2006 Poetry Poll Results
This year Locus Online hosted, in conjunction with the annual Locus Poll & Survey, a special online-only poetry poll for the best SF/fantasy/horror poems of 2005 and of all-time.
Voting was light, with only 56 valid ballots received, compared to 962 in the regular Locus poll.
For best all-time poem, results were tabulated using the usual Locus Poll system (1st place vote = 8 points, 2nd place = 7 points, etc.). All poems receiving at least 3 votes are listed below, ranked by total points, with the number of votes and the number of first-place votes also shown.
Voting was widely scattered for 2005 poems, since no list of recommendations or drop-down selections was provided. Results in the 2005 category are thus too diffuse to declare a winner; no poem received more than 3 votes, and the point spread among all those receiving 2 or 3 votes was small. All titles receiving 2 or more votes are listed below, alphabetically by title.
Best All-Time SF/Fantasy/Horror Poem
| Rank | Title, Author (year first published) | Points | Votes | Firsts |
| 1) | "Return to the Mutant Rain Forest", Bruce Boston & Robert Frazier (1989) | 52 | 9 | 1 |
| 2) | "Confessions of a Body Thief", Bruce Boston (1998) | 49 | 7 | 1 |
| 3) | "In the Darkened Hours", Bruce Boston (1988) | 45 | 6 | 5 |
| 4) | "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station", John M. Ford (1988) | 31 | 5 | 2 |
| 5) | "Interstellar Tract", Bruce Boston (1987) | 29 | 5 | 0 |
| 6) | "The Last Existentialist", Bruce Boston (1993) | 26 | 9 | 1 |
| 7) | "White Trains", Lucius Shepard (1987) | 26 | 4 | 1 |
| 8) | "The Raven", Edgar Allan Poe (1845) | 23 | 3 | 2 |
| 9) | "DX", Joe Haldeman (1987) | 22 | 3 | 2 |
| 10) | "the button and what you know", W. Gregory Stewart (1991) | 20 | 3 | 1 |
Best 2005 SF/Fantasy/Horror Poems
- "The Adventures of the Faithful Counselor: A Narrative Poem", Anne Sheldon (Aqueduct Press, Apr 2005)
- "And We Shall Go A'Questing", Mikal Trimm (Lone Star Stories #7, Feb 2005)
- "The Broad Strokes", W. Gregory Stewart (Dreams & Nightmares #72, 2005)
- "The Elongated Years", Bruce Boston (Strange Horizons, 4 Apr 2005)
- "How the Sea People Mourn", Constance Cooper (Mythic Delirium #13, Summer/Fall 2005)
- "The Infernal Firmament", Tobias Seamon (Star*Line 28.5, Sep/Oct 2005)
- "Mycology", Susan Edwards Richmond (The Pedestal Magazine #30, Oct/Dec 2005)
- "Picasso's Rapture", Mike Allen (Strange Horizons, 6 Jun 2005)
- "River Watch", Bruce Boston (The Magazine of Speculative Poetry 7.1, Winter 2004/2005)
- "South", Marge Simon (Ilumen, Spring 2005)
- "Tiger Lily Madness", Cat Rambo (Strange Horizons, 14 Nov 2005)
- "The Tin Men", Kendall Evans & David C. Kopaska-Merkel (The Magazine of Speculative Poetry 7.1, Winter 2004/2005)
