The six finalists for the 2025 Best Poem Hugo are listed below, with links to each one, and my notes. I ranked Calypso number one and “Your Visiting Dragon” number two. I really enjoyed these two. I could easily have ranked them in the other order.
For the rest, poetry appreciation is so subjective that I can hardly say in the other cases why I liked them less. In addition, some of the poems felt to me as if they were about some specific thing, but since I could not, in any of these cases, identify the thing they were about, my evaluation is undoubtedly unfair.
Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead (Titan)
Calypso is a novella-length epic poem about the voyage of a Space Ark. I reviewed it separately here.
“Ever Noir” by Mari Ness (Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 16, July 2024)
“Ever Noir” is intriguing and I liked it. It was, however, one of those poems I mentioned above that seemed to be about something that I could not identify. Crudely, I would say it was about a noir detective recruited to investigate fairy tale crimes.
“Ever Noir” in Haven Spec Magazine
“there are no taxis for the dead” by Angela Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58)
This one, I am sorry to say, went right past me. I have no idea what it is about or what it means.
“there are no taxis for the dead” in Uncanny
“A War of Words” by Marie Brennan (Strange Horizons, September 2024)
Another one that I didn’t get, although I did, I think, understand something that I will hesitantly call the point of the poem — violence done by and to language.
“A War of Words” in Strange Horizons
“We Drink Lava” by Ai Jiang (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 56)
Another one that mostly flew past me. It feels like a poem by dragons celebrating being dragons.
“Your Visiting Dragon” by Devan Barlow (Strange Horizons, Fund Drive 2024)
This is an entirely delightful little poem about how to befriend dragons (smaller and more benign than those of “We Drink Lava”) if they show up at your hummingbird feeder or in your yard.