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The Migration Of Darkness: Selected Science Fiction Poems, 1975-2020
Award winning science fiction poet Peter Payack's New and selected poems from 1975-2020. The Internationally acclaimed Payack has published over 2,000 poems, stories, prose poems, photos and articles including multiple appearances in The Paris Review, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Cornell Review, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Creative Computing and the Boston Globe. Payack is one of a handful of authors who has published Issac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine for six decades, dating back to 1978. Peter is also one of the rare authors who as not only placed poems in the leading science fiction magazines but also in such luminary publications as The Paris Review, The New York Times, The Cornell Review and Creative Computing. The Migration of Darkness, won the 1980 Rhysling Award, signifying The Best Poem in Science Fiction Poetry, and was recently has been acclaimed The #1 poem that unites art and science (Quirk Press). Omni Magazine has named it as #2 of the top Science Fiction poems of all time. It was named #5 in Ten Great Scifi poems by io9.com. The London Based, TES, (Times Educational Suppliment) uses the poemas Chapter 15, in it’s “What is Science Fiction?” web based course Peter Payack is the First Poet Populist of Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a Sky Artist Peter is long renowned for putting poetry in public spaces and has done so as a commissioned artist at M.I.T’s International Sky Art Conference (Delphi, Greece), The Harvard 350th Anniversary celebration, the New York Avant Garde Festival and Boston's First Night. His first foray into making poetry public was his innovation Phone-a-Poem, The Cambridge/Boston Poetry Hotline, (1976-2001.) This Achievement has now been archived at Harvard's Lamont Library's Woodberry Poetry Room, and has now been digitalized to hear such poets as Allen Ginsberg, Jane Kenyon and James Tate.
- GenresPoetry
137 pages, Paperback
Published August 27, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 3, 2021
"The Migration of Darkness: New and Selected Science Fiction Poems, 1975-2020" by Peter Payack is officially my favourite poetry book of all time. It is a one of a kind collection of out of this world poetry. One need not be a poetry devotee to appreciate the hilarity and mind-bending stories within each narrative.
The title poem, "The Migration of Darkness," is about just that: roving specks of night traipsing and traveling together. It begins:
"Each evening, shortly after sunset,
darkness covers the land.
Having mystified thinkers for millennia,
the mechanism for this occurrence
has now been identified as migration."
Science fiction themes range from matter to anti-matter, galaxies, quasars, and dust, the concepts of time and timelessness, and worlds beyond the obvious. Through Payack's words, the reader witnesses then Big Bang while dusting around the house. Next time, he quips, he'll use a vacuum.
Most of the poems twist like plot lines in a novel. Others read simply and stunningly/ Each on earners a reaction. Some are intrinsically beautiful.
"Surfing at Night"
"I had a dream,
in which I'm floating
in the ocean
on a bed of blue-green algae.
There was algae as far as I could see,
and I heard a voice say,
"The difference
between living and dying,
being and non-being,
is just where you catch the wave."
I covered my head
with my blanket
and rode the wave back to sleep."
Humour strikes the funny bone throughout. In "The Fabric of Space," the poet discovers that the tears in an old nightshirt are stars forming constellations, which are eventually sucked into a black hole until the garment disappears completely. The poem ends:
"I'm a little hesitant
about picking out another shirt."
In "Now the Bon Vivant," Genghis Kahn bewails the pleasures of modern society as he retakes his previous territory.
"The only drawback now
is that Genghis has to shell out
for the departure tax
at each European airport.
"Things weren't like that,"
he confided to me, rather demonically,
"when I ruled the world."
"The Migration of Darkness" is not an ordinary collection of poetry. It is a whirlwind of must-read individual works. I wildly recommend this book to EVERYONE.
The title poem, "The Migration of Darkness," is about just that: roving specks of night traipsing and traveling together. It begins:
"Each evening, shortly after sunset,
darkness covers the land.
Having mystified thinkers for millennia,
the mechanism for this occurrence
has now been identified as migration."
Science fiction themes range from matter to anti-matter, galaxies, quasars, and dust, the concepts of time and timelessness, and worlds beyond the obvious. Through Payack's words, the reader witnesses then Big Bang while dusting around the house. Next time, he quips, he'll use a vacuum.
Most of the poems twist like plot lines in a novel. Others read simply and stunningly/ Each on earners a reaction. Some are intrinsically beautiful.
"Surfing at Night"
"I had a dream,
in which I'm floating
in the ocean
on a bed of blue-green algae.
There was algae as far as I could see,
and I heard a voice say,
"The difference
between living and dying,
being and non-being,
is just where you catch the wave."
I covered my head
with my blanket
and rode the wave back to sleep."
Humour strikes the funny bone throughout. In "The Fabric of Space," the poet discovers that the tears in an old nightshirt are stars forming constellations, which are eventually sucked into a black hole until the garment disappears completely. The poem ends:
"I'm a little hesitant
about picking out another shirt."
In "Now the Bon Vivant," Genghis Kahn bewails the pleasures of modern society as he retakes his previous territory.
"The only drawback now
is that Genghis has to shell out
for the departure tax
at each European airport.
"Things weren't like that,"
he confided to me, rather demonically,
"when I ruled the world."
"The Migration of Darkness" is not an ordinary collection of poetry. It is a whirlwind of must-read individual works. I wildly recommend this book to EVERYONE.
December 31, 2020
Profound, funny, thought provoking collection of poems by Peter Payack. If you never knew Science Fiction poetry was a “thing”...well...you’re not alone, neither did I. Despite this, I’ve been reading (and writing some of my own) for while now. I’m so pleased to discover this book, received as a gift for Christmas as it celebrates a genre in a truly deep and meaningful way. Anyone interested in posits of other worldly pondering set to verse will enjoy this collection. Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews