SCIFAIKUEST
FEBRUARY 2025
ONLINE
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DOOR ART:
FAIRY ON THE RED ISLAND
BY SONALI ROY
Greetings and Happy Valentine’s Day!
In this issue we are very fortunate to have some amazing poetry and a wonderful article by Joy Yin, all of which I hope you will enjoy. So kick back, get comfortable and immerse yourself!
Our Door is “Fairy on the Red Island”, by Sonali Roy!
Scifaikuest finally has its own ISBN!!! Please inform your local book stores and library that they are now able to ORDER SCIFAIKUEST!!!
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You can always find us here, at Hiraeth Books at: Welcome to Hireath Publishing - Best in Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror
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If you don’t have a subscription to our PRINT edition, they are available at:
SCIFAIKUEST February 2025 | Hiraeth Publishing
And, if you would like to join the select group of contributors by submitting your poetry, artwork or article, you can find our guidelines at: Scifaikuest | HIRAETH BOOKS
Pssst! Looking for something good to read?
You can get t.santitoro’s newest book, The Red Foil, a SF mystery, at:
RED FOIL by t. santitoro | Hiraeth Publishing
and you can find her novella, Those Who Die, at:
THOSE WHO DIE by t. santitoro | Hiraeth Publishing (hiraethsffh.com)
You can also order t.santitoro's novella, Adopted Child, at:
https://www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/adopted-child-by-t-santitoro
And you can still get a copy of her vampire novelette, The Legend of Trey Valentine, at:
LEGEND OF TREY VALENTINE by Teri Santitoro | Hiraeth Publishing
As always, I’d love to extend a huge Scifaikuest Welcome to our newest ONLINE contributor, Joy Yin!
SCIFAIKU
space pirate’s lament
trying to drop anchor
all it does is float
John H. Dromey
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fleeting images
Herb Kauderer
no longer human
AI video meeting
takes just a second
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volcanoes of io
unimaginably inhospitable
unless you’re born there
Richard E Schell
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earthshaking roar
fire pierces the fog
starship leaves for mars
Richard E Schell
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I reach out
unexpectedly a tentacle
touches your’s
Richard E Schell
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Saturn stopover
radiant rings guarantee
perfect proposal
Guy Belleranti
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one ironclad debt
a robot medical bill
gravel in my gears
Dylan Mabe
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in her memory palace
the psychic vampire
staked on a jonbar point
crossroads, by John Granville
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Einstein-Rosen bridge
a one-way crossing
spaghettified
West of Leone, by John Granville
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accordion doors
to the airlock
playing a wheezy polka
last dance, by John Granville
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planets fall
deep in love
collison
Joy Yin
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shaking moon dust
from our boots . . .
Earthrise
Julie Bloss Kelsey
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SENRYU
bad air remedy
oxygenated headgear
pleasant hatmosphere
John H. Dromey
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rogue submariners
hiding out in Atlantis
(sank)tuary
John H. Dromey
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"Kissing the Blarney Stone"
Matthew Wilson
getting the gift of gab
finally able to convince martians
not to zap you into ash
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full moon
he squeezes through
the dog door
David C. Kopaska-Merkel
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waking from
a dream of waking
rows of frosted beds
David C. Kopaska-Merkel
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cemetery flood
steeping corpses in coffins
brewing humanitea
Randall Andrews
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dragons dining out
buffalo appetizer
double fire breathing
Randall Andrews
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I like mine
with hot sauce . . .
humans
Julie Bloss Kelsey
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HORRORKU
a thing of the past
my broken heart
under time’s rolling staircase
a thing of the past, by Benjamin Whitney Norris
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locked up
inside his head
key to immortality
locked up, by Benjamin Whitney Norris
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suburban night...
the awkward shuffling
of rotting feet
Greg Schwartz
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midnight mass
the gargoyle
opens its eyes
Greg Schwartz
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lightning flash
stark monochrome
ghostly figure
DJ Tyrer
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intricate spiral staircase
made from
cold human bone
Joy Yin
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TANKA
on your arrival
your promises to us
prosperity and peace
now there are not
enough of us to fight
Richard E Schell
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my favorite dress
professional make up
I say goodbye
the last time
my perfect funeral
Richard E Schell
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two opponents
Herb Kauderer
football on Io
played in winged uniforms
with restraint lanyards
terminal velocity
always threatening to win
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OTHER FORMS
(including: Sijo, Fibonacci, Cinquain, Minutes, Diminuendo, Ghazals,Threesomes, Brick, etc.)
GOGYOHKA
nightly news
from back on Earth
peace
in peril
nothing new
Lauren McBride
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FIBONACCI
They
Wrap
Around
My body
Squeezing me tightly
I’m afraid I might have gone a
Little too far on my new science experiment
Joy Yin
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JOINED POEMS
(incl. renku and sedoka, joined fib. etc.)
Departing Mars Haiku
After fleet departs
Large meteorites bombard
The surface of mars
For those not chosen
Watch the skies turn to fire
From Martian surface
King and queen of mars
Can’t hide the tears
As last ship departs
Two thousand years pass
Before they reach new planet
Martians depart ships
Denny E. Marshall
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ARTICLE
Haiku vs. Scifaiku
by Joy Yin
Haiku and scifaiku are two very similar forms of minimalist poetry. Haiku started in 13th-century Japan, as the starting phrase of renga, a longer form of poetry, but eventually breaking off from it in the 16th century. But now, it has grown to be popular in the whole world, written in various languages. Scifaiku (science fiction haiku) is a form of short, speculative poetry inspired by the Japanese haiku. In this article, I will be breaking down the similarities and differences of the two poetic forms.
Traditional haiku usually consists of 3 lines, the first line having 5 syllables, the second 7, and the third 5 syllables: together containing 17 syllables. Though the syllable rule is often relaxed in modern English haiku, because of many reasons. For example, the same words have a different number of syllables depending on your accent. Plus, since Japanese and English are two very different languages, even the mere concept of “syllables” varies.
Traditional haiku is about nature. There is another form of Japanese poetry--- senryu --- it’s like haiku but deals with human matters rather than nature.
The most famous haiku poet is Bassho (1644 -1694), the Japanese poet. This poem of his is perhaps the most famous haiku ever written (one of the most well-known translations):
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The old pond
A frog leaps in
Sound of water.
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A few examples from other poets include (but are not limited to):
This world of dew
is a world of dew,
and yet, and yet.
(By Kobayashi Issa)
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Delightful display
Snowdrops bow their pure white heads
To the sun's glory.
(By Paul Holmes)
The sound of rain.
The clouds on right-side are
With the summer moon.
(By Hasegawa Kanajo)
After killing
a spider, how lonely I feel
in the cold of night!
(By Masaoka Shiki)
Blowing from the west
Fallen leaves gather
In the east.
(By Yosa Buson)
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Finally, here’s my try:
Beautiful raindrops
Sticking to my window glass
Tears of the sad sky.
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As you can see, haiku uses simple yet beautiful and elegant language to vividly capture a moment in time, pulling the reader in, and making them able to experience it like they were there. Sometimes, the haiku can even express the poet’s feelings through the scene. (Tip: when writing haiku, try to replace long, frivolous words with easy-to-understand, natural ones. This might sound bad, but the feel of haiku is to preserve the essence of mother nature.)
On the other hand, scifaiku is a type of minimalist poetry inspired by the Japanese haiku. But instead of nature, it explores aspects of science fiction. The blending of two forms of writing creates a new, unique form of poem. The term was coined by Tom Brinck in his The Scifaiku Manifesto, which started the scifaiku movement in 1995. It’s like the official rulebook of scifaiku. He’s often called “The Father of Scifaiku”. People had written scifaiku before that (though not under that name), but Brinck helped popularize it and spread it across the globe. Other speculative genres, like fantasy and horror, have also expanded into the haiku circle, creating “fantasyku” and “horrorku”. They are like scifaiku but revolve around fantasy and horror instead of science fiction.
Scifaiku is typically written within the haiku framework, however, it is much more flexible with syllables and verse. Like haiku, it also focuses on a specific moment in time or concept. But there’s a twist: after the reader fully understands a scifaiku, they will be stricken with realization: the big “ah-ha!” moment in good scifaiku.
Here are some examples:
the view from Mars
another notch in
Orion’s belt
(By Pat Davis)
the best minds
left behind
Earth
(By Roxanne Barbour)
first holiday meal—
my mother- in-law’s tentacles
in every dish
(By Julie Bloss Kelsey)
desiccated mind slug
clings to a hamster brain
in a yellow jar
(By Tom Brinck)
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addicted-
vampire craves
canned sunlight
(By Ron Sparks)
My try:
Worst invention
Ever made:
Humans.
Now, of course, I know I haven’t covered everything on haiku and scifaiku. The possibilities are endless with this minimalist poetry duo. So, dear reader, read or perhaps write some haiku and scifaiku. It may not be anything like bungee jumping or skydiving, but it definitely is the experience of a lifetime.
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FAVORITE POEM
full moon
he squeezes through
the dog door
David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Creepy! Perfect! Classic! Well done!--editor t.santitoro
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BIOS
Randall Andrews is a speculative fiction writer and poet from southern Michigan. When not writing, he can be found wearing the soles off a pair of running shoes, listening to his favorite John Williams soundtracks, or hand-feeding his loyal flock of wild songbirds.
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John H. Dromey was born in northeast Missouri. He enjoys reading—mysteries in particular—and writing in a variety of genres. His short fiction has appeared in numerous publications. He’s had poems published in Eye to the Telescope, Star*Line, the Dwarf Stars 2022 anthology, and elsewhere.
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Herb Kauderer walks the waterfront of Lake Erie stealing poetry ideas from seagulls.
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Julie Bloss Kelsey enjoys writing scifaiku and collecting space-themed stamps from her home in suburban Maryland. In 2011, she won the Dwarf Stars Award for very short sci-fi poetry given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association; she tied for second place for this award in 2016. Her very first haiku publication (a scifaiku) appeared in a previous issue of Scifaikuest.
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Dylan Mabe is an Appalachian writer with a deep love for sci-fi, fantasy, and poetry. He is currently teaching Shakespeare and Science Fiction to students across Virginia . Dylan would like to acknowledge that he is a white man writing in a form that Japanese culture and artists shaped for centuries. All reverence for the form lies with the early and modern Japanese artists that continue to revolutionize short form poetry.
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Lauren McBride finds inspiration in faith, family, nature, science, and membership in the SFPA. Nominated for the Best of the Net, Pushcart, Rhysling, and Dwarf Stars Awards, her poetry has appeared internationally in speculative and mainstream publications including Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Utopia Science Fiction's first anthology (forthcoming). Her chapbook, Aliens, Magic, and Monsters, was published by Hiraeth (2023). She enjoys swimming, gardening, baking, reading, writing, and knitting scarves for U.S. troops.
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Richard E Schell works in the biomedical field in California. He enjoys writing and has published over 100 articles and other works in both the biomedical field as well as in fictional genres and poetry. He enjoys photography literature and travel. He also volunteers in animal rescue.
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Greg Schwartz works in a cubicle or his basement, depending on whether there's a worldwide pandemic at the time. In a past life, he was the staff cartoonist for SP Quill Magazine and a book/magazine reviewer for Whispers of Wickedness.
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DJ Tyrer dwells on the northern shore of the Thames estuary, close to the world’s longest pleasure pier in the decaying seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea, and is the person behind Atlantean Publishing. They have been published in The Rhysling Anthology 2016, Speculations III, and issues of Enchanted Conversation, The Horrorzine, Red Planet, Scifaikuest, Sirens Call, Spectral Realms, Star*Line, and Tigershark.
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Joy Yin is a writer from Wuhan, China, though she has also lived in California for 5 years. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English but she’s also (trying her best to) learn Mexican Spanish. Joy has never been a sports person. Instead, she's always loved reading and writing. She's currently 13 years old and attending an international school in Mexico City.
