Mr. West, Laid to Rest...
Thanks, Mike! Hey—what're friends for? The remainder of D.R.'s interview will be in the upcoming Interview Anthology, which will be released during Sacramento's Poetry Month in October.
The latest edition of Ekphrasis, the classy journal published by Sacramento Poets Carol and Laverne Frith, is out, including the list of 2007 Ekphrasis Prize winners. Among those are rattlechapper Jeanine Stevens and Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Rattlechapper Susan Kelly-DeWitt of Sacramento also has poems in this issue. Click on the link to the right of this column to order your copy.
And congrats to Sacramentans Carol Frith, Indigo Moor and Grand Prize Winner (and rattlechapper) Patricia Wellingham-Jones of Tehama for scooping up honors in this year's Artist Embassy International's Dancing Poetry Contest. Patricia's poem, one of three Grand Prize winners, will be danced September 29 in San Francisco; watch for further details. PWJ also won a third prize.
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PASS, FRIEND
—Carl Sandburg
The doors of the morning must open.
The keys of the night are not thrown away.
I who have loved morning know its doors.
I who have loved night know its keys.
_____________________
WINGTIP
—Carl Sandburg
The birds—are they worth remembering?
Is flight a wonder and one wigtip a
space marvel?
When will man know what birds know?
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BIRD FOOTPRINT
—Carl Sandburg
The footprint of a bird in sand brought your face.
I said, "What of it?"
And the next lone footprint of a bird in the sand
brought your face again.
I said, "It is written deeper than sand."
I saw a bird wing fixed forty thousand years in a rock,
a bird wing bringing your foot, your wrist.
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IMPASSE
—Carl Sandburg
Bring on a pail of smoke.
Bring on a sieve of coffee.
Bring on shovels speaking Javanese.
Open your newest, latest handkerchief
And let down a red-mouthed hankering hippopotamus.
Perform for us these offertories in blue.
Tell us again: Nothing is impossible.
We listen while you tell us.
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EVENING QUESTIONS
—Carl Sandburg
The swath of light climbs up the skyscraper
Around the corners of white prisms and spikes.
The inside torso stands up in a plug of gun-metal.
The shadow struggles to get loose from the light.
Shall I say I'm through and it's no use?
Or have I got another good fight in me?
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—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 should have received theirs by now. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux (for postage) to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. If you want more than one, please send $2 for the first one and $1 for copies after that. 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 Oct. 1.
Books/free 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).
