Lampyridae
(Fireflies)
(Fireflies)
A NIGHT IN MAY
—Chang Tsung Yang
The rain has cleared,
And with joy
I see the stars come out,
One by one.
In the silence
Of the night
I hear a voice,
Reading from the sacred books.
Turning down my lamp
I sit and watch
The rising midnight moon.
A firefly
Has flown into my room
With the wind.
_____________________
TWILIGHT
—Ch'en Yun
The night creeps in,
And every sound of human life
Is hushed.
Even the tinkle of the camel bells
Comes muted through the dusk.
In the faint, dying light
Of the waning moon
The first hibiscus flower
Falls.
_____________________
Coupla things: Okay, three:
•••Don't forget that there will be no reading at Sacramento Poetry Center this Monday night, due to Labor Day.
•••Monday (9/3, Labor Day): 33% off everything (except for food & drinks & special-order books) in the Next Chapter Bookstore, Main St., Woodland. One day only!
•••And PoetsLane@comcast.net (www.poetslane.com), the ambitious Web presence of Pleasanton's ex-Poet Laureate, Cynthia Bryant, has a new page called “Poems from Headlines”; Cynthia provides a headline and you send your poem for that headline. Right now it’s “The Fortieth Anniversary: SUMMER of LOVE 1967” or “Catch of the Day: Mercury”.
>Poet’s Lane is also looking for themed poetry for September: Leaves, School Days, About Writing, Autumn Years. Pick one or many to write about, and check out the new poems.
>If you need to rant in a poem about the injustices of life, send a poem for Get it Off Your Chest (mental health poetry) page.
>New question for the That Would Be Telling! page: "Do you write poetry when you are depressed, sad or angry or do you need to be ‘up’ to write? The best poem you ever wrote was when you were_______?" Or answer any of the other previous questions if you wish.
>What the Hell Are We Fightin’ For is for your war poems/essays.
>Picture Prompted Poetry: Poet’s Lane has a new picture to write a poem about, or write to one of the other pictures still up on that page. Be sure to include which picture the poem is written about.
>Look all these categories up at www.poetslane.com, and send your poems to PoetsLane@comcast.net/.
______________________
RETURNING HOME IN A DREAM
—Pei Pao Yu Lan (poetess)
In my dream
I followed the geese
In their flight
A full thousand li away.
In that instant
I was in my old garden
With my neighbors and my friends,
Telling tales
Of far-off lands.
A cock crowed,
And I awoke, startled,
To see the bright moon shining
Through a crevice
In the door.
__________________
NIGHT
—Sun Yun Feng (poetess)
A bat flies
Through the empty courtyard
In the moonlight.
My daughter, working sadly
At her creaking loom,
Throws her shuttle aside
With a deep sigh,
And offers up a prayer
To the goddess of the moon.
The frost gleams on the trees,
And the wind stirs in my garments.
For a thousand li about
There is no sound
As I roll up my curtain
And look out
On the wide-flung star clusters
Of the River of Heaven.
____________________
DAWN
—K'ung Ping Ch'ung, c. 1082
From my bed
I heard
The little cuckoo call.
I arose in haste
And went outside the door.
The sun
Had not yet
Reached the mountain tops.
The sky was dark,
And the moon
Still hung in the branches
Of the almond trees
Among the blossoms.
Today's poems were translated from the Chinese by Henry H. Hart in A Garden of Peonies, Stanford University Press, 1938.
_____________________
—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.) For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).
SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:
ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is still sleeping! There will be no readings/releases in 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/. And read more about Susan at her nifty new website, http://www.susankelly-dewitt.com/. Click on "Chapbooks" for a sneak preview of Cassiopeia's cover.
Also coming in mid-September: The new issue of Rattlesnake Review (15), plus a littlesnake broadside from dawn dibartolo (Blush), and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including #4 (frank andrick) and an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October). Next deadline for Rattlesnake Review (16) is November 15.
—Chang Tsung Yang
The rain has cleared,
And with joy
I see the stars come out,
One by one.
In the silence
Of the night
I hear a voice,
Reading from the sacred books.
Turning down my lamp
I sit and watch
The rising midnight moon.
A firefly
Has flown into my room
With the wind.
_____________________
TWILIGHT
—Ch'en Yun
The night creeps in,
And every sound of human life
Is hushed.
Even the tinkle of the camel bells
Comes muted through the dusk.
In the faint, dying light
Of the waning moon
The first hibiscus flower
Falls.
_____________________
Coupla things: Okay, three:
•••Don't forget that there will be no reading at Sacramento Poetry Center this Monday night, due to Labor Day.
•••Monday (9/3, Labor Day): 33% off everything (except for food & drinks & special-order books) in the Next Chapter Bookstore, Main St., Woodland. One day only!
•••And PoetsLane@comcast.net (www.poetslane.com), the ambitious Web presence of Pleasanton's ex-Poet Laureate, Cynthia Bryant, has a new page called “Poems from Headlines”; Cynthia provides a headline and you send your poem for that headline. Right now it’s “The Fortieth Anniversary: SUMMER of LOVE 1967” or “Catch of the Day: Mercury”.
>Poet’s Lane is also looking for themed poetry for September: Leaves, School Days, About Writing, Autumn Years. Pick one or many to write about, and check out the new poems.
>If you need to rant in a poem about the injustices of life, send a poem for Get it Off Your Chest (mental health poetry) page.
>New question for the That Would Be Telling! page: "Do you write poetry when you are depressed, sad or angry or do you need to be ‘up’ to write? The best poem you ever wrote was when you were_______?" Or answer any of the other previous questions if you wish.
>What the Hell Are We Fightin’ For is for your war poems/essays.
>Picture Prompted Poetry: Poet’s Lane has a new picture to write a poem about, or write to one of the other pictures still up on that page. Be sure to include which picture the poem is written about.
>Look all these categories up at www.poetslane.com, and send your poems to PoetsLane@comcast.net/.
______________________
RETURNING HOME IN A DREAM
—Pei Pao Yu Lan (poetess)
In my dream
I followed the geese
In their flight
A full thousand li away.
In that instant
I was in my old garden
With my neighbors and my friends,
Telling tales
Of far-off lands.
A cock crowed,
And I awoke, startled,
To see the bright moon shining
Through a crevice
In the door.
__________________
NIGHT
—Sun Yun Feng (poetess)
A bat flies
Through the empty courtyard
In the moonlight.
My daughter, working sadly
At her creaking loom,
Throws her shuttle aside
With a deep sigh,
And offers up a prayer
To the goddess of the moon.
The frost gleams on the trees,
And the wind stirs in my garments.
For a thousand li about
There is no sound
As I roll up my curtain
And look out
On the wide-flung star clusters
Of the River of Heaven.
____________________
DAWN
—K'ung Ping Ch'ung, c. 1082
From my bed
I heard
The little cuckoo call.
I arose in haste
And went outside the door.
The sun
Had not yet
Reached the mountain tops.
The sky was dark,
And the moon
Still hung in the branches
Of the almond trees
Among the blossoms.
Today's poems were translated from the Chinese by Henry H. Hart in A Garden of Peonies, Stanford University Press, 1938.
_____________________
—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.) For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).
SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:
ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is still sleeping! There will be no readings/releases in 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/. And read more about Susan at her nifty new website, http://www.susankelly-dewitt.com/. Click on "Chapbooks" for a sneak preview of Cassiopeia's cover.
Also coming in mid-September: The new issue of Rattlesnake Review (15), plus a littlesnake broadside from dawn dibartolo (Blush), and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including #4 (frank andrick) and an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October). Next deadline for Rattlesnake Review (16) is November 15.
