Long Scifi Poems
Long Scifi Poems. Below are the most popular long Scifi by PoetrySoup Members. You can search for long Scifi poems by poem length and keyword.
sometimes
misconstrued
in a fluorescent grove
where malachite petals
marry emerald blades
verbose biting chews
too close to the cheek
among a confetti of bees
amid undulating bumps
of raw superfluous air
interdimensional entities
of spectral occurrence
wave with graphic-less suave
to gurgles, to coos, to hehs
seek noodle communication
to a bouncing mistaken few
using the eyebrow medium
of coincidence
a babbling infrasonic tool
of curious happening
sometimes
misunderstood
exhume, with heed
supressed benevolence
they fly shapelessly
in quartered skies
aloof in mocking flight
frilly, frothy entities
divebombing ghettos
exacting urban sprawl
chance upon neonates
and families out picnicking
feeding babies whose
knowing smiles to air
see, or do they?
– beware
Aeriforms
By Mark D. Stucky
Will AI’s promise
outweigh its peril?
Do we need more intelligence
even if it is not our own?
If AI someday emulates God or Devil,
will it be too late for us when we find out?
In spite of unquantifiable questions,
almighty algorithms relentlessly grow.
But accelerating AI worries me less
than declining human collective wisdom.
After centuries of expanding knowledge,
people now appear increasingly foolish.
Machines continually get smarter
while populations keep acting dumber.
We might have more to fear
from how we harm ourselves,
as we continue endless conflicts,
than from any ill AI causes us.
Our most dangerous menace isn’t AI.
The deadliest threat to us…is us.
(See also my poems "AI Awakening," “Haikus Against AI,” and “Weapons of Wonder.”)
(Image from anonymous artist on pixabay.com/illustrations/man-face-surreal-imagination-845847/.)
...But now that the truth of all was revealed,
and no future was awaiting our kind,
I looked on my life’s work, now meaningless,
and a notion entered into my mind.
If creation was a pantry for them,
if our souls were what gave these monsters life,
then fighting them meant taking this away,
we couldn’t win, but we could bring the night…
So I turned to that old scifi chestnut,
of nanotech turning all to grey goo,
self-replicating machines seeking matter
to build more of themselves, nanobots new.
It was once a fear that we all dreaded,
but since we were all doomed to face our ends,
I wrote the program, then turned the bots loose,
and I went to the grave laughing, my friend.
Since before I died, I bought a rocket,
one of those private ones built for small sats,
sent a small cloud of bots out into space,
out of earth’s orbit, to begin their task.
Now you probably wonder how I can speak
of these things when the gods consumed my soul,
it’s simple, I copied my mind in full,
in every nanobot I’m in control.
Earth was the first, and it surprised these gods
when whole planet was reduced to goo,
nothing left alive that they could feed on,
they had to leave Earth, no more could they do.
But all of the bots I launched to the void
scattered so slowly throughout time in space,
consuming all matter, including life,
leaving nothing for the gods’ dinner plate.
The best of all, I get to see it,
see them all panic as the truth sets in,
watching an immortal bemoan their end…
is so delicious it must be a sin.
To be killed by what they once created,
given all the myths, I guess that’s fitting,
there’s not much life left, I’ve still work to do,
and those bastards are already starving…
The decades crawled through ruin till the Year of Thirty-Four,
And Lysander was a hermit, but a hermit blind no more.
Through short-wave bursts that flickered out across the barren space,
And weary runners dodging drones to find his hiding place,
He reached four other visionaries dreaming in the black:
A rogue technician in the frost, a poet on the rack,
Two scientists who kept the flame against the winter storm—
They swore to weave a single thread to keep the spirit warm.
It was a bitter winter night, the ash was falling thick,
It smothered out the surface wind and made the sensors sick.
Lysander sat within a chair of salvaged medical steel,
The living halo of the moss beginning now to feel
Beneath his scalp, into his skin, a soft, organic crown,
The microscopic tendrils pushing gently, deeply down.
Across the seas, in four dark holes, the others did the same,
And waited for the sudden spark to set the night aflame.
He threw the primary breaker switch, the cables groaned with heat,
The vault’s geothermal heart began to pulse and beat.
He did not hear a thunderclap, he did not see a flare,
He only felt a sudden rip, a tearing of the air.
The silence of a generation snapped across the world,
As into every separate mind the universe was hurled.
The lonely soul no longer screamed against a silent shore;
It broke through every bunker wall and shattered every door.
Lysander felt the salt-stain of a woman’s sudden grief,
Three thousand miles across the waste, too heavy for belief;
She mourned a child who withered from the pale radiation chill.
He felt the cold, systemic dread, the sharp and freezing will
Of an old engineer whose lungs were failing in the north,
As life-support ran dry of air and spat its vapor forth.
They had spun the neural cord—a whisper in the dark,
A soft, collective sigh of peace, a fragile, holy spark.
...Even those who see ‘the future,’
will see it in past terms,
since the past is the reference from
which all mankind must learn.
That grand, utopian future
of which so many dream,
is defined by what it escapes:
a past brutal and mean.
It’s shaped by what it doesn’t have,
compared to ages gone,
a vision based on past eras
stripped of all that went wrong.
And the sad thing of such visions,
I think it must be said,
is how quickly the all look stale,
how soon they look dated.
Look back on all the old scifi
from back in the fifties,
the future they imagined them
now seems quaint history.
It all seems such a waste of time,
trying to think like that,
much better to just see the truth
and lessons from the past.
The endless wisdom that was gleaned,
just waiting to be used,
and half the time we learn from it
we create something new.
Remember that the Renaissance
was folks looking at Greece,
thinking that they could learn from it,
soon after culture peaked.
Remember the Founding Fathers
we’re looking back at Rome,
a republic, no need for king,
from that so much has grown.
The truth is undeniable,
so long as we may last,
every single human alive
is living in the past.
There’s nothing new under the sun,
It’s all been done, it’s all been done.
--I’ll make a sword also a gun!
The eighties called, it’s all been done.
--A film with car crashes for fun!
Won an Oscar, it’s all been done.
--A tale where you can speak age one!
They made it twice, it’s all been done.
--A race for folks that cannot run!
They’ve long had those, it’s all been done.
--A tragic play chock full of puns!
Talk to the Bard, it’s all been done.
--Nightmare creatures that shock and stun!
Paging Lovecraft, it’s all been done.
--A trip to refuel the damn sun!
Go read scifi, it’s all been done.
--The something with an airborne nun?
Strangely enough, that has been done.
--Then tales of people wrongly shunned…
Good lord, those have been overdone..
--An ode to folks who weight one ton!
Sadly, again, it’s all been done.
There’s nothing new under the sun,
It’s all been done, it’s all been done…
--Yeah, but it hasn’t been done MY way!
“I’m sure it’s hard to get used to,
but it’s the only way you’d survive,”
Cy explained, and said, “Unlike me
at least you’ll have plenty of guides.
“See, I was the first that they tried
to transfer over to the flesh.
They’d found a way to save our lives,
but hadn’t worked out the kinks yet.
“That was war, oh, forty years ago,
we’ve gotten much better since then.
I even chose to take this job
to help us machines become me.
“You won’t do what you once could do,
you’re bound by human limitations,
but you’ll live eighty years or more,
before final termination.
“That part even humans can’t change,
their Creator is firm on death,
but you still have a life to life,
no need to dwell on all that yet.
“It will seem frightening at first,
to learn what they learn when they’re young,
but we have folks to help you out,
as they have done with other ones.
“Before you know it you’ll be out
in the wide world, helping it turn.
Welcome to your real life, Adam,
there is so much for you to learn…”
Maybe you have got to thinking
I probably should read more books,
but there’s just so much crap out there,
is anything really worth a look?
Is there anything worth my time,
something that will not disappoint,
something that strives to entertain,
not leave me feeling out-of-joint?
We all know there’s tons on lit fic
that is ‘too smart’ for things like plot,
liked only by some professors
who say ‘post-modern subtext’ alot.
With important sounding titles
like The Scarlett Lilac Dream,
where you muse for countless hours
in a bored bisexual teen.
They put a sticker on the front
claims it has won all the awards,
but you read it and realize
why some ancients fell on their swords!
And there’s lots of self-published stuff,
some of which can rather good,
but for every one you want to know
there are ten that you never should.
A lot of chaff to find the wheat,
who has the time to do all that?
Well I think you’ll be happy to find
I can relieve you of all that.
I call it THE BOYS OF THE BREACH,
the latest book that I have written,
there’s plenty of fun awaiting,
so take a moment to listen:
Two former military men
get a job in the multiverse,
protecting teams of scientists.
ensuring that they don’t get hurt.
They a face a wide array of foes,
of almost every shape of kind,
like intelligent dinosaurs
who are dead-set on genocide,
or a gruff, prehistoric bear
hunting our heroes for a meal,
or German doctors who love sex
but don’t allow themselves to feel,
or alien bugs who reproduce
through a form of body-horror,
or wild west madmen who think
new civil wars will bring them honor,
and transdimensional slavers,
what’s a multiverse without them?
It may be a dangerous job,
but these are dangerous men.
Again, it’s THE BOYS OF THE BREACH,
and it’s for sale on Amazon,
just one click gets you adventure,
scifi fun and action strong.
THE BOYS OF THE BREACH, now available on Amazon!
By Mark D. Stucky
Computer AI,
what once was only sci-fi,
is now arising.
You might kill us all,
AI, but write good essays
for my college class?
Wish intelligence
was less artificial and
more real in our world.
No machine needed
for creating recklessness.
Already have lots.
Not nearly enough
authentic intelligence
is found within us.
Let’s search for wisdom
for our souls that’s actual,
not unnatural!
(See also my AI poems "AI Awakening" and “Algorithm Almighty?”)
(Image from anonymous artist on pixabay.com/illustrations/man-face-surreal-imagination-845847/.)
Well, I had dust on my Texas boots
Long week, same long dirt road
Talkin' to my old Mustang
Like the sunlight could enlighten my goal
Sky cracked open over the hayfield
A UFO with green glow in my front windshield
Thought it was the radio talkin'
Till that UFO light dropped on me fast
Now I'm ridin' high in a UFO, my cowboy hat tipped far and low
Got my boots on the dash, see the beaches of Florida below
Left my worries behind, flyin' off into the galaxy, like a Milky Way
Pickup truck to Pluto, yeah; I finally broke through its hole
Out of the hometown, out, the same ol' joke into the stars
I'm ridin' high in a UFO, lovin' my sci-fi stardust flight!
Big flying saucer with a green trucker cap
Said, "Hop in; we're out to new heights!"
Hit a button; we were sky high, shining brightly
Earth's beaches lookin' like a tiny blue marble below
The Martians said, "You sing; we drive."
You talk; I glide through the skies.
So, I gave him my backroad insight
As he gave me that timeless high ride!
Now I'm ridin' in a UFO, a hat tipped low, sunbeams aglow!
Got my boots on the dash; see the big marble below
Let my worries drift away,
Dreaming of the Cosmos
Pick up truck to Pluto, yeah, I finally reached the moon
Away from the hometown, out, the same ol' routine
I'm ridin' high in a UFO, gazing down on people below
From a two-lane, slow lane
To a moon-rock fast lane
Still the same boy, just a whole new view
Got a cowboy cap, looking down from paradise
In a zero-gravity lane
Still country, just cleaner in blue skies, crossing galaxies
Yeah, I'm ridin' through the Cosmos
In a UFO, in a flying saucer
Got my boots on the dash; seeing the world below
Left my worries in the Asteroids, dancing on stars
Pick up truck to Plute, yeah, I finally broke through
Out of the hometown; out, the same problems
I'm ridin' free in a UFO,
Escaped the rat-race
Ridin' in a colorful UFO, and I'm not goin' home, nah, exploring science's mysteries with my sci-fi lovin' heart!