SF Poetry Gathering at the 1996 World Science Fiction Convention

Keith Allen Daniels

Poetry events (panels, readings, gatherings) at World Science Fiction Conventions are nothing new. There was, for example, a great poetry panel at the 1984 WorldCon in Anaheim (LA Con II). I was in the audience for that one (my first), listening to poets Bruce Boston, Tom Digby, Robert Frazier, Scott Green, Diana Paxson, Jonathan Post and Paul Edwin Zimmer declaiming their work with verve and ebullience. Although that wasn’t the first time poetry was included in WorldCon programming, it was nevertheless one of the earlier excrescences of a science fiction “poetry boom” that was given impetus by Bob Frazier, Scott Green and other active members of the SFPA in the 1980s, a trend which has continued unabated into the ’90s.

Other poetry gatherings of note have occurred at MagiCon (Orlando, 1992), ConFrancisco (San Francisco, 1993) and this year’s LA Con III in Anaheim. ConFrancisco was my first opportunity to organize and moderate a WorldCon poetry event, an experience I was eager to repeat at future conventions. Alas, WorldCon committees have been getting more and more bureaucratic as the WorldCon itself has become more and more of a commercial enterprise. Campaigning for this year’s poetry panel was a lot tougher than I had expected it to be. Craig Miller of the program committee was initially very reluctant to allocate time and space on the program for sf poets, declaring that sf poetry was much less interesting than something like — well, like beer tasting. Persistence pays off, though. I never gave up, and Craig finally relented, although he refused to grant the poetry panelists the status of program participants. So we had a date, a time, a place and a listing in the program book, but none of the perks associated with such things (like free attendance). Poets need lobbyists.

Despite the odds, this year’s poetry panel was a gratifying success. Billed in the program book as a “Science Fiction Poetry Gathering”, it featured five panelists (Joe Haldeman, Geoff Landis, Jon Post, Mary Turzillo and yours truly) and a large, enthusiastic audience of about 20. My only regret was that local poets Michael Collings, Denise Dumars and Greg Stewart weren’t there to join us on the dais.

Humor was a common thread that ran through many of the poems that were read, something the audience seemed to appreciate. Jon Post opened with a very funny piece (written in collaboration with his wife and young son), a long poem called “I’m Certified for Sleep”. Geoff Landis kept us laughing with “Willy in the Nano Lab” and I followed with James Blish’s “Homage to Wm Carlos Wms”, from his long-awaited (and posthumous) With All of Love: Selected Poems, which I edited and published last year under the Anamnesis imprint.

Since the Buzz Aldrin Q&A session had been scheduled concurrently with the poetry panel, we thought it appropriate to read some lunar poems. I started with James Blish’s “Letter From a Selenite” from With All of Love, and followed later with David R. Bunch’s “Headlines by the Dozen (Right in My Own Kitchen)” from his new book, The Heartacher and the Warehouseman, forthcoming from Anamnesis Press in 1997. Joe read some very moving and effective poems, including a tribute to the late Gene Roddenberry and a “projected” poem that weaved about the page in sinuous celebration of women’s bodies.

Then we turned the tables. An extra microphone was set up on the floor, and we all sat back to enjoy some of the fine work by poets in the audience. It was a group with a very international flavor, including poets from Australia, Britain and Canada.

Joe and I were obliged to leave the dais early in order to squeeze in a photo session for Locus, during which I presented Joe with his advance check for Saul’s Death and Other Poems, scheduled for Spring 1997 publication. The photos reproduced here were taken by the lovely and talented Toni Montealegre, Publicity Director for Anamnesis Press.

Summing up, then: high spirits, good humor and great poetry prevailed at this year’s WorldCon poetry gathering. Let’s insure that it happens again and again at future WorldCons, by not being afraid to fight for a place for poets on the program.

Keith Allen Daniels (right) presents Joe Haldeman with his advance check for Saul’s Death and Other Poems.

Joe and Keith redux (with Gay Haldeman in background).

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