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It's Best To Be Prepared
Nov. 14th, 2024 10:35 amClark, G. O., 2007, 25¢ Rocket Ship to the Stars (cover by Marge Simon): Dark Regions Press, P.O. Box 1264, Colusa, CA 95932, 50 pages, perfect bound, $6.95, ISBN 1-888993-43-ex.
Clark is well known to those who read science fiction poetry. He has been nominated eight times for the Rhysling award (three of those poems are in here), and the 35 poems in this collection should be eagerly anticipated by all. This is his seventh chapbook of poetry. 25¢ Rocket Ship is handsome and I love the title. The cover illustration is a nice combination of retro typography and deliberately childish art, reminding us old folks of what those days were like and who we were then. I have one quibble: I would not have used the faux primitive computer type for the poem titles. Although this font resembles something from the past, it isn't really part of the retro image. Also, I noticed several typos of the sort that can't be caught by the spellchecker: inappropriate words spelled correctly.
The title and cover led me to expect campy science fiction poetry and in large measure that's just what the book delivers. Exceptions are poems like "The Smile," in which a science subject is treated in a mystical or magical way so that the resulting poem is a crossover piece. Other poems, such as "The Stars Forgotten," include the trappings of science but actually speak about the human condition. "Moon Maiden" is a dream or waking dream and there are a couple of poems with political messages as well. My favorites are the ones that mix humor with serious issues.
From "Chicken Little Sees the Future"
A mile long, red and white,
orbital billboard, streaked across
the night sky and crashed down upon
a couple of cows grazing alongside
the interstate.
From "Why I Quit the Science Fiction Book Club"
the post office won't forward my mail
off planet anyway, and even if they did, e-mail is faster
"Alien jukebox" explores, briefly, the intersection of cultures that might have been quite similar after all.
How to describe their musical
tastes. Call it rock and roll meets
Theremin eccentricity, something our
feet could keep time with, and their
tentacles wave about in the air to.
Besides alien appliances we can learn about alien undies, robots, dogs and stars, more about the moon, sub-light travel, and the list goes on. But, no matter what else they are about, the poems are about us. People are people, Clark is saying, no matter where or when you find them, or what they are doing, but people are not just people. The poems in this book could have been sent back as postcards from that rocket ship of the title or maybe you read them on the computer grafted to your wrist while waiting impatiently in the spaceport for the next rocket ship. They are real. Don't you think you really need this book?
From "Incandescent Lady":
She always stands
out in a crowd, sheds
light upon one's darkest
thoughts, and warms the
coldest corners of a
monastic cell.
Clark is well known to those who read science fiction poetry. He has been nominated eight times for the Rhysling award (three of those poems are in here), and the 35 poems in this collection should be eagerly anticipated by all. This is his seventh chapbook of poetry. 25¢ Rocket Ship is handsome and I love the title. The cover illustration is a nice combination of retro typography and deliberately childish art, reminding us old folks of what those days were like and who we were then. I have one quibble: I would not have used the faux primitive computer type for the poem titles. Although this font resembles something from the past, it isn't really part of the retro image. Also, I noticed several typos of the sort that can't be caught by the spellchecker: inappropriate words spelled correctly.
The title and cover led me to expect campy science fiction poetry and in large measure that's just what the book delivers. Exceptions are poems like "The Smile," in which a science subject is treated in a mystical or magical way so that the resulting poem is a crossover piece. Other poems, such as "The Stars Forgotten," include the trappings of science but actually speak about the human condition. "Moon Maiden" is a dream or waking dream and there are a couple of poems with political messages as well. My favorites are the ones that mix humor with serious issues.
From "Chicken Little Sees the Future"
A mile long, red and white,
orbital billboard, streaked across
the night sky and crashed down upon
a couple of cows grazing alongside
the interstate.
From "Why I Quit the Science Fiction Book Club"
the post office won't forward my mail
off planet anyway, and even if they did, e-mail is faster
"Alien jukebox" explores, briefly, the intersection of cultures that might have been quite similar after all.
How to describe their musical
tastes. Call it rock and roll meets
Theremin eccentricity, something our
feet could keep time with, and their
tentacles wave about in the air to.
Besides alien appliances we can learn about alien undies, robots, dogs and stars, more about the moon, sub-light travel, and the list goes on. But, no matter what else they are about, the poems are about us. People are people, Clark is saying, no matter where or when you find them, or what they are doing, but people are not just people. The poems in this book could have been sent back as postcards from that rocket ship of the title or maybe you read them on the computer grafted to your wrist while waiting impatiently in the spaceport for the next rocket ship. They are real. Don't you think you really need this book?
From "Incandescent Lady":
She always stands
out in a crowd, sheds
light upon one's darkest
thoughts, and warms the
coldest corners of a
monastic cell.
