Poetry Review - A Woman of Mars, by Helen Patrice

I was encouraged yesterday (by Shira Lipkin - this year's Rhysling Award Winner in the Short Form) to review more about the poetry I read. I don't consider myself much of an expert on poetry or even particularly knowledgeable. That might change as I find myself spending more time with it and trying to learn.

I recently finished the collection of related poetry, "A Woman of Mars", by Helen Patrice and this one is easy to review, so here goes. Most of this I also posted on my GoodReads collection.

I won this slim volume in a little contest the author held on her Author Page at FaceBook - so I feel a certain duty to review it properly.

It's a gorgeous, slim hard cover. Brick red, fitting to the setting with wonderful artwork (pencil drawings) by Bob Eggleston. It's a limited, signed (by both author and artist) edition - mine is number 225/300, so there aren't many left!

It's highly readable. Non of the poems are epic in length and so it's possible to read them several times in one sitting, without getting overwhelmed. The poems tell a story and the over-arching narrative is quite compelling. In the space of just a few poems you come to care about this woman and really want to know what happens to her.  That said, despite the woman's love for Mars, there is an underlying sadness or melancholy, perhaps stemming from the hardship of leaving home and the hardship of being the first colonists on Mars, which permeates the volume. Not uplifting, but moving. 

You can find the collection at PSPublishing.

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Raggio-di-Sol on YouTube

The small vocal ensemble that I sing with here in Hannover, Germany (Raggio-di-Sol or "Ray of Sun") has several clips from concerts over the years up on YouTube. You can find the Raggio-di-Sol Channel here. There are a couple with me singing solo:

"Gott der Herr ist Sonn' und Schild" (Part 2) J. S. Bach

"Sfogava con le stelle" Claudio Monteverdi

Hopefully, more coming...

Rhysling Award winners announced

The Rhysling Award winners and runners-up have been announced!
Here they are:

Short Poem

• 1. Shira Lipkin, “The Library, After” In Mythic Delerium, No. 24
• 2. Erik Amundsen, “The Lend” In Stone Telling No. 5
• 3. Lyn C. A. Gardner, “In Translation” In Tales of the Talisman 7, No. 1

Long Poem

• 1. Megan Arkenberg, “The Curator Speaks in the
  Department of Dead Languages“ In Strange Horizons
• 2. G. O. Clark and Kendall Evans, “The 25-Cent Rocket: One-Quarter of the Way to the Stars” In Dreams & Nightmares, No. 89
• 3. Mary Turzillo, “The Legend of the Emperor’s Space
  Suit (A Tale of Consensus Reality)” In New Myths

I’ve linked to the ones available online. I’m also going to do a Rhysling Award Showcase on Poetry Planet soon, soon, soon. Hope I get permission to do all of them. 4 down 2 to go!

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Poetry Planet No. 6 "Moon Imaginings"

The next installment of Poetry Planet on StarShipSofa No. 245 will hit the ether today. You'll find my segment at around the 43:00 minute mark. This one is all about the Moon. These are the show notes. 

You'll hear poetry by:

• Geoffrey A. Landis - Geoffrey A. Landis is a scientist with the NASA John Glenn Research Center and a Hugo and Nebula Award winning science-fiction writer. His most recent publication is in Buzzkill - an anthology of apocalyptic poetry. His poetry is collected in Iron Angels.
• Lyn C. A. Gardner - With master's degrees in English literature and library science, she's been the editor for a private maritime museum and currently serves as catalog librarian for a public library. In addition to writing, art, and photography, she enjoys fencing, swimming in lakes, biking around the neighborhood, skating (ice & sidewalk skates). Shes love owls, cats, trees, snow, the stars, the color blue, and playing folk guitar and harpsichord. Most of all, she loves spending time with her family. Her recently published poetry collection is Dreaming of Days in Astrophel. 
• Sandra Lindow - Writer/Editor/Teacher. Regional Vice President for the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. She has published five books of poetry most recently Touched by the Gods.
• Nathan Boole - StarShipSofa listener and aspiring writer. Find his short story Black Bradley and the Mercenary Captain on Amazon.com
• David Kopaska-Merkel - David Kopaska-Merkel raises giraffopards for the Venusian Defense Force, and publishes Dreams & Nightmares magazine, now in its 26th
  year. He won the Rhysling award for best long poem (2006) for a collaboration with Kendall Evans. Their latest collaboration, The Tin Men, was published by Sam's Dot in 2011.
• David Lunde - David Lunde is a poet and translator whose work has appeared in many journals. His work has been included in 40 anthologies, and he is the author of 11 books of poems and translations, the most recent being: Breaking the Willow (2008), and 300 Tang Poems (2011), translations of classical Chinese poetry. His collection Blues for Port City contains the Rhysling Award winning poem Pilot, Pilot.
• Mari Ness - More of Mari Ness' poetry can be found at Goblin Fruit, Ideomancer, Stone Telling and Bull Spec. She blogs, sometimes but not usually about poetry at mariness.livejournal.com and for Tor.com, or you can follow her on Twitter @mari_ness. She lives in central Florida.
• Gerald Warfield - Gerald Warfield’s short story, “The Poly Islands,” won second prize in the first quarter of the 2011 Writers of the Future contest.  The same year, his humorous story “The Origin of Third Person in Paleolithic Epic Poetry” took first place in the nationally syndicated Grammar Girl short story contest.  His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines including New Myths, edited by Scott Barnes.   Gerald published music textbooks and how-to books in investing before turning to fiction.  He is a graduate of the Odyssey Writers Workshop (2010).  He is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Please follow the links to the poets' websites and publications. Support you favorite one!

Links to the other items mentioned on this show:

• "Silence" - Meinhard Gerlach, lute and Diane Severson, voice.
• "The Moment of Change" and "Here, We Cross" edited by Rose Lemberg
• SFPA Poetry Contest
• 2012 Rhysling Anthology, edited by Lyn C. A. Gardner
• PoetryPlanet Survey

Poetry Zines (online):

• Centrifugal Eye
• Inkscrawl
• Versification (poetry review site)
• Grand Science Fiction

You can find a list and links to all of my voice work on StarShipSofa and elsewhere here.

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