SFPA Halloween Poetry Reading

The 2011 Science Fiction Poetry Association’s sixth annual Halloween Poetry Reading is online in what is most likely its final form. Near the bottom of the page are links to the readings for 2006 through 2010. This year I did not write a new poem, but instead contributed a recording of “Vision Stalker” to the online reading. It’s rather a “signature” poem that I wrote in 1996–another period of change in my life.

SFPA members reading their own spooky poetry include

  1. “Pumping Up the Local Economy” by David Kopaska-Merkel
  2. “Wicked Karnival: A Tribute to Tod Browning, Jr.” by Stephen M. Wilson
  3. “A House with No Windows” by F.J. Bergmann
  4. “The Head” by G. O. Clark
  5. “Sentient Shadows Rise” by David Glen Larson
  6. “A Night at Hotel Sedgewick” by irving
  7. “Not Alone” by Ann K. Schwader
  8. “The Cosmic Web” by David Lee Summers
  9. “All Creatures Great and Small” by Elissa Malcohn
  10. “Death in a Harlequin Suit” by Karen A. Romanko
  11. “Vision Stalker” by Elizabeth W. Bennefeld
  12. “Vicious Trees” by Mary A. Turzillo
  13. “Waking Beauty” by Lyn C. A. Gardner
  14. “Secrets” by Deborah P Kolodji
  15. “Renovation” by Kath Abela Wilson

In addition to my artwork, there are pictures by Geoffrey Landis and Kath Abela Wilson. 

“Outward Voyage” published in Star*Line

One of my poems has been published in the most recent Star*Line: Journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. It’s “Outward Voyage,” another of my snapshot poems; this one is a brief moment of awareness, “lostness,” on the first generation ship to flee the devastation of Terra. In my mind, it pairs with “Endings,” which was published in the July/August 2009 issue of Star*Line.

I’ve actually been dreaming about this “world” for many decades, but from a different perspective: growing up in weightlessness, out in space, and then living in an improvised shelter on a stairway landing, the stairs and walkways clinging for the most part to the sides of a gigantic sphere whose lights switch on a regular cycle from full daylight to soft, dim lighting and back. Within the past 10 year, I believe, I read a book that described a similar environment, although it was just part of a permanent settlement; I do not recall the name of the book or of the boy who ended up there by mistake. (I’m thinking that perhaps the author’s first name was Robert and that perhaps he wrote a number of YA SF books.) It is startling when I see a place that I’ve been in, described by an author in a book I’m reading for the first time. As though the places of my dreams do have an independent existence.

 

Continued Improvement

I am now totally away from the inhaler, although still taking antihistamine three times a day. No coughing, as long as I remember to hydrate, and I’m sleeping through the nights. And part of the days…ah, well!

I am back to the exercising at last, and I find that I am able to put in about a mile at a time on the exercise bike; I pedaled 2.5 miles, today. It is nice to have some sort of measure to the progress; my peak expiratory flow is not where it should be, but neither is it in the 200s, now.

It is interesting, how much being ill can interfere with concentration, how much not being able to breathe properly weighs on one. I am able to read, but creative writing is not going at all well, and I must write and record a poem for the SFPA Halloween Poetry Reading page.

 

 

Virtual Halloween Poetry Reading by SFPA Members

The Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Fifth Annual On-Line Halloween Poetry Reading is in progress. As of October 26, 2010, ten SFPA members have provided audio files (MP3, WAV) of themselves reading one of their own poems.

  • "By the Grace of Winter’s Queen," by David Kopaska-Merkel Playing-9250169
  • "A Vampire’s Domain," by David Lee Summers
  • "House 5," by Lyn C. A. Gardner
  • "Country Inn," by Karen A. Romanko
  • "Neighbors," by Elissa Malcohn
  • "The Revolutionary Behind the Tavern," by T.J. McIntyre
  • "Night Falls," by Shelly Bryant
  • "Frost Bitten," by Stephen M. Wilson
  • "Alien Life," by Liz Bennefeld
  • "The Little One" [“Petite”], by Maria Alexander

This is the fifth year that I have coordinated the event, and it’s become one of the highlights of my year. I hope that you will enjoy the poems as much as I have.

Decorating the Halloween Poetry Reading page are spooky pictures provided by myself, Karen A. Romanko, Elissa Malcohn, and Lyn C.A. Gardner.

Halloween Poem

Since 2006, I’ve been coordinating the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Halloween Poetry Reading page. SFPA members make digital recordings of themselves, reading one of their own poems. This year, as in 2007, I wrote a new poem for the page; my recording is way at the bottom, if you’d like to hear me reading it. Here’s the text of this year’s poem:

Halloween at the End of the Universe
by Elizabeth Bennefeld

In the asteroid belt, the veil between the worlds grows thin.
Here, graveyards are orbits around the rocks
that once were home to those who circle round and round,
peering through our windows with empty, farseeing eyes.

Beyond, one by one, the stars blink out,
with no short, clear path from Earth–
a failure of applied topology–
to the one bright-burning star that promises
the beginning of a new beginning.

So, Trick or Treat?
Here we sit on this hunk of rock and ice,
watching through the windows for the ghosts
of Grandpa Pat and Great-Aunt Selene
to push aside the thinning veil, resume their bodies,
and guide our spaceships through the wall between our worlds–
to celebrate Halloween together
at the beginning of a new-born universe.

Reposted from my wordpress blog

Old Promises

In August, I entered my first poetry contest. One of my poems received “Judge’s Pick” recognition and will be published in the third annual SFPA poetry contest chapbook. I understand I’m also to receive a small honorarium for allowing the poem’s publication.

That last day for submission, I wrote three poems to submit to the contest. “Old Promises” is one of them. “Luciferase” is the other.

“Old Promises”
by Liz Bennefeld

Winds sweep down the mountain,
bringing fall rain and winter snow.
Gone, the light and warmth,
the joy of first harvest.

Huddle together, now, in inner rooms,
saving the heat of breath and closeness,
sparing peat and wood until the solstice,
looking through despair to spring’s warmth.

Remember the time before, the time to come.
Recall the warmth, the energy of sunlight,
warm glow of flowers in the dusk.
Recall the lightning and the fire.

On this world, too, as on that left behind,
the seasons come and go with purpose.
New planet…but old promises hold true.
After darkness, dawn–and after winter, spring.

###

Copyright © August 31, 2008, by Elizabeth W. Bennefeld. All rights reserved.