Stories, Without Words

Night
—Anyssa Neumann, Berlin

MIDSUMMER
—Anyssa Neumann, Berlin

If the world were to end tomorrow
I would make love to you
in the sweet shadow of moonlight,
and at the explosion of dawn
we would melt into flame
and burst into stardust.

But

Tomorrow is not the end.
The world continues.
And I’m left here,
dissolving into the sad, moonless night
which kisses your silent skin

as lightly as the air

blowing me away

_______________________

Thanks, Ex-Sacramentan Anyssa Neumann!

Current Sacramentan (well, Carmichaelean) Tom Goff writes: Just wondered what Medusa would think of this exercise. I saw Elizabeth Bishop's posthumously published "Villanelle," really only a rough heap of prosaic notes, and thought, "She's crazy—she couldn't have made a villanelle out of these." Then (though Bishop, like me, apparently found villanelles terribly difficult) I remembered her "One Art," and took a closer look, resulting in the following:

LOUISE'S DREAM
(Completion of Elizabeth Bishop's unfinished "Villanelle")
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

During her trial, the hour of death is set.
Lips, brushing her ear: Louise, Louise, you know.
But she only knows it hasn't happened yet.

Stamped August 18, this police notice reached
her mailbox. Illegible as to where to go;
her trial and hour of execution set.

Condemned, her trousers bellow, firehouse red.
Set free, she's pelting after the next train, though
god only knows what has or hasn't left.

An ancient stationmaster cries, Forget
these fears, my child. The court did not disclose
during your trial what execution date.

It's an informal sentence. So her debt's
been outsourced; anyone can strike the blow
she knows is hers—but only not just yet.

The train has stopped; the platform alone has left.
She's lost her voice, her mouth shapes frames of No.
Enduring this trial, her execution set,
Louise only knows what hasn't happened yet.

(See page 35 of Bishop's posthumous volume, Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box. This constitutes a "completion" even less than, say, Deryck Cooke's "completion" of Mahler's Tenth Symphony.)

____________________

Thanks, Tom. Here's another one from the Goff-ster:

SUSPICIONS OF RAPTURE
—Tom Goff

I must be a strange poet, holding such suspicions
of rapture. A doubter of epiphanies
casting one thing in the shape of another:
Tulip tree petals fall outside our window.
I say, plantain-skins peeling away
early in June.

***

Luckless countries burst out war-flame
and blood. We homedwellers who hold
an unseen fist in the proceedings
enjoy peace, may God and horror
forgive us. We asphalt our meadows,

yet as we trench new underground gas station tanks
we keep a segment of respect
for the valley oak, the black oak, the yellow-billed
magpie whose white is heaven’s
illusionary radiance, whose black is the puddle’s
oil-rainbow under the streetlamp.

***

Our jug of home brims with small dogs who leap.
Cats asleep in the caress of their fur. One
dear beagle sickened on the substance
of her own body and died. Then came
a new joyful beagle, even as the lost one
lives inside us. Nora gives the new one medicine;
the instructions she writes for the pet sitter are poems:

“Give one drop of the flurbiprofen in each eye in the morning.
Reward Skaidra with a few of her dog kibbles.”

***

Mysteries throng us, droplets of one secret
profound as the vessels, often scarcely bedded
at dermis level, through which flows our blood

unapparent except in blushes or the flesh-tone
suffusion of skin; bright heavy red
if exposed, but for the most part pulsing along
dark and equable,
liquid and silent.

_____________________

Tonight in poetry:

•••Wednesday (6/27), 6-7 PM: Hidden Passage poetry reading at Hidden Passage Books, 352 Main St. in 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. Medusa will be there, by the way, passing out new Snakes...


Two Up-Coming Bay Area Poetry Fests:

•••Thursday, July 26 through Sunday, July 29 is the weekend of the San Francisco International Poetry Festival, starting with a Kick-off Celebration on Thursday in Jack Kerouac Alley in North Beach (6:30 PM), hosted by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The Main Reading at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater on Friday (7 PM) will feature Ferlinghetti, Bei Dao, and lots of other readers from around the world. Saturday is Branch Library Day, with readings at various SF Library branches beginning at 2:30 PM; then at 7 PM, another reading at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater featuring Jack Hirschman and many international artists. Sunday’s North Beach Poetry Crawl, beginning at noon at the Beat Museum, 540 Broadway, will feature readings at several venues (one after the other), including Purple Onion, Caffe Trieste, City Lights, and Live Worms Gallery. Info, including featured poets, can be seen at: www.sfinternationalpoetryfestival.org/.

•••Then, in September, plan to go down to San Jose to celebrate California's distinctive heritage of poets, poetry, and presses on Saturday, September 22, 2007 at Poetry Center San Jose's second California Poets Festival. This all-day outdoor festival will be held at History Park San Jose, 1650 Senter Road, San Jose from 10am to 4:30pm. Open to the public and free of charge. Last year's inaugural event proved a great success with over 20 presses and 200 poets in attendance. Come and listen to readings throughout the day by California poets such as Francisco Alarcon, Robert Hass, and Jane Hirschfield. Stroll through the small press fair. Meet editors, purchase books, journals, subscriptions, and obtain submission guidelines from a variety of California publications. Enjoy a picnic or glass of wine from local restaurants offered in this historical park setting. Spend a memorable day with people from San José, the greater Bay Area and beyond. Readings on Main Stage are outdoors in partially shaded amphitheater style seating. Lawn seating also available. Info: californiapoetsfestival.org/.

_____________________

Finally, food for thought from Stephani Schaefer, who's taking a leetle break from writing—though I suspect she won't be able to abstain for long, will fall off the wagon and write us something more...

I'M SWEARING OFF WORDS
—Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos

I'll stutter to a halt,
hobble out to my hammock
and lie back in silence.

Let the bird weave its nest,
let dragonflies stitch the air.
Stories, without words.

_____________________

—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 Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers will receive theirs in the next couple of weeks. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is October 1.

Books/broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.

ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).