—Joyce Odam, Sacramento
Tonight the silences converge and blend.
What is left of summer now? The days
are long and gold, the colors hum all night.
I want to tread the musics that I hear,
surrender like a dancer made of snow . . .
It’s funny that I just now think of snow;
the way it falls as nothing I can hear,
although I listened to it once all night . . .
the way it folded down around the days . . .
but this is how things separate and blend—
how one thing is another—how I blend
the farthest with the nearest of my days—
all shifted and unsorted—how this night
disturbs me with the ghosts that gather here,
the ones of shadow and the ones of snow.
Inside the night there is a dream of snow
as perfect as the silence that I hear,
and in that dream another dreaming night
helps gather all the old and newest days
and melts them down together till they blend.
_____________________
Thanks, Joyce! Those of you who know I'm moving to Pollock Pines know that snow is very much on my mind these days. So we're starting a series of snow poems, including some that appear in the current Rattlesnake Review, available now for free at The Book Collector (contributors and subscribers will get theirs next week).
This weekend:
•••Friday (12/15), 7:30 PM: Hope & Humor & Unsafe Topics (A Poetry Reading by Luke Warm Water) will be presented by Los Escritores Del Nuevo Sol at La Raza Galeria Posada (LRGP), 1024 22nd Street, Sac. American Indian Poet Luke Warm Water, an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, was born and raised in Rapid City, South Dakota. Many of his poems contain unsafe topics; they have perspectives of racial issues past and present, along with adult themes and content. But his poems also have a sense of hope and a thread of humor—often dark humor. Since 2000, Luke has featured at poetry venues throughout the U.S. and in Europe. He also won several Poetry Slams from Oregon to Germany. Recent publication credits include: Drumvoices Revue, Cold Mountain Revue and Red Ink. In 2005, Luke released his latest collection of poems, entitled On Indian Time, along with his animated short film, Iktomi And The Food Stamp Incident. Luke is an activist for Indigenous people's rights, especially in the cause to help end the unjust incarceration of American Indian activist Leonard Peltier. His latest book and short film (on DVD) will be available for sale. Also, information brochures will be available on Leonard Peltier. This reading is sponsored by Writers of the New Sun / Escritores del Nuevo Sol. a writing group founded in 1993. Its philosophy is similar to the philosophy of LRGP, which serves to foster, preserve and present the best of Chicano/Latino and Native American culture. Info at www.escritoresdelnuevosol.com
•••Friday (12/15), 7 PM: Our House Poetry Series features Mary Field and Taylor Graham. Open mic follows. Our House Gallery & Framing is located at 4510 Post St. in El Dorado Hills Town Center; take the Latrobe Road exit south and turn east into the shopping center. There is no charge.
•••Bob Stanley, President of Sacramento Poetry Center, writes: Friday, December 15 is our day to wrap presents for customers and garner donations at Barnes and Noble (Sunrise), 9 AM-11 PM. We are looking for volunteers to spend a few hours wrapping. (This is different from “rapping,” which used to mean talking intently with others, but now has a more rhythmic connotation.) Brad Buchanan is keeping track of who will be there when—probably afternoon and evening will be the busiest times—so please let him know what you can do. If you have questions, you can contact Brad at buchanan@saclink.csus.edu. Please help if you can, and bring a friend!
•••Saturday (12/16), 7-9 PM: Underground Poetry Series presents Mario Ellis Hill, Jamie Kilstein, Born 2B Poets and Bloom Beloved, plus open mic. Underground Books, 2814 35th St. (off Broadway), $3.
•••Sacramento Poetry Center will have no readings for the rest of December, or on January 1. The reading series will resume on January 8.
And a couple of deadlines TODAY:
•••Deadline is 12/15 for this year’s Sacramento Poetry Center’s Poetry Contest; judge will be Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. First prize $100, second prize $50, third prize $25, ten honorable mentions ($10 gift certificates from Barnes & Noble). Entry fee $3 per poem. Send your poems to SPC 2006 contest, 1719 25th Street, Sacramento, CA 95816. Winners will be notified in January, featured in Poetry Now, and invited to read at a special reading at SPC. Please submit one anonymous copy of each poem along with a cover sheet listing titles, first lines and contact information.
•••Friday (12/15) is also the next deadline for Song of the San Joaquin, a quarterly publication of the Poets of the San Joaquin chapter of the Calif. Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc. Song of the San Joaquin accepts submissions of poetry having to do with life in the San Joaquin Valley of California. This area is defined geographically as the region from Fresno to Stockton, and from the foothills on the west to those on the east. Send typed manuscripts to: Cleo Griffith, Editor, Song of the San Joaquin, PO Box 1161, Modesto, CA 95353-1161. Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for return of unused poems and/or notification of acceptance. Be sure your return envelopes have the right amount of postage. Notification time may range from three weeks to three months. Send up to three poems per issue, name and contact information on each poem. E-mail submissions accepted. Please send a three to five line bio. For more information e-mail ssjq03psj@yahoo.com. For samples of poetry from previous issues: www.ChaparralPoets.org/SSJarchives.html. Photographs and art-work may be submitted for consideration for use on the cover, but should be identified as valley scenes. Sample copies of past issues may be obtained for $4.50. Beginning with the Winter Issue 2006, Vol. III, No. 1 a single issue will be $5.00, the annual subscription $18. Send to address above. Make checks out to Song of the San Joaquin.
_______________________
THE SNOW AS PERFECT SNOW
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
I’ve never known the snow as perfect snow.
It looms too steep, a summit shock of ice
blurred driveby in the window of our car,
or purls downhill unseen too sheer below,
identity dissolved, a shivering witness
protected by running somewhere new-named and far.
But every so often we stop. A snow-oasis!
Diamantine, near-iceless white… translucent
dust heap only the bluest shadows tint…
slope’s shoulder pad, satin stitched by osmosis
under the skin. We dub this mound Mount Play.
Then horse around, scuff up embankment skirts,
stomp roadside rime. Each fishstick finger smarts,
stung crushing out ice-weaponry, fisting blades.
_______________________
GETTING LOST AND LOVING IT
—Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos
The practical and worldly person waits for
the snowstorm to stop, before shoveling his
front walk. But here, lured by the light
within snow, is the bedraggled poet, with
make-shift shovel, who plunges into the
deep woods downslope, full of windfalls,
happy accidents… He tosses each spadeful,
not to one side or the other, to make a
careful path, but right over his shoulder,
obliterating his own tracks. He looks back
a moment, happy to be lost again. The fat
flakes are coming faster now, and he is a
small dark shape, rapidly turning grey,
fading into the blizzard of white winged words…
_______________________
—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.)
