Welcome, speculative poets and poetry lovers, to this brand new project, in which I hope to provide an opportunity for speculative poets to step into the spotlight, and allow all of us to learn from each other as we go.
As I prepare for the official launch day, on August 1st, I’d like to invite you along on these few mini episodes in which we discuss the the field of speculative poetry in a bit more detail.
If this sounds like something you’d like, hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any future episodes!
You can also follow me on Twitter, where I will post links to work by interviewees on the account @specpoetrypod, or join the conversation on the Looking Glass Discord server at https://discord.gg/HMmvk8xsAY.
While I won’t always be able to provide full transcripts for the complete episodes, I’m making a slight exception for the mini episodes leading up to the official launch of the podcast.
Transcript
My name is Jasmine Arch. I am a poet, writer, narrator, and clearly also a podcaster.
While I started out as a writer first, and added poetry to the list later on, I deeply enjoy the spoken word. And I’m not just talking about creating spoken word content. I love listening to it as well.
That includes podcasts, of course. For me, it’s a great way to consume content, as I can do it while my hands are doing chores that don’t really require my brain to be active, and there’s something delightfully intimate to have someone, or a few someones, whispering things into your ear no one around you is privy to.
I’ve listened to a lot of stories and poems, and learned heaps from discussions between writers and interviewers who are often also writers themselves. And there’s a ton of podcasts like that out there: the ones for prose writers. Non-fiction, fiction, genre-specific or more of an eclectic approach, if you think it should exist, it probably does.
But I’ve struggled for quite a while now to find the same types of content to satisfy the poet in me. When it comes to literary poetry, you have quite a few excellent podcasts you can subscribe to. And I do. But a large part of my poetic adventures are decidedly speculative in nature, and that, my friends, is something I struggle to find, in the form of audio content.
And it’s such a shame, because speculative poetry is as old a tradition as any other literary tradition I can think of. Take Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky…
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Lewis Carrol, Jabberwocky
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Jabberwocky was published in 1871. But let’s look further back in time. How about of the Eddic poems? Possibly the most important extant source material one can find of Norse and Germanic mythology and heroic legends. Or Beowulf, of which the manuscript was dated around late tenth, early eleventh century. Want to go even further back? No problem. The Theogony, in which the Greek poet Hesiod recorded the genealogy and origin myths of the Greek gods, dates back to the 8th century BCE.
And yet, the response one gets from so, so many people when you mention speculative poetry, is something like “Oh, that’s a thing?”
I believe it’s high time to change that, and provide a platform for speculative poets to talk about their craft, and allow all of us to learn from each other.
My mum always said (though she was referring to the dishes and the ironing when she said it) If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. So, if the podcast I long for isn’t out there, well, there’s only one thing for it.
And it is with immense pride, that I get to welcome you to Into the Looking Glass: Exploring the Magic behind Speculative Poetry.
Starting on the frabjous day of August 1st 2021, I will post an interview with another speculative poet on the first of every month.
But for now, I shall get off my soap box about the importance, merit, and history of speculative poetry. While I prepare for the first full episodes, I would love to invite you for another mini episode in a fortnight.
Later, friends!
Theme music: Wanderer by Alexander Nakarada (serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License
Into the Looking Glass 