Laughing at the Moon

ALL HALLOW’S EVE
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

Nothing is what it seems.
This child in Liberty’s skirts
and the boy in the bunting top hat,
who are they, really, by day-
light of a falling year?

That figure invisible except
for the slit of eyes — is she
in burkha or a bio-warfare suit?
And what of the witch, and
what of the cowboy?

Under every costume is a skull,
to every treat a trick.
A candle is a glowing thread
inside the waxy flesh that melts.
I walk beside you in disguise.

And who are you, this late
October night? and who
am I?

(Previously published in West Branch)

______________________

Thanks, TG! And who is anybody? See below for more poems of hidden identity, things that go bump, and All Hallow's Eve. Meanwhile, a couple of contest deadline reminders (no rest for the wicked!):


Contests coming up:

•••The Towe Auto Museum is pleased to announce its Fourth Annual Automotive Poetry Contest for poems related in some way to the automobile or some form of personal land transportation. Deadline is November 10. First Prize winner receives $200, Second is $100 and Third is $50. Winners will be posted on the Towe website at www.toweautomuseum.org and will receive a Museum membership for one year. Info about how/where to send: 916-442-6802. The Towe Auto Museum is located at 2200 Front St. in Sacramento.

•••Bay Area Poets Coalition presents the Maggi H. Meyer Memorial Poeetry Contest, 2007. Prizes in each of three categories: $50 (First); $35 (Second) and $20 (Third), plus 3 Honorable Mention certificates. Open to all, except officers of BAPC and judges of this contest. Entries accepted between Oct. 1 and Nov. 15. Winners’ celebration to be held in Berkeley in Feb., 2008. Info, including fees, categories, and where to send: www.bayareapoetscoalition.org/.

____________________

REALITY
—A.D. Winans, San Francisco

The night is alive
With street sounds
Strange love songs serenade
My head
Outside the window
Invisible vampires wait
For the first sign of dawn
When dreams turn to ham
And eggs

_____________________

SONNET 100
—Lord Brooke Fulke Greville (1633)

In night when colors all to black are cast,
Distinction lost, or gone down with the light;
The eye a watch to inward senses placed,
Not seeing, yet still having powers of sight,

Gives vain alarums to the inward sense,
Where fear stirred up with witty tyranny,
Confounds all powers, and thorough self-offense,
Doth forge and raise impossibility:

Such as in thick depriving darknesses,
Proper reflections of the error be,
And images of self-confusednesses,
Which hurt imaginations only see;

And from this nothing seen, tells news of devils,
Which but expressions be of inward evils.

____________________

THE RIDE-BY-NIGHTS
—Walter de la Mare

Up on their brooms the Witches stream,
Crooked and black in the crescent's gleam;
One foot high, and one foot low,
Bearded, cloaked, and cowled, they go,
'Neath Charlie's Wain they twitter and tweet,
And away they swarm 'neath the Dragon's feet,
With a whoop and a flutter they swing and sway,
And surge pell-mell down the Milky Way.
Betwixt the legs of the glittering Chair
They hover and squeak in the empty air.
Then round they swoop past the glimmering Lion
To where Sirius barks behind huge Orion;
Up, then, and over to wheel amain,
Under the silver, and home again.

_____________________

ALL HALLOW'S EVE
—Czeslaw Milosz

In the great silence of my favorite month,
October (the red of maples, the bronze of oaks,
A clear-yellow leaf here and there on birches),
I celebrated the standstill of time.

The vast country of the dead had its beginning everywhere:
At the turn of a tree-lined alley, across park lawns.
But I did not have to enter, I was not called yet.

Motorboats pulled up on the river bank, paths in pine needles.
It was getting dark early, no lights on the other side.

I was going to attend the ball of ghosts and witches.
A delegation would appear there in masks and wigs,
And dance, unrecognized, in the chorus of the living.

_____________________

And another, this from Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, who moved away from us to Florida. She sent us the pic to go with her poem, a double-duty Halloween/Secret of Life poem:

LAUGHING
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Longboat Key, FL

Serious cyclists pass by
catch just a glimpse—
seniors in a silver Towne car;
the driver of the Budweiser truck;
orange-vested county workers;
mom, her blue Niki’s flying behind
her son’s jogging stroller;
two bored bus passengers
and me in my dusty red Acura—

look at the mooning scarecrow:
smile; do a double take
laugh out loud.
Scientists know the muscles;
the enervation; area of the cortex
responsible, but the secret (of life)
still lies in why such incongruity is
followed by these peculiar bodily actions
and why it feels so good.

Laughing at the Moon
Photo by Marie Riepenhoff-Talty

______________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Give Up All Other Truths!

Ambrose Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry

THE FOOTSTEPS
—Paul Valéry

Your steps, born of my silence here,
Process with slow, religious tread,
Dumbly and icily, to where
I lie awake, on watch, in bed.

Pure person, shade of deity,
Your steps, held back, are doubly sweet.
God!—all the gifts I could foresee
Are coming now on those bare feet!

If you advance your lips to make
A peace with hunger, and to press
The inhabitant of my thoughts to take
The thoughtful nourishment of a kiss,

Don't hurry with their tender dew,
Sweetness complete and incomplete;
For I have lived to wait for you:
My heart was your approaching feet.

______________________

Today, Paul Valéry would've been 136 years old. And Ezra Pound would've been 132:

IN A STATION OF THE METRO
—Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

______________________

Speaking of cowboy poets:

Were we? Anyway, The Sacramento Bee has an article today in the Metro section about local poet/cowboy/cowboy poet John Greber Jr. and how he uses his poetry to talk about the perils of land development. Check it out!


Calendar addition for Saturday:

•••Saturday (11/10), 4 PM: The Central California Art Association and the Mistlin Art Gallery are announcing a poetry reading, reception, and book signing by Lee Herrick, author of This Many Miles From Desire (WorldTech Editions). The reading will take place in the gallery, 1015 J St., downtown Modesto. Lee grew up in Modesto (he's the son of CCAA artist, Georgia Herrick), and is currently living, writing, and teaching in Fresno. Co-Host Gordon Preston writes: Please rsvp; we will need a head-count for all the logistics of a poetry reading at an art gallery. 530-523-8916, gordonbp@sbcglobal.net/.

___________________

OVERWEENING
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

Halloween weekend, we return
to Calaveras Big Trees State Park.
Overweening feeling that of a dry fall:
the drive there seems a silverback shoulder,
hither and yon boulders occasional
as tongue studs. Tasteless
grasses the cows cud zestlessly.
At the grove rise the sequoias in thicket,
still greenheaded, tall and thickset,
—but a bit less majestic? Or is it that I’m
a bit stumped? I feel coeval
with these big sticks. The shadows
trailing Nora and me, black and spotlit;
a paper-doll scissorline halos each. Behind
them, the flame. Trees devoid-seeming of evil
speak Miwok, a numinous voicelessness
that whispers, Go back. Even roadkill
kicks up on our car, the fender soul-patched
with squirrel. At home, after dark,
the ghoul parties rev up, here a goblin,
there a prince and princess. Here comes a hot
teen getup: black microskirt, Simply Vera hair
helmet, white not-quite knee stockings
shriek High School Hooker. After sequoias,
what might creep me out mildly
looks more wildly weird. Big trees,
powerful Miwoks, I’ll give back
your land when I go, if you’ll keep
a safe distance for now.

_____________________

Thanks, Tom! Let's let Marina Tsvetayeva have the last say on the secret of life:

I KNOW THE TRUTH—GIVE UP ALL OTHER TRUTHS!
—Marina Tsvetayeva

I know the truth—give up all other truths!
No need for people anywhere on earth to struggle.
Look—it is evening, look, it is nearly night:
what do you speak of, poets, lovers, generals?

The wind is level now, the earth is wet with dew,
the storm of stars in the sky will turn to quiet.
And soon all of us will sleep under the earth, we
who never let each other sleep above it.

_____________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Glorious Fireworks

Photo by Katy Brown

WHAT TREES KNOW

—Katy Brown, Davis

They hold a secret all summer:
they know their cloaks of
peridot and emerald
conceal the stained glass
radiance of garnet and gold.

It takes only time and
hardship to reveal
what summer’s sun
could not expose.

Time and
hardship
and the certainty
of winter.

_____________________

Thanks, Katy! Katy Brown sends us answers to our current Medusa challenge: What do you think is the secret of life? Send Medusa your "secrets of life" poems, art and/or photography by midnight tonight (Monday, October 29), and I'll send you a free copy of Kate Wells' new rattlechap, Spiral, or whatever other rattlechap you're missing. That's kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. See below for more poems about the secrets of life.

And watch for Katy's latest poetry/photography project, A Poet's Book of Days, her new perpetual calendar which will debut at The Book Collector on November 14!


This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (10/29), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Halloween with the Tuesday Night Workshop Ghastly Ghouls at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. A costume-optional reading with open mic and light consumables. Next Monday's reading (Nov. 8) will feature Do Gentry and James DenBoer.

•••Thursday (11/1), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Free. Open mic before and after.

•••Friday (11/2), 7:30 PM: The Other Voice, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, presents poet Susan Kelly-DeWitt. The reading is in the library of the church located at 27074 Patwin Road in Davis. Refreshments and open mic will follow, so bring along a poem or two to share.


Coming to Santa Rosa next week:

•••Next Tuesday, Nov. 6, Poetry Flash will celebrate W.S. Merwin's 80th birthday and Robert Hass's new book of poetry, Time and Materials, 1997-2005, with a reading by the two of them at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Rd., Santa Rosa. Tickets start at $10 (707-546-3600, noon to 6 PM, Tues-Sat, or wellsfargocenterarts.org). Info: www.poetryflash.org.

_____________________

ETERNAL
—JoAnn Anglin, Sacramento

My eternal is not the same as yours.
It is my own forever, eternal as far
as I know, if it starts a minute or a
second before birth or is stopped
eight or eighty seconds after death.
This is all I can conceive.
All else is embroidery, whether
profligate or parsimonious:
curiosity of the past, the future,
the search for reasons or sources
can hold beauty and secrets—but
are never germane. Not ultimate.
They are glorious fireworks,
they are soft puppy whimpers and
blessed distractions. But not
mine or yours forever. Not eternal.

____________________

LI CHI’S ADVICE
(from the Wen Fu)
—Margaret Ellis Hill, Wilton

The starfish in the sea, luminescent
feathers of a bird, a pearl.

Cupped florets of jasmine,
honeysuckle and roses.

A meadow lark’s song, a parrot’s
banter, geese fading out of earshot.

Certain hues of sherbet skies
spooned in a bowl before darkness covers.

How to phrase the images
by an artist’s brush or pen

who finds the ordinary, extraordinary,
but to set the senses to resonate

like harmonies in strokes of a bell.

_____________________

GRANDMA’S THOUGHTS ON LIFE
—Margaret Ellis Hill

Our lives begin to end
when we’re born, she claimed.
Exclaimed that small bits of us
die every day, like it or not.

She sang the words in melodies
of so much to do, in scant hours
that meander through a day
with no regard for want or need,
even an hourglass shows a steady
slip away. Where?

I notice: gray streaks in brown hair;
smooth skin switched to wrinkles.
We used to stand eye to eye, shoulders equal.
In shallower breaths, I hear her murmur
we grow up or out or in or down.

The same with thoughts, she hummed—
yesterday’s trials may not be truth;
our attitudes arranged or scarred
by what we see and learn, or imagine.

One day, she sings: silent
things that matter must find
expression and explanation
or compress to one single death.

(Previously appeared in A Nickel’s Worth of Dreams Anthology,
PoetWorks Press, May 2004)

_____________________

THE MEANING OF LIFE
—Wayne Robinson, Lodi

I read something, long time ago, “Life has no
meaning, Life is an accident.” I ponder this now with
pain. I have always hoped that the Great Spirit
shall look upon my soul with pity and forgive my many
trespasses. Attitudes change with passed years, like
suddenly discovering that health insurance is a good
idea, and that the challenging work we performed as
youths has worn our bodies down a little more than
expected. If ten million people answered this
question, I doubt that two answers would match. Love
used to be a passion, now it is a comfort, life used
to be a challenge, now, a calming sunrise and a quick
“Thank You” for being allowed to see it again. I
don’t care what the meaning of life is, but life is
surely a marvel, so why ponder something that you
should just . . . ENJOY?

____________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Chrysanthemum Silence

Chrysanthemum
silence—monk
sips his morning tea.

~~~

Monks’ feet clomping
through icy dark,
drawing sweet water.

~~~

Old legs, still eager
for Yoshino’s
flowering slopes.

~~~

Not one traveller
braves this road—
autumn night.

~~~

Lips too chilled
for prattle—
autumn wind.

~~~

Awaiting snow,
poets in their cups
see lightning flash.

~~~

Year by year,
the monkey’s mask
reveals the monkey.

~~~

Autumn winds—
look, the chestnut
never more green.

—Basho

_______________________

—Medusa

What do you think is the secret of life? Send Medusa your "secrets of life" poems, art and/or photography by midnight tomorrow, Monday, October 29, and I'll send you a free copy of Kate Wells' new rattlechap, Spiral, or whatever other rattlechap you're missing. That's kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.

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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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).

Our Busy Hearts

Dylan Thomas

CLOWN IN THE MOON
—Dylan Thomas

My tears are like the quiet drift
Of petals from some magic rose;
And all my grief flows from the rift
Of unremembered skies and snows.

I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble;
It is so sad and beautiful,
So tremulously like a dream.

____________________

Today Dylan Marlais Thomas would've been 93 years old.

ESPECIALLY WHEN THE OCTOBER WIND
—Dylan Thomas

Especially when the October wind
With frosty fingers punishes my hair,
Caught by the crabbing sun I walk on fire
And cast a shadow crab upon the land,
By the sea's side, hearing the noise of birds,
Hearing the raven cough in winter sticks,
My busy heart who shudders as she talks
Sheds the syllabic blood and drains her words.

Shut, too, in a tower of words, I mark
On the horizon walking like the trees
The wordy shapes of women, and the rows
Of the star-gestured children in the park.
Some let me make you of the vowelled beeches,
Some of the oaken voices, from the roots
Of many a thorny shire tell you notes,
Some let me make you of the water's speeches.

Behind a pot of ferns the wagging clock
Tells me the hour's word, the neural meaning
Flies on the shafted disk, declaims the morning
And tells the windy weather in the cock.
Some let me make you of the meadow's signs;
The signal grass that tells me all I know
Breaks with the wormy winter through the eye.
Some let me tell you of the raven's sins.

Especially when the October wind
(Some let me make you of autumnal spells,
The spider-tongued, and the loud hill of Wales)
With fists of turnips punishes the land,
Some let me make you of the heartless words.
The heart is drained that, spelling in the scurry
Of chemic blood, warned of the coming fury.
By the sea's side hear the dark-vowelled birds.

_____________________

What about you? What do you think is the secret of life? Send Medusa your "secrets of life" poems, art and/or photography by midnight next Monday, October 29, and I'll send you a free copy of Kate Wells' new rattlechap, Spiral, or whatever other rattlechap you're missing. That's kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Here's one from David Humphreys:

THE SECRET OF LIFE
—David Humphreys, Stockton

This morning moment in maple sunlit colors,
then a perfect pair of new pink roses,
lovely fall season smile.

______________________

Thanks, David! Also celebrating a birthday today is Sylvia Plath, who would've been 75 years old.

OWL
—Sylvia Plath

Clocks belled twelve. Main street showed otherwise
Than its suburb of woods : nimbus—
Lit, but unpeopled, held its windows
Of wedding pastries,

Diamond rings, potted roses, fox-skins
Ruddy on the wax mannequins
In a glassed tableau of affluence.
From deep-sunk basements

What moved the pale, raptorial owl
Then, to squall above the level
Of streetlights and wires, its wall to wall
Wingspread in control

Of the ferrying currents, belly
Dense-feathered, fearfully soft to
Look upon? Rats' teeth gut the city
Shaken by owl cry.

_______________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Sacramento Poetry Day

Photo by Katy Brown, Davis

A SACRAMENTO COFFEE HOUSE
—Ann Menebroker, Sacramento

At Weatherstone's, I am
in diverse ambience
with an anonymous
collection of caffeine
addicts. We tug at
the idea of who
all of us are. Maybe one
of us is very
important. We don't pull
the thought too far
because no one really cares.
What we come for is to
forget definitions and to
watch ourselves come
and go, be small
within ourselves, be
large in gratuities.

______________________

THE SACRAMENTO RIVER ENTERS THE BAY
—Jeanine Stevens, Sacramento

The bay laps waters of books and letters,
everything we thought was history.

Watersheds run with hints of pine,
oak and lost ledgers, still releasing specks

of silver-gold dust. Just a small eddy,
one stone caught resting beneath

the Carquinez Straits. This day, no one
fishing or floating. And poets, with new

husbands, resting on gold bills, writing
hope and resolve through old and wavy glass.

_____________________

Today is Sacramento Poetry Day, as declared in 1986 by then-Mayor Ann Rudin and re-affirmed by Mayors Joe Serna and Heather Fargo. Our thanks to Ann Menebroker and Jeanine Stevens for the poems, and to Katy Brown for the photo.


This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight (Friday, Oct. 26), 7:30 pm: Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead. Escritores del Nuevo Sol/Writers of the New Sun offer poetry and music for this annual Mexican-originated celebration. Brought to the US by the Chicano movement, this has become a meaningful time of remembrance for people of many backgrounds to honor with joy those who have passed from their earthly life. One of a week’s full of related activities coordinated by La Raza Galeria Posada. $5 or free-will donation as you can afford. 1024 22nd St., Midtown Sacramento. Info: Graciela Ramirez (916-456-5323) or website: www.escritoresdelnuevosol.com/

•••Saturday (10/27), 7-9 PM: Michael Andrews & Wealth Bridge Financial Network present "The Show" poetry series, featuring International Slam Champion and world-renowned poet Talaam Acey from Baltimore (www.talaamacey.com), as well as house band LSB and house vocalist Chris Bush. This event will be held at the Guild Theater, across the street from the Wo’Se Community Center, 2828 35th St., off 35th and Broadway. $5. All ages are welcome and the open mic list will be open, so come get on stage! Info: Terry Moore at 916-208-POET.

•••Saturday (10/27), 7:30 PM: Chaos, Anarchy, and Lucid Unreason: Unheimlich Theater: Antonin Artaud & His Dopplegangers at The Book Collector has been cancelled.

•••Monday (10/29), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Halloween with Tuesday Night Workshop Ghastly Ghouls at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. A costume-optional reading with open mic and light consumables.

In case you don't know what the Tuesday Night Workshop is, it's the poetry workshop (sponsored by SPC) which is held each Tuesday night at the Hart Center on J St. in Sacramento under the capable directorship of Danyen Powell. This workshop has been going on for years and years; I personally was a participant for six or seven of those. I don't talk about it much because it always threatens to get too big, but it does present a unique opportunity to workshop your poems with other accomplished poets in a democratic, workmanlike setting. Many workshops are forums to read your poems and get only compliments (or silence); this one will actually give you some constructive criticism in an informal, supportive setting. The Tues. Night Workshop and the long-time participants who keep it going are one of the treasures of Sacramento poetry. Info: Danyen Powell, 530-756-6228, or go hear the members read next Monday night.

One more thing I would like to say: the whole Rattlesnake enterprise was actually born as a love-letter to the Tuesday Night Workshop. As a member, I was continually astounded at the richness of the poetry of Sacramento and its neighboring areas (many of the workshoppers come from areas outside of Sacramento), and Rattlesnake Review was born in an attempt to reflect that talent and to celebrate our area's poetry out of the shadow of the omnivorous Bay Area. Which, I think, our wily Snake still does. Hopefully. Thanks to you...!


Cleo Kocol's Column:

Cleo Fellers Kocol writes: My fourth column appears in The Sacramento Bee today, and should be seen in Rancho Cordova and the Mather area as well as South Placer. My first two columns were published in the South Placer area only, but once The Bee discovered I referred to people and events in other areas as well, the columns appear in the other areas, too. The column appears approximately once a month.

For those who have not read the column or checked it out on line, I do not tell people how to write poetry or make lists of poetry events. What I try to do is to educate the general public about the prevalence of poetry in our lives. For example one column connected a local poet with what she has done to get schools involved in poetry. Another told about the link between poetry and the movies. The current column shows how poetry keeps popping up at weddings. Next month the theme will be cowboy poetry.

While short poems will occasionally be used in the column, most of the poetry will be published on-line under "Placer Poetry". Send your poems, rich text format, 12 pt. font, Times New Roman to Placerpoetry@sacbee.com or to me at cburll@hotmail.com. It's faster if you send to me, but either e-mail is fine. I encourage people to send something that has already been published elsewhere, but that is not necessary.

____________________

SECRET OF LIFE
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

DNA is the secret of life, according
to the paper. Outside my window, Gray Squirrel
harvests pine nuts. Winter’s coming;
a squirrel’s too busy for life’s secrets.

The secret of life is a good cup of coffee,
sings Faith Hill. Or, a bird-bath
in drought, if I can believe Nuthatch
dipping for a drink, then gazing

heavenward. Secrets of life? Raven
flaps news of the first snow up-country.
I watch one bright yellow leaf depart
the old Black Oak; spiraling down,

does it have time to ponder
the secret of life? Rumi, too, said
something about such
secrets, if you can trust a poet:

We sometimes know, and then not
know. Is that why is the sky shines
today so heartbreak-
October-blue? It’s a secret.

____________________

Thanks, TG! Taylor Graham took Medusa's bait and wrote a poem about the secret of life. Now it's your turn. What is the secret of life? Send Medusa your "secrets of life" poems, art and/or photography by midnight next Monday, October 29, and I'll send you a free copy of Kate Wells' new rattlechap, Spiral, or whatever other rattlechap you're missing. That's kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Here are more gems, these from dawn dibartolo and James Lee Jobe:


small
—dawn dibartolo

how do i,
insignificant being
that i am,
express a gratitude for living
to the One who holds
life in the palm of His hand?
how can i possibly
cast a shadow unreflective
of the miniscule nature
of me
in order to pay homage
to the Sun?
my image is too small
to capture full meaning.
i can only pray
and hope my soul
conveys more weight.

____________________

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!
—James Lee Jobe, Davis

We are spirits inside of bodies, we come to this world to learn.
The spirits ride through life contained in the body the way that trees
contain birds, the way our poems sometimes contain lines that surprise us,
we didn't write the line, it just sort of happened.

I am a spirit that lives in this Jobe body, writing these poems,
and I choose the gods that I worship! I worship the Sun and the Moon,
the Sun and the Moon are the gods I love. I worship the Water and the Earth,
the Mother and the Father; they are the gods I pray to.

We are spirits inside of bodies, and it is no coincidence that we are born
free of hate, willing to love anyone who loves us, we are born not knowing
what hate is, but loving instantly. Life is beautiful! Praise the gods!
We are spirits in bodies, born to learn, born to love.

_____________________

THE SECRET OF LIFE

tiptoes around us, lighting torches
that turn the oaks into gold and
the pistache scarlet, send shudders
of rainbows down the spine of
the liquidambar. I have planted

a life-sized cement deer
squarely on the lawn. Stone though
he is, the secret of life plays
an all-day light show on his
back, his sharp white horns, and

the small bulge of his belly—
confusing the real buck (same size) who
stops and stares, then sniffs the wind
as he searches this blank cement face for
its secret of life…

—Kathy Kieth, Pollock Pines (with gratitude to the Tues. Nt. Workshop)

____________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Nobody is Ever Missing

John Berryman

DREAM SONG 1
—John Berryman

Huffy Henry hid the day,
unappeasable Henry sulked.
I see his point,—a trying to put things over.
It was the thought that they thought
they could do it made Henry wicked & away.
But he should have come out and talked.

All the world like a woolen lover
once did seem on Henry's side.
Then came a departure.
Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought.
I don't see how Henry, pried
open for all the world to see, survived.

What he has now to say is a long
wonder the world can bear & be.
Once in a sycamore I was glad
all at the top, and I sang.
Hard on the land wears the strong sea
and empty grows every bed.


Today, John Allyn Berryman (originally John Allyn Smith) would've been 93 years old. Go to www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15206 to hear him read.

______________________

CAN'T GIVE YOU UP, COME BACK TO ME
—Jane Blue, Sacramento

I’m a honeydew melon, didn’t you know?
I come from a house of straw
in the melon field. They didn’t know.
They thought the walls were wood and stucco,
they thought the house would last forever,
the house of the velvet sofa
and the lady chair. I spun through the rooms
singing abracadabra. I made myself up.
I was a harvester
of words, Precambrian
equisitum, horsetail growing on river banks
full of silicon, which became good
for scrubbing pots. They didn’t know.
They lived in a contraption
of old ideas, can’t give you up. Cornflower
come back to me. They mow you down
you come back up, azure eyes in the melon field.
I would be the lady chair
that nobody sat in, I would be kick and waltz
but never march. My drum was
rapture. No one knew. Lavender
on the dresser, how secret it was.
I come from a place of secret lavender.
I’m a honeydew melon, didn’t you know?

(from an afternoon of writing with Susan Wooldridge)

______________________

Thanks, Jane! Jane Blue took yesterday's Medusa challenge; now it's your turn. What is the secret of life? Send Medusa your "secrets of life" poems, art and/or photography by midnight next Monday, October 29, and I'll send you a free copy of Kate Wells' new rattlechap, Spiral, or whatever other rattlechap you're missing. That's kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.

While we wait, here's one from David Humphreys:

HONEY FROM THE ROCK
—David Humphreys, Stockton
(from Psalm 81)

Desert whispers close in your ears
with wind blown sand and trees long
ago harvested for campfires, sheaves
of wheat and bundled wool with Lebanese
Cedar having built caskets fine as
Kentucky yellow pine or as Queequeg
would have had his Koa for a chieftain’s
carving, whichever flag or continent folded
and lain to rest with a taste of light honey-
suckle sunsets smelling of hammer-struck
granite for lasting awhile, eroding headstone.


Thanks, David!

____________________

DREAM SONG 107
—John Berryman

Three 'coons come at his garbage. He be cross,
I figuring porcupine & took Sir poker
unbarring Mr door,
& then screen door. Ah, but the little 'coon,
hardly a foot (not counting tail) got in with
two more at the porch-edge

and they swirled, before some two swerve off
this side of crab tree, and my dear friend held
with the torch in his tiny eyes
two feet off, banded, but then he gave &
shot away too. They were all the same size,
maybe they were brothers,

it seems, and is, clear to me we are brothers.
I wish the rabbit & the 'coons could be friends,
I'm sorry about the poker
but I'm too busy now for nipping or quills
I've given up literature & taken down pills,
and that rabbit doesn't trust me.

_____________________

DREAM SONG 29
—John Berryman

There sat down, once, a thing on Henry's heart
só heavy, if he had a hundred years
& more, & weeping, sleepless, in all them time
Henry could not make good.
Starts again always in Henry's ears
the little cough somewhere, an odour, a chime.

And there is another thing he has in mind
like a grave Sienese face a thousand years
would fail to blur the still profiled reproach of. Ghastly,
with open eyes, he attends, blind.
All the bells say: too late. This is not for tears;
thinking.

But never did Henry, as he thought he did,
end anyone and hacks her body up
and hide the pieces, where they may be found.
He knows: he went over everyone, & nobody's missing.
Often he reckons, in the dawn, them up.
Nobody is ever missing.

____________________

—Medusa (what IS the secret of life?)

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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Secrets of Life

Denise Levertov

CELEBRATION
—Denise Levertov

Brilliant, this day—a young virtuoso of a day.
Morning shadow cut by sharpest scissors,
deft hands. And every prodigy of green—
whether it's ferns or lichens or needles
or impatient points of buds on spindly bushes—
greener than ever before. And the way the conifers
hold new cones to the light for the blessing,
a festive right, and sing the oceanic chant the wind
transcribes for them!
A day that shines in the cold
like a first-prize brass band swinging along
the street
of a coal-dusty village, wholly at odds
with the claims of reasonable gloom.

____________________

Today Denise Levertov would've been 84 years old.


Tonight in Placerville: Upstairs Poetry!

The Hidden Passage poetry readings have moved to The Upstairs Art Gallery, 420 Main St (2nd floor), Placerville; same time, 6-7 PM, on the 4th Wednesday of the month. The first Upstairs reading will be tonight, Wednesday, Oct. 24th. 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. No charge.


Calendar addition for this week:

•••Tomorrow (Thursday, 10/25), 7-9:30 PM: Writers Read in Ukiah (Colored Horse Studio, 780 Waugh Lane) will feature two excellent poets reading from their latest books: Alta Ifland and Stephen Kessler. Alta Ifland grew up in Eastern Europe, studied literature and philosophy in France and now lives in California. Her prose poems and short stories have most recently appeared or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Parthenon West Review, The Bathyspheric Review, Santa Clara Review, Pacific Review, Café Irreal, ArLiJo, The Cream City Review, Action Yes, Bitter Oleander, AGNI, The Redwood Coast Review, and the anthologies, Tartts Three (Livingston Press) and Poetry Without Borders (Gival Press). She will be reading from her newly-published bilingual (French-English) collection of prose poems, Voice of Ice (Les Figues Press). Stephen Kessler is a poet, prose writer, translator and editor whose work has appeared widely and variously in the independent literary and alternative press over the last 40 years. He is the author of eight books and chapbooks of original poetry, most recently Burning Daylight (due this fall from Littoral Press), and more than a dozen books of translation, most recently Written in Water: The Prose Poems of Luis Cernuda (City Lights, winner of a 2004 Lambda Literary Award). He is a contributing editor of Poetry Flash and editor of The Redwood Coast Review, a highly regarded literary newspaper published in Gualala. For more about Stephen Kessler, visit www.stephenkessler.com/. Followed by open mic and refreshments. Donation requested. Colored Horse Studio is on Waugh Lane between Gobbi Street and Talmage Road. Info: (707) 463-6989, (707) 462-4557, www.coloredhorse.com or www.poetryflash.org/.

Calendar subtraction for Saturday:

Unheimlich's Theatre of the Uncanny and presentation of poetry, which was scheduled for this Saturday at the The Book Collector, has been cancelled.


Poet's Corner Sonnet Contest Winners:

David Humphreys is pleased to announce that this year's Poet's Corner Sonnet Contest Winner, judged by Susan Kelly-DeWitt, is Lynette Moyer of Longmont Colorado for her sonnet: "The Tuner". 1st Honorable Mention is Sacramento's own Allegra Silberstein for "My Empty Footsteps", and Marie Myers Lloyd of Kingston, Ontario, Canada for "Confinement". Please see: http://www.poetscornerpress.com/press2.html#THE_TUNER

____________________

THE GREAT BLACK HERON
—Denise Levertov

Since I stroll in the woods more often
than on this frequented path, it's usually
trees I observe; but among fellow humans
what I like best is to see an old woman
fishing alone at the end of a jetty,
hours on end, plainly content.
The Russians mushroom-hunting after a rain
trail after themselves a world of red sarafans,
nightingales, samovars, stoves to sleep on
(though without doubt those are not
what they can remember). Vietnamese families
fishing or simply sitting as close as they can
to the water, make me recall that lake in Hanoi
in the amber light, our first, jet-lagged evening,
peace in the war we had come to witness.
This woman engaged in her pleasure evokes
an entire culture, tenacious field-flower
growing itself among the rows of cotton
in red-earth country, under the feet
of mules and masters. I see her
a barefoot child by a muddy river
learning her skill with the pole. What battles
has she survived, what labors?
She's gathered up all the time in the world
—nothing else—and waits for scanty trophies,
complete in herself as a heron.

______________________

THE SECRET
—Denise Levertov

Two girls discover
the secret of life
in a sudden line of
poetry.

I who don't know the
secret wrote
the line. They
told me

(through a third person)
they had found it
but not what it was
not even

what line it was. No doubt
by now, more than a week
later, they have forgotten
the secret,

the line, the name of
the poem. I love them
for finding what
I can't find,

and for loving me
for the line I wrote,
and for forgetting it
so that

a thousand times, till death
finds them, they may
discover it again, in other
lines

in other
happenings. And for
wanting to know it,
for

assuming there is
such a secret, yes,
for that
most of all.

_____________________

What is the secret of life? Send Medusa your "secrets of life" poems, art and/or photography by midnight next Monday, October 29, and I'll send you a free copy of Kate Wells' new rattlechap, Spiral, or whatever other rattlechap you're missing. That's kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

The Meed of Thy Song

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

INSCRIPTION FOR A FOUNTAIN ON A HEATH
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge

This Sycamore, oft musical with bees,—
Such tents the Patriarchs loved! O long unharmed
May all its agèd boughs o'er-canopy
The small round basin, which this jutting stone
Keeps pure from falling leaves! Long may the Spring,
Quietly as a sleeping infant's breath,
Send up cold waters to the traveller
With soft and even pulse! Nor ever cease
Yon tiny cone of sand its soundless dance,
Which at the bottom, like a Fairy's Page,
As merry and no taller, dances still,
Nor wrinkles the smooth surface of the Fount.
Here Twilight is and Coolness: here is moss,
A soft seat, and a deep and ample shade.
Thou may'st toil far and find no second tree.
Drink, Pilgrim, here; Here rest! and if thy heart
Be innocent, here too shalt thou refresh
Thy spirit, listening to some gentle sound,
Or passing gale or hum of murmuring bees!

____________________

Thanks, Sam! Last Sunday, Samuel Coleridge would've been 235 years old.


Submissions: More chances to publish:

Ellen Bass occasionally sends around an e-mail with various opportunities listed for writers; here are a few that might be of interest to SnakePals:

•••Coming Anthology: Deadline: February 29, 2008: Poems wanted from women poets over 60. Looking for work that gives full and honest voice to women's lives. Submit up to 5 poems (33-line maximum), a three-line bio, and SASE to Robin Chapman & Jeri McCormick, Editors, 205 N. Blackhawk Ave., Madison, WI 53705.

•••Jewish Feminists and Our Fathers: Reflections Across Gender and Generations. A special issue of Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal. Deadline: July 15, 2008. Guest edited by Rebecca Alpert and Laura Levitt. We welcome poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction and artwork as well as essays. We are also interested in review essays on films, books, and websites that address these issues. We welcome submissions of personal essays (8000 words or less), art (black and white only), and review essays about Jewish feminist daughters and fathers for the Spring 2009 issue of Bridges. We imagine that there are many Jewish feminists who have important things to say about their own complicated relationships to their fathers. We hope these contributions will build on the legacy of Jewish feminist writing about fathers that began with Adrienne Rich's now classic essay, "Split at the Root." Info: Laura Levitt and/or Rebecca Alpert at llevitt@temple.edu and ralpert@temple.edu/. For more information on Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal go to http://bridgesjournal.org or email clare@bridgesjournal.org/.

•••Sacred Fools Press: Americana Poetry deadline: January 15, 2008. Send us your poems about American icons and experience. Drive down that road in that classic car. Retell the tales of Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan. Deconstruct American Gothic. Get nostalgic. Get bitter. Show us humor. Political poems given consideration, but should have a general audience appeal. Submit poems as text in email and 20-word-or-less bio to: sacredfoolspress@yahoo.com/.

•••Speaking of classic autos, don't forget The Towe Auto Museum's Fourth Annual Automotive Poetry Contest for poems related in some way to the automobile or some form of personal land transportation. Deadline is November 10, 2007. First prize winner receives $200, second prize is $100 and third prize is $50. Chapbooks of past years' submissions are available in the Museum’s Gift Shop, or post-paid for $7.00. Info on how to submit: PoetryContest@ToweAutoMuseum.org or (916) 442-6802. The winning poems will be posted on the Towe website at www.toweautomuseum.org by February 1st, 2008.

•••Taj Mahal Review wants submissions for publication in December, 2007. Currently reviewing poems/short stories for the 12th Issue of Taj Mahal Review, International Literary Journal (Print Journal). http://cyberwit.net/taj.htm/ or http://cyberwit.net/praise.htm/. Karunesh Agrawal, Dy. Managing Editor (TMR), 4/2B, L.I.G., Govindpur Colony, Allahabad-211004 (U.P.), India.

•••2008 New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition. Deadline: Feb. 15, 2008 (postmark). A prize of $1,000 and publication will be awarded by Finishing Line Press for a chapbook-length poetry collection. Open to women who have never before published a full-length poetry collection, although previous chapbook publication does not disqualify. All entries will be considered for publication. The top-ten finalists will be offered publication. Submit up to 26 pages of poetry, plus bio, acknowledgments, SASE and cover letter with a $15 entry fee. Judith Montgomery will be the final judge. Winner will be announced on our website: www.finishinglinepress.com/. Send to 2008 New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition, Finishing Line Press, P.O. Box 1626, Georgetown, KY 40324.

•••Contrary accepts submissions of commentary, fiction, poetry, and especially work that combines the virtues of those categories through our online submission form only. They pay upon publication. Please familiarize yourself with the work they have published and review the submission guidelines before deciding whether to submit. Info: www.contrarymagazine.com/. Contrary is a quarterly literary journal founded at the University of Chicago and operated independently on the South Side of Chicago.

•••Bob Fenster’s Interesting Book Project: His book is called Notes on the Day, and it works like this: Bob is asking a lot of interesting people to tell him the three most interesting things that happen to them on Friday, November 16, 2007. These could be things that happen to you, something you’re told, you overhear, you observe, an adventure or misadventure, or something you think about. It’s really wide open. The idea behind the book is that insights into the everyday can be fascinating. By putting together notes from different people, we’ll draw a group portrait of what would be an ordinary day in our lives, except that we’re all taking notes. Take a day or two after November 16 to write up your notes. Or just send him your notes as you write them on that day to Bob at: notes@baymoon.com/. Please use cut-and-paste, no attachments. Or put your notes on paper and mail them to: Bob Fenster, 323 Martin Drive, Aptos, CA 95003. Please include your name, occupation and what part of the world you were in on that day. Bob would appreciate your sending this request on to friends, family, co-workers and others you think would be interested in taking part in the project. He’s really looking forward to it, and he thinks it will make a fascinating book. So mark your calendar for November 16, 2007. He will send out a reminder early that week. Bob Fenster, notes@baymoon.com or (831) 685-1717. (Bob is a writer and has several books, calendars, etc. out there. He wrote Duh! and Stupid Things That Famous People Do — and more...)

____________________

FRAGMENT 10: THE THREE SORTS OF FRIENDS
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Though friendships differ endless in degree ,
The sorts, methinks, may be reduced to three.
Acquaintance many, and Conquaintance few;
But for Inquaintance I know only two—
The friend I've mourned with, and the maid I woo!

____________________

FRAGMENT 2: I KNOW 'TIS BUT A DREAM, YET FEEL MORE ANGUISH
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I know 'tis but a Dream, yet feel more anguish
Than if 'twere Truth. It has been often so:
Must I die under it? Is no one near?
Will no one hear these stifled groans and wake me?

______________________

FRAGMENT 5: WHOM SHOULD I CHOOSE FOR MY JUDGE?
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Whom should I choose for my Judge? the earnest, impersonal reader,
Who, in the work, forgets me and the world and himself!

Ye who have eyes to detect, and Gall to Chastise the imperfect,
Have you the heart, too, that loves, feels and rewards the Compleat?

What is the meed of thy Song? 'Tis the ceaseless, the thousandfold Echo
Which from the welcoming Hearts of the Pure repeats and prolongs it,
Each with a different Tone, compleat or in musical fragments.

_____________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.