Metastable Systems

By David Kopaska-Merkel

Metastable Systems is the latest collection of poems from Grandmaster David C. Kopaska-Merkel. Science Fiction, fantasy, horror, and pure science: it's all here. Most of these poems were written in the past few years; many appear here for the first time.

How can a water bear (also known as a tardigrade, one remarkably tough micro-animal) be a superhero?

Such questions lie at the heart of David Kopaska-Merkel's speculative verse. He is himself a scientist -- a geologist -- and this is Science turned sideways. Warped in ways only someone with deep, abiding knowledge and love could even consider. Science powering a true poetry of ideas.

Whether he turns his artistic vision to science fiction, fantasy, or the dark fantastic, an unsettling amount of real information seeps in. The femmes fatale of Lovecraft's Innsmouth are scarier for being categorized by species. Suicide by walking on the Sun is analyzed in detail, then found to be impractical. Microscopic aliens lurk everywhere, but they can't eat us.

Or at least digest us after they've tried.

There's a distinctive voice at work here -- a dry, subtle humor that can turn chilling. Science isn't always pretty. It is, however, infinitely inspiring. At least, it seems to be for Kopaska-Merkel, one of the most productive poets around. His name turns up regularly in publications large and small, print and digital. His blog offers readers new works almost daily.

And then there's Dreams and Nightmares, his venerable speculative poetry magazine -- on issue # 106 at the time of this writing. Kopaska-Merkel isn't just concerned with his own outpouring of ideas. He's been curating a home for the ideas of others since 1986.

Many of the poems you're about to encounter are quite short, like showers of sparks. (Or meteors.) Others are extended wry observations: did you ever stop to think about . . .?

How a water bear, scaled up, would actually make an amazing superhero. What happens when a cat goes nova. What might be the result of . . . well, just about any geeky, unlikely, but scientifically detailed event that could only happen in a poem like this.

David Kopaska-Merkel always stops to think about. But never for too long.

There are so many other ideas impatiently waiting to be formed into lines and stanzas. Given disturbingly apt titles, or running silent with none at all.

Then launched.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Kopaska-Merkel
• Release date: Nov 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781936021574

David Kopaska-Merkel

David C. Kopaska-Merkel has been writing SF and fantasy since the 70s. He edited Star*line [journal of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Ass’n (SFPA)]in the late ‘90s, and later served as SFPA President. Many of his poems have received Rhysling nominations, and he won the Rhysling award for best long poem in 2006 for “The Tin Men,” a collaboration with Kendall Evans. He was voted SFPA Grand Master in 2017. His poetry has been published in scores of venues, including Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, and Night Cry. He edits and publishes Dreams and Nightmares, a genre poetry zine in its 31st year of publication. Blog at http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/ featuring a daily poem. @DavidKM on Twitter. He lives in a centuried farmhouse that has been engulfed, but not digested, by a city. Poetry and fiction books by David C. Kopaska Merkel 1. underfoot, the runaway spoon press, ISBN 0-926935-60-7, poetry, 1991 2. a round white hole, dbqp press, poetry, 1993 3. The Conspiracy Unmasked, Dark Regions Press, poetry, 1994 4. hunger, Preternatural Press, poetry, 1996 5. Results of a preliminary investigation of the electrochemical properties of some organic matrices , Eraserhead Press, poetry, 1999 6. Y2K survival kit, smoldering banyan press, poetry, 1999 7. The Ruined City, gnarled totem press, poetry, 2003 8. Shoggoths, Sam's Dot publishing, poetry, 2003 9. The Deadbolt Casebook, Sam's Dot publishing, fiction, 2004 10. the egg show, speakeasy press, ISBN 0-9762962-0-9 ($40, entirely handmade including the paper), poetry, 2005 http://www.speakeasypress.com/folded/foldedeggshow.html 11. I don't know what you're having, Sam's Dot, poetry, 2005 12. Separate Destinations (with Kendall Evans), D66 Press, ISBN 1-892958-02-3, poetry, 2005 13. Hasp Deadbolt, Private Eye, Sam's Dot, fiction, 2007 14. Drowning Atlantis, spechouseofpoetry.com, flash fiction, 2007 15. The memory of persistence, Naked Snake Press, poetry, 2007 16. Nursery Rhyme Noir, Sam's Dot, 978-09821068-3-9, fiction (incorporates 9 and 13), 2008 17. Night Ship to Never (with Kendall Evans), diminuendo press, 978-0-9821352-3-5, poetry, 2009 18. The Simian Transcript, Banana Oil books, flash fiction, 2010 19. Brushfires, Sam's Dot, poetry, 2010 20. The Tin Men (with Kendall Evans), Sam's Dot, poetry, 2011 21. The Edible Zoo, Sam's Dot, children's poetry, 2012 22. On the Brink of Never (ed.), Sam’s Dot, ISBN 978-0-984692-04-0, poetry, 2012 23. Luminous Worlds, Dark Regions Press, ISBN 978-1-937128-92-0, poetry, 2013 24. SETI Hits Paydirt, Popcorn Press, poetry, 2014 25. Gods and Monsters, Popcorn Press, flash fiction, 2015 26. Metastable Systems, diminuendo press, poetry, 2017

Book preview

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Metastable Systems

David C. Kopaska-Merkel

These are for Sheila

Introduction

How can a water bear (also known as a tardigrade, one remarkably tough micro-animal) be a superhero?

Such questions lie at the heart of David Kopaska-Merkel’s speculative verse. He is himself a scientist – a geologist – and this is Science turned sideways. Warped in ways only someone with deep, abiding knowledge and love could even consider. Science powering a true poetry of ideas.

Whether he turns his artistic vision to science fiction, fantasy, or the dark fantastic, an unsettling amount of real information seeps in. The femmes fatales of Lovecraft’s Innsmouth are scarier for being categorized by species. Suicide by walking on the Sun is analyzed in detail, then found to be impractical. Microscopic aliens lurk everywhere, but they can’t eat us.

Or at least digest us after they’ve tried.

There’s a distinctive voice at work here – a dry, subtle humor that can turn chilling. Science isn’t always pretty. It is, however, infinitely inspiring. At least, it seems to be for Kopaska-Merkel, one of the most productive poets around. His name turns up regularly in publications large and small, print and digital. His blog offers readers new works almost daily.

And then there’s Dreams and Nightmares, his venerable speculative poetry magazine – on issue #106 at the time of this writing. Kopaska-Merkel isn’t just concerned with his own outpouring of ideas. He’s been curating a home for the ideas of others since 1986.

Many of the poems you’re about to encounter are quite short, like showers of sparks. (Or meteors.) Others are extended wry observations: did you ever stop to think about...?

How a water bear, scaled up, would actually make an amazing superhero. What happens when a cat goes nova. What might be the result of... well, just about any geeky, unlikely, but scientifically detailed event that could only happen in a poem like this.

David Kopaska-Merkel always stops to think about. But never for too long.

There are so many other ideas impatiently waiting to be formed into lines and stanzas. Given disturbingly apt titles, or running silent with none at all.

Then launched.

– Ann K. Schwader

Westminster, Colorado

May 2017

By Hali's Shore

The surface of the lake reflects her still,

The balcony is ruinous and slick,

The King bestirs himself and trails his hand,

Just where his daughter-consort took her life,

She stares up from the aromatic deep,

Betimes she serenades him voicelessly,

She's dead a year and now they come to wed,

Out on the restive lake he throws her ring.

Reflected in the livid light of Moon

They waltz, while on the shattered balcony,

He consummates their love on look-alikes,

Who gratefully receive the royal seed;

Before their terms he strangles them as gifts

To she who lingers in the rattling reeds.

Backwater

Off the trails

blazed by Dreamers

who slept in ancient days,

weedy paths meander toward

long-forgotten cities

buried in lexicons of thought,

afloat in dream mirages,

reveries of near-forgotten years,

unvisited, scarce real,

translucent, unmoored.

Sometimes we've heard,

round