This year I was honored to be nominated twice for their yearly Rhysling Award. Voting is not yet complete, and winners are usually announced in the summertime. Anyway, here is the nominated poem in their "short poem" category. (And to read the poem nominated in the "long poem" category, go here.)
Build a Rocketship Contest: Alternative Class A Instructions and Suggestions
by
Wendy Rathbone
Section
One
it
shall please the wind
if you
make your rockets
of silk
and balsa
for
this journey is not about
functionality
it is
all emotion
how
trembled sands
and
vortex seas
make a
language
in the
shape of yearning
how the
wings of your
star-boat
flicker
to a
thrill
more
about the hunter
less
about the hunt
Section
Two
Past
winners include rockets made of
magnetic
poems
and
Victorian lanterns
a
candle in every porthole
your
vessel may run on the fuel of wine
trailing
fumes of oakmoss and patchouli
you
will be rated on the colors of
its
vapors
how
well they curve and twine
in pink
torrents or Mediterranean blue
and if the black fog of the thrusters
and if the black fog of the thrusters
can be
distilled to ink
for the
old parchment logbooks
your
captain will require
Section
Three
your
final judges--
all
former starship commanders
who
have suffered the inexorable isolation of space
