{"id":4359,"date":"2025-12-12T02:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=4359"},"modified":"2025-12-11T13:04:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:04:02","slug":"a-bit-of-political-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2025\/12\/12\/a-bit-of-political-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bit of (Political) Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has come to my attention that this year’s Nebula Awards include one for poetry. This is a new and welcome addition, given the amount of excellent poetry published over the years in science fiction and fantasy magazines, not to mention collections published by Aqueduct Press<\/a>, among other publishers.<\/p>\n

It happens that I had a poem this year in the anthology Alternative Liberties<\/em><\/a>, a book conceived of on election day in 2024 and published on January 20, 2025. The publisher, B Cubed Press<\/a>, has made a point of publishing anthologies that use speculative fiction and poetry, plus the occasional essay from SF\/F writers, to address the political struggles of our time.<\/p>\n

In addition to my poem, Alternative Liberties<\/em> includes stories by such people as Louise Marley, Adam-Troy Castro, Brenda Cooper, and Elwin Cotman. It’s highly recommended reading for our time. By the way, the publisher has put out a call for a sequel, More Alternative Liberties<\/a>. Submissions must be in by December 20.<\/p>\n

I’m reprinting my poem from the anthology here to make it easy for any SFWA members who would like to consider it for the poetry Nebula and also to encourage people to get copies of the whole anthology. You could give copies of it to any friends or relatives who might have voted badly in 2024 and come to regret that, just as a suggestion.<\/p>\n

As most people know, i write a senryu to capture my mood each morning. This poem consists of five senryu reworked from among those written in my daily practice.<\/p>\n

Not Civilized Yet<\/p>\n

The election proved
\nwhat I\u2019ve been saying for years:
\nNot civilized yet.<\/p>\n

Grifters, broligarchs,
\nand extreme Christians in charge.
\nNot civilized yet.<\/p>\n

Cops and presidents
\ncan get away with it all.
\nNot civilized yet.<\/p>\n

Control all women.
\nWho cares if old people die.
\nNot civilized yet.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re fighting once more
\nfor the rights we thought we\u2019d won.
\nNot civilized yet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

When I originally put the poem together, I wanted something longer — three segments (as in a senryu), one five verses, one seven, and another one of five. The editor only wanted the first segment. In the interest of continuing the political discussion that this poem addresses, here is the three-part version. This is not for the Nebulas, but just an opportunity to share the way I was thinking about things a year ago as we tried to figure out how to respond to where the country was headed.<\/p>\n

17 Senryu in Search of Some Truth<\/p>\n

Part I: Not Civilized Yet<\/p>\n

The election proved
\nwhat I\u2019ve been saying for years:
\nNot civilized yet.<\/p>\n

Grifters, broligarchs,
\nand extreme Christians in charge.
\nNot civilized yet.<\/p>\n

Cops and presidents
\ncan get away with it all.
\nNot civilized yet.<\/p>\n

Control all women.
\nWho cares if old people die.
\nNot civilized yet.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re fighting once more
\nfor the rights we thought we\u2019d won.
\nNot civilized yet.<\/p>\n

Part II: So Many Seeking Money<\/p>\n

Traitors should be jailed.
\nInstead, insurrection wins,
\nrule of law loses.<\/p>\n

Powerful people
\nbend the knee and kiss the \u2026 ring,
\nsend the grifter money.<\/p>\n

Plans to go to Mars.
\nPeople with nowhere to live,
\nnot even the streets.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201cdrill, baby, drill\u201d
\nwhile the world burns and seas rise.
\nProfit trumps future.<\/p>\n

Insects don\u2019t matter,
\nnor birds, fish, or even trees.
\nProfit trumps nature.<\/p>\n

Build private cities
\nwith guards to stop the riff-raff.
\nMost folks are riff-raff.<\/p>\n

Politicians sit,
\nwatch the slide to fascism,
\nask us for money.<\/p>\n

Part III: Build Our Own Future<\/p>\n

Things getting much worse.
\nKeep saying I can\u2019t stand it,
\nbut I\u2019m still standing.<\/p>\n

Avoiding despair
\nwhile paying close attention:
\nA daily struggle.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t obey or scream.
\nStart building useful systems
\nto fill in the holes.<\/p>\n

The cynics forbid
\nimagining better worlds,
\nbut what if we do?<\/p>\n

Open up your minds.
\nMake islands of coherence.
\nWe\u2019ll bring about change.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has come to my attention that this year’s Nebula Awards include one for poetry. This is a new and welcome addition, given the amount of excellent poetry published over the years in science fiction and fantasy magazines, not to mention collections published by Aqueduct Press, among other publishers. It happens that I had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[335,814],"tags":[997,88],"class_list":["post-4359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-2","category-poetry","tag-alternative-liberties","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4359"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4362,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4359\/revisions\/4362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}