SFPA Poetry Contest

After reading 262 entries by 165 poets, we, the Committee, are pleased to announce the winners of the SFPA 2007 Second Annual Poetry Contest.

1st Place: "One Ship Tall" by Elizabeth Barrette

2nd Place: "Abandoned" by Ann K. Schwader

3rd Place: "The Cyburbs" by Constance Cooper

Honorably mentioned were:

"Tribute to an Astronaut" by Rita Janice Traub, who will receive a copy of Aberrant Dreams I, The Awakening; Pitchblende; and Shades Fantastic, by Bruce Boston.

"Forest Dragons" by Elissa Malcohn, who will receive Be Blessed: Daily Devotions for Busy Wiccans And Pagans, by Denise Dumars, and a copy of Aberrant Dreams I, The Awakening.

"Dominion" by F.J. Bergmann, who will receive Poetry Red-Shifted In The Eyes Of A Dragon, by Kendall Evans, and a copy of Aberrant Dreams I, The Awakening.

1st Place

"One Ship Tall"
by Elizabeth Barrette

Some folks just say it will not happen soon,
While others say we can't do it at all.
Let them give up, and settle for the moon.
The dream of FTL is one ship tall.
It doesn't matter if the chance is small
Just build the rocket, turn it on, and ride.
The wormholes and the ramjets sound the call.
The dream of FTL is one mind wide.
Make fun of all our efforts, mock our pride;
But something in us stirs and will not sleep.
Sly laser engines beckon us aside.
The dream of FTL is one heart deep.
"Impossible!" you say. Perhaps it's true.
Thus our ancestors heard and yet they flew.

First Prize: $80, SFPA web site publication and a year's membership (or extension) to the SFPA, and a copy of Aberrant Dreams I, The Awakening, and a set of MYTHIC anthologies, (MYTHIC and MYTHIC 2) signed.

2nd Place

"Abandoned"
by Ann K. Schwader

Each morning finds a few more by the road
In lonely places, tagged with orange or pink:
Abandoned junkers, waiting to be towed.
We drive past without bothering to think
About the folks who owned them, how their lives
Fell off like fenders. Too politely blind,
We miss the whiff of Otherness that thrives
Along these byways, out of sight & mind.

Burnt roofs, crazed glass, interiors that glow
Cold fire at sunset? Nothing more than clues
Their drivers left to help the desperate know
Just how they went -- or possibly to choose
The same themselves, if summoned in the night
By gray-skinned angels from some distant light.

Second Prize: $40, SFPA web site publication, and a year's subscription to Tales of the Talisman, and a copy of Aberrant Dreams I, The Awakening.

3rd Place

"The Cyburbs"
by Constance Cooper

Our family's moving to the cyburbs. Yes,
The city isn't safe here anymore,
And my commute's the main thing, I confess--
There are no traffic jams inside the Core.
The children danced and hugged us at the news.
Their lives will be much richer than before,
With thousands of fine schools for us to choose,
And all the games and playworlds to explore.
They say you soon forget the vats that hold
Your former bodies. Inside, you can buy
A mansion, or a castle roofed with gold.
There people can rule empires. They can fly
As far as their imaginations soar;
Yes, they can travel that far, and no more.

Third Prize: $20, SFPA web site publication, and a year's subscription to Dreams and Nightmares, and a copy of Aberrant Dreams I, The Awakening.

Welcome to the official website of the

2007 SFPA Poetry Contest Winners