Clown Wears Prada
Photo by Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Roseville
Photo by Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Roseville
My enormous city is full of night.
I leave my sleeping house to go—out.
These people think of me as daughter, wife,
But I can think of one thing only—night.
Mid-July. A breeze sweeps down the road.
Music from a window, barely heard.
From now til dawn the breeze blows hard
Between my fragile ribs into my heart.
Light in a window. A chime from a tower.
A plane-tree shadow. In my hand a flower.
These are my footsteps, which no one can hear.
This is my shadow, and I am not here.
Street lights are strings of golden beads.
In my mouth the taste of nighttime leaves.
Free me, all of you, from the day's claims
And understand. I am in your dreams.
—Marina Tsvetaeva
_______________________
I spent the weekend in the upper valley with several poets at Patricia Wellingham-Jones' house, including herself and Ellaraine Lockie, with visits from Steph Schaefer—whose stepfather, it turns out, was Jack Schaefer, who wrote the great Western novel (and later movie), Shane. Small world! Poet Sue Kowalewski and hubby, Ed, came by and described the opening of the new library in Redding: 2500 people lined up for two miles and handed 700 books down the line, moving them from the old building to the new one. Impressive community effort! The new library is, apparently, gorgeous, and represents much-improved funding, which allows it to stay open for reasonable hours seven days a week (the old one was only open 20 hours/week!).
Something else I was made aware of up there was a beautiful new book out of the University of Texas Press, Austin: What Wildness is This: Women Write About the Southwest, ed. by Susan Wittig Albert, Susan Hanson, Jan Epton Seale, and Paula Stallings Yost. This is a book of fine poetry from many, many women, including Patricia Wellingham-Jones. Check it out!
This week in poetry:
•••Tonight (Monday, 3/12), 7:30 PM, Sacramento Poetry Center, HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sac.: Indigo Moor invites you to the book release party and reading of Tap-Root, his first volume of poetry which is part of the Main Street Rag Editor's Select Poetry Series. Special guest Jennifer K. Sweeney will also read from her book, Salt Memory, which was winner of the 2006 Main Street Rag First Book Contest. Limited edition broadsides of each poet’s work will be available on a first-come basis. The reading is free to the public. Refreshments will be served. For complete details, sample poems, & bios, go to: http://www.indigomoor.com/Book%20Release.htm. Next Monday's reading will feature Stephen Yenser and Ricardo Sternberg.
•••Tuesday (3/13), 7 PM, 126 Voorhies Hall on the UC Davis campus: James Lee Jobe writes: María Meléndez has canvassed for political organizations and worked as a wildlife biology field assistant. In 2000 she was awarded an Artists-in-Communities grant from the California Arts Council to support her work as writer-in-residence at the UC Davis Arboretum, where she taught environmental poetry workshops for the public. I took one of her workshops; every damn thing I wrote there was published! She is a wonderful teacher. She has authored one chapbook of poetry, Base Pairs, and edited two anthologies, Nest of Freedom and Moon Won’t Leave Me Alone, and was assistant professor of English at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Currently she teaches creative writing and lit at USU in Utah, and has a new book out, How Long She'll Last in This World, University of Arizona press. What all that doesn't tell you is this: Maria Melendez is one of the nicest people ever to walk the planet. Being a brilliant poet is one thing; a lot of brilliant poets are also a complete horse's ass. Not Maria. Tuesday, March 13, at 7pm, you can hear her read. Please attend, and check my blog Saturday, 3/10 (jamesleejobe.livejournal.com, or click the link to the right of this column) for a large group of her poems. And Sandra MacPherson adds, Maria's previous chapbook was Base Pairs from Swan Scythe Press, which Maria co-founded. Maria Melendez and Thomas Heise (another graduate of the program, who read in the series earlier this year) were featured in a recent Poets and Writers Magazine article about first books of poems. This is great news for UCD, to see our graduates accomplishing such exciting work. We hope you'll make it to the reading.
•••Wednesday (3/14), 7:30 PM: March's rattlechap release from Rattlesnake Press will be Skin Stretched Around the Hollow by ex-Sacramentan-turned-Portlander Steve Williams at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac. Rumor has it that there will be some other Oregonians present. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s. Also released that night will be Ultrasound, a littlesnake broadside by Brad Buchanan [see poems today], and the latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (Lucky 13!). Maybe. If I get it done...
•••Thursday (3/15), 7:30 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series will present the poets Mikhail Branski, Gene Bloom and Barbara Noble. Co-host Bill Gainer says, For those concerned with political correctness, the content of language and the politeness of thought—be warned, these three writers test the limits, they are known for challenging the accepted, the use of adult content and the informality of personal expression. For those sensitive of heart and weak of spirit, these three may prove a fairly dangerous bunch! Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included. The show will be in Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Info: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384. See last Friday's post for bios of these poets.
•••Also Thursday (3/15), 8 PM: Join the folks at Poetry Unplugged (Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sac.) for a pre-St. Patrick's Day night, and feel free to bring Celtic Poetry and stories to share (anything from Northern Europe qualifies). Featured readers will be Celtic women Jeanine Stevens, Brigit Truex, Charlene Ungtad and Rebecca Morrison. Info: 209-727-5179 or www.lunascafe.com (916-441-3931). See last Friday's post for bios of these fine poets.
•••Friday (3/16), 7 PM: Brigit Truex will read again, this time with Manzanita Editor Monika Rose in El Dorado Hills at the Our House Gallery; take the Latrobe exit south and turn left into the shopping center. Brigit has a brand-new rattlechap available from Rattlesnake Press, called A Counterpane Without.
•••Friday (3/16), 7:30 PM: “An Honoring of The Artists / Los Artistas:
Featuring a Tribute to CoMadres Artistas”: Music, poems, verbal tributes—all will be used at La Raza Galería Posada, 1024 22nd St., Sac. to honor artists who have depicted, expressed, promoted and preserved the images of the lives and ideals of the Chicano/Latino community. Especially to be featured is the extraordinary group of women artists called CoMadres Artistas, who have worked together as an artistic cooperative for many years, and whose work will be on display at the Galería: Helen Villa, Irma Lerma Barbosa, Carmel Castillo, Laura Llano, and Mareia de Socorro. This event, the annual La Noche de los Viejitos /Night of the Elders, takes place each year at La Raza Galería Posada. The tribute is being arranged by the writers’ group, Writers of the New Sun/Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol. Admirers of all visual artists are also invited to come for the Open Mic and to share your memories, observations, and the inspiration of this creative and vital group, los Artistas / the Artists. Suggested donation $5, but no one denied for lack of $$. Info: 916-456-5323.
•••Friday (3/16) is also the deadline for Six Ft. Swells Press, which is now accepting poetry submissions for the next chapbook in their famed Cheap Shots Poetry Series. This will be a themed issue featuring a collection of the best poetry that reflects those goodtime evenings of drinking, music, and streetlight love affairs, and/or the painful reality of the morning after and the vague remembrance of what may or may not have occurred in the neon night before. Either way, no apologies are given. "We believe poetry is meant to be a good time, so we are only looking for poems that explore these themes in an entertaining, fun, humorous, and/or enthusiastic manner. We will not accept sappy, depressing, AA recovery, or the evils-of-alcohol poems." Send 3-5 poems with cover letter and SASE to 417 Neal St., Grass Valley, CA 95945 or (preferably) email to Todd (Cirillo) & Julie (Valin) at sixfootswells@yahoo.com; please use “Bottoms Up” in the subject line. Poems should not exceed 40 lines; previously-published okay if indicated. Info: www.myspace.com/sixftswells
•••Saturday (3/17) at 7 PM, all six of the Red Fox Underground (Taylor Graham, Irene Lipshin, Kate Wells, Wendy Patrice Williams, Moira Magneson, and Brigit Truex—yes, again!) will read at the Cozmic Cafe in Placerville (594 Main St.), featuring photography by Irene Lipshin. The reading is presented by El Dorado Peace and Justice in the Season of Nonviolence; it will begin with a reception from 5:30-7 PM, and will be followed by refreshments. Be sure to drive up and see Irene's beautiful photographs celebrating the concept of world peace. More about that later.
•••Saturday (3/17), 5-8 PM: A reception honoring Victoria Dalkey, art correspondent for The Sacramento Bee. Through the publication of numerous thoughtful and articulate articles, she has continued to raise awareness and
interest in the arts to the benefit of artists, galleries, and museums in this region and beyond. This event will be held in the wonderful art-filled home of Burnett and Mimi Miller. Proceeds from the event will be used to purchase a brick, to be installed in CCAS, honoring Victoria's tremendous contribution to the local arts community and to support CCAS arts programming. Appetizers, fabulous conversation, and outstanding art available through silent auction by renowned artists Wayne Thiebaud, Fred Dalkey, Troy Dalton, and David Hollowell, as well as others. Guest presenters, Diana Daniels, Assistant Curator at the Crocker Art Museum, and Julia Connor, Sacramento Poet Laureate. Please send your payment in now as space is limited. Tickets are available online through Paypal at www.ccasac.org, or call (916) 498-9811 for further information. Member (per person) $50; Non-member (per person) $70.
•••Sunday (3/18), 4-5 PM: Clive Matson Poetry Reading at the Colonial Coffee & Tea Company, 5923 Clark Road, Suite A, Paradise. Phone: 530 877 6949.
________________________
Every poem is a love-child,
A penniless first-born
Bastard, set by the roadside
To beg from the winds.
Heart's poison, heart's adoration,
Heart's paradise, heart's grief.
His father may have been an emporer—
May have been a thief.
—Marina Tsvetaeva
______________________
Poems grow like stars, like flowers,
Like the beauty a family never needs.
And there's only one answer possible
To praise, to apotheosis: why to me?
We sleep—and then, between the paving stones
The divine visitation, quartrefoil.
Understand me, world. The poet's dream reveals
The laws of stars, the formulas of flowers.
—Marina Tsvetaeva
(Today's poetry was translated from the Russian by Paul Schmidt.)
______________________
—Medusa
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.)
I leave my sleeping house to go—out.
These people think of me as daughter, wife,
But I can think of one thing only—night.
Mid-July. A breeze sweeps down the road.
Music from a window, barely heard.
From now til dawn the breeze blows hard
Between my fragile ribs into my heart.
Light in a window. A chime from a tower.
A plane-tree shadow. In my hand a flower.
These are my footsteps, which no one can hear.
This is my shadow, and I am not here.
Street lights are strings of golden beads.
In my mouth the taste of nighttime leaves.
Free me, all of you, from the day's claims
And understand. I am in your dreams.
—Marina Tsvetaeva
_______________________
I spent the weekend in the upper valley with several poets at Patricia Wellingham-Jones' house, including herself and Ellaraine Lockie, with visits from Steph Schaefer—whose stepfather, it turns out, was Jack Schaefer, who wrote the great Western novel (and later movie), Shane. Small world! Poet Sue Kowalewski and hubby, Ed, came by and described the opening of the new library in Redding: 2500 people lined up for two miles and handed 700 books down the line, moving them from the old building to the new one. Impressive community effort! The new library is, apparently, gorgeous, and represents much-improved funding, which allows it to stay open for reasonable hours seven days a week (the old one was only open 20 hours/week!).
Something else I was made aware of up there was a beautiful new book out of the University of Texas Press, Austin: What Wildness is This: Women Write About the Southwest, ed. by Susan Wittig Albert, Susan Hanson, Jan Epton Seale, and Paula Stallings Yost. This is a book of fine poetry from many, many women, including Patricia Wellingham-Jones. Check it out!
This week in poetry:
•••Tonight (Monday, 3/12), 7:30 PM, Sacramento Poetry Center, HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sac.: Indigo Moor invites you to the book release party and reading of Tap-Root, his first volume of poetry which is part of the Main Street Rag Editor's Select Poetry Series. Special guest Jennifer K. Sweeney will also read from her book, Salt Memory, which was winner of the 2006 Main Street Rag First Book Contest. Limited edition broadsides of each poet’s work will be available on a first-come basis. The reading is free to the public. Refreshments will be served. For complete details, sample poems, & bios, go to: http://www.indigomoor.com/Book%20Release.htm. Next Monday's reading will feature Stephen Yenser and Ricardo Sternberg.
•••Tuesday (3/13), 7 PM, 126 Voorhies Hall on the UC Davis campus: James Lee Jobe writes: María Meléndez has canvassed for political organizations and worked as a wildlife biology field assistant. In 2000 she was awarded an Artists-in-Communities grant from the California Arts Council to support her work as writer-in-residence at the UC Davis Arboretum, where she taught environmental poetry workshops for the public. I took one of her workshops; every damn thing I wrote there was published! She is a wonderful teacher. She has authored one chapbook of poetry, Base Pairs, and edited two anthologies, Nest of Freedom and Moon Won’t Leave Me Alone, and was assistant professor of English at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Currently she teaches creative writing and lit at USU in Utah, and has a new book out, How Long She'll Last in This World, University of Arizona press. What all that doesn't tell you is this: Maria Melendez is one of the nicest people ever to walk the planet. Being a brilliant poet is one thing; a lot of brilliant poets are also a complete horse's ass. Not Maria. Tuesday, March 13, at 7pm, you can hear her read. Please attend, and check my blog Saturday, 3/10 (jamesleejobe.livejournal.com, or click the link to the right of this column) for a large group of her poems. And Sandra MacPherson adds, Maria's previous chapbook was Base Pairs from Swan Scythe Press, which Maria co-founded. Maria Melendez and Thomas Heise (another graduate of the program, who read in the series earlier this year) were featured in a recent Poets and Writers Magazine article about first books of poems. This is great news for UCD, to see our graduates accomplishing such exciting work. We hope you'll make it to the reading.
•••Wednesday (3/14), 7:30 PM: March's rattlechap release from Rattlesnake Press will be Skin Stretched Around the Hollow by ex-Sacramentan-turned-Portlander Steve Williams at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac. Rumor has it that there will be some other Oregonians present. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s. Also released that night will be Ultrasound, a littlesnake broadside by Brad Buchanan [see poems today], and the latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (Lucky 13!). Maybe. If I get it done...
•••Thursday (3/15), 7:30 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series will present the poets Mikhail Branski, Gene Bloom and Barbara Noble. Co-host Bill Gainer says, For those concerned with political correctness, the content of language and the politeness of thought—be warned, these three writers test the limits, they are known for challenging the accepted, the use of adult content and the informality of personal expression. For those sensitive of heart and weak of spirit, these three may prove a fairly dangerous bunch! Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included. The show will be in Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Info: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384. See last Friday's post for bios of these poets.
•••Also Thursday (3/15), 8 PM: Join the folks at Poetry Unplugged (Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sac.) for a pre-St. Patrick's Day night, and feel free to bring Celtic Poetry and stories to share (anything from Northern Europe qualifies). Featured readers will be Celtic women Jeanine Stevens, Brigit Truex, Charlene Ungtad and Rebecca Morrison. Info: 209-727-5179 or www.lunascafe.com (916-441-3931). See last Friday's post for bios of these fine poets.
•••Friday (3/16), 7 PM: Brigit Truex will read again, this time with Manzanita Editor Monika Rose in El Dorado Hills at the Our House Gallery; take the Latrobe exit south and turn left into the shopping center. Brigit has a brand-new rattlechap available from Rattlesnake Press, called A Counterpane Without.
•••Friday (3/16), 7:30 PM: “An Honoring of The Artists / Los Artistas:
Featuring a Tribute to CoMadres Artistas”: Music, poems, verbal tributes—all will be used at La Raza Galería Posada, 1024 22nd St., Sac. to honor artists who have depicted, expressed, promoted and preserved the images of the lives and ideals of the Chicano/Latino community. Especially to be featured is the extraordinary group of women artists called CoMadres Artistas, who have worked together as an artistic cooperative for many years, and whose work will be on display at the Galería: Helen Villa, Irma Lerma Barbosa, Carmel Castillo, Laura Llano, and Mareia de Socorro. This event, the annual La Noche de los Viejitos /Night of the Elders, takes place each year at La Raza Galería Posada. The tribute is being arranged by the writers’ group, Writers of the New Sun/Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol. Admirers of all visual artists are also invited to come for the Open Mic and to share your memories, observations, and the inspiration of this creative and vital group, los Artistas / the Artists. Suggested donation $5, but no one denied for lack of $$. Info: 916-456-5323.
•••Friday (3/16) is also the deadline for Six Ft. Swells Press, which is now accepting poetry submissions for the next chapbook in their famed Cheap Shots Poetry Series. This will be a themed issue featuring a collection of the best poetry that reflects those goodtime evenings of drinking, music, and streetlight love affairs, and/or the painful reality of the morning after and the vague remembrance of what may or may not have occurred in the neon night before. Either way, no apologies are given. "We believe poetry is meant to be a good time, so we are only looking for poems that explore these themes in an entertaining, fun, humorous, and/or enthusiastic manner. We will not accept sappy, depressing, AA recovery, or the evils-of-alcohol poems." Send 3-5 poems with cover letter and SASE to 417 Neal St., Grass Valley, CA 95945 or (preferably) email to Todd (Cirillo) & Julie (Valin) at sixfootswells@yahoo.com; please use “Bottoms Up” in the subject line. Poems should not exceed 40 lines; previously-published okay if indicated. Info: www.myspace.com/sixftswells
•••Saturday (3/17) at 7 PM, all six of the Red Fox Underground (Taylor Graham, Irene Lipshin, Kate Wells, Wendy Patrice Williams, Moira Magneson, and Brigit Truex—yes, again!) will read at the Cozmic Cafe in Placerville (594 Main St.), featuring photography by Irene Lipshin. The reading is presented by El Dorado Peace and Justice in the Season of Nonviolence; it will begin with a reception from 5:30-7 PM, and will be followed by refreshments. Be sure to drive up and see Irene's beautiful photographs celebrating the concept of world peace. More about that later.
•••Saturday (3/17), 5-8 PM: A reception honoring Victoria Dalkey, art correspondent for The Sacramento Bee. Through the publication of numerous thoughtful and articulate articles, she has continued to raise awareness and
interest in the arts to the benefit of artists, galleries, and museums in this region and beyond. This event will be held in the wonderful art-filled home of Burnett and Mimi Miller. Proceeds from the event will be used to purchase a brick, to be installed in CCAS, honoring Victoria's tremendous contribution to the local arts community and to support CCAS arts programming. Appetizers, fabulous conversation, and outstanding art available through silent auction by renowned artists Wayne Thiebaud, Fred Dalkey, Troy Dalton, and David Hollowell, as well as others. Guest presenters, Diana Daniels, Assistant Curator at the Crocker Art Museum, and Julia Connor, Sacramento Poet Laureate. Please send your payment in now as space is limited. Tickets are available online through Paypal at www.ccasac.org, or call (916) 498-9811 for further information. Member (per person) $50; Non-member (per person) $70.
•••Sunday (3/18), 4-5 PM: Clive Matson Poetry Reading at the Colonial Coffee & Tea Company, 5923 Clark Road, Suite A, Paradise. Phone: 530 877 6949.
________________________
Every poem is a love-child,
A penniless first-born
Bastard, set by the roadside
To beg from the winds.
Heart's poison, heart's adoration,
Heart's paradise, heart's grief.
His father may have been an emporer—
May have been a thief.
—Marina Tsvetaeva
______________________
Poems grow like stars, like flowers,
Like the beauty a family never needs.
And there's only one answer possible
To praise, to apotheosis: why to me?
We sleep—and then, between the paving stones
The divine visitation, quartrefoil.
Understand me, world. The poet's dream reveals
The laws of stars, the formulas of flowers.
—Marina Tsvetaeva
(Today's poetry was translated from the Russian by Paul Schmidt.)
______________________
—Medusa
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.)