems also contain humor and insightful observations. In “The Cat’s Epilogue,” one of my favorites in the collection, we are made privy to the thoughts of the palace cat after a change in leadership. “Peace, war, treaties / mean nothing to” the cat, who observes of the new (and grieving) king, “He has not groomed recently, / yet his face is wet.”
Measuring 6 inches by 9 inches, the print version of The Sign of the Dragon has respectable heft and the print size facilitates easy reading. Rather than each poem starting on a new page, the next poem begins where the previous one left off. This aligns with the nature of The Sign of the Dragon as an epic story, creating a good flow as well as keeping the book to a manageable page count.
New for the print version are 40 full-page illustrations by Gary McCluskey. These detailed drawings add another layer of context, and are a worthy accompaniment to the text.
- Lisa Timpf