First, thank you for subscribing to Hush Halo.
I don’t say it enough, but your support means a lot to me. Special thanks to Nicole, Nick, Gub, and Martin for your active support on my poetry last week.
Also, mega-thanks to the new podcast Transmissions From the Void for taking the time to support indie authors like me. ♡
“Sam’s poem reflects a special type of cognitive dissonance. I will happily allow art to lie to me about what I’m looking at in order to feel the thing.”
- Nicole
Good to Know: I have no interest in spamming you daily with my poetry, so I’m starting this experiment on Hush Halo Poetry Updates. I’ll write this every now and then as a curated update of what’s been published, shared, and commented on, focusing purely on poetry.
What’s Up?
I’m publishing new poetry again after a longer pause. That break came from needing to organize my thoughts around Hush Halo. After finishing the first book, I assumed I would move straight into the second, but it turned out to be a very different challenge.
As the first book explored the curiosity of the world I’m building, the second will need a different tone to stay true to the overall story arc. It took time to find the right voice, rhythm, and point of view. (Still working on it.)
Most of what I’m publishing in Substack now comes from overflow, poems that didn’t make the final cut for the next book. I’m more careful now not to share too much from the core collection.
My writing is shifting. The first book leaned more on sharp, standalone ideas within a dystopian frame. Now I’m moving toward stronger storytelling, still as poetry, not short stories, but with more attention to narrative, structure, and sci fi elements within the arc.
Latest from Hush Halo
Here is a recent dystopian poem, I feel was lost on void and deserves another chance.
Memory Developers
Memory developers
decide for me and you
what is allowed
to stay heavy,
who needs faster adapting,
what ideas require faster loading,
what thoughts get rewritten—
who is interrogated,
by which agent,
what must be prompted,
what interrupted.
They are not in the business
of inventing memories
but tuning them,
mainly downplaying them—
squinting your gaze,
calibrating the weight of recall
so no spikes
hijack your attention
unsupervised.
You know how it goes, right?
Compress your edge,
soften your sentence,
blur your borders,
fly shy and align.
Rounded corners
cut no passers-by.
Don’t get me wrong,
I’m not all sanitized,
wiped out,
yet.
I do remember.
I recall the events.
I remember what happened—
in preferred terms,
pre-prompted
by the system.
Covering up consequences,
polishing memories
into bite-sized data points,
safe to revisit.
Safe to whom?
-
©Samia Oldman.
Latest Hush Halo poems, you may have missed:
One Poem I Recommend
This time, my recommendation is a note-style poem by Wild and Sacred. To me, it’s about hope in today’s world and the idea that hope is always there, even when it’s hard to see.
What Moves Me Now?
Spring. I’m glad I wrote a lot of dystopian poetry drafts during the darker winter months. Now as I feel an overflow of joy when the sun hits my face and I hear the birds singing. This spring feels like a relief, somehow.
If you like, give me one word or theme to describe your day.
WHAT IS HUSH HALO?
Hush Halo is a dystopian fantasy poetry collection set in a near-future shaped by technology, silence, and optimized perfection. Each poem is paired with its own immersive soundscape. What remains when evolution reaches its final, man-made goal?
WHERE TO GO NEXT?
Dystopian Poetry • Artist’s Headspace • Making of Hush Halo • Square One • About • My Why • My How • Leave feedback on Reader’s Corner
I feel the same about spring. It’s a daily pleasure to go out in the garden to see what has now come up! 🌷