The Wordsmith's Forge

You can now read my post about verbs beginning with "C" over on torn_world.

thesilentpoet is wrapping up the Poetry for the Masses project. I really loved this thing. I had fun thinking up prompts, and one of them led to a whole new shared world, The Silk Road Allies. The poems that came from my prompts were awesome too. I also enjoyed poems inspired by other folks. If you've got a few bucks to spare for crowdfunded poetry, consider putting something in the tip jar over there.

 Flowers, dragonflies, and other lovelies.

Here is the bonus perk for the July 3, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl reaching the $300 goal. This essay explains how the elements work in nether-Earth, as mentioned in The Steamsmith series.  You can read more about The Steamsmith on the Serial Poetry page.  There is also a Steamsmith vocabulary list.

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One of the folks I know over on the Aether Dancer project, Brian French, recently lost a friend of his.  That inspired this elegy, framed in the Aether Dancer setting.

The world is old, the stars older still.
We stand on the hills in the dark night
and, wondering, look up at the sky.
Time is without limit, beyond reckoning;
our lives are no more than the brief spark
that streaks across the night and fades away.

Every death is like this, like something
fiercely burning, beautiful and terrible
as the rocks that once fell from the sky.
Every death is like that, like something
heavy and momentous, shattering all that
had gone before, leaving a hole in civilization.

Our memories are all that we have left
in this poor world, rebuilt from the ashes
of what was, for memory alone endures.
Everything that burns gives light; as the stones
that broke and remade the world, so too our souls:
but these stars are falling up, not down.

This fun bit of news popped up on the SFPA list:

Yay!  My poem "Going Viral" (originally in Star*Line, Jan-Mar 2012) has been translated into Polish, by the brilliant Mariusz Leś, and with a wonderful illo! Have a look:
http://poezja-sf.blogspot.com/2012/06/mary-turzillo-going-viral-wysoka.html

Ad astra, all you Earthing captives!
Mary Turzillo

Ahead of the Star*Line announcement, this appeared on the SFPA list:

DWARF STARS NOMINATIONS OPEN

Submissions are now open for the Dwarf Stars anthology, from which the
best short poem published in 2011 is selected. Anyone may submit their own
poems or those of others; there is no limit to how many poems you may
submit for the anthology, but only SFPA members may vote for the award.
Submission is open to all genres of speculative poetry, including science
fiction, fantasy, horror, and "unclassifiable, but speculative." Poems
must be no more than ten lines not including title or stanza breaks and
first published in 2011; include publication credit. Send e-mail
submissions (preferred) to dwarfstars@sfpoetry.com.  Send print
submissions (discouraged) to Geoffrey A. Landis, 893 Grayton Rd, Berea OH
44017.  Editors are welcome to submit entire issues; no need to name
specific poems. Deadline for submission is August 31, 2012.

--
Geoffrey A. Landis
http://www.geoffreylandis.com

Below are the winners of the 2012 Rhysling Award.  They will be reprinted on the SFPA site later.


Short Poem

1. Shira Lipkin, "The Library, After"

2. Erik Amundsen, "The Lend"

3. Lyn C. A. Gardner, "In Translation"

Long Poem

1. Megan Arkenberg, "The Curator Speaks in the Department of Dead
Languages"

2. G. O. Clark and Kendall Evans, "The 25-Cent Rocket: One-Quarter of the
Way to the Stars"

3. Mary Turzillo, "The Legend of the Emperor's Space Suit (A Tale of
Consensus Reality)"

 

Here's an article about Amazon.com contracts and major publishers.  No telling if it's accurate yet, but worth keeping an eye on.