Picking My Teeth

REMINDERS AT THE READINGS
—Ann Menebroker, Sacramento

Never use words you don't understand
or can't pronounce. Don't steal
lines because there's always someone
who remembers, intimately, who
wrote it. Don't mumble your poem
into the microphone, or look down
at your feet, that were never capable
of writing a sonnet or even free verse.
Look out at your audience
as if it was your lover, and feel
the passion flying from you
to them. Why is everything
finally reduced to sex? Because
it causes life and response. Would
you come to hear me read
if I said I was going to yodel
Beethoven's Fifth while I picked
my teeth and ate cold cereal? Well,
probably. It's too crazy to
miss. I'd come, too.

__________________

Last night's reading in Grass Valley was heartily received, with a welcoming crowd (including some Sacramento folks), genial hosts, and a tidy little theater. Readings are the town halls of poets, the community potlatch, the gathering of the clan. Without them, our voices stay alone in our rooms. Come to one here and there when you can, and let Medusa know where and when readings are being held: kathykieth@hotmail.com.

Tonight (Fri., 2/17), Our House Defines Art sponsors a poetry reading at the Our House Art and Framing Gallery in the El Dorado Town Center of El Dorado Hills, featuring Brigit Truex, Jim Nolt & Moira Magneson. Raffle, refreshments, open mic. 7 pm.

This Saturday (2/18), catch Candlelight Open Mic Love Poem Night at Underground Books, 2814 35th St. (35th and Broadway), Sac., 7-9 pm, $3. Readers will be Laketa Stanley, Brian Randle, He Spit Fire. Info: 916-737-3333.

Also Saturday: Valentine erotique reading and art show with Molly Fisk, Steve Sanfield, others, North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center, 17894 Tyler Foote Rd., Nevada City. $8, $10. Info: 530-265-2826.

Mother Poetry Contest: "Woman-Stirred" at http://woman-stirred.blogspot.com is having a poetry contest! Email your poems on the subject "mother" to womanstirred@earthlink.net. Include your name and full postal address. (Do not send attachments. Emails with attachments will be deleted unread.) No entry fee! Open to everyone! Deadline is March 1, 2006. Winner will be announced on Mother's Day, 2006. Winner's poem will be published on Woman-Stirred (including your profile—bio, photo, links—if you wish). Your poem and profile will remain online indefinitely. Other prizes include: Sinister Wisdom #65 on Lesbian Mothers and Grandmothers; Jan Steckel's poetry chapbook, The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006); a custom-written Woman-Stirred Sonnet by Mary Meriam; and Julie R. Enszer's popular broadsheet "When We Were Feminists".

And don't forget that Tiger’s Eye: A Journal of Poetry has a contest deadline of February 28. Guidelines: tigerseyejournal.com; you can click on the link to the right of this column. Mail entries (3 poems, $10, SASE) to Tiger’s Eye, POBox 2935, Eugene, OR 97402.



THE SIERRAS
—Ann Menebroker, Sacramento

69 degrees in Jackson
rain coming to the valley
the buried no longer
care about weather

dampness in history
and from the sky
a smell of too much age
and piss on the walls

dogs bark and drunks
sing down the wooden
sidewalks, and old dreams

lay down like weary pioneers
no one is asking for much
just to be remembered.

________________

Thanks, AnnieMene!

—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. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)