Scifaiku is science fiction poetry initiated by Tom Brinck in 1995.  In his SciFaiku Manifesto, Brinck states, "SciFaiku is haiku and it is not haiku ... It deviates, expands, and frees itself of haiku."  It may also include other speculative fiction themes, like fantasy and horror.   My scifaiku are perhaps more accurately described as "shadowku".  Some have appeared in the journal Scifaikuest, and two have been nominated for the annual James B. Baker award for a poem (haibun)  in a Sams Dot publication, i.e. Scifaikuest.   In an article about my horror haiku at www.millikin.edu/haiku/writerprofiles/HarmanOnMorcom.html Penny Harman writes that my work will make you smile or make you afraid.  That's in keeping with my flash fiction, which has a dark side but also a sense of humor.  Here's the James B. Baker nominated haibun published in the November 2003 edition of Scifaikuest.  Notice that the prose piece is exactly 31 syllables long, the same as a tanka:

Maybe Murder

I don't want to be identified by my dental records.  It means a bad end, maybe murder.  Nothing left but bones and teeth.

moonless night -

only my car

in the parking lot

This nominated haibun appeared in the November 2004 edition:

The Next Time

The next time they come for me, I won't let them take me.  I've had enough of their spaceship and their degrading and painful experiments on my mind and body.  The next time they come for me, and try to wrap their cold tentacles around my wrists and ankles and drag me outside, I plan on stopping them in their slimy tracks.  One way or another, I'm not going with them.  Ever again.

thunderstorm...

my bedroom window

opens                                           

I may also be the only haiku poet whose work has appeared in Weird Tales, perhaps the most respected  journal of horror literature in North America.  These "Lovecrafty" haiku popped up in the Fall 2000 edition:

faceless-

the god Nyarlathotep

beckons me on

only I

can hear the giant rats

day and night

from a watery grave

great Cthulhu sees

the time is right

Innsmouth ...

smelling of the sea

and something else

no one every visits

the ancient town of Dunwich

except by mistake

Is the subject matter too gruesome for haiku?  Maybe, but scifaiku certainly are interesting to write, especially when they're inspired by  H.P. Lovecraft's  nightmarish stories about malevolent creatures bent on world domination. Or they could  be the paranoid fantasies of someone who needs years of intensive therapy!  But they're still fiendish fun, as well as  "highly addictive", in the words of Scifaikuest co-editor L.A. Story Houry.  So lose your literary inhibitions and write a few of your own.  But be warned.  You probably can't stop at just a few.

My scifaiku chapbook A Nameless Place is now available from Sam's Dot Publishing at www.genremall.com/bestsellers.htm.   If you live in Canada, order it directly from me, eh?