Eye to the Telescope

Eye to the Telescope 62, Faeries, will be edited by Silvatiicus Riddle.

Faerie. An umbrella term that is composed of so many different creatures, you may even be surprised at what it might represent. Faeries themselves, of course, but also: Elves, Goblins, Leprechauns, Trolls, Imps, Nymphs, Giants, the Green Man and Woman, Pixies, Mermaids or Sirens, Selkies, Woodwose, hell—even Nightmares (they’re not just bad dreams, you know)! This is by no means an exhaustive list, as entire dictionaries have been written on the subject (hat tip to Katherine Briggs). The waters have been terribly muddied about the truth of faeries, beginning with the Victorians in the 19th century, whom looked upon the well-established tales and folklore of these powerful and dangerous creatures and decided that they needed to be made into winged, child-friendly, twee, helpful little sprites that might grant wishes or endow upon the interlopers of their woodland festivities innumerable gold and riches. Nothing could be further from the truth. While such old “faerie propaganda” can only serve to benefit the fae that desire to capture an unsuspecting human to torture for their own enjoyment, or merely just because; I am seeking fellow poets that are out to set the record straight. So, let’s take back the mythos and lore, laying bare their dark and mischievous roots.

The Brothers Grimm knew a thing or two about the nature of faeries, and the original tales reveled in a world that was snug at the crossroads between safety and danger, disguise and truth, sacred and profane, banality and magic.

Send poems about faeries—any kind of faerie, or faerie-like creatures from any culture (Hint: these beings are found worldwide! As always, approach your subject with reverence and respect). Move beyond Tinker Bell. Give me the photos of the Cottingley Fairies—but make it sinister! Give me the Green Children in their sun-filled days before wandering into the village. Give me a lonely giant that builds a ladder to be closer to the man in the moon. Unicorns that only come out in lightning storms. Trolls that live beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, collecting tolls at random—the cost? A single year of human life. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a terrible, insidious thing—you just have to lead readers by the lapel, over the river that separates this world and the Other, where human reasoning need not apply, where you are Guest of Honor in a game that you never quite intended to play, and even if you win, you might never be the same.…

Any human writing speculative poetry. Please no AI-generated works or AI-human collaborations. Note SFPA’s new AI policy: https://sfpoetry.com/ai-statement.html

Speculative poetry is poetry which falls within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror, plus some related genres such as magic realism, metafiction, and fabulation. It is not easy to give precise definitions, partly because many of these genres are framed in term of fiction rather than poetry.

A good starting point is “About Science Fiction Poetry” by Suzette Haden Elgin, the founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Despite its title, this article is applicable to all forms of speculative poetry.

Tim Jones, editor of Issue 2, had a go at defining science fiction poetry on his blog, in two parts (These blog posts date from 2009, and the Voyagers anthology has since been published. These posts do refer specifically to science fiction poetry, rather than the broader field of speculative poetry.):

As the SFPA says on its website at sfpoetry.com, “The Science Fiction Poetry Association was founded in 1978 to bring together poets and readers interested in science fiction poetry. What is sf poetry? You know what they say about definitions—everybody has one. To be sure, it is poetry (we’ll leave that definition to you), but it’s poetry with some element of speculation—usually science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Some folks include surrealism, some straight science.”

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