CATCH THE COMET BY THE TAIL

Minnesota-based Alan Deniro who writes poetry, short stories and novels has kindly and quickly given permission to quote some of his article ‘Notes on a Speculative Poetry.’  (Further to my post Speculating about Speculative Poetry below.) So here’s a teaser or two with great thanks:

1. Speculative poetry is a practice of poetry about things that do not exist, or ideas that have not been thought. The trick is how to engage in a dialogue with the future, not only before we die, but before those that ever knew us also die. This “trick”, which is decidedly not a trick, is hope.

2. Speculative poetry, in seeking out a future, is simultaneously exploratory and archival.

5. Poetry cannot enact strong societal changes, but it can invoke weak changes. Speculative poetry is the comet; its effects on the current world is the tail of that comet, which is visible but less real than the comet itself. Nevertheless, most people will call the tail “the comet.”

Alan Deniro’s new short story collection Tyrannia: And Other Renditions (Small Beer Press) is due at the end of the year. You can pre-order at Barnes & Noble.

Meanwhile you can read more about him and ‘Notes on a Speculative Poetry’ in full, at: http://www.goblinmercantileexchange.com/2006/02/notes-on-a-speculative-poetry/