Monday, 17 March 2008

Sci-Fi poetry

Just for a bit of variety among all the poetry, I've been reading a Sci-Fi novel that I found in Waterstones at the weekend. It's the Peace and War trilogy by Joe Haldeman and very entertaining it is too.

The second volume opens with a neatly turned poem that starts 'Men stop war to make gods' and then varies that first line to each stanza until ending 'to stop war, make men gods'. I've no idea what the verse form is (do let me know in the comments if you recognise it) but it also prompted me to another observation: where are all the Sci-Fi poems? Even Margaret Atwood, an accomplished novelist of the imaginary future as well as reknowned poet, hasn't to the best of my knowledge written Sci-Fi poetry.

Though I (like, I suspect, you) shudder slightly at some of the horrors that could be produced in the name of this genre, it's strange to think it could have been so thoroughly overlooked. What have I missed?

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