spring sunrise
alien buds unfold
under a UV lamp
telepathic sages
praise the verdant day
which mindset
will go best with new
baseball cap?
mating dance
of the spybot insects
her aura color
clearly tells she came
to say good bye!
hunting in Triangulum
for a new home planet
then the blood moon
was branded with
a coca-cola ad
armalcolite scarecrow
in the cell culture lab
face to face
with a row of clones
in the identity parade
isolation zone guard
beatboxing to himself
my jetcar slows
as the fusion reactor
blows a valve
just woken from the stillness
of the cryo-dream
Participating poets
Roman Lyakhovetsky: verses 1 (hokku), 3 (daisan), 5, 11
Elizabeth McFarland: verses 2, 4, 7, 9,12 (ageku)
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan: verses 6, 8, 10
Scheme
jo (verses 1-3), ha (verses 4-8), kyu (verses 9-12)
Tomegaki by Roman
The great Edgar Allan Poe once wrote: "A poem in my opinion is opposed to a work of science by having for its immediate object pleasure, not truth.” Sci-fi themed poetry is thus a strange animal, as it aims to cause the reader pleasure through combining scientific accuracy with poetic freedom of manipulating images and emotions. A special pleasure for me (as a scientist) is to find poetic elements in science. These could be found both in the subjects of study and the discovery process itself. The Nature provides myriads of poetic inspiration sources, such as the intrinsic beauty of crystal symmetry (ice, salt) or the bioluminescence of living creatures (medusas, deep abyss fish). Alternatively, the way from initial observation to verbalization of the discovery may depend on events with great poetic value, most often dreaming. I can immediately think about at least two known examples – the first one being the deciphering of benzene ring-shaped structure by German organic chemist August Kekule (1865) while day-dreaming about Ouroboros (an ancient symbol of self-reflexivity or cyclicality - a snake eating its own tail). The second might be the discovery of Periodic Table of the Elements by Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleev (1869), which came to him in a dream as well.
As science and technology development are at the foremost of human activity, no wonder that they inspire countless works of art. Dealing with innovative subjects and settings, sci-fi fiction may seem a relatively new thing when in fact it appeared already in ancient Indian poetry such as Hindu epic Ramayana (5 to 4 century BCE) that told about Vimana armored flying machines. The Japanese were also no strangers to the theme as the tale of Urashima Taro (720) featured travel in time to a distant future. Through Shelley’s Frankenstein and major works of Wells and Verne, sci-fi fiction turned into thriving genre of literature. Obviously, English language poetry inspired by Japanese haiku and tanka poetic forms also deals with such subjects, as summarized in SciFaiku manifesto by Tom Brinck (1995):
“SciFaiku is haiku and it is not haiku. It is driven by the inspiration and many of the principles of haiku, but it takes its own direction.”*
In addition to scifaiku and sci-fi tanka, first examples of sci-fi renku surfaced some years ago in various websites and journals such as A Hundred Gourds. Renku is Japanese style collaborative poetry, where a poem consists of stanzas written in call-and-respond fashion. These stanzas are linked according to the ancient link (tsukeai) and shift (tenji) Japanese principles. Renku poem does not have a “storyline” as such, but rather is comprised from a collage-like flow of verses, which are linked by diverse associations (setting, mood, etc.). The crucial thing here is to shift verses away from each other by introducing new subjects, moods and details rather than referring back to already used themes. Each renku is composed in accordance to a scheme. This scheme is divided into “introduction – development – finale” parts (the “jo-ha-kyu” dynamic) organized by the flow of seasons with fixed places for “moon”, “bloom” and “love” verses. The general “mood” of the renku is built by the season of the first verse (the hokku), for example “autumn renku” being usually sad.
Alien Buds is a 12-verse (shisan) renku starting in spring and having an upbeat and thriving mood. It contains such prominent sci-fi themes as travel in space, psychic and genetic manipulation along Moon colonization and the effect of global catastrophes (formation of isolation zones). Its flow, starting in a “pastoral” atmosphere of some greenhouse where the alien buds are cultivated (3 initial verses), gains momentum in the “development” part (6 middle verses) with the intense spybot insects and love aura verses and continues into the dramatic effect of Moon utilization as a giant billboard and manipulation of clones are mentioned. All this however is sequestered in the isolation zone, while things are quieter in our world (outside) (3 final verses), where even a blown engine valve might be nothing more than a dream…
While it started as our take on sci-fi renku, we hope that Alien Buds turned into more than just a poetic shopping list of speculative poetry themes. It is filled with feelings of movement and creation in a positive way. Looking back, this sure may have come as a subconscious reaction to shocking events of 2014. This may sound kitschy, but in these times more than ever it seems important to me that people with diverse culture background and world view can combine their differences into something positive and productive. Renku being a collaborative poetry is a great platform for such experience and I would like to thank the renju Elizabeth and Raamesh for the pleasure.
*http://www.scifaiku.com/what/
Source
https://www.facebook.com/notes/10224782118204719/ https://www.facebook.com/romanl/posts/10153488519805329/
Comments
Post a Comment