TAIL SPIN
—David Humphreys, Stockton
Rolling up and over, uplifted weightless to
dive out of formation to a sudden flak hit
shrapnel ripped gaping wound, swung round
and round down plummeting to earth in a fire
ball flower inferno. Only later, as you walk away
in one piece from the Matinee Cinema, do you
remember that it may have been that specific set
of actions needed to effect an aerial recovery,
somehow miraculously occurring as you see it
through a vertigo haze of hindsight that has
returned you to the movie theater of your mind’s
eye numb as a dreamless manikin at the same time
vicariously lit up by a shot of adrenalin as you also
remember the only time you ever had trouble flying
was from a snow-covered runway in Rifle hit by
claustrophobia in a small two engine cockpit that
became a dry cotton mouth and flushed hot face of,
it must have been the beer, armchair gripping fear
so much different from when the 707 reversed its
engines and you spun off the runway at LAX surprised
but too young to know better, not really scared a year
before Kennedy was shot in Dallas and you learned
about death for first time. So, who ever thought it was
ok for your particular Icarus to take off in the fog
on that Canary Islands runway? Are you serious?
_____________________
Thanks, David, for the wonderful poem and pic! Poets and Death: like the mongoose and the cobra, we can't seem to leave it alone. Pick up any book of poetry and there it is, staring back at you from half the pages. Or is it death we're talking about....?
from THE SHIP OF DEATH
—D.H. Lawrence
5
Build then the ship of death, for you must take
the longest journey, to oblivion.
And die the death, the long and painful death
that lies between the old self and the new.
Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised,
already our souls are oozing through the exit
of the cruel bruise.
Already the dark endless ocean of the end
is washing in through the breeches of our wounds,
already the flood is upon us.
O build your ship of death, your little ark
and furnish it with food, with little cakes, and wine
for the dark flight down oblivion.
_____________________
EGYPTIAN POEM
—Anonymous
Death is before me to-day,
Like the recovery of a sick man,
Like going forth into a garden after sickness;
Death is before me to-day,
Like the odour of myrrh,
Like sitting under the sail on a windy day;
Death is before me to-day,
Like the odour of lotus flowers,
Like sitting on the shore of drunkenness;
Death is before me to-day,
Like the course of the freshet,
Like the return of a man from the war-galley to his house,
When he has spent years in captivity.
____________________
This weekend in NorCal:
•••Tonight (Friday, 10/19), 7 PM: Our House poetry reading in El Dorado Hills: Featured readers are Chris Olander and Kathryn Smith. An open mike follows. Our House Gallery & Framing is located at 4510 Post St. in El Dorado Hills Town Center. Free.
•••Saturday (10/20), 8 PM: 3rd Eye Collective presents: AI Live is back! Sol Collective Gallery in Sacramento, 2010 Del Paso Boulevard. Doors open and Open Mic/Freestyle Battle sign-ups start @ 7:07 PM. This month features Freex, Akronems, Justin Scales and N2Deep! All ages! $10 at the door. Info: www.myspace.com/3rdeyecollective or www.youtube.com/3rdeyecollective. Conocida, 3rd Eye Collective Business Manager, 925.565.3579, conocida3ec@yahoo.com or www.artisticinsomnia.com
•••Saturday (10/20), 7-9 PM: B.L. Kennedy, Lori Jean Robinson, Random Abiladeze and Taifa Jamari read at the Underground Poetry Series, Underground Books, 2814 35th St., (35th & Broadway), Sacramento. $3. Info: 916-737-3333. [See the Ticket section of today's Sacramento Bee for a picture of B.L. Kennedy.]
•••Sunday (10/21—not Saturday, like we erroneously posted yesterday) at the Sacramento Central Library (818 I St.): 150th Anniversary Party begins at 11 AM with the Opening Ceremony and Sacramento Taiko Dan. Festivities continue until 4 PM with music, book-signings, family entertainment (including puppet show at 3 PM), and various events at Cesar Chavez Park (9th & I), including book sale, food booths, free Velocab and Choo Choo Express rides, Damento Juggling club, goldpanning and more. Info and schedule: 916-264-2920 or saclibrary.org.
Coming next Monday:
•••Monday (10/22), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Phoebe Wayne and Francisco Reinking, 1719 25th Street. Light food and beverages will be available, plus open mic. Phoebe Wayne received an MA in creative writing from UC Davis. She currently lives and writes in San Rafael, California. Some of her poems appear in West Wind Review, Gumball Poetry, and Greenbelt Review. She is working on a manuscript that might still be titled Into Scale, and enjoys experimenting with poetry and visual media. Francisco Reinking was born in Mexico City and raised in Santa Monica. In 2005 he graduated with an MA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from UC Davis. He currently lives and works in Berkeley. He is the winner of the Barratt-Brown Memorial Prize for critical writing, and his work has appeared in Greenbelt Review, West Wind Review, and Zyzzyva. He has worked as a masonry worker, laborer, archivist, and photographer for the National Park Service.
•••Monday (10/22), 11 AM: Mark Doty will be speaking at Stanford University in Palo Alto at a colloquium in the Terrace Rm. of Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg. 460). Then, on Tuesday (10/23), 8 PM, he will be reading in Cubberley Auditorium.
Wanna workshop? Wanna get outta town?
Two workshop possibilities with well-known people:
•••Kim Addonizio holds eight-session ones in the Bay Area, $375. Supportive groups, weekly critiques and writing ideas. Kim is a National Book Award Finalist, Guggenheim/NEA recipient, author of four books of poetry, as well as co-author of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Info: http://www.kimaddonizio.com; contact kimaddonizio@comcast.net
•••Jane Hirshfield will be teaching the poetry section of a workshop in Guatemala (Lake Atitlan) from Feb. 9-17, 2008. Full description available at: http://www.joycemaynard.com/writing-workshops/lake-atitlan.shtml/. Besides poetry, the workshop will include Memoir (Joyce Maynard) and Fiction (Robert Bausch).
____________________
One of our rattlechappers and a frequent contributor to Rattlesnake Review, Patricia Wellingham-Jones, is currently featured on PoetryMagazine.com. Go to www.poetrymagazine.com/current_poetry/index.html and click on her name on the right-hand side. Cool!
Let's let Emmy-D have the last word on Death. Which poem to choose? She had so many about It:
712
Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.
We slowly drove—He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility—
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess—in the Ring—
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—
We passed the Setting Sun—
Or rather—He passes Us—
The Dews drew quivering and chill—
For only Gossamer, my Gown—
My Tippet—only Tulle—
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground—
The Roof was scarcely visible—
The Cornice—in the Ground—
Since then—'tis Centuries—and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity—
—Emily Dickinson
_____________________
883
The Poets light but Lamps—
Themselves—go out—
The Wicks they stimulate—
If vital Light
Inhere as do the Suns—
Each Age a Lens
Disseminating their
Circumference—
—Emily Dickinson
_____________________
—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:
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.
—David Humphreys, Stockton
Rolling up and over, uplifted weightless to
dive out of formation to a sudden flak hit
shrapnel ripped gaping wound, swung round
and round down plummeting to earth in a fire
ball flower inferno. Only later, as you walk away
in one piece from the Matinee Cinema, do you
remember that it may have been that specific set
of actions needed to effect an aerial recovery,
somehow miraculously occurring as you see it
through a vertigo haze of hindsight that has
returned you to the movie theater of your mind’s
eye numb as a dreamless manikin at the same time
vicariously lit up by a shot of adrenalin as you also
remember the only time you ever had trouble flying
was from a snow-covered runway in Rifle hit by
claustrophobia in a small two engine cockpit that
became a dry cotton mouth and flushed hot face of,
it must have been the beer, armchair gripping fear
so much different from when the 707 reversed its
engines and you spun off the runway at LAX surprised
but too young to know better, not really scared a year
before Kennedy was shot in Dallas and you learned
about death for first time. So, who ever thought it was
ok for your particular Icarus to take off in the fog
on that Canary Islands runway? Are you serious?
_____________________
Thanks, David, for the wonderful poem and pic! Poets and Death: like the mongoose and the cobra, we can't seem to leave it alone. Pick up any book of poetry and there it is, staring back at you from half the pages. Or is it death we're talking about....?
from THE SHIP OF DEATH
—D.H. Lawrence
5
Build then the ship of death, for you must take
the longest journey, to oblivion.
And die the death, the long and painful death
that lies between the old self and the new.
Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised,
already our souls are oozing through the exit
of the cruel bruise.
Already the dark endless ocean of the end
is washing in through the breeches of our wounds,
already the flood is upon us.
O build your ship of death, your little ark
and furnish it with food, with little cakes, and wine
for the dark flight down oblivion.
_____________________
EGYPTIAN POEM
—Anonymous
Death is before me to-day,
Like the recovery of a sick man,
Like going forth into a garden after sickness;
Death is before me to-day,
Like the odour of myrrh,
Like sitting under the sail on a windy day;
Death is before me to-day,
Like the odour of lotus flowers,
Like sitting on the shore of drunkenness;
Death is before me to-day,
Like the course of the freshet,
Like the return of a man from the war-galley to his house,
When he has spent years in captivity.
____________________
This weekend in NorCal:
•••Tonight (Friday, 10/19), 7 PM: Our House poetry reading in El Dorado Hills: Featured readers are Chris Olander and Kathryn Smith. An open mike follows. Our House Gallery & Framing is located at 4510 Post St. in El Dorado Hills Town Center. Free.
•••Saturday (10/20), 8 PM: 3rd Eye Collective presents: AI Live is back! Sol Collective Gallery in Sacramento, 2010 Del Paso Boulevard. Doors open and Open Mic/Freestyle Battle sign-ups start @ 7:07 PM. This month features Freex, Akronems, Justin Scales and N2Deep! All ages! $10 at the door. Info: www.myspace.com/3rdeyecollective or www.youtube.com/3rdeyecollective. Conocida, 3rd Eye Collective Business Manager, 925.565.3579, conocida3ec@yahoo.com or www.artisticinsomnia.com
•••Saturday (10/20), 7-9 PM: B.L. Kennedy, Lori Jean Robinson, Random Abiladeze and Taifa Jamari read at the Underground Poetry Series, Underground Books, 2814 35th St., (35th & Broadway), Sacramento. $3. Info: 916-737-3333. [See the Ticket section of today's Sacramento Bee for a picture of B.L. Kennedy.]
•••Sunday (10/21—not Saturday, like we erroneously posted yesterday) at the Sacramento Central Library (818 I St.): 150th Anniversary Party begins at 11 AM with the Opening Ceremony and Sacramento Taiko Dan. Festivities continue until 4 PM with music, book-signings, family entertainment (including puppet show at 3 PM), and various events at Cesar Chavez Park (9th & I), including book sale, food booths, free Velocab and Choo Choo Express rides, Damento Juggling club, goldpanning and more. Info and schedule: 916-264-2920 or saclibrary.org.
Coming next Monday:
•••Monday (10/22), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Phoebe Wayne and Francisco Reinking, 1719 25th Street. Light food and beverages will be available, plus open mic. Phoebe Wayne received an MA in creative writing from UC Davis. She currently lives and writes in San Rafael, California. Some of her poems appear in West Wind Review, Gumball Poetry, and Greenbelt Review. She is working on a manuscript that might still be titled Into Scale, and enjoys experimenting with poetry and visual media. Francisco Reinking was born in Mexico City and raised in Santa Monica. In 2005 he graduated with an MA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from UC Davis. He currently lives and works in Berkeley. He is the winner of the Barratt-Brown Memorial Prize for critical writing, and his work has appeared in Greenbelt Review, West Wind Review, and Zyzzyva. He has worked as a masonry worker, laborer, archivist, and photographer for the National Park Service.
•••Monday (10/22), 11 AM: Mark Doty will be speaking at Stanford University in Palo Alto at a colloquium in the Terrace Rm. of Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg. 460). Then, on Tuesday (10/23), 8 PM, he will be reading in Cubberley Auditorium.
Wanna workshop? Wanna get outta town?
Two workshop possibilities with well-known people:
•••Kim Addonizio holds eight-session ones in the Bay Area, $375. Supportive groups, weekly critiques and writing ideas. Kim is a National Book Award Finalist, Guggenheim/NEA recipient, author of four books of poetry, as well as co-author of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Info: http://www.kimaddonizio.com; contact kimaddonizio@comcast.net
•••Jane Hirshfield will be teaching the poetry section of a workshop in Guatemala (Lake Atitlan) from Feb. 9-17, 2008. Full description available at: http://www.joycemaynard.com/writing-workshops/lake-atitlan.shtml/. Besides poetry, the workshop will include Memoir (Joyce Maynard) and Fiction (Robert Bausch).
____________________
One of our rattlechappers and a frequent contributor to Rattlesnake Review, Patricia Wellingham-Jones, is currently featured on PoetryMagazine.com. Go to www.poetrymagazine.com/current_poetry/index.html and click on her name on the right-hand side. Cool!
Let's let Emmy-D have the last word on Death. Which poem to choose? She had so many about It:
712
Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.
We slowly drove—He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility—
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess—in the Ring—
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—
We passed the Setting Sun—
Or rather—He passes Us—
The Dews drew quivering and chill—
For only Gossamer, my Gown—
My Tippet—only Tulle—
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground—
The Roof was scarcely visible—
The Cornice—in the Ground—
Since then—'tis Centuries—and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity—
—Emily Dickinson
_____________________
883
The Poets light but Lamps—
Themselves—go out—
The Wicks they stimulate—
If vital Light
Inhere as do the Suns—
Each Age a Lens
Disseminating their
Circumference—
—Emily Dickinson
_____________________
—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:
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.
