Cowboys, Earthquakes, & More Peacocks

NEUTRINO
—David Humphreys, Stockton

They order different flavors at different times,
Chocolate their favorite now but sometimes it's
Vanilla with hot fudge and nuts, rarely strawberry

With sprinkles. It's not the hot summer sun shining
Down on A Sunday On La Grande Jatte today that
Will solve any of the questions spilled out by Bahcall's

Equations. A tank of chlorine and argon atoms will later
Suggest possible mechanisms but that would all be in
A gallery photo voltaic dance of uncertain electrons,

Oscillating background of ghost particles heavy muon to tau
As you remember bubble chamber tao in another era's bump
And grind reminiscent of peacock can-can at the Moulin Rouge.

____________________

Thanks for the peacock poem, David! David Humphreys heads Small Poets Press, and he will be hosting a reading this Sunday (3/12) at Barnes & Noble, Weberstown Mall on Pacific Avenue in Stockton, 7 pm. Featured readers will be Margaret Ellis Hill and myself.

Send me a peacock poem before this coming Friday night (3/10) at midnight, and I'll send you Frank Taber's new chapbook, Northwind on I-5, or any other rattlechap that suits your fancy. Previously-published poems are A-OK; just lemme know who and when.

Speaking of Taber, his reading was hitch-less last night, with his melodious renderings of his fine poetry. His book is now available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Also released was the wee Snakelets, and Judy Halebsky blew in, too, fresh from her trip to Germany, to read from her new littlesnake broadside, Almost Turning Over, which is now at The Book Collector, as well.

Frank Taber will be reading for the Sacramento Poetry Center on Monday, April 17, which is one day before the anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake. He's looking for earthquake poems—either your own or somebody else's—to read that night. Send them to FTaber@aol.com. His reading will be at HQ, 25th & R Sts., Sac.; more about that later.

Tonight (Thursday, 3/9), you get your choice of Cowboy Poet/Radio Personality/Humorist/Raconteur Baxter Black, presented by California Lecture Series at the Crest Theater, 1013 K St., Sacramento, 7:30 pm (tickets $23). Info: 916-442-7378 or... Poetry Unplugged presents frank andrick, Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, 8 pm, free. Info: 916-441-3931. Frank will be handing out his free littlesnake broadside, Aurelia Occultica Lamantia—AOL.

By the way, if Cowboy Poetry is when you're yennin' for, you could always brave the weather and head on up to Carson City, NV this weekend for their annual Cowboy Jubilee and Poetry Festival, which will feature music, poetry and humor by artists such as Sourdough Slim and Kent Rollins. More info in today's Sacramento Bee (Metro section, "Day Trip") or call 775-883-1532. Sponsored by the Carson Tahoe Regional Healthcare Auxiliary.

At the read-around last night, after Frank's feature, Laverne Frith read Wallace Stevens' "Domination of Black"—which is, of course, a might-ee-fine peacock poem:


DOMINATION OF BLACK
—Wallace Stevens

At night, by the fire,
The colors of the bushes
And of the fallen leaves,
Repeating themselves,
Turned in the room,
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
Yes: but the color of the heavy hemlocks
Came stridiing.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

The colors of their tails
Were like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
In the twilight wind.
They swept over the room,
Just as they flew from the boughs of the hemlocks
Down to the ground.
I heard them cry—the peacocks.
Was it a cry against the twilight
Or against the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
Turning as the flames
Turned in the fire,
Turning as the tails of the peacocks
Turned in the loud fire,
Loud as the hemlocks
Full of the cry of the peacocks?
Or was it a cry against the hemlocks?

Out of the window,
I saw how the planets gathered
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
I saw how the night came,
Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks
I felt afraid.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

_____________________

Thanks, Laverne, for reminding me of this fine, fine poem.

—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.)