Pg. 8 — Origin Story
The UFO phenomenon is as rich and bountiful a source of material for creative inspiration and expression as any I know of. Look no further than Hollywood movies, literature and so forth. For that matter, look no further than this literary journal and the superb poetry and artwork found within its pages. The talented contributors to this literary journal have taken up the treatment of this subject matter, charging the battery of their creativity from the material and shining their words and art into the dark nebulous of this obscured realm.
The Academy of American Poets does a great write up on serious poets who have delved into writing about the UFO phenomenon in an article titled “Poems about Aliens,” published July 1st, 2007, in anticipation of that year’s World UFO Day. It’s a great read.
Is UFO poetry speculative (aka science fiction & fantastic)? I suppose it should be considered as such, certainly, but as detailed in this journal’s About section of the website, I would also have some persuasive reservations in absolutely categorizing all such poetry in this way. What is it then? I’m not really sure. Genres are fluid and the rules governing such things change. I will leave it up to you to decide what UFO poetry is or is not. I call it UFOpoe (details in the About section; and we originated the hashtag #UFOpoe on Twitter), so maybe it’s a subgenre, perhaps a new one, but again, of which? Speculative I suppose, because much or most of it is written in a science fictional and fantastical way. Until no doubts remain. Then we will have factual and fictional UFO poetry subgenres. So for now, perhaps we can approach it with this perspective, an all-encompassing compromise I think, from Emily Dickinson, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.”
