Two More Prose Poems ("Treesong" and "How Sukie Cross de Big Wata") by Sheree Renee Thomas

"How Sukie Cross de Big Wata" first appeared in Nalo Hopkinson's Mojo: Conjure Stories. Also appears in Thomas's Shotgun Lullabies: Stories & Poems (discussed in part here, more generally).

Sukie is a kind of American Tall-Tale mythic figure who is there to support the Africans on the difficult first voyages across the ocean--a kind of bridge for their stories. It includes this lovely, potent line:

"And if you listen true, you will know when I am bending it and when I am telling it straight, ’cause like a river, every story got a bend."

 You can read this prose poem here in the Shotgun Lullabies excerpt.

You will love this prose poem more if you juxtapose it against "Treesong" which also is enhanced in the comparison.

"Treesong" first appeared in Rose Lemberg's An Alphabet of Embers reprinted by John Joseph Adams, appearing in Thomas's collection, Sleeping Under the Tree of Life.

This one moves closer to a speculative tale, relating the lives of trees as the younger ones desire to pick up their roots and cross "de Big Wata" in what might be a disastrous move.

"the young ones try to work themselves into any pool that mirrors the land, hoping it will lead them to De Big Wata and carry them back home to where the people remember their name."

Read this at Lightspeed.

Two Prose Poems ("The Jubilee" and "Not All Caged Birds Sing") by Sheree Renee Thomas

 Both first appeared in Fireside.

In "The Jubilee" slaves have just been freed:

"during the Jubilee, there was plenty of names. People shuffled them like cards and drew new ones out the deck, tried names on their tongues like new year clothes, whispered and shouted them into the bright clean air to see how they fit, licked their lips to see how they taste."

And in "Not All Caged Birds Sing" the world seems to be occupied a palimpsest of reality, dream and metaphor, amplifying the allusive title:

"Wind sang in that empty place, and I wanted to sing but my tongue sprouted roots and leaves. They wrapped around my throat until I could not breathe."

Both of these appear in the same magazine around the same time period. They seem to form part of a larger poetic sequence. They juxtapose well together, if intentional, although the location of other pieces would be greatly appreciated.

"Barefoot and Midnight" by Sheree Renée Thomas

First appeared in Apex Magazine. Recommended by Locus, Tangent Online. Reprinted by Paula Guran.

Mourning those who died in arson-burned The Freedmen’s School in Gayoso’s Flats, Dusa Dayan builds a "ragged mud doll":

"Wrapped in tree roots, its garment was tattered. Whatever color or pattern it once held faded long ago. A dark, rust-colored stain covered the space where its heart once was. It had no head. Only a red ribbon where it should be. It had no limbs. No mouth or plump cheeks and belly to kiss and pinch."

The doll has more to it than it first seems.

The story takes on another dimension in its final lines.

Read online at Apex.

Shotgun Lullabies by Sheree Renée Thomas [part 1]

The voice driving the stories and poems of Sheree Renée Thomas does have a lullaby quality, sung through the mouth of a shotgun--explosive and melodic, it pleases even as it bites:

In the beginning God walked barefoot ’cross the land. She spread Her big toe wide ’cross the rich, deep earth and danced. She stomped so hard with Her rockbottom feet, the earth split right open. Still She danced. Her big toe sunk deep, and the sweet waters rise quick, quick. That’s how we got the rivers, and the lakes, and the creeks.

Thomas often uses dialect as once was popularized by nineteenth-century American writers like Mark Twain but fell into disfavor by the next generation that saw it as a gimmick or cheaply sensational. Here, though, it's digging into the music of the voice, listening to the native language of speakers--sonorous and sensuous. 

A powerful draw to this chapbook is Thomas's voice. It seduces and mesmerizes. It speaks from the fundament of images, sound, and earth.

As you can see by the above sample, Thomas is interested in not just sound and voice but also myth--the larger than life, tall tales that aren't so tall that you might wonder, "Maybe?" They often crawl into the space between realism and speculative fiction. The narratives are less stories than myths where the mythic figure emerges, say [Sukie Diamond, for instance], unscathed through the Antebellum South where the world and the people she encounters are shaped by her being there.

Listen to a reading of Thomas's center story, "Malaika Descending," here.

If you haven't anything by Thomas yet, this is a great place to start. Mildred meets with the neighborhood, some weeks after her "Aunt Malaika" had passed. Her memory isn't a pleasant one altohugh the "aunt" raised Mildred. Somehow Mildred makes a trip to Hell and find Malaika there. It's a dark tale but, nonetheless, full of hope--even for a life after life. This isn't high-octane invention, but suggestive and moving. Well worth your time to check out.

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.  

African SF films, and writing African-American SF

Near-future SF in a world without water. From dystopia to hope. Worth checking out.

First part in an imagistically inspiring invasion tale. It leaves questions open such as why, but it is the first in a series, which would presumably be answered later. Meanwhile, enjoy the unusually mythic invaders.

- - -

Storytelling through a Speculative Lens:


Steven Barnes, Adrienne Maree Brown, Tananarive Due, John Jennings, Sheree Renee Thomas discuss African-American SF with an eye toward writing it. I may have posted this one before.

Virtual Writing Workshop

Link: Storytelling through a Speculative Lens

Led by Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes, Sheree Renée Thomas, Adrienne Maree Brown and John Jennings.

Octavia Butler conference

If you're an Octavia Butler fan, this is a must-see.  A group of excellent to great authors and editors talk about memories of Butler and her work for two hours.

Octavia was a fine writer whose prose flowed easily and sketched realistic characters.  She was a mentor to Sheree Renee Thomas and I at Clarion West (Nisi was often in attendance, sitting in to listen to the masters of the craft).  Butler was inspirational, making writing all feel real and possible.