Shadows of Moonlight

HOMAGE
—Denise Levertov

To lay garlands at your feet
because you stand
dark in the light, or lucent
in the dark air of the mind's world
solitary in your empire of magic,
undiminished

and doors are slammed in your face
and stony faces pass you wideawake
and you sing
dreaming wideawake with stone eyes
undiminished

wreaths of hummingbird color
at your feet
and white, and dark leaves, shadows
of moonlight where you sit in sunlight
near the bright sea, listening

to the crash and sighing, crash
and sighing dance of the words.

________________________

ACTION
—Denise Levertov

I can lay down that history
I can lay down my glasses
I can lay down the imaginary lists
of what to forget and what must be
done. I can shake the sun
out of my eyes and lay everything down
on the hot sand, and cross
the whispering threshold and walk
right into the clear sea, and float there,
my long hair floating, and fishes
vanishing all around me. Deep water.
Little by little one comes to know
the limits and depths of power.

_______________________

Several ways to make yourself heard about the various troubles overseas:

Bay Area Writers and Musicians Hold Benefit for Lebanon and Palestine:

Bay Area writers and musicians are responding quickly to the escalations of attacks in Lebanon and Palestine with a benefit called Cease Fire at La Peña Cultural Center on Wednesday, August 9, 2006. They are hoping to raise funds for the victims and heighten awareness of the severity of the recent activities in the Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The evening’s performers include recent Before Columbus American Book Award Winner Matthew Shenoda, Pen Oakland Award Winner Elmaz Abinader, Deema Shehabi, Amir Chidiac and other writers are joined by jazz musicians MB Hanif and the Sound Voyagers, jazz artist Rita Lackey, composer Omar Khorsheed, jazz vocalist Sarine Balian and others. In addition the writers and musicians will collaborate in a new piece created by Abinader named Messages from the Siege, a montage of letters from Lebanon and Palestine, combined with voices, poetry and music. Cease Fire is being held at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley and, while a $10 donation is being requested at the door, everyone is welcome regardless of funds. The Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) is overseeing the event and hopes to raise several thousands of dollars for the victims of the invasions. Diem Jones, Director of VONA says, “As an arts organization that works with writers-of-color, we are compelled to step in and make this evening happen. Before we are stripped of our humanity completely our imperative is to act. And for VONA that means beating the drums with music and writing.” Info: Elmaz Abinader (Elmaz@earthlink.net) or Nadine Ghammache (Nadine@lapena.org), or 510-418-7535.

THE GIFT OF WORDS: Poetry for the Iraqi People:

Cynthia Bryant, Pleasanton Poet Laureate, challenges poets everywhere to write a poem for the Iraqi people, something that you want to express to their citizens. Send it to Pleasanton Poet Laureate, P. O. Box 520, Pleasanton, CA 94566 or e-mail it to PoetsLane@comcast.net. Please include your full name, area code and phone number, along with your e-mail address, if you have one. Anyone of any age can write a poem and submit it to be included in The Gift of Words: Poetry for the Iraqi People. Deadline: November 1, 2006. Poems will be translated in Arabic, put into a booklet and sent to Iraq. In addition, a celebration will be held December 3, 2006 at the Century House, Pleasanton, CA from 1pm-5pm, at which poems will be read, followed by a festive pot luck.

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.

Please:

- 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

___________________________

ONE A.M.
—Denise Levertov

The kitchen patio in snowy
moonlight. That
snowsilence, that
abandon to stillness.
The sawhorse, the concrete
washtub, snowblue. The washline
bowed under its snowfur!
Moon has silenced
the crickets, the summer frogs
hold their breath.
Summer night, summer night, standing
one-legged, a crane
in the snowmarsh, staring
at snowmoon!

_______________________

THE WHIRLWIND
—Denise Levertov

The doors keep rattling—I
stick poems between their teeth to
stop them. The brown dust
twirls up outside the window, off
the dead jicama field, scars the curtains,
spirals away to the dirty hollow
where the cesspools are, and the most ants,
and beyond—to the unfenced pasture land, where nothing
will get in its way for miles and it
can curtsey itself at last into
some arroyo. The doors
keep rattling—I'm
shivering, desperate for a poem
to stuff into their maws that will
silence them. I know what they want:
they want
in all their wooden strength
to fly off on the whirlwind into
the great nothingness.

________________________

—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.)