Dragon Food

SEE HOW SPRING OPENS
—Gerard Manley Hopkins

See how Spring opens with disabling cold,
And hunting winds and the long-lying snow.
Is it a wonder if the buds are slow?
Or where is strength to make the leaf unfold?
Chilling remembrance of my days of old
Afflicts no less, what yet I hope may blow,
That seed which the good sower once did sow,
So loading with obstruction that threshold

Which should ere now have led my feet to the field.
It is the waste done in unreticent youth
Which makes so small the promise of that yield
That I may win with late-learnt skill uncouth
From furrows of the poor and stinting weald.
Therefore how bitter, and learnt how late, the truth!

________________________

Today Hopkins would've been 162 years old. Exactly 100 years after he was born, Snakebuddie Judy Taylor Graham joined us; today is her birthday, too. (Well, now I've given away her age....) JTG sends us this birthday tribute to GMH:

COUNTING BIRDS
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

and with ah! bright wings. —Gerard Manley Hopkins

Brother Gerard, in this rainy California June
(could it be global warming?) your Windhover stays
low — Kestrel to us, “AMKE” in scientific code.
But today it’s flycatchers and bluebirds I record,
while the toil and trod of traffic goes by at 70,
blind windshields under sky. Such strange weather
all this year; what have we done? We’ve fenced
and lopped and leveled. Where will new birds fly?

I curse the thistles, and despair for birds, for
the land, the human race. Along this stock-wire
right-of-way, I’m leather-shod with gaitered legs.
A roadkill swallow lies among the littered cans.
I ask, how many sparrows has He seen fall? And
yet, here’s a feather nest with six warm eggs.

_______________________

Thanks, TG! The rest of us will find a small corner and a small moment today to read "The Windhover" and "Pied Beauty" and let all that word-music rock'n'roll over our ears.

Poetry-a-Rama:

The 72-hour Java City Poetry Marathon, which will feature poetry readings 24 hours a day for three days, starts today at noon (with opening ceremonies at 11) and runs 24 hours/day through Saturday and Sunday, ending at noon on Monday, July 31. Java City (18th & Capitol, Sac.). Info: 452-5493.

Worldwide Peace Project:

The Peace Library (and friends) write:

You are invited to join a peace project. Sit down for a moment and think about a peaceful world, what does that look like? What can we do to make changes? Where do we begin? Please take a little more time to write down your ideas.

This project is part of a worldwide Peace Day celebration. In 1983 the United Nations declared September 21 the International Day of Peace (www.internationaldayofpeace.org.) Peace Day gatherings are being planned all over the world in support of a single day of global cease-fire, and in the hope of a future without the violence of war.

The Peace Library (www.thepeacelibrary.org), based in San Luis Obispo, California, and ARTS Obispo, SLO County Arts Council are sponsoring an art installation in the new ARTS Space Obispo gallery in honor of this important day — September 21, 2006. The installation will be composed of your ideas in letter-form, creating an international chorus for peace.

Email this invitation to friends and family, including those in other countries. Ask them to invite their friends and families to join the project. It is our hope to create a forum for positive change, a dialogue shared by all who wish to be a part of a global movement for peace.

••• All letters received by September 7, 2006 will be included.
••• Write the letter in your own handwriting if possible; if not, typed is fine, or email thepeacelibrary@aol.com. No response is too short or too long.
••• Write the letter in your own language; part or all of it could be translated into English if you like.
••• Include in the letter the country of origin.
••• Send or email a picture of yourself and/or your family and friends
••• Use interesting paper, perhaps something commonly used in your community, and attractive stamps on the envelope.
••• Ask everyone you know to send a letter.
••• Send the letters to…

The Peace Library
17100 Walnut
Atascadero, California 93422

______________________

ANDROMEDA
—Gerard Manley Hopkins

Now Time's Andromeda on this rock rude,
With not her either beauty's equal or
Her injury's, looks off by both horns of shore,
Her flower, her piece of being, doomed dragon food.

Time past she has been attempted and pursued
By many blows and banes; but now hears roar
A wilder beast from West than all were, more
Rife in her wrongs, more lawless, and more lewd.

Her Perseus linger and leave her to her extremes?—
Pillowy air he treads a time and hangs
His thoughts on her, forsaken that she seems,

All while her patience, morselled into pangs,
Mounts; then to alight disarming, no one dreams,
With Gorgon's gear and barebill/thongs and fangs.

________________________

Happy Birthday, Gerry and Judy! What a great day to write a poem about peace!

—Medusa (and that other Gorgon, Time...)

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.)