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A review by cathepsut
The 2020 Rhysling Anthology by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
4.0
Another foray into SF poetry, this time as a buddy read. I am going to list my favourites, bundle them in groups of five or six and pick a favourite from those, and so on, until I am left with my three favourites for each short and long poems (inspired by Diane, thank you!).
Update June 2020:
I posted the actual winners of the award at the bottom.
Here is my own selection:
UPDATE, final round of Short Poems, narrowed down from the below longlist:
1. Sphere, page 20
2. All-Father, page 40
3. What You Hear When Your Best Friend Falls for a Supervillain, page 27
Those three could have ended up in any order. I read them several times, shuffled them around, read them again, shuffled again... it‘s impossible. Sphere and All-Father both immediately start my internal movie theater and my imagination spins off into the realm of a full novel...
Runners-Up:
1. The Snow Globe, page 76
2. Witch, page 54
And my final choice for the Long Poems, narrowed down from my longlist:
1. Sycophantam astrum, page 106
2. The City That Changed Hands, page 110
3. Stormbound, page 176
Runners-Up:
1. Heliobacterium daphnephilum, page 105
2. Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner, page 109
3. Fune-RL, page 129
————
Short Poems First Published in 2019, liked the most during my first two read-throughs:
2. New Stars, page 22
3. Ten-Card Tarot, Pentacles Wild, page 23
4. The Ruined Library, page 24
5. Fallen But Not Down, page 25
1. My Ghost Will Know The Way, page 25
2. A Purring Cat is a Time Machine, page 26
3. What You Hear When Your Best Friend Falls for a Supervillain, page 27
4. Continuum, page 28
5. Halsted IV, page 31
1. The Journey, page 32
2. Robert Goddard at Roswell, page 37
3. All-Father, page 40
4. How to Colonize Ganymede, page 53
5. To Skeptics, page 54
1. Witch, page 54
2. Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, page 58
3. Abeona, Goddess of Outward Journeys, Pilots the Interstellar Ark, page 58
4. If All the Seas Were Blood, page 64
5. Óòjí Íjè [Kola Journey], page 65
1. Huitzilopochtli, page 75
2. The Snow Globe, page 76
3. The Wolfman and Space Girl, page 78
4. No Fairy Tale World, page 81
5. Three of Swords, King of Cups, page 82
6. The Root King´s Winter, page 85
Long Poems First Published in 2019, liked the most during my first read-through:
2. Maculation, page 99
3. Heliobacterium daphnephilum, page 105
4. Sycophantam astrum, page 106
5. Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner, page 109
1. The City That Changed Hands, page 110
2. Fune-RL, page 129
3. The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly, page 132
4. The Woman Who Talks to her Dog on the Beach, page 137
5. The Making of Dragons, page 154
1. Keep My Course True, page 159
2. Why Not?, page 161
3. Stormbound, page 176
4. In The End, Only The Gods, page 189
5. Driven, page 196
6. The Wolf Isn‘t The Only One Who Hides in Human Clothes, page 208
The long poems were more difficult for me. I am not going to read all of them again, instead I will now move onto picking favourites from the above.
————
To be found here: http://sfpoetry.com/ra/pages/20rhysling.html
Detours inspired by this anthology:
- Old Houses by Lizette Woodworth Reese - https://poets.org/poem/old-houses
- Robert Hutchings Goddard - https://roswell-nm.gov/348/Robert-H-Goddard-Dreamer-Tinkerer-Pionee
- The Root Queen’s Winter by Jessica P. Wick - https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/the-root-queens-winter/
- Good Neighbors by JESSICA P. WICK - https://uncannymagazine.com/article/good-neighbors/
- Jessica Wick and Amal El-Mohtar, poetry webzine, http://www.goblinfruit.net/2016/winter/archives/
————
Winners of the 2020 Rhysling Award:
SHORT
1st:
“Taking, Keeping” • Jessica J. Horowitz - 50 points
2nd:
“when my father reprograms my mother {” • Caroline Mao 36 points
3rd (Tie):
Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, Sandra J. Lindow - 34 points
“The Day the Animals Turned to Sand” • Tyler Hagemann - 34 points
LONG
1st:
“Heliobacterium daphnephilum” • Rebecca Buchanan - 71 points
2nd:
“The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly” • Theodora Goss - 57 points
3rd (Tie):
“Ode to the Artistic Temperament” • Michael H. Payne - 41 points
“The Macabre Modern” • Kyla Lee Ward - 41 points
Publications with most nominations:
Polu Texni - 9
Star*Line - 9
Strange Horizons - 6
Eye to the Telescope - 5
Liminality - 5
New Myths - 5
Dreams and Nightmares - 4
Update June 2020:
I posted the actual winners of the award at the bottom.
Here is my own selection:
UPDATE, final round of Short Poems, narrowed down from the below longlist:
1. Sphere, page 20
2. All-Father, page 40
3. What You Hear When Your Best Friend Falls for a Supervillain, page 27
Those three could have ended up in any order. I read them several times, shuffled them around, read them again, shuffled again... it‘s impossible. Sphere and All-Father both immediately start my internal movie theater and my imagination spins off into the realm of a full novel...
Runners-Up:
1. The Snow Globe, page 76
2. Witch, page 54
And my final choice for the Long Poems, narrowed down from my longlist:
1. Sycophantam astrum, page 106
2. The City That Changed Hands, page 110
3. Stormbound, page 176
Runners-Up:
1. Heliobacterium daphnephilum, page 105
2. Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner, page 109
3. Fune-RL, page 129
————
Short Poems First Published in 2019, liked the most during my first two read-throughs:
Spoiler
1. Sphere, page 202. New Stars, page 22
3. Ten-Card Tarot, Pentacles Wild, page 23
4. The Ruined Library, page 24
5. Fallen But Not Down, page 25
1. My Ghost Will Know The Way, page 25
2. A Purring Cat is a Time Machine, page 26
3. What You Hear When Your Best Friend Falls for a Supervillain, page 27
4. Continuum, page 28
5. Halsted IV, page 31
1. The Journey, page 32
2. Robert Goddard at Roswell, page 37
3. All-Father, page 40
4. How to Colonize Ganymede, page 53
5. To Skeptics, page 54
1. Witch, page 54
2. Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, page 58
3. Abeona, Goddess of Outward Journeys, Pilots the Interstellar Ark, page 58
4. If All the Seas Were Blood, page 64
5. Óòjí Íjè [Kola Journey], page 65
1. Huitzilopochtli, page 75
2. The Snow Globe, page 76
3. The Wolfman and Space Girl, page 78
4. No Fairy Tale World, page 81
5. Three of Swords, King of Cups, page 82
6. The Root King´s Winter, page 85
Long Poems First Published in 2019, liked the most during my first read-through:
Spoiler
1. Afterlife, page 962. Maculation, page 99
3. Heliobacterium daphnephilum, page 105
4. Sycophantam astrum, page 106
5. Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner, page 109
1. The City That Changed Hands, page 110
2. Fune-RL, page 129
3. The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly, page 132
4. The Woman Who Talks to her Dog on the Beach, page 137
5. The Making of Dragons, page 154
1. Keep My Course True, page 159
2. Why Not?, page 161
3. Stormbound, page 176
4. In The End, Only The Gods, page 189
5. Driven, page 196
6. The Wolf Isn‘t The Only One Who Hides in Human Clothes, page 208
The long poems were more difficult for me. I am not going to read all of them again, instead I will now move onto picking favourites from the above.
————
To be found here: http://sfpoetry.com/ra/pages/20rhysling.html
Detours inspired by this anthology:
- Old Houses by Lizette Woodworth Reese - https://poets.org/poem/old-houses
- Robert Hutchings Goddard - https://roswell-nm.gov/348/Robert-H-Goddard-Dreamer-Tinkerer-Pionee
- The Root Queen’s Winter by Jessica P. Wick - https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/the-root-queens-winter/
- Good Neighbors by JESSICA P. WICK - https://uncannymagazine.com/article/good-neighbors/
- Jessica Wick and Amal El-Mohtar, poetry webzine, http://www.goblinfruit.net/2016/winter/archives/
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
————
Winners of the 2020 Rhysling Award:
SHORT
1st:
“Taking, Keeping” • Jessica J. Horowitz - 50 points
2nd:
“when my father reprograms my mother {” • Caroline Mao 36 points
3rd (Tie):
Creation: Dark Matter Dating App, Sandra J. Lindow - 34 points
“The Day the Animals Turned to Sand” • Tyler Hagemann - 34 points
LONG
1st:
“Heliobacterium daphnephilum” • Rebecca Buchanan - 71 points
2nd:
“The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly” • Theodora Goss - 57 points
3rd (Tie):
“Ode to the Artistic Temperament” • Michael H. Payne - 41 points
“The Macabre Modern” • Kyla Lee Ward - 41 points
Publications with most nominations:
Polu Texni - 9
Star*Line - 9
Strange Horizons - 6
Eye to the Telescope - 5
Liminality - 5
New Myths - 5
Dreams and Nightmares - 4