SONG-RUNNERS
—Taylor Graham, Somerset
They break in while you're away
to steal your songs — your CDs,
tapes, guitar, your
sheet music and the kid's trombone
and even
wind-chimes. Could there
be black market for a song?
Or do they hoard it high
on a mountain fastness, only wind
for counterpoint?
Do they run for the Argentine
in a sailboat loaded with song?
Listen.
If that ship takes on water,
coast guard in pursuit, do they
drop ballast, strewing lyrics
on the surface, sinking melodies
to the deep?
Snatches for the seabirds,
great rolling refrains
the whales repeat
much deeper, crooning
sea to sea. And sharks
with teeth and tail and muscle
tear into thieves
for the taste
of song.
_____________________
Thanks, TG! Taylor Graham is the most recent taker for Medusa's current give-away: Send me a poem about whales by midnight this Friday, May 25 (e-mailed or postmarked) and I'll send you a copy of Ron Tranquilla's new chapbook, Playing Favorites (or any other rattlechap of your choosing). That's kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. And think good thoughts about our recent visitors and their travels.
Whee-haw! Jane Blue managed to get a comment onto yesterday's Medusa, a feat which is not, apparently, all that easy, techno-wise. Thanks, Jane! (Click on the "1 comment" at the bottom of yesterday's post if you want to see what she said.) And watch for Rattlesnake Interview Series #3, B.L. Kennedy's interview of Jane, coming June 20.
Tonight:
•••Wednesday (5/23), 6-7 PM: Hidden Passage Poetry Reading at Hidden Passage Books, 352 Main St., Placerville. It's an open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen.
Addition to this week's calendar:
•••Saturday (5/26), 1 PM: Mendocino Spring Poetry Celebration hosted by Sharon Doubiago and Dan Roberts at Hill House in Mendocino. Afternoon open mike starts at 1 PM. Evening session featuring Jack Hirschman and Agnetta Falk starts at 6:30 PM. Another open mike session follows. Free event. Arrive early to sign up for open mikes. More info: Gordon Black, gblack@mcn.org, (707) 937-4107.
Boot Camp and Boulder:
Molly Fisk writes: The Internet June Poetry Boot Camp takes place from Sunday, June 10 to Friday, June 16. If you'd like to add six new poems to your inventory between Memorial Day and the 4th of July, this is your chance. Poetry Boot Camp is an on-line workshop that I teach monthly. All experience levels are welcome. For more information, visit: http://www.poetrybootcamp.com. I also run a concurrent on-line workshop for people who would like to work on revisions of earlier poems. For more about this Revision Workshop, contact me directly at molly@mollyfisk.com. For Boot Camp alumnae, I'm doing some work revamping the PBC website this week, and would like to update the Camper News page—if
you have news about your writing, send it along. And thank you.
We still have five spaces left in the Boulder, Utah workshop, Writing in Place, Aug. 27 - Sept. 1, in case you're looking for a summer adventure. This four-day workshop in Utah's amazing Red Rock country includes daily writing and critiquing with me, and daily yoga with Triyoga instructor Marilyn Kriegel. A good place to come if you want to take stock, let your mind and body work a little more closely
together, or just relax in an ancient landscape and listen to the wind in the trees. More info at: http://www.mollyfisk.com/html/writinginplace.htm
June 14 in Modesto:
•••Thursday (6/14), 4-9 PM: Lost Cow Press in Modesto (publishers of Hardpan) presents "Coyote Caffeine" featuring Brandon Cesmat from San Diego, reading from his collection "driven from the shade" and inspiring you. Arrive on the cusp of the wilderness (Modesto) around 4 and be thirsty, hungry, empty, and plan to fill up. Brandon is a very special poet, and $40 gets you a seat at the Italian Grill, opening just for us, plus you will be writing, eating, drinking, sighing, listening, crying—maybe even sobbing and reading. (It is a school night, yeah.) Pre-registration closes June 10. Don't miss this inaugural session. Wise coyote will be lurking and waiting to greet your shadow. Send $40 registration to: lost cow press, c/o debee loyd, p.o. box 1065, modesto, ca 95353. [The Hardpan crew will be in Sacramento to read at the Sacramento Poetry Center on June 25. Come check them out; two of them, debee loyd and Karen Baker, have rattlechaps available from Rattlesnake Press.]
July Poetry Marathon in Willits:
•••Saturday (7/7), 4 PM: Poetry Marathon at the Willits Library: the Willits Poets are hosting a marathon to help out the Veterans for Peace, whose bus, The White Rose, is down, needing repairs to the tune of $5,000. As most of you know, The White Rose was taking Cindy Sheehan to George Bush's summer ranch to ask him why her son had to die in Iraq, when Hurricane Katrina hit. The bus, loaded with food and supplies, made a run for Mississippi to help out small towns ignored by Red Cross until the White Rose showed up. The Vets have been helping out ever since and it's time to help them out now. If you can't make the marathon, you can send donations to Patrick Tate, 28500 Sherwood Road, Willits, CA 95490. Bring poems enough for many five-minute sessions. We will also play Basho, our own poetic form of Bingo. Everyone will be asked to donate, readers and listeners alike, though as always, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS: In conjunction with the Veterans for Peace Marathon, an anthology is planned: "Deja Vu All Over Again: Poems about War". If you are interested in contributing, please send poems to: Poetry For Peace, c/o Mary N. Korte, P.O. Box 342, Willits, CA 95490.
_____________________
ON SHIPBOARD
—Taylor Graham
(for Elihu Burritt, 1863)
Crossing the Atlantic again by steamer,
do you imagine you can bind two continents in peace
just by the effort of traveling in-between?
Do you wait at the railing, hoping for surfacings —
dolphins in schools like a brotherhood of man?
Do you listen for the songs of whales, and wonder
about their language? Might it stem from the same root
as Indo-European, but branched off eons before?
Do you listen so you might catch patterns,
speculate on grammar and phonetics,
begin to translate their sagas and history,
their mythologies, their faith?
_____________________
—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.)
SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:
Journals (free publications): Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; RR #14 will be out in mid-June. (Next deadline, for RR #15, is August 15.) The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets #9 (for kids 0-12) is available; Snakelets #10 will be out this month. Next deadline is 10/1.
Books/broadsides: May's releases are Grass Valley Poet Ron Tranquilla’s Playing Favorites: Selected Poems, 1971-2006, plus a littlesnake broadside by Julie Valin (Still Life With Sun) and a Rattlesnake Interview Broadside (#2) featuring Khiry Malik Moore and B.L. Kennedy. All are now available at The Book Collector. Rattlechaps are $5; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com or rattlesnakepress.com for ordering information.
Next rattle-read: Rattlesnake Press will present Sacramento Poet Tom Miner at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, June 20 from 7:30-9 PM to celebrate the release of his new chapbook, North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a new littlesnake broadside (Cominciare Adagio) from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, plus #3 in the Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. More info: kathykieth@hotmail.com/ NOTE: For June, and for June only, our monthly Rattlesnake reading will be on the THIRD Weds. instead of the second one. There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August.
