Taking the Moon in Your Hands

THE MOON IN YOUR HANDS
—H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)

If you take the moon in your hands
and turn it round
(heavy, slightly tarnished platter)
you're there;

if you pull dry sea-weed from the sand
and turn it round
and wonder at the underside's bright amber,
your eyes

look out as they did here,
(you don't remember)
when my soul turned round,

perceiving the other-side of everything,
mullein-leaf, dogwood-leaf, moth-wing
and dandelion-seed under the ground.

_____________________


Tonight it's Fourth Friday Poetry at the Art Foundry Gallery, 1021 R St., Sac., 8 pm. Info: www.breitpoet.com/foundry.html. Refreshments available; $5 contribution requested.

Tomorrow (9/24), 12-5 pm, if you're in the mood to travel to Berkeley, join National Book Critics Circle Award-winning poet and former US Poet Laureate Robert Hass and various musicians, artists, and environmentalists as they celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival at an exciting new location: the Valley Life Sciences lawn, University of California, Berkeley campus, just inside the west entrance off of Oxford Street between University Avenue and Center Street. This lush, grassy spot overlooks Strawberry Creek, and is one block east of downtown Berkeley BART. Free. Wheel chair accessible; sign language interpreted. Also featured: Brenda Hillman, Robert Hass, Kay Ryan, Joanne Kyger, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Kamau Daaood.

Tomorrow and Sunday (9/24-25), Sac. Poetry Center will have a booth promoting poetry at the Reading Celebration at Fairytale Town, 10-4 pm: Local authors, illustrators, theatre performances, book-making and other crafts, and a children's book exchange. Admission is $4; free for kids 2 and under or park members. (Also free if you bring a new/gently used children's book.) Speaking of which—don't forget the looming deadline for SNAKELETS: OCTOBER 1 (a week from this Saturday). Send poems from kids 0-12 to kathykieth@hotmail.com ASAP.

A caveat about Fairy Tale Town, though: If you read the article in the Sac Bee Metro section today, you heard about the City policy that adults cannot enter Fairy Tale Town without a child. This is supposedly to keep "predators" (that unfortunate term) from hanging out there. I made some phone calls today but couldn't find out whether this policy has been lifted for the Reading Celebration, so go out there at your own risk. Unfortunately, if this policy is upheld this weekend, the Celebration will be unavailable to childless teachers, poets, myself... Please let me know if you hear otherwise.

Also tomorrow (9/24), rattlechappers debee loyd and Karen Baker will read at the Mistlin Art Gallery (Home of the Central California Art Association), 1015 J St, Modesto, 4pm. Open Mic, too.

And if that's not enough, the circus (though politically incorrect) is in town.


EVADNE
—H.D.

I first tasted under Apollo's lips,
love and love sweetness,
I, Evadne;
my hair is made of crisp violets
or hyacinth which the wind combs back
across some rock shelf;
I, Evadne,
was mate of the god of light.

His hair was crisp to my mouth,
as the flower of the crocus,
across my cheek,
cool as the silver-cress
on Erotos bank;
between my chin and throat,
his mouth slipped over and over.

Still between my arm and shoulder,
I feel the brush of his hair,
and my hands keep the gold they took
as they wandered over and over,
that great arm-full of yellow flowers.

_______________________

[Is it just me, or is it hot in here?]


SIGIL
—H.D.

Now let the cycle sweep us here and there,
we will not struggle;
somewhere,
under a forest-ledge,
a wild white pear
will blossom;

somewhere,
under an edge of rock,
a sea will open;
slice of the tide-shelf
will show in coral, yourself,
in conch-shell,
myself;

somewhere,
over a field-hedge,
a wild bird
will lift up wild, wild throat,
and that song, heard,
will stifle out this note.

_________________________

—Medusa (Do—? You out there?)

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.