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catagory for speculative poetry
Speculative poetry is a genre of poetry that focuses on fantastic, science fictional and mythological themes. It is also known as science fiction poetry or fantastic poetry. It is distinguished from other poetic genres by being categorized by its subject matter, rather than by the poetry's form. Suzette Haden Elgin defined the genre as "about a reality that is in some way different from the existing reality."
Due to the similarity of subject matter, it is often published by the same markets that publish short stories and novellas of science fiction, fantasy and horror, and many authors write both in speculative fiction and speculative poetry. The field has one major award, the Rhysling Award, given annually to a poem of more than fifty lines and to a sub-fifty lines poem by the US-based Science Fiction Poetry Association.
Subgenres and themes:
Science fiction
Science fiction poetry's main sources are the sciences and the literary movement of science fiction prose.
Scientifically-informed verse, sometimes termed poetry of science, is a branch that has either scientists and their work or scientific phenomena as its primary focus; it may also use scientific jargon as metaphor. Important collections in this area include the 1985 anthology of predominantly Science-published poems Songs from Distant Worlds. This area often sees work by mainstream poets, and works on these themes dominated the early years of the Rhysling awards.
Mythic
Mythic poetry deals with myth and folklore, with a particular focus on reinterpreting and retelling traditional stories.
Horror
Horror poetry is a subset which, in the same way as horror fiction, concentrates on ghostly, macabre, spectral, supernatural themes. Modern horror poetry may also introduce themes of sadism, violence, gore, and the like.
Weird
Weird poetry is a subset. It differs in several important ways from straightforward modern horror poetry. It arises from the early 20th century literary tradition of 'the weird' also known as weird fiction, in which certain groups of authors collectively attempted to move beyond tired old stories of haunted castles, graveyard ghosts, and suave vampires. It tends to be concerned with the subtly uncanny, and is expressed in macabre and serious tones. The atmospheres of a certain place may be evoked, and the narrator may discover certain weird details of that place which arouse a sense of unexplainable dread. Some weird poetry will describe timeless geological forces or the night sky, trying to harness the feeling of dread to a wider and sublime 'cosmic awe' about mankind's insignificance in the universe. Yet the narrators of such poetry tend to be unreliable, and may perhaps be on the edge of madness. They may describe or hint at unreal nature-defying events which occur in otherwise normal places - although without the overt technical explanation found in science fiction, and without the violence and sadism common to modern post-1970 horror. A 'family tree' of weird poetry is to be found in S. T. Joshi's short book Emperors of Dreams: Some Notes on Weird Poetry (2008). While weird poetry has appeared in a vast array of anthologies and journals (both professional and small-press), perhaps the first journal devoted exclusively to this form is Spectral Realms, founded in 2013 by editor S.T. Joshi and published by Hippocampus Press.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_poetry
Also see:
http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10426 Appreciating Speculative Poetry
by Elizabeth Barrette
http://www.writing-world.com/poetry/boston.shtml Writing Speculative Poetry: An Interview with Bruce Boston by John Amen
Google "speculative poetry" for more details.
Anyway, I'd feel more comfortable posting most of my work in a speculative poetry category. The already existing DUP cats don't always cover what I'm doing. I know, there's Miscellaneous Poems, but that's like placing tuxedos in the sportswear section of the local WalK Mart: the last place one might look for that particular good, and one must wade through a lot of unrelated wares to find a particular item of interest. Likewise could be said for the Dark Poems category.
Due to the similarity of subject matter, it is often published by the same markets that publish short stories and novellas of science fiction, fantasy and horror, and many authors write both in speculative fiction and speculative poetry. The field has one major award, the Rhysling Award, given annually to a poem of more than fifty lines and to a sub-fifty lines poem by the US-based Science Fiction Poetry Association.
Subgenres and themes:
Science fiction
Science fiction poetry's main sources are the sciences and the literary movement of science fiction prose.
Scientifically-informed verse, sometimes termed poetry of science, is a branch that has either scientists and their work or scientific phenomena as its primary focus; it may also use scientific jargon as metaphor. Important collections in this area include the 1985 anthology of predominantly Science-published poems Songs from Distant Worlds. This area often sees work by mainstream poets, and works on these themes dominated the early years of the Rhysling awards.
Mythic
Mythic poetry deals with myth and folklore, with a particular focus on reinterpreting and retelling traditional stories.
Horror
Horror poetry is a subset which, in the same way as horror fiction, concentrates on ghostly, macabre, spectral, supernatural themes. Modern horror poetry may also introduce themes of sadism, violence, gore, and the like.
Weird
Weird poetry is a subset. It differs in several important ways from straightforward modern horror poetry. It arises from the early 20th century literary tradition of 'the weird' also known as weird fiction, in which certain groups of authors collectively attempted to move beyond tired old stories of haunted castles, graveyard ghosts, and suave vampires. It tends to be concerned with the subtly uncanny, and is expressed in macabre and serious tones. The atmospheres of a certain place may be evoked, and the narrator may discover certain weird details of that place which arouse a sense of unexplainable dread. Some weird poetry will describe timeless geological forces or the night sky, trying to harness the feeling of dread to a wider and sublime 'cosmic awe' about mankind's insignificance in the universe. Yet the narrators of such poetry tend to be unreliable, and may perhaps be on the edge of madness. They may describe or hint at unreal nature-defying events which occur in otherwise normal places - although without the overt technical explanation found in science fiction, and without the violence and sadism common to modern post-1970 horror. A 'family tree' of weird poetry is to be found in S. T. Joshi's short book Emperors of Dreams: Some Notes on Weird Poetry (2008). While weird poetry has appeared in a vast array of anthologies and journals (both professional and small-press), perhaps the first journal devoted exclusively to this form is Spectral Realms, founded in 2013 by editor S.T. Joshi and published by Hippocampus Press.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_poetry
Also see:
http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10426 Appreciating Speculative Poetry
by Elizabeth Barrette
http://www.writing-world.com/poetry/boston.shtml Writing Speculative Poetry: An Interview with Bruce Boston by John Amen
Google "speculative poetry" for more details.
Anyway, I'd feel more comfortable posting most of my work in a speculative poetry category. The already existing DUP cats don't always cover what I'm doing. I know, there's Miscellaneous Poems, but that's like placing tuxedos in the sportswear section of the local WalK Mart: the last place one might look for that particular good, and one must wade through a lot of unrelated wares to find a particular item of interest. Likewise could be said for the Dark Poems category.
As stated in the wiki def, speculative poetry isn't a sub category. Opening up a DUP category for speculative poetry might take some of the clutter out of "dark poetry" (of which some have complained that many presented poems aren't dark enough) and give a poet a proper venue to properly display his or her wares. After all, this site is entitled "DEEP Underground poetry" isn't it? Speculative poetry is about as deep as it gets. The fact that many here aren't familiar with it makes it truly UNDERGROUND.
