Like a Distillate of Minutes

LOOKING THROUGH GLASS
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

A landscape with a dozen crows
outside the window where he’ll wait
for breakfast – it’s just one of those
old changeless Mondays. Soon or late

the cook will come, unlatch the gate.
A landscape with a dozen crows
will rise up, settle. There’s a crate
of tubers and a shriveled rose

set down beside a garden hose,
one rock dove mourning for its mate.
The landscape with a dozen crows
has changed by just a feather’s weight,

as change comes like a distillate
of minutes unobserved. Suppose
his window view looks out on fate,
this landscape with a dozen crows.

_______________________

Thanks, TG, for the "change" poem. (I'm a sucker for poems about crows.) Taylor Graham is first out of the box to respond to the current give-away, and a copy of Jane Blue's new rattlechap is winging its way toward her. Send me a poem about change (seasons, moving, or otherwise) and I'll send you Jane's wonderful new chapbook, Turf Daisies and Dandelions. Or Sharyn Stever's equally-wonderful chap, Heron's Run. Or something else, if you have those two. Send your change poem to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 1647, Orangevale, CA 95662 by midnight next Tuesday, November 14. Or send it in a bunch with your submission for Rattlesnake Review (deadline is next Wednesday!); just mark which is which. All "change" poems you send will be posted on Medusa.


Ginsberg photo exhibit:

Rattlechapper Victoria Dalkey, Art Reviewer for The Sacramento Bee, has a review in today's Ticket section of the current exhibit of Allen Ginsberg's photographs at the Crocker Art Museum. Check it out—both the review and the exhibit: Allen Ginsberg: Beat Generation Photographer. That's at the Crocker, 216 O St., Sac., 10 AM-5 PM Tues.-Sun, open Thursday evenings 'til 9 PM. Exhibit goes through Jan. 7 (closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day). Tickets $3-$6. Info: 916-264-5423 or www.crockerartmuseum.org.


Warm up yer flivver; it's a busy weekend!

•••Sat. (11/11), 4 PM: Manzanita writers and friends of Manzanita writers (all editions) are invited to read their work at Hein & Co. book store in Jackson, located off of Hwy 49 in downtown Jackson on Main Street. (It's across from the cooking store.) Hein & Co. is one of the treasures of the Mother Lode. A great bookstore! Manzanita Editor Monika Rose says: bring your books and maybe Wolf will sell them for you on consignment. Info: 209-754-0577 (Monika) or 209-223-9076 (Wolf Hein).

•••Sacramento Poet and Rattlechapper Susan Kelly-DeWitt and her son, Michael Kelly-DeWitt, will have their art in a one-night show coming up this Saturday, November 11. The show will be held at Acacia Hall, 2354 Forrest, Sac. (at the corner of Forrest and Del Paso Boulevard) from 5-8 PM.

•••Also Saturday (11/11), 3-5 PM: Patricity's In Spirit & Truth Series features Big Eazi E (Born 2 B Poet) and poetess-singer Mouthpiece, plus open mic. Note new location: 61 Yuence Smoked BBQ & Grill, 9657 Folsom Blvd., Sac. (off Bradshaw). Free. Info: 916-361-2014.

•••Also Saturday, 8 PM: Poems-For-All Second Saturday Series presents Stephen Kessler at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac. Stephen Kessler is a poet, prose writer, translator and editor whose most recent books include Written in Water: The Prose Poems of Luis Cernuda (translation, City Lights), winner of 2004 Lambda Literary Award; Tell It to the Rabbis and After Modigliani (poems, Creative Arts); Save Twilight: Selected Poems of Julio Cortazar (translation, City Lights); Aphorisms by César Vallejo (translation, Green Integer); and major contributions to The Essential Neruda (City Lights) and the Selected Poems of Jorge Luis Borges (Penguin). His essays, criticism and journalism have appeared widely in the independent and alternative press of Northern California, especially Poetry Flash, where he is a contributing editor. He is also the editor of The Redwood Coast Review. Free. Info: 916-442-9295.

•••Also Saturday, 10 AM-4 PM: Writers’ Forum is proud to present the 3rd Annual Northern California Authors Fair, “A Salute to Veterans”, at the Mount Shasta Mall in Redding. Published authors in Northern California and the public are invited to this free event. Meet authors. Talk about writing. Books will be available for sale and author-signings. Enter the free Opening Sentence Writing Contest (four age categories, children to seniors; prizes for 1st Place Winners). Last year, over 50 authors participated in the Fair, covering many genres. Info: 530-241-1045 or visit online at www.writers-forum.net

•••Also Saturday, 2 PM: Reading from the poetry quarterly, Song of the San Joaquin, in the McHenry Museum, 1402 "I" Street, Modesto. Poets will read their own work. Light refreshments will be served. Song of the San Joaquin is published by the Poets of the San Joaquin, a Modesto-based chapter of the California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc. Info: Cleo Griffith, 209-543-1776, cleor36@yahoo.com.

•••Sunday (11/12), 4-6 PM: Donald Sydney-Fryer will be performing from Clark Ashton Smith's Four Fables. The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac. Free.

•••Also Sunday (11/12), 3 PM: Cleo Fellers Kocol will be the featured reader the Lincoln Poets reading at McBean Perk, a coffee house in Lincoln at McBean Park Drive and A Street (427 A Street with a parking lot off A Street). Open mic to follow. Cleo is the poet featured in the current littlesnake broadside, Connections. Pick one up free at The Book Collector—or go to the reading; I'll betcha can get one from her—or SASE me and I'll send you one.

•••Also Sunday, 2:30-4:30 PM: Poets on the Ridge in Paradise, CA will hold their monthly open mic at Juice & Java, 7067 Skyway, Paradise. Info: 530-872-9633. Free; all ages are welcome to come read their poems.

•••Also Sunday, 7 PM: Poet's Corner in Stockton presents devin davis at Barnes & Noble in Weberstown Mall, Pacific Avenue and March Lane, Stockton.

•••And next Monday (11/13), Sacramento Poetry Center Board Members will be reading their own poetry; go to the monthly Board meeting with them at 5:45 PM at HQ, 25th & R Sts., Sac, and then stay for the reading at its special time, 7 PM. Bring your own poems to read, too. Oh, and word on the street is to bring along some wine and chocolate, just in case...

_______________________

Some more change poems:

ECLIPSE OF THE SUN
—Archilochus

Nothing will surprise me any more, nor be too wonderful
for belief, now that the lord upon Olympus, father Zeus,
dimmed the daylight and made darkness come upon us in the noon
and the sunshine. So limp terror has descended on mankind.
After this, men can believe in anything. They can expect
anything. Be not astonished any more, although you see
beasts of the dry land exchange with dolphins, and assume their place
in the watery pastures of the sea, and beasts who loved the hills
find the ocean's crashing waters sweeter than the bulk of land.

_______________________

SYMPTOM RECITAL
—Dorothy Parker

I do not like my state of mind;
I'm bitter, querulous, unkind.
I hate my legs, I hate my hands,
I do not yearn for lovelier lands.
I dread the dawn's recurrent light;
I hate to go to bed at night.
I snoot at simple, earnest folk.
I cannot take the gentlest joke.
I find no peace in paint or type.
My world is but a lot of tripe.
I'm disillusioned, empty-breasted.
For what I think, I'd be arrested.
I am not sick, I am not well.
My quondam dreams are shot to hell.
My soul is crushed, my spirit sore;
I do not like me any more.
I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse.
I ponder on the narrow house.
I shudder at the thought of men...
I'm due to fall in love again.

_______________________

EVERYTHING CHANGES
—Bertold Brecht

Everything changes. You can make
A fresh start with your final breath.
But what has happened has happened. And the water
You once poured into the wine cannot be
Drained off again.

What has happened has happened. The water
You once poured into the wine cannot be
Drained off again, but
Everything changes. You can make
A fresh start with your final breath.

_______________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry, photos and art, 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.)