Introduction

(Please refer to the Appendix for background information on the terminology used in this white paper.)

Is it possible to write genre poetry, in particular, fantasy and horror, but more generally speculative fiction, with literary quality? Some would say no. In fact, literary poetry is considered a genre unto itself. But I submit that good poetry is literary by definition, or at least for me it is. Horror and fantasy poetry, if well written, are then subgenres to literary poetry.

So it seems that horror and fantasy, science fiction, science-related (but not didactic) poetry, as well as a host of other types comprising speculative fiction, “simply” have to conform to “good poetry,” whatever that is. In effect, it is very much like putting a “literary edge to the fantasy sword.” However, I don’t think this concept is that new. I ran into a term new to me— Slipstream. From the Internet, I learned, “Slipstream” is a term coined by Bruce Sterling for a new genre of writing that emerges from the turbulent interzone between science fiction and the experimental edge of “mainstream” literature. As the mutant love-child of “high” and “low” art, slipstream writing challenges us at every turn to rethink our preconceptions about “genre”— not to mention a few of our ideas about “reality”.

So it seems that whether one considers all genres to be umbrella’d by the literary one, in which we redefine “literary” to be more inclusive instead of distinct or if we recognize a the blending of the traditional literary genre with the speculative fiction one as a new entity (slipstream), it matters not.

But suddenly we are caught up in a constantly controversial topic or challenge, which is, how do we define poetry? Sometimes it is better to say what poetry is not. It is not prose, but prose can be poetic. It is not conversation, but poetry may contain dialog. It is not a very short story, but poetry might be narrative. But these are operational distinctions. From my survey of traditional and modern poetry, I noticed a pattern of recurring items, what I call the critical elements of poetry. Although not all the items necessarily appear in one poem, the set should be well represented. It is best to consider them as guidance and not a formula. Lines between poetry and other literary art forms are often blurred, however, unlike what some think since the 20 th century that “poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act using language,” a distinction should be made, must be made, if for no other reason but to preserve the literary entity we call poetry. (see the Appendix for a very general blurb on poetry.) Consequently, I feel that there should be some guidance in how poetry might be distinguished from other literary forms and that this guidance might be summarized as a set of critical elements.

Critical Elements

Besides the things shared by all good writing (unity, coherence, harmony), poetry should be checked for the following critical elements:

1. Profound Observation/Revelatory Insight/Surprise (usually carries emotional impact)

2. Layers of Meaning

3. Plethora of Poetic Devices (especially metaphorical)

4. Distilled Language

5. Fresh Expressions

6. Rhythmic/Fluid Progression

7. Effective Form

Notice that this guideline does not restrict one to any particular form or style, such as traditional, free verse, concrete verse, etc. However, there may be additional specific requirements, such as effective line breaks in the case of free verse poetry. On the other hand, this prescription will exclude typical songs, hip-hop, rap, spoken word, etc. from a carte blanche categorization as poetry, though clearly, some of them might very well be poetry. These may all be effective art forms using some poetic expression, but they fail to meet the preponderance of critical elements.

This list of critical elements is a good starting point in helping to decide whether a composition is a poem or not; it is a very general “laundry list” to help “clean it up” and improve it if it is.

Application to Speculative Fiction Poetry

All the critical elements are easy to apply except perhaps the first one. Having surprise and emotional impact might not be a problem to achieve, but these aren’t enough. One might ask how can such poetry be profound or provide some revelatory insight to human behavior when reality is breached and humans might not even be involved? After all, it is a fantastic world. However, if this world is treated as a setting, then the human condition might still be exploited via allegory, inference, symbolism, etc.

Thinking Outside the Box

Genre writing in general, whether writing poetry or short fiction, could become formulaic because of their inherent entertainment value. One tends to use what works to maintain attention. Consequently, old themes recur, with the same old characters. Dragons, werewolves and vampires are well represented in the literature to the point of challenging the writer to use them in fresh contexts. But this is precisely what is needed; otherwise the entire story or poem could be a cliché.

The poems below are not critically analyzed, but highlighted as examples:

--The Deluge (Sonar4 Science Fiction and Horror Ezine, August 2008) is a science fiction poem mixed with biblical allegory. It was highly favored by the Older Writers Speculative Fiction Association Grant administrator and nearly won an honorable mention in the highly competitive grant application (June 2009).

--Nephilium (Static Movement, February 2006) is an example of biblical horror involving fallen angels and their rampage on women in ancient times.

--Coyote (Silver Blade, Summer 2009) is perhaps a different brand of speculative fiction: conventional fantasy with cartoon magic realism. I don't know what else to call it. It isn't humorous, but it has its funny moments. The coyote is a metaphor of “want” as Mark Twain puts it in the epigraph of the poem. In the story, the dragon replaces the coyote. The narrator is not the Road Runner, but paralleled to someone who is likely a human, however, I leave that nebulous (since it is a fantasy setting). There is a twist, though. The Acme Corporation is where Wiley the Coyote orders his contraptions from in the Looney Tunes cartoon to trap the bird. In the poem, it is the "good guy" that orders stuff (magic dust).

--Painting Myself into a Corner (Silver Blade, Summer 2009) is another example of “thinking outside the box.” A Twilight Zone episode (where a writer imagines a voluptuous, but proper lady, materializes as he types, reads and records the story on a tape recorder) triggered a totally different poem. A surreal scene of literally painting myself in the corner, over and over again. That what I paint becomes the real world for me at that moment, yet that world has an evolution of its own, too. There is a "vicious cycle" between the painter and the painting. The painting literally traps the painter. As an act of self-preservation, the painter paints himself in the corner (presumably because it is a safe place) and prays he doesn't fall into nonexistence. The cycle repeats itself with a subliminal hint of what will unfold. This one verges on fantasy, but it is stranger than that, with elements of impressionism and surrealism.

--The Magical Realism of Astrology (Liquid Imagination, Summer 2009) is a microflash/prose poem. Though it’s about astrology, of sorts, it is neither flattering nor so offensive that the crystal ball readers would stone me (with their crystal balls, of course). Naturally, as a scientist, there is contempt for astrology, but that view was suppressed in this writing.

--The Unforgiven (Liquid Imagination, Summer 2009) is my first zombie poem. It uniquely asserts an underlying biblical theme (without being preachy!)

--Texas Heat is another zombie poem and more of a classic horror/fantasy, but with unusualness, which is necessary when writing about old themes such as zombies. Here, it is role-reversal from what the reader expects that makes it unusual. It is an effective technique to keep in mind.

--Shear Lunacy (House of Horror, June 2009) attempts to deal with another familiar character, the werewolf, but in a fresh way. There are notes of both biblical and pagan concepts.

--Angelina (Mirror Magazine, Fall 2009) is an example of how role reversal in a vampire poem can lead to some interesting results. There are erotic elements, but still PG13.

There are more examples, but I think you get the idea. Use old characters in new ways; convolve the writing with ideas from great literary sources. Use what you are familiar with. In my case, I favor the Bible and the Classics, such as Canterbury Tales and Dante’s Inferno. Or let classic TV series, like the Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits, inspire you. And don’t forget the movies. Think outside the box!

Unexpected Benefit

What started as a serious exploration of speculative fiction poetry ended up influencing my mainstream poetry. This is an unexpected benefit. For example, Still Prehistoric is infused with dinosaur metaphors to describe a modern day tragedy poem involving the downing of a jet in the Florida swamp. In another serious poem (which was awarded first place in the 6 th Annual Inglis House Poetry Contest), Hauntings, ghost metaphors are used to emphasize psychological and physical war traumas. The influence of speculative fiction can be very strong. The poignant poetic flash, The House Boat (House of Horror Anthology, Mausoleum Memoirs, Lulu Press 2009) is about the atrocities perpetrated to kidnapped blacks on slavery ships. It has a Stephen King flavor of fantasy/horror, but there are also fictionalized historical elements.

Concluding Remarks

So is it possible to write genre poetry, in particular, fantasy and horror, to the same standards as literary poetry (however one might define it)? Yes, without a doubt. And I might add, that some literary poetry might be improved in the process.

 

Appendix: Background in the Language of Genre and Poetics

(The following has been distilled from several Wikipedia references. And though the terms refer specifically to fiction, they should also be extended to poetry.)

Background in the Language of Genre

The following has been distilled from several Wikipedia references. And though the terms refer specifically to fiction, they should also be extended to poetry.

(1) Literary fiction is a term principally to distinguish serious fiction with claims to literary merit from genre fiction and popular fiction. Literary fiction focuses more on style, psychological depth, and character, whereas mainstream commercial fiction focuses more on narrative and plot.

Of course, this is somewhat subjective, nevertheless, literary fiction is generally characterized as distinctive based on its content and style and typically qualifies for literary awards. Usually genre fiction is excluded, although slipstream (genre) or magic realism is sometimes included.

Some consider literary fiction itself just another genre. However, literary fiction does not fit the general definition of a genre, since it lacks the cohesion and conventions present in genres such as westerns or romance.

(2) Genre fiction (or popular fiction) is a fairly elastic term used to group works sharing similarities of character, theme, and setting that have appeal to particular groups of readers.

Despite its popularity, genre fiction is often overlooked by institutions, in favor of literary fiction. The list of genres are Action-adventure, Crime, Detective, Fantasy, Horror. Mystery, Romance, Science fiction, and Western, each following a set of genre conventions— specific settings, roles, events, and values that define individual genres and their subgenres.

Genre fiction is thought to be formulaic, commercial, sensational, melodramatic, and sentimental, predominantly for mass-market appeal. Therefore, the term “genre fiction” is sometimes used as a pejorative antonym of literary fiction, presumed to have greater artistic merit.

Oddly enough, literary fiction itself is simply another category or genre thought of having its own conventions— use of an elevated, poetic, or idiosyncratic prose style; or defying readers' plot expectations; or making use of particular theoretical or philosophical ideas as well as having a niche audience, "generic" packaging and "superstar" authors.

(3) Speculative fiction is a fiction genre speculating about worlds that are unlike the real world in various important ways. In these contexts, it generally overlaps one or more of the following: science fiction, fantasy fiction, horror fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history. (Others include magical realism and surrealism.) A brief summary of some of these subgenres are included below:

a. Science fiction

Science fiction is defined more by setting details than by other story elements. By definition, it includes a theoretical future science with technology being a major component. The setting is often on other planets, in outer space, or on a future version of Earth. Within these setting details, however, the conventions of almost any other genre may be used, including comedy, action-adventure and mystery. A sub-genre of science fiction is alternate history where, for some specific reason, the history of the novel deviates from the history of our world.

b. Fantasy

Fantasy fiction features stories set in fanciful, invented worlds, an alternate and more fanciful version of our own world, or in a legendary, mythic past. Fantasy fiction stories generally involve magic, mystical elements, or supernatural creatures such as vampires. Styles ranging from pseudo-mythological epics (Lord of the Rings) to more deliberately modern works (such as Harry Potter or Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and includes works that also fall under other genres, such as horror fiction, comedy, action-adventure or Romance. Some works generally classified as fantasy fiction, such as Diane Duane's Young Wizards series, also include elements of Science fiction, and with many works revolving around psychics, ghosts, etc. being easily classified as either.

c. Horror

Horror fiction aims to evoke some combination of fear, fascination, and revulsion in its readers. This genre, like others, continues to develop, recently moving away from stories with a religious or supernatural basis to ones making use of medical or psychological ideologies.

d. Magical Realism

Magical Realism is an artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even “normal” setting. The term is broadly descriptive. Matthew Strecher has defined it as “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.”

(4) Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Early attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics, which distinguish poetry from prose. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act using language.

Poetry often uses particular forms and conventions to suggest alternative meanings in the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.

Some forms of poetry are specific to particular cultures and genres, responding to the characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. While readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as being written in rhyming lines and regular meter, there are traditions, such as those of Du Fu and Beowulf, which use other approaches to achieve rhythm and euphony. Much of modern British and American poetry is to some extent a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing (among other things) the principle of euphony itself, to the extent that sometimes it deliberately does not rhyme or keep to set rhythms at all. Poets often borrow styles, techniques and forms from diverse cultures and languages.