MahMight haiku journal: Susan Burch and Julie Bloss Kelsey go all science fiction haiku aka scifaiku!

Wednesday 15 December 2021

Susan Burch and Julie Bloss Kelsey go all science fiction haiku aka scifaiku!

medicinal weight gain the blob returns

Susan Burch

Susan says:

“I think it’s hard when our bodies fail us in numerous ways and even the medications we take don’t help that much or have side effects that make us worse in other ways.

This is me accepting it and making fun of myself while also hating it, if that makes any sense at all.

I hope people will appreciate the humor in it.”

Susan nominates this haiku as a favorite:

perfect evening
you wrap your arms around
and around me

Julie Bloss Kelsey

Scifaikuest online February 2011

Susan says:

“I met Julie at an HSA Meeting in DC, where she was the only one to read any scifaiku. They were so fun!

I had just started reading and writing them and I immediately fell in love with this scifaiku. And to date it's the only poem I have memorized.

It perfectly describes the magic of love: how it feels to love and to be loved, and isn’t that what life’s all about?”

HSA/Haiku Society of America: https://www.hsa-haiku.org

Susan’s quotes

Waiting for Godot:
“In an instant, all will vanish and we’ll be alone once more, in the midst of nothingness.”

Withnail and I:
"My thumbs have gone weird."

NOTES:

About Susan:

Susan Burch is a good egg.

About Julie Bloss Kelsey

in-laws at the door—
those panicked moments
before I shapeshift

Julie Bloss Kelsey

Dwarf Form Third Place

Judge’s comments: 

I have such a clear picture from this poem. Who among us hasn't had those "is there underwear trailing up the stairs? beer bottles on the coffee table?" moments? Tying in shapeshifting morphs the poem to a whole different level.

Julie Bloss Kelsey’s poetry has appeared in Star*Line, Grievous Angel, Scifaikuest, and Jersey Devil Press. She won the Dwarf Stars Award in 2011 and tied for second place in 2016.

https://www.sfpoetry.com/contests/18contest.html

Julie teamed with poet Susan Burch as editors for

25 Science Fiction Tanka and Kyoka

at Atlas Poetica.

https://www.atlaspoetica.org/25-science-fiction-tanka-and-kyoka/

Julie Bloss Kelsey is the current Secretary of The Haiku Foundation. Her first short-form poetry chapbook, The Call of Wildflowers, was published in 2020 by Title IX Press. You can read more about her work here:
https://thehaikufoundation.org/staff-member/julie-bloss-kelsey/