Medusa's Kitchen: Basho, Anyone?

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Basho, Anyone?

Five from Matsuo Kinsaku (1644-94), who changed his name to Basho in honor of a tree given to him by a disciple:

On the dead limb
squats a crow—
autumn night.

***

Yellow rose petals
thunder—
a waterfall.

***

Winter downpour—
even the monkey
needs a raincoat.

***

Butterfly—
wings curve into
white poppy.

***

How quiet—
locust-shrill
pierces rock.

__________________

Snakebytes, the e-newsletter from Rattlesnake Press, will be coming out today and tomorrow. Two releases this week: littlesnake broadside #15 from Todd Cirillo (Another Heart Dancing in the Flames) and Rattlechap #17 from Ron Tranquilla (An Ocean-Front Hotel Room). (Don't forget Ron's reading Wednesday at The Book Collector, 7:30pm.) Snake 7 will "hit the stands" after Labor Day, as will littlesnake broadside #16 from Irene Lipshin. Good Lord—I better hang up here and get to work!

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets.

THE REST OF THE B-BOARD! Enter at your own risk; NorCal poetry is SMOKIN'!

Watch Medusa's UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS page on a daily basis for what cooks in NorCal poetry! (Like everything else, it keeps on changing...) Other sites to check for poetry news and area events include: •••www.facebook.com/sacpoetry.center

•••SPC's Community Calendar of Lit. Events: www.facebook.com/groups/SPCgroup/?notif_t=group_name_change&notif_id=1468146125061336

•••poetryindavis.com/archive/2016/10/2812

•••www.facebook.com/El-Dorado-Poetry-1237910429583182 for news about what's going on in El Dorado County poetry

•••sacramento365.com (go to Poetry & Literature under Performance)

•••Want to learn about some Bay Area events? Debralee Pagan (debralee@astoundnet) publishes an e-newsletter called "Strictly East" (Poetry Past the Caldecott Tunnel)—email her for a free subscription. See also www.poetryflash.org/.

Don't see your reading event listed on Medusa? That's probably because you didn't send it to us! It's such a shame to invite poets to read for you, and then fail to advertise them. So try to get your message out in a timely manner.

Online and otherwise—

Here are some journals and other publications that are local-ish (okay, there are some Bay Area ones in here, too). If we've left anybody out, let us know!

Plus, keep an eye on the college scene. Some of those journals accept submissions from non-students, though they usually have more limited (mostly annual) deadlines. Go to Medusa's Hot Links for Calaveras Station, Penumbra, Suisun Valley Review, Cosumnes River Journal, but be aware that college journals come and go in this time of tight funding.