O You Tall Game (& Po-Events 7/10-16)

TRIPLE
—Rhony Bhopla, Sacramento

Our eyes met just for a moment
the triple lines
between our foreheads
like white chalk on Hindu
dieties.

Your marble look, projecting
from cones inner colors of
calm
that infinite feeling while we
suffer, speaking
only to those who notice
our loud unspoken will.

______________________

Thanks, Rhony! Rhony Bhopla will be reading at Urban Voices, South Natoma Library in Sacramento, on July 19, along with rattlechapper Song Kowbell. Rhony is the author of littlesnake broadside #24: Tulip Stem. Pick one up free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento.

This Week's Poetry Events:

•••Tonight, (Monday 7/10), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Brian Tso Jones at SPC/HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sac. Info: 451-5569. Free. Open Mic.

•••Wed. (7/12), 9 PM: The Mahogany Urban Poetry Series is hosted by Khiry Malik and Rock Bottom at Sweet Fingers Jamaican Restaurant, 1704 Broadway, Sac., $5. Info: 916-492-9336.

•••Thursday (7/13), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged presents Michael Halfhill's poetry and sacred chants. Open mic before/after. Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sac. Info: 441-3931 or www.lunascafe.com. Free.

•••Continuing Friday thru Sunday (7/14-16) at Sacramento Poetry Center's neighbor, California Stage: Fastened to a Dying Animal: Eros, revelation & the life of the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats, a world premiere written and performed by local dramaturgist Rick Foster. California Stage is a non-profit professional theatre company dedicated to supporting and encouraging arts created by local artists for local audiences; it’s located right across the parking lot from SPC, at 1723 25th St. (25th & R), Sac. Runs through Sunday, July 23: Fridays and Sat. at 8 PM, Sunday at 2 PM. Reservations: 916-451-5822. For more info on Cal. Stage and on Rick Foster, check out www.calstage.org.

•••Saturday (7/15), The Underground Poetry Series features Twa'Lea Randolph and the Black Men Expressing Tour (on love, sex & relationships) plus open mic. Underground Books, 2814 35th St. (35th & Broadway), Sac., 7-9 PM. $3. Hosted by La-Rue'. If you would like to be a featured poet at future events, please contact Terry Moore at 916-455-POET.

•••Saturday (7/15) is also the last day to sign up for this year’s Poetry Marathon (hosted by Java City and B.L. Kennedy), which will start Friday, July 28 at noon and end on Monday, July 31 at 1 PM. Each poet will read for approximately 30 minutes, with 15-minute open-mike readings from community members who sign up in advance. Those who want to participate in the open-mic readings can sign up (and should do so NOW) by calling 916-452-5493 before July 15, or until all spots are taken. (Bari tells us that the time slots are almost all filled!)

More Goodies:

•••On Friday, July 21, at 7:30 PM, Robert Hass, Harryette Mullen, Sharon Olds, C.D. Wright, and Dean Young will read their poetry in the Starr King Room at the First Unitarian Universalist Center of San Francisco (1187 Franklin Street at Geary). This benefit reading will raise money for the Poetry Scholarship Fund at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Books donated by the poets and their publishers will be available for purchase before and after the reading, and the poets will be available to sign books after the reading. BUY TICKETS NOW: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4297. (Please note: they will not be taking ticket reservations this year. Tickets are available for advance purchase now, and if they don't sell out, there will be tickets available at the door.) Info: www.squawvalleywriters.org/reading_events.htm or benefit@squawvalleywriters.org

•••Sutterwriters will begin four new six-week writing workshops the week of July 17. Participants can sign up for Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, meeting at a variety of times. All workshops will be held at the Sutter Cancer Center, 28th & L Sts., Sac. $10 donation for six sessions. Info: 916-454-6802, or spannc@sutterhealth.org.

•••Quercus Review Poetry Series Annual Book Award for 2006 will get you $500 and 50 books! Deadline to submit your manuscript: August 1st, 2006. Send submissions to Quercus Review Press, MJC English Dept., 435 College Ave, Modesto, CA 95350. For complete guidelines and/or to review past winners: http://www.quercusreview.com/index.html. The Quercus folks say: Open to all poets, with or without previous book publication. New and emerging writers are especially invited to submit. No restrictions on content, style or subject matter. We are simply looking for the best poetry we can find.

_______________________

SAD STEPS
—Philip Larkin

Groping back to bed after a piss
I part thick curtains, and am startled by
The rapid clouds, the moon's cleanliness.

Four o'clock: wedged-shadowed gardens lie
Under a cavernous, a wind-picked sky.
There's something laughable about this,

The way the moon dashes through clouds that blow
Loosely as cannon-smoke to stand apart
(Stone-coloured light sharpening the roofs below)

High and preposterous and separate—
Lozenge of love! Medallion of art!
O wolves of memory! Immensements! No,

One shivers slightly, looking up there.
The hardness and the brightness and the plain
Far-reaching singleness of that wide stare

Is a reminder of the strength and pain
Of being young; that it can't come again,
But is for others undiminished somewhere.

________________________

AGE
—Philip Larkin

My age fallen away like white swaddling
Floats in the middle distance, becomes
An inhabited cloud. I bend closer, discern
A lighted tenement scuttling with voices.
O you tall game I tired myself with joining!
Now I wade through you like knee-level weeds,

And they attend me, dear translucent bergs:
Silence and space. By now so much has flown
From the nest here of my head that I needs must turn
To know what prints I leave, whether of feet,
Or spoor of pads, or a bird's adept splay.

_______________________

—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.)