Saqer @saqeram@wandering.shop

Daily Poems I'm reading in 2020 (won't you read with me?)

#introductions

Hi folks, I'm Saqer. I'm an academic, finishing up grad school. I spend a lot of time translating short science fiction into Arabic, but haven't published any yet because reasons. Maybe that will change over the next year.

I also spend a lot of time listening to audiobooks of scifi novels, and the usual scifi podcasts. I spend a lot of time also wondering about backstories of minor characters and societal myths and languages in scifi.

I'm a bit late on my #poetry readings, so today I'm reading 2 to catch up with September 23. Both poems are well worth the read, but if I get to choose between the two, it's Yoon Ha Lee's #poem.

Yoon Ha Lee "When Soft The Water Fell" http://strangehorizons.com/poetry/when-soft-the-water-fell/

David Clink "Back Story" http://strangehorizons.com/poetry/back-story/

September 21st has come to be a rough day, and so I'm seeking a vengeful #poetry reading: Stuti Telidevara's "a weather witch's vengeance"

I am really appreciating this #poem for the anger it holds. I too would bring down the sun upon us.

http://inkscrawl.net/issue9-dec2015/telidevara-vengeance.html

Two-thirds-th of the Month, I'm reading Karen A. Romanko's #poem "They Threw Their Daughters into the Sea"

The poem sounds dark, but the sea as "childless" makes it quite interesting.

http://www.goblinfruit.net/spring07/threwdaughterssea.html

Today's #poem, 9/19 is by Na Zhong titled "Bank of Emergency"

And it's carrying me through this week: some emergencies will take a long time to resolve, and I should keep my mind "crystal-clear"

https://arsenika.ink/poetry/bank-of-emergency/

It's Day 262 of the Year 2020, and I'm reading a future #poem "An Observation, Circa 10,000 A.D" by Alan Meyrowitz.

The poem has a very truthy gem:
"Yet love and matters of the heart
still find no place in cold design"

http://eyetothetelescope.com/archives/005issue.html

9/17, and I'm reading Ken Poyner's #poem "First Contact"

I tend to anticipate the weirdness of first contact linguistically, but this captures the dumbassery of the diplomat types.

https://www.abyssapexzine.com/2020/06/first-contact/

September 16, I'm reading Jenny Blackford's #poem listing "Eleven Exhibits in a Better Natural History Museum, London"

Gotta say I'd want to see the dragon exhibit.

http://strangehorizons.com/poetry/eleven-exhibits-in-a-better-natural-history-museum-london/

My 15 of September reading is Qurat Dar's "Soothsayer Blues"

These two lines will ring true one day:
"you can’t build an ark when you’ve
already cut all the trees down"

https://mithilareview.com/soothsayer-blues/

Second Week of September, and I'm reading this take on Borneo folklore by villbeejay "The Weary Old Tree"

I gotta say, I really felt the line where the Belian say "finally some peace and quiet!"

http://www.truancymag.com/2020/07/31/the-weary-old-tree-by-villbeejay/

September 13, a Sunday and Not a Friday, I'm reading this beautiful #poem by Oke Mbachu "Sleeping with one sky open"

I think of all the different skies I could have, it would be the earth's sky too that I would prefer. But with a lot less light pollution.

http://www.astropoetica.com/Winter08/sleeping.html

The 12th of the Ninth of the Twenty-twentieth and I'm reading "The Witch Boy", a #poem by Marcie Lynne Tentchoff

And of course, I'm wishing I had that 300 carefree years.
http://www.goblinfruit.net/autumn07/thewitchboy.html

11 of September, a Friday, and I'm here reading Andrea Tang's #poem "A Starship Shot Down Like the Sun"

It got me thinking of "immortal fears". Sometimes we try to manage our fears and sometimes we just need to shoot them down.

http://www.kaleidotrope.net/archives/autumn-2018/a-starship-shot-down-like-the-sun-by-andrea-tang/

September 10, I think I'm burnt out, but I'm reading a #poem, because #poetry is life.

T.J. Barnum's "Junk Yard Morgue" has a character that, while not burnt out, sure seems like it. Hanging out after dark alongside the lifeless (burnt-out) things in a junk yard.

http://rivetjournal.com/junkyard-morgue-by-t-j-barnum/