2025 Valentines Day Poetry Reading
curated by Sandra Lindow
Since 1989, Sandra J. Lindow has published nine books of poetry. The most recent is Chasing Wild Grief, 2021. The Heroic Housewife Papers, 1990, won the Council for Wisconsin Writers’ Posner Award for the best poetry collection by a Wisconsin writer. Her poem “If Death: A Pre-primer” was included in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: 2001. In 2003, she received the Wisconsin Press Women’s Award for Poetry. Her poetry reviews can be found in Star*Line and the SpecPo poetry review blog, and her poetry has been published in The Rhysling Anthology, The Dwarf Stars Anthology, Star*Line, Asimov’s, Scifaikuest, Dreams and Nightmares, Tales of the Talisman, and The Magazine of Speculative Poetry. Her editing includes coediting SpecPo Poetry Review Blog 2020-present, Dwarf Stars, 2011, “Evolving Gender,” Eye to the Telescope, October 2017 and Alchemy of Stars II, 2018. She has served as SFPA Vice President and Acting President. She lives on a hilltop in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
SFPA's Valentines Poetry Reading shares our enjoyment of speculative poetry with a broader audience, increases awareness of the SFPA, and promotes the individual poets who take part. The reading was open to submissions from SFPA members in January and February of 2025.

Valentine Art 2021
by Akua Lezli Hope
"First Contact Translator"
by Akua Lezli Hope
Akua Lezli Hope, a paraplegic creator of poems, patterns, stories, music, sculpture, & adornments has been in print since 1974 with over 500 poems published. Her collections include Embouchure: Poems on Jazz and Other Musics (Writer’s Digest Book Award) & Otherwheres: Speculative Poetry (Elgin Award). A Cave Canem fellow, her honors include NEA & NYFA fellowships; SFPA, Rhysling & IGNYTE awards; NYSCA grant for Afrofuturist, speculative, pastoral poetry & 2024 NYSCA grant for disability poetics. She created the Speculative Sundays Poetry Reading series & edited NOMBONO: An Anthology of Speculative Poetry by BIPOC Creators, the first of its kind.

Amor Machina
by Robert Frazier
"Amor Machina"
by Robert Frazier
Robert Frazier lives on Nantucket Island and works as Artistic Director for the Artists Association of Nantucket, with a 45-year career as an oil painter. SFPA founding member. Editor/associate editor Star*Line, Issues 4/1 - 14/1 and early Rhysling Anthologies. Edited the speculative anthology, Burning with a Vision, 1984; and art history book, Born from a Hurricane, 2020. Nine poetry collections; 3 Rhysling Awards (2 short, 1 long); SFPA Grandmaster, 2005; Nebula Awards nominee for short fiction. Interests: science poetry, fine art printmaking, beachcombing, art history, birding, geology, en plein air painting.

The Rambling Rose
by Keech Ballard
"The Rambling Rose"
by Keech Ballard
Keech Ballard's elusive elisions may be mistaken for a stromboli at Utopia SF, Illumen, Scifaikuest, Chasing Shadows, Analogies & Allegories, Magnus Effect, Flying Dodo, Gnashing Teeth, Five Fleas, Failed Haiku, and Low Hanging Fruit.
"From the Embassy of Leaks to the Court of Cracks"
by Catherine Rockwood
This poem first appeared in Reckoning 5 issue 5 (2021).
Catherine Rockwood Catherine Rockwood reads and edits for Reckoning Magazine, and reviews books for Strange Horizons. Two chapbooks of their poetry are available from The Ethel Zine Press. If interested, you can find more work at www.catherinerockwood.com/about.
"Porphyria’s Lover"
by Anna Cates
This poem first appeared in Abyss & Apex, September 13, 2024.
Dr. Anna Cates teaches college and graduate level writing, literature, and education online. She has published a variety of books (poetry, fiction, and drama) through www.cyberwit.net, prolificpress.com, redmoonpress.com, and wipfandstock.com. Her full-length poetry collection Love in the Time of Covid won an Illumination Book Award. She resides in Wilmington, Ohio with her two beautiful kitties.

Angel of Chaos
by Miguel O. Mitchell
"Expressions of Love"
by Miguel O. Mitchell
Miguel O. Mitchell, PhD (he/his/him) is a Black speculative poet, SFF author, visual artist, and retired chemist. His poems have appeared in (or have been accepted by) Amazing Stories, Dreams &am,p; Nightmares, Eye to the Telescope, FIYAH, Sauúti Terrors anthology, Scarlet Dragonfly Journal, Scifaikuest, Star*Line, and the anthology Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2022). Two of his poems were nominated for the 2022 Rhysling Award in the Long Poem category. Dr. Mitchell has also published two poetry collections, Surrealia (Gnashing Teeth Publishing, 2024) and Periodic Table of Alien Species (Elements 1-86) (Barnes & Noble Press, 2021).
"Ghoul in Love"
by Lauren McBride
This poem first appeared in Aliens, Magic, and Monsters by Lauren McBride (Hiraeth Publishing) in September, 2023.
Lauren McBride is author of the chapbook Aliens, Magic, and Monsters (Hiraeth, 2023). Nominated for the Best of the Net, Pushcart, Rhysling, and Dwarf Stars Awards, her poetry has appeared internationally in speculative and mainstream publications including Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Utopia Science Fiction's 5th Anniversary Anthology. She enjoys swimming, gardening, baking, reading, writing, and knitting scarves for U.S. troops.

Chocolate (Methylxanthine)
by M. Frost
"Methylxanthine"
by M. Frost
This poem was previously published in Mad Poets Review in 2007.
The creative work of M. Frost has appeared in Eye to the Telescope, Star*Line, Strange Horizons, Abyss & Apex, The Hopkins Review, and many other venues, including a chapbook publication, Cow Poetry (Finishing Line Press), and a collaboration, Constellation (CreateSpace).
"Offspring of Obsidian"
by Richard Magahiz
This poem first appeared in Uppagus #61.
Richard Magahiz tries to live an ordered life in harmony with all things natural and created but one that follows unexpected paths. He's spent much of his time wrangling computers as a day job but is working on a way to center life around other things. His work has appeared at Star*Line, Dreams and Nightmares, Sein und Werden, Chrome Baby, Bewildering Stories, and Eunoia Review. His website is https://zeroatthebone.us/.

"My Sweet Troll"
by P. D. Fitzpatrick
"What I Need"
by Kate Boyes
Kate Boyes is a speculative nature writer whose work focuses on the near-future environments and alternate histories of Earth, Mars, and several choice exoplanets. Her poetry has appeared in many publications, including those hosted on the SFPA website. Her 2024 debut speculative poetry collection—GRUB: The Misadventures of a Miscreant and His Associates on Alt-Earth—arrived just in time for the strangest U.S. election cycle ever. She lives on the coast of Oregon, where she studies the foraging habits of Cascadian trolls and werebears.
"The Alchemy of Love"
by Leticia Toraci
Leticia Toraci Toraci is a Brazilian freelance writer, poet and artist who lives with her husband, her two sons and a cat in South Germany. She has a Masters of Food Science degree from the University of Reading, England. As a child, she won an Honorable Mention for two of her short stories in the Sao Paulo Public Servants Contest in 1986. She participated in theater in Campo Mourao, Brazil, where she recited several of her poems. She has also had art exhibits in Regensburg, Aschaffenburg and Munich, Germany.

The Dancers Among the Photon-ghosts
by Clarabelle Miray Fields
"The Dancers Among the Photon-ghosts"
by Clarabelle Miray Fields
Clarabelle Miray Fields is an award-winning, Rhysling-nominated speculative writer from Boulder, Colorado, whose work has previously appeared in Corvid Queen, the 2021 Rhysling Anthology, and elsewhere. Holding a BA in classical languages, she often writes at the intersection of feminism and ancient myth. She currently serves as editor-in-chief of Carmina Magazine, a publication focused on modern mythmaking. When not writing, she enjoys being active outdoors and drinking the darkest coffee she can find. Connect with her on Instagram @cfieldswriting or via her website at https://clarabellefields.com.

Rule 44
by Robert Payne Cabeen
"Rule 44"
by Robert Payne Cabeen
This poem was first published in Fearworms: Selected Poems (Fanbase Press), 2014
Robert Payne Cabeen is a screenwriter, artist, and Bram Stoker Award winner with his novel COLD CUTS. His screenwriting credits include HEAVY METAL 2000, for Columbia TriStar, Sony Pictures, A MONKEY’S TALE, and WALKING WITH BUDDHA. Cabeen’s illustrated book, FEARWORMS: SELECTED POEMS, was a Bram Stoker Award nominee. As creative director for Streamline Pictures, Robert helped bring Japanese animated features, like Akira, to a western audience. Cabeen received an MFA from Otis Art Institute. Since then, he has combined his interests in the visual arts with screenwriting and storytelling for entertainment companies including Warner Brothers, Columbia/TriStar, Disney, Sony, and Universal. Fearworms: Selected Poems is available on Amazon.

Lupercalia: The Dragon, the Maker, and the Whip Sword Raker
by James Lowell Hall
"Lupercalia: The Dragon, the Maker, and the Whip Sword Raker"
by James Lowell Hall
James Lowell Hall’s poetry collection PRAIRIE ROOTS from Shanti Arts was released in 2024. His writing has appeared in Hobo Camp Review, Star*Line, Utopia and others. He is a writer and physician. jameslowellhall.com.