Size / / /

The microcomputers producing my tints

are here to provide you, the viewer,

with a whole new interactive experience.

My voice recognition units

enable me to eavesdrop on your critique

and make whatever changes are called for.

Even if you don't know about art

but know what you like,

you can become an equal participant, or more,

in the process.

Think of me as your humble servant,

think of shoemaker's elves,

scurrying about to do his bidding even in the dark,

always true to the Platonic ideal

he dreams of while they work.

Perhaps you thought of microcomputers

as only making their contributions

in places such as the wings of aircraft,

reshaping them in the sky

to adjust to conditions.

Now, however, we can help

the imagination to also take flight.

What's more, we have been able to combine

the functions of creator and critic

into one, much richer, experience.

Even as you move on to the next work,

notice how the changes begin to fill

the corners of you eyes.

Is that your signature starting to form?

As with all the works in this gallery,

the original artist is unknown,

though we like to think of him

not as lost but as part of the foundation:

think of that painter

as simply painted over.




Duane Ackerson's poetry has appeared in Rolling Stone, Yankee, Prairie Schooner, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Cloudbank, alba, Starline, Dreams & Nightmares, and several hundred other places. He has won two Rhysling awards and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Salem, Oregon. You can find more of his work in our archives.
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2 Mar 2026

Strange Horizons
Strange Horizons invites non-fiction submissions for our March 30 special issue on “Fungi in SFF.”
Once I’ve finished writing, I will fold this letter up and tuck it into the Tristram you kindly loaned me (may it be our Galeotto … ). I’ll knock on your door, at which point I will most likely encounter a puzzled maidservant, who will ask who in the world I am, and I will explain that I am returning a book you were kind enough to bestow on me (generous creature that you are and clearly down-on-their-luck weatherworn would-be poet that I am).
the trees were softening, their bark for the hungry to scrape and scrape and spread it on whatever bread they could beg or bake
i must warn you before all else / before you poke and prod
Paul Kincaid and Dawn Macdonald join Dan Hartland to discuss style.
Friday: The Valley of the Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu 
Strange Horizons
2 Mar 2026
Strange Horizons invites non-fiction submissions for our March 30 special issue on “Fungi in SFF.”
Issue 23 Feb 2026
Spec Fic and the Politics of Identity 
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By: Natasha King
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
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Strange Horizons
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