Moonstruck (& Po-Events 5/1-7)

XXXV. "The moonlight behind the tall branches"
—Fernando Pessoa

The moonlight behind the tall branches
The poets all say is more
Than the moonlight behind the tall branches.

But for me, who do not know what I think—
What the moonlight behind the tall branches
Is, beyond its being
The moonlight behind the tall branches,
Is its not being more
Than the moonlight behind the tall branches.

_______________________

But as Pessoa says, poets all say the moon behind the tall branches is so, so much more. Send Medusa one of your poems about the moon before midnight on Friday, May 5, and receive a copy of Todd Cirillo's new rattlechap, Everybody Knows the Dice are Loaded. This is a sneak peek, because the book hasn't even been released yet! Todd Cirillo and Song Kowbell (Lick Your Wounds and Want Again) will be officially releasing their chapbooks on Wednesday, May 10 at The Book Collector, 7:30 pm.

A wee note about submissions to Medusa: this blogsite is the only Snake publication that accepts previously-published work, but it is very important that we credit the previous publisher. So please let us know where your lovely poems first appeared! To ignore the poem's previous success(es) is a huge disservice to the perspicacious editor/publisher who first discovered it.

Rattlechapper (and Interviewer-in-Residence) JoAnn Anglin writes: I am taking the class at Cache Creek Nature Preserve. At [the last] meeting, we were warned to be careful to stay on the paths, as the staff was seeing instances of rattlers out sunning and procreating. Of course, we all went out hoping to see some of this, but no luck! Maybe next week. Yes, JoAnn, tis the season of Rattler procreation, as May will bring two issues of VYPER, one each of Snakelets and Rattlesnake Review, a broadside by Rhony Bhopla, and chapbooks from Todd Cirillo and Song Kowbell. By May 31, I'm gonna need a cigarette...

B.L. Kennedy and Bill Pieper have put together a Sacramento Literary History Tour, complete with printed map (and, yes, an actual tour that ends with a reading) for the Sacramento State College of Continuing Education. See yesterday's Sacramento Bee Metro section for an article and picture of the first of these tours; further ones are planned for May 10 and Sept. 23. Info: 916-278-4433. B.L. Kennedy will also be releasing his latest rattlechap, Setich Manor Poems, on June 14.

Robbie Grossklaus, Poetry Now editor, is looking for help with the Sacramento Poetry Center's monthly publication that means so much to NorCal poets. If you think you can pitch in, contact him at dphunkt@mac.com. "Help" means anything from typing to set-up, to the calendar, to assembly and mailing.

Here follows this week's events: let me know about additions/corrections/embellishments (I suspect there are more events; I just haven't heard about 'em yet):

•••MAYDAY! Poems needed by TODAY for Snakelets, the journal of poetry from kids 0-12, and for VYPER, for ages 13-19. Send 'em to kathykieth@hotmail.com.

•••Also today (5/1): Gail Entrekin will be reading at the Sacramento Poetry Center, HQ (25th & R Sts., Sac.), 7:30 pm.

•••Thursday (5/4): Poetry Unplugged at Luna's, 1414 16th St., Sac., 8 pm.

•••Also Thurs. (5/4), Rattlechappers Susan Kelly-DeWitt and Danyen Powell will read in San Francisco at the Main Library (Larkin St.) with Bei Dao and Ilya Kominsky, 6 pm.

•••Also Thursday (5/4): Prize-winning poet, translator, and essayist Jane Hirshfield will read from 7-8:30 p.m. as part of Sutter’s Literature, Art, and Medicine Program (LAMP) Author Series. She will answer questions and sign books as part of the reading on the first floor of the Sutter Cancer Center, 2800 L St., Sacramento. The program is free and open to all. LAMP participants are familiar with her work: Hirshfield’s poems, “Optimism” and “The Poet” are included in LAMP’s first anthology, Poet Healer, published in October 2004 and used as writing prompts in the weekly Sutterwriters program. What might be most relevant to women and members of the Sacramento nursing community is Hirshfield's work as a translator of lost or forgotten writings by women. Hirshfield’s collection, Women in Praise of the Sacred: Forty-Three Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, spans the centuries from 2300 B.C. to the early 1900s and includes the work of 70 female poets from many cultures, spiritual traditions, and social classes. Info: Chip Spann, Director, LAMP, 916-454-6802, or spannc@sutterhealth.org

•••Saturday (5/6) there will be a Think Postcard workshop at the Center for Contemporary Art on 1519 19th St., Sac., 3 pm. Surely you know by now what this project is, but for info, check www.sacculture.com or 916-566-3986.

•••Sunday (5/7): Families, couples, individuals—all are welcome this coming Sunday at 6 pm to create artistic postcards at the last PoemSpirits gathering until October. The current Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor is the feature, followed by this fun creative activity—one of two dozen workshops being held in April, May and June as part of the mail-art project, Think Postcards. (More info on this project can be found at http://www.sacculture.com/grants_poet.htm,website of the Sacramento Arts Commission.) PoemSpirits will provide postcards, stamps and other materials and tools; you are invited to bring personal mementos, lists, scraps, found items, etc., as you wish, to add to your creation. They will meet in the Lounge/Foyer of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento, 2425 Sierra Blvd., Sac. (2 blocks north of Fair Oaks Blvd, between Howe and Fulton Avenues). No fee. Snacks available. All welcome. Info: Tom Goff or Nora Staklis, 916-481-3312; or JoAnn Anglin, 916-451-1372.

•••And every day this week, there's the SPCA Book Sale to honor its 40th Anniversary: more than 10,000 new and used books at Marketplace at Birdcage, next to Longs Drugs in Citrus Heights. Runs through Sunday, May 7: 10 am-8 pm weekdays and Saturday, 11-6 Sunday.

_______________________

#31 (from Astrophel and Stella)
—Sir Philip Sidney

With how sad steps, O Moon! thou climb'st the skies!
How silently, and with how wan a face!
What may it be, that even in heavenly place
That busy archer his sharp arrows tries?
Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes
Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case;
I read it in thy looks; thy languish'd grace,
To me that feel the like, thy state descries.
Then, even of fellowship, O Moon, tell me,
Is constant love deem'd there but want of wit?
Are beautires there as porud as here they be?
Do they above love to be loved, and yet
Those lovers scorn whom that love doth possess?
Do they call virtue there ungratefulness?

________________________

MOON, FLOWERS, MAN
—Su Tung P'o

I raise my cup and invite
The moon to come down from the
Sky. I hope she will accept
Me. I raise my cup and ask
The branches, heavy with flowers,
To drink with me. I wish them
Long life and promise never
To pick them. In company
With the moon and the flowers,
I get drunk, and none of us
Every worries about good
Or bad. How many people
Can comprehend our joy? I
Have wine and moon and flowers.
Who else do I want for drinking companions?

(Translated by Kenneth Rexroth. Su Tung P'o lived between 1037-1101, but check out those enjambments!)

—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.)