The Planets: a scifaiku poetry collection is a literary journey through our solar system featuring poems inspired by the nine planets. All the scifaiku and astropoetry is meant to inspire you to seek out and learn more about the history of human’s exploration and the physical characteristics of the these fascinating worlds.
The inspiration for this poetry collection was born from my love of the NASA space program.
Wendy Van Camp is both the poet and the interior illustrator for the collection. The book was a finalist for the Elgin Award for Best Speculative Poetry Book of the Year for 2020 and 2021. Wendy credits this collection of astropoetry with gaining the post of Poet Laureate for the City of Anaheim, a city that embraces STEM, supporting science in our education system.
Currently, Wendy Van Camp is composing a new astropoetry/scifaiku book called Time and Space. Look for it and for The Planets on Amazon.
Wendy Van Camp published in The Starlight Scifaiku Review, Spring 2023
In this third issue of the annual journal, my two astropoetry scifaiku series appear:
Cosmological Speed and Ode to James Webb
Cosmological Speed is the study of the stars to discover our speed of movement through the universe. The ode is about the various machines on the famous telescope and how it studies the stars.
You can find both of my poems on page 13 of the issue.
Many thanks to our editor for giving my poetry space! It is always a delight to be part of this annual speculative journal.
rainbow galaxies compete with the stars above me Mars is now my home
It is a rare and special event when a new scifaiku poetry magazine appears on the scene. I am honored to be published in the inaugural issue of “The Starlight Scifaiku Review”. The poem series of “Close Approach” came about twofold, one inspiration was an image sent back by Curiosity from the surface of Mars. Overhead was a beautiful display of the Milky Way galaxy. This combined with my Mars research about the steps to colonize the red planet. When Earth and Mars are at their closest point, their “close approach”, that is the moment when colonists should depart. It happens only once every couple of years. This is where I took the title of the series from.
This poem is a part of the scifaiku poetry series “Close Approach” that appeared in “The Starlight Scifaiku Review” in the Fall of 2021 and was nominated for a 2022 Pushcart Prize for Poetry.
Please join me as I begin my journey as a Literary Cleveland instructor. I will be teaching my “Scifaiku: A Speculative Poetry Workshop” via Zoom.
Scifaiku is science fiction themed haiku, but it follows slightly different rules than its parent form. I will touch on these rules, the history of the form, and my own methods of brainstorming and creating this style of poetry. This is similar to the scifaiku workshops that I teach at the major science fiction conventions around the United States.
falling in thin air breathless anticipation regolith awaits
It is a rare and special event when a new scifaiku poetry magazine appears on the scene. I am honored to be published in the inaugural issue of “The Starlight Scifaiku Review”. The poem series of “Close Approach” came about twofold, one inspiration was an image sent back by Curiosity from the surface of Mars. Overhead was a beautiful display of the Milky Way galaxy. This combined with my Mars research about the steps to colonize the red planet. When Earth and Mars are at their closest point, their “close approach”, that is the moment when colonists should depart. It happens only once every couple of years. This is where I took the title of the series from.
This poem is a part of the scifaiku poetry series “Close Approach” that appeared in “The Starlight Scifaiku Review” in the Fall of 2021 and was nominated for a 2022 Pushcart Prize for Poetry.
No Wasted Ink 