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    • Home
    • THEM GONE
    • OTHERWHERES
    • Literary Bio
    • SPECULATIVE POETRY
    • Awards and Honors
    • Publications and Readings
    • Contact
    • Presenting Your Poetry
  • Home
  • THEM GONE
  • OTHERWHERES
  • Literary Bio
  • SPECULATIVE POETRY
  • Awards and Honors
  • Publications and Readings
  • Contact
  • Presenting Your Poetry

About Speculative poetry

Speculative Poetry and Me

I wrote my first speculative poems in the sixth grade at P.S. 156 in Laurelton, NY while studying with the wonderful Mrs. Sylvia Parver. I had read Animal Farm in the 4th grade, 1984 in the 5th grade an was granted permission by my evolved parents to read Brave New World in the 6th grade. Alice in Wonderland was also an influence on the second of my poems as it incorporated the language of Jabberwocky. But the very first verse I remember was about  post apocalyptic love:


We'll run, and find a sacred place

where I will kiss your burnt-off face

and you will touch my non existent lips

as the bomb continues to rip

this doomed world


I've written speculative verse ever since, though my speculative verse didn't find a home for itself until the 80s and then not again for 20 years.


Speculative Poetry is:

the primoridal verse, the first verse, the poetry of possibilities. Our earliest recorded literature is speculative poetry:Gilgamesh, Ramayana, The Iliad and Odyssey, and Beowulf for example.  

Speculative poetry’s engagements include: aliens, alternate history, cryptids, cyberfunk, cyberpunk, dystopia, fairytales, fabulism, fantasy, folklore, futurism, horror, magic, monsters, mythology, occult, paranormal, post-apocalyptic, robots, science fiction, shifters, slipstream, solar punk, space opera, steamfunk, steampunk, superheroes, supernatural, sword and sorcery, sword and soul, time-travel, and weird. All poetic forms and scifaiku are welcome.

Speculative Sundays Poetry Reading Series

To fulfill my commitment to SERVE VERSE, I created a speculative poetry reading series.   

Speculative Sundays Reading Series

on Facebook live and Via Zoom

7 to 8 p.m. ET

  1. Bryant O’Hara 9/13/20  
  2. Wendy Van Camp  9/27/20 
  3. Vince Gotera  10/11/20 
  4. Sheree Renée Thomas 10/25/20 
  5. André O. Hoilette  11/8/20 
  6. Linda Addison  11/22/20   
  7. Bryan Thao Worra  12/6/20 
  8. Akua Lezli Hope  12/20/20 
  9. John W. Sexton  1/3/2021  
  10. Wendy Low   1/17/2021 
  11. LindaAnn LoSchiavo  1/31/2021 
  12. féi hernandez  2/14/2021 
  13. Jacqueline Johnson   3/14/2021 
  14. Terese Mason Pierre  3/28/2021
  15. Jennifer Crow 4/11/2021
  16. Holly Lyn Walrath 4/25/2021
  17. Juan Manuel Perez 6/20/2021
  18. Soonest Nathaniel 8/15/2021
  19. Jean-Paul L. Garnier 9/12/2021
  20. Adele Gardner 10/10/2021
  21. Mary Soon Lee 11/14/2021 

Nombono: an Anthology of Speculative Poetry by BIPOC creator

Won the Pitch Contest!

Now I get to edit an anthology of speculative poetry!  


NOMBONO (Zulu for visionary) was my first and the first of two for 2021! https://sundressblog.com/2021/01/04/2020-anthology-pitch-contest-selection-announced


My second was the historic Eye to the Telescope Issue #42 on the sea.  

https://eyetothetelescope.com/about.html


NOMBONO the first BIPOC Anthology of Speculative Poetry

  


Rhysling Nominated Poems

  

Akua Lezli Hope

akualezli@gmail.com


Rhysling Nominated Poems first Published in 2021


Short Poems

Stratospherics 2


Long Poems

Child Price


Grateful to again have both a short and long poem nominated for the Rhyslings

 AND  6 poems from ETT#42 and three poems from NOMBONO!  

Files coming soon.

Copyright © 2022 AKUA LEZLI HOPE - All Rights Reserved.