Rhysling Awards (short and long poems of note)

Another Rhysling anthology in the books. Votes are being tallied. 

Here are my selection of the notable. I usually pick about ten percent, but I read more quickly, so seven percent this time. 

As usual for the past decade or so, the majority (60-odd %) of nominees were women. Of these, I selected fifty-fifty men and women, without paying attention to the author's gender until I got here. In fact, I had no idea of gender, race, name, etc. until I reached the end of the poem. Maybe not then. [ETA: Voting complete. See results at link. Presumably 83% female.]

As far as magazines go, New Myths, Polu Texni, Star*Line, and Strange Horizons are not strangers to publishing good work. Speculative North is a new magazine to place on your radar, albeit Canadian. Of course, who knows how the poems were selected, but there were some good candidates.

Short:

“Sealskin Reclaimed” • Alison Bainbridge • Glitchwords 2

• What's powerful here is the well used space--very conscious of words and packing so much into a small space. A quality often strangely lacking. Beautiful close.

“a siren whispered in my ear one night” • Ashley Bao • Arsenika 7

• Sound and repetition conscious. Particularly surprising and thought-provoking was "where to place my feet to avoid glass-infested blood."

“Chrono-Man” • F. J. Bergmann • Polu Texni, May 11

• Bonus: word play and passage to various time tropes.

“The Edge of Galaxy NGC 4013” • Warren Brown • Speculative North 3

• A traditional but moving leap.

“He Sold What He Had Left” • Diane Callahan • Speculative North 1

• Interesting wrap where a prisoner goes on a hallucinogenic journey, beginning where he ends.

“Back Story” • David Clink • Strange Horizons, 12 September 2020

• Self-referential. A closing that doesn't close but opens up.

“The Forest in the Full of the Moon” • Geoffrey A. Landis • New Myths, December

• Myth exploration that ends on a note of mystery.

“A Tempest” • Sheree Renée Thomas • Star*Line 43.4

• Thomas plumbs the Shakespearean oeuvre. A plaintive note of longing.

Long:

“The Third Sister” • Andrea Blythe • Twelve (Interstellar Flight Press)

• A love song to readers, libraries and books--how they shape us.

“Devilish Incarnations” • Bruce Boston • Star*Line 43.1

• I expected and got a good poem. I didn't expect the poem to haunt me after reading it. 

“An Offering” • Michael Janairo • Line of Advance (2020 Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards)

• Evocative writing about what may be a spiritual or hallucinatory experience.

“Robo sapiens Thinks He Thinks” • Geoffrey A. Landis • Eye To The Telescope 35

• This one smacks the reader with a powerful speculative conceit, which strikes to the core of SF. You'd think more poems would aim more for this tenor.