Con-Verse: Symbolic Intensity in Speculative Poetry
Today, let’s chat about (my probably controversial thoughts on) symbolic intensity and how even the most challenging poem can clearly reveal a speculative core.
Here we plan to talk about the speculative poetry scene, chat with poets about their work, and even help those who may think they don’t “get” poetry break down new ways to read (and write!) speculative verse for themselves.
Today, let’s chat about (my probably controversial thoughts on) symbolic intensity and how even the most challenging poem can clearly reveal a speculative core.
When we started this Con-Verse-ation, we invited several standout poets to answer the pressing question of how to define and identify speculative poetry. Today, we’re chatting with multiple-award-winning poet and SFPA Grand Master Mary Soon Lee!
We’ve discovered some commonalities among the answers to last week’s questions, enough that there are some things we can definitely say about speculative poetry, but how much deeper can we dig?
What better place to start this blog, then, by trying to ask and answer the one question that comes up often from people outside the space: what is a “speculative” poem?