The Stafford Challenge, Day 29

In my last book Dragons & Rayguns, I had a series of 8 funny scifaiku for Valentine's Day called "Curious Candy Hearts." (Well, Dad jokes, really.) Today, just for fun, I wrote 3 more. Edward Scissorhands snip snipping red heart doilies . . . ouch! some blood mixed in. Frederick FRONKensteen and Eye-gor holding hands . . . ugh says Frau Blücher. (Neeiiiigh!) Flash Gordon and Flash (Barry Allen) . . . Valentines in the — sorry! — flesh. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] If you click on the photo below (magnify it), you can read all 11 together. In case you can't, here are the ones from the book: Curious Candy Hearts steel Pinocchio chrome heart, telescoping nose robot Valentine dragon lovers' tails twined like a Valentine heart in air, flame kisses shield shaped like a heart, sword-and-sandal warrior wields pink battle-ax spaceship skywriting BE MY VALENTINE across the star-strewn black void Bride of Frankenstein gifts a box of chocolate hearts to Valentine Boo Valentine's Day ball in Area 51: ET's bright red gown zombie scarfs candy hearts that say XOXO and taste like fresh brains Valentine's snowstorm: each snowflake a red lace heart in pink Martian sky —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

Scifaiku One

I was just involved in a facebook convo about disallowing fan fiction, romance, sci-fi, etc. in creative writing classes. I said, "I don't allow fan fiction, but SF and Fantasy and Detective (etc.) are fine as long as they are simultaneously 'literary' . . . I find this actually teaches them a lot about literary fiction per se." Though this is beside the point. The discussion reminded me about this poem I wrote a while back that I've never been able to get published. So either it's not good (which may well be) or it could be running up against editorial prejudgements about "science fiction" vs. "literary" blah blah. Moonscape bright sun, black sky, stars . . . galaxies glimmer like dust, this at my feet craters open out jagged walls to space, empty stadiums of stone snowbanks of gray ash flung from millions of meteors . . . eternal winter one person's shhh . . . shhh the only sound for miles . . . miles: my breath in my ears —Draft by Vince Gotera     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] These are haiku (traditional, 5-7-5, etc.) and in certain circles science-fiction haiku are called "scifaiku." I'm titling this post "Scifaiku One" because who knows, I might just start a series of scifaiku. Watch for "Scifaiku Two"! Can't wait until "Scifaiku 130." Just kidding. Well, maybe. I wrote this poem while teaching a Beginning Poetry workshop at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, maybe three years ago. We wrote haiku in class and for homework, and this was my contribution. Okay, that's all for now. Comment below? I'd love to hear what you think. About this poem or about not allowing genre writing in classes or whatever. Or write a scifaiku in your comment! Ingat.     Left: Harrison H. Schmitt in space suit next to a huge boulder (Apollo 17). Right: John W. Young collecting samples from the lunar surface (Apollo 16); if you click on it to see a larger version, you'll see he's basically using a broom and dustpan. Both pictures from NASA, in public domain.