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/.
—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.
