Scifaiku

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Scifaiku (science fiction haiku) is a form of science fiction poetry first announced by Tom Brinck with his 1995 Scifaiku Manifesto. It is inspired by Japanese haiku, but explores science, science fiction, and other speculative fiction themes, such as fantasy and horror. They are based on the principles and form of haiku but can to deviate from its structure. For one example of scifaiku:

Next time you hear

crickets fiddling, watch out

for tiny spaceships.

– Yvonne Aburrow

Scifaiku follow three major principles – minimalism, immediacy and human insight:

Scifaiku follows the haiku model, including its spirit of minimalism. While traditional Japanese haiku usually has 3 lines of

5, 7, and 5 syllables, scifaiku may be shorter or longer (allowing for longer technical terms, e.g. anisomorphism).

Immediacy is the use of direct sensory perceptions to give a sense of being in the moment. Concrete, rather than abstract terms are used. Metaphor and allegory are rarely explicit though sometimes implied.

Human insight comes from the idea that the purpose of much science fiction is to understand ourselves better through exploring possible futures or speculative realities.

1 Science fiction haiku
2 Scifaiku mailing lists
3 Scifaiku and science fiction haiku publications
4 External links

[edit] Science fiction haiku

Before there was scifaiku on the internet, there was science fiction haiku. The first publication of science fiction haiku was Karen Anderson's "Six Haiku" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1962). Below is number 4 of her 6 SF haiku.

Those crisp cucumbers

Not yet planted in Syrtis --

How I desire one!

Hark to the crash of

the leaves in the autumn, the smash

of the crystal leaves.

Charles Sub-Lunar, 'Planetary Haiku'

It wasn't until 1979 that science fiction haiku were regularly published, with Robert Frazier's "Haiku for the L5" (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1979) and "Haiku for the Space Shuttle" (IASFM, 1980) starting the trend.

The most extensive use of haiku in science fiction is in David Brin's Uplift Universe (especially in the novel Startide Rising), where the uplifted dolphins speak a haiku-like language called Trinary. He has characters quoting haiku by Kobayashi Issa and Yosa Buson, and has them spontaneously writing their own haiku. Outside of his Uplift Universe, Brin has haiku as chapter epigrams in his novel The Postman.

One of the main chracters, Bobby Shaftoe, in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is a haiku-writing U.S. Marine Ranger during World War II. The book's prologue starts with one of his very rough haiku [1]:

Two tires fly. Two wail.

A bamboo grove, all chopped down

From it, warring songs

Two of the more famous science fiction authors who have also written science fiction haiku are Joe Haldeman and Thomas M. Disch. The author Paul O. Williams, who has written a series of science fiction books as well as books of regular haiku and senryu, has combined both interests with some published science fiction haiku.

[edit] Scifaiku mailing lists

There have been three different internet scifaiku mailing lists in succession. These mailing lists have been the primary base for the writing and sharing of scifaiku on the internet.

The original SciFaiku mailing list was a Univ. of Michigan-based listserv (where Tom Brink was in graduate school). The first post on the list was on 23 July 1996.

Later on there was a mailing list organized through scifaiku.com (first post 15 February 1998). After problems with that mailing list server, the scifaiku list moved to Yahoo! Groups on 17 March 2001. As of 22 July 2006 there have been over 13,000 posts just on the scifaiku mailing list at Yahoo! Group. From the group's home page:

"This group is for the writing and sharing of science fiction haiku (aka scifaiku). We also occasionally write similar genres, such as fantasy haiku and horror haiku. The members also write SF poems using other short poetry forms, such as tanka, senryu, sijo, kanshi, etc."

Group members have also created a few of their own poetry forms, such as the contrail and the Fibonacci-No-Haiku (based upon the Fibonacci number), written SF poetry based on other short poetry forms such as the cinquain, and experimented with a number of collaborative poetry forms such as science fiction renga and stellarenga.

[edit] Scifaiku and science fiction haiku publications

Haiku by Unohu by Keith Allen Daniels, Anamnesis Press, April 2000, ISBN 1-892842-09-2 (because most of the poems are humorous, they could be best be described as science fiction senryu)
Scifaikuest, a quarterly online and print scifaiku journal, ]http://samsdotpublishing.com Sam's Dot Publishing] (as of July 2006, there have been 12 issues) ISSN 1558-9757
Stellar Possibilities by John J. Dunphy, Sam's Dot Publsihing, 2006 (a collection of scifaiku and haibun)
Red Planet Dust by Deborah P. Kolodji, Gromagon Press, 2006 (a chapbook of scifaiku)
Random Planets edited by Teri Santitoro and L.A. Story Houry, Sam's Dot Publishing (an anthology of scifaiku)
Dwarf Stars: 30 Stellar Short-Short Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Poems from 2004, Edited by Deborah P. Kolodji, 2005 (an anthology of scifaiku and other very short speculative fiction poems)