Cover: Idyll digital image, Ron Sanders
Editor: F.J. Bergmann
Layout: F.J. Bergmann
Production Manager: F.J. Bergmann
Mailing: Brian Garrison
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Wyrms & Wormholes: What Is Speculative Poetry?
Nearly a million pages come up in reply on Google (without quotes, anyway; with quotes, it’s about 300—and 42K for just “speculative poetry”). Whatever it is, it’s popular—although most of the posts appear to be explaining, rather than asking, the question. And many who provide thoroughly thought-out answers are not and never have been involved with SFPA (to my delight, I encountered not only Susan Slaviero, author of Cyborgia, but the word “teledildonics”). A host of new definitions arise, second by second. We are the visible tip of an iceberg that is growing larger, not melting.
Speculative poetry expands what is considered “adequately serious” material for poetic expression.
—Tracy McClusker, “Towards Speculative Poetry,” Playtime Magazine, issue 18
* * * * *
Yes, we are becoming strange to ourselves. […] But there’s renewed freedom to move in such a way, to write in such a mode. It might be the purest poetry I know.
—Sueyeun Juliette Lee, “On Speculative Poetry: a future ((tense)) // yet // else,” Evening Will Come, issue 27
Thanks to one of our contest winners, who has anonymously donated their prize toward the Star*Line color covers!
In a spirit of perennial inquiry,
—F.J. Bergmann, Star*Line Editor
Editor's Choice Poems
"Looking, Glass," by Mary Cresswell
The mirror split as I climbed through:
brittle splinters sparked and spattered
there was before and there was after.
And there was what I thought I knew
flat reflections on the water.
The mirror split as I climbed through.
There was silence. No more chatter,
words of a lifetime, words from you.
There was before and there was after.
Is the end, the final view,
pre-ordained? It doesn’t matter
when the mirror splits. I’ll scramble through.
What came first can’t come after …
no sphinx can tell me what to do …
The beginning is gone, there is no after
no more weeping, no more laughter,
no thought of me, no thought of you.
The mirror split as I climbed through.
There was before and there is after.
"How to Fix a Flat on a Mantis EXO9," by Robert Frazier
Outrunning a sandstorm and the enemy
first abort the nav sequence and exit
the planet’s atmo will tear into your lungs
second ignore the shiprock at two klicks
your squad won’t make it that far
Laser away the back leg damage
defrost a tub of microflesh fillets
link in place until they autopack
lather the area with activating gel
finish with a neoprene skimcoat
Ignore the nav alarms and gallop hard
for the sanctuary of that big rock
where the storm wall deflects south
where the men thank you shouting
what a woman ignore that too
"The Advent of Machines," by David Clink
We emerge
from the dead carapace of a skyscraper,
ancient ghosts
stepping out of a rusted engine,
and we touch
with perfect wonder and delight,
an empire of sand
which has turned to glass.
"To-Do List," by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
[Top portion illegible]
- Pick up a new ghost filter
- Shlep Marco over to Memory House for his annual cleaning
- Need that bug that’s been going around
- More entrails for Carly’s project
- 3 pairs of those fireproof gloves
- Mail your cousin before he spoils
- Marinade, 60 gal., Original Donner if they have it
- Two or three bags of goat
[End eaten away]
"Portents," by Matthew Chamberlin
The moss appeared that autumn
on both sides of stones,
the fallen leaves grown green again,
the bones reborn.
An apple on my desk
took root, drew sustenance
from books I’d never read.
Overnight a grove sprang up.
Therein I spotted portents,
heard migratory birds
roll loose and lost
across the skies.
Here, the trees died, toppled
in the winds or held their leaves,
confused.
I felled my birch—
the purling squirrels
scowling down—and spruce
for firewood,
a shabby cord to sell.
But in the shed
kept slabs of tunneled bark
where worms had bored.
Night fell, but I, I rose.
"Book of the Dead," by Alex Harwood
The alphabet of complacency is but hieroglyphics
of unmet needs, metallic in their lacquer to hide the cracks
in the wall, as if ostrich feathers were not truth
but lead. When we abandon our words, only images are left:
alligators and falcons watching through their stone eyes
at our nomadic resolution, waiting at the end of the river
to cardiectomize us and swallow our hunger whole.
Full Table of Contents
Departments
- Wyrms & Wormholes * F.J. Bergmann
- SFPA Announcements
- From the Small Press • Denise Dumars, Joshua Gage, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Sandra J. Lindow, Alex Plummer, Diane Severson
- Xenopoetry • El superhéroe se ha ahorcado ~ Campos Ricardo Burgos Lopez, translated by Fred W. Bergmann
Art
- Drops from Above ~ Denny E. Marshall
Poetry
- “*/you are no longer the smoke …” * Simon Perchik
- “hard times” * Ross Balcom
- A Close Look at Heaven * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “alighting” * C.R. Harper
- “attempting to align” * Terrie Leigh Relf
- For Your Own Safety * Michael Janairo
- “thunder planet” * Deborah P Kolodji
- “emerging” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- The Devil’s Wife * Raven Jakubowski
- “self-cleaning carpet” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “house dust” * Dietmar Tauchner
- Window View * Beth Cato
- “time traveling” * LeRoy Gorman
- “time-traveller gridlock * Ian Hunter
- Gravity Matters * Lauren McBride
- Another One * Marc Dorpema
- “family reunion” * LeRoy Gorman
- “first contact” * Deborah P Kolodji
- New Planet Landscape 15 * Ken Poyner
- We’re Home * Lauren McBride
- Between Dog and Wolf * Jennifer Crow
- “birthday surprise” * C. William Hinderliter
- Something Like a Body * Evelyn Deshane
- “moonlight confession” * C. William Hinderliter
- Space Travel * Lauren McBride
- Test Case * Ian Hunter
- After the Radiation Leak * Christina Sng
- “meaty walnuts” * Diane Severson
- ’Scuse Me While I Taste This Guy * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Waiting for the Mad Scientists * Richard Chwedyk
- “waiting” * Lauren McBride
- “death from below” * James Dorr
- Tremble, Quivering Mortals … * Simon Petrie
- White-Knuckled * Lauren McBride
- Our Timeline Is Not for You * Alan Ira Gordon
- Looking, Glass * Mary Cresswell
- “yellow eyes aglow” * Rich Magahiz
- “glass slippers slip mid-tango” * Michelle Muenzler
- “counting sheep …” * Joshua Gage
- Least Useful Wine Reviews * Jerome Van Epps
- “3d printing …” * Christina Sng
- How to Fix a Flat on a Mantis EXO9 * Robert Frazier
- “relinquishing …” * Thomas Tilton
- “reached the new world” * Lauren McBride
- Knowledge * David C. Kopaska-Merkel & Kendall Evans
- “Danger: High voltage” * Matthew Wilson
- The library of butterflies * Sandra J. Lindow
- odd little bookshop * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “Brain capacity 97%” * Matthew Wilson
- To Protect and Serve * David Barber
- Exorcism * Alex Harwood
- Anti-Vampire App * Robert Borski
- “amber alert” * Joshua Gage
- The Giant’s Song * Anna Zumbro
- Apology Letter from the Aliens * Beth Cato
- Man of Steel * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- The Unnameable Clears Its Throat * David C. Kopaska-Merkel & Wade German
- “a beach on Titan” * Robin Mayhall
- “heat lightning” * Joshua Gage
- The Advent of Machines * David Clink
- 451° * Alex Harwood
- ‘Authoritative Guide to Linux …’ * Robert Dawson
- Ancestors * Glenn A. Meisenheimer
- “stars beyond stars” * Dietmar Tauchner
- Exile * Deborah Davitt
- “big bang’s edge” * Francis W. Alexander
- The Waiter * Ken Poyner
- “we all sampled” * Lauren McBride
- To-Do List * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “what is the sound” * Josh Brown
- Portents * Matthew Chamberlin
- “first hour on Ceres” * Christina Sng
- Now Returning from the Sea * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Elegy * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- The Werewolf Returns * William John Watkins
- Tidings * Alex Harwood
- The Dark Lord’s Diary * Lee S. Hawke
- No More Broomsticks for Me * Beth Cato
- “Garden statues for sale” * Matthew Wilson
- “Midas smiled” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Still Life * Albert W. Grohmann
- “Alpha Centauri toyshop” * LeRoy Gorman
- Book of the Dead * Alex Harwood
- “by this time …” * Alex Harwood
- Option Package * Herb Kauderer
- Vanity Zoo Excuse * Robert Borski
- de-evolution * Herb Kauderer
- Messenger * Jim Fisher
- Needs Repairs * John Reinhart