Do Snakes See Their Shadows?

Prism Vision
Donald Anderson, Farmington

PRISM VISION
—Carol Louise Moon, Sacramento

Pink snuck up on Yellow
tapping her on the shoulder
with an orange triangular object.

Both peered cautiously
into the navy blue door
floating over blue ice water
in the Winter of 2007.

Suddenly rotating in tangerine, forest
and dark periwinkle
the Great Door gathered up both
Pink, Yellow and all
the intruders who had invited
themselves to tea

rolling them over a
turquoise cliff
into the chilling air and purple haze
of February 2008—
with no one asking why
and no one giving permission.

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Thanks, Don and Carol! Donald Anderson's computer piece, "Prism Vision" appeared in Rattlesnake Review #16, which came out in December, and Carol Louise Moon writes: I have written a little ekphrasis to Donald Anderson's "Prism Vision", page 30, which fascinated me. I just love his computer work. We got lots of other compliments on Donald's work, too.

And yes, it's about that time again: February 15, the next deadline for Rattlesnake Review, is coming up in just a couple of weeks! Send 3-5 poems, art, photos, or ideas for reviews and interviews and other articles to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No cover letter, bio, previously-published work or simultaneous submissions, please.

Today, February 1, brings the Snake out of hibernation; his winter vacation is officially over. We got six or eight inches of snow yesterday up here in Pollock Pines, and more before that, so it sure looks like winter around here. And today the sun is out—but hopefully the lazy Snake won't see his shadow when he wakes up, use that as an excuse to go back to bed...

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A weekend with Neeli Cherkovski:

Coming in March: A Writer’s Weekend: Poetry and Prose with Neeli Cherkovski. Explore your writing mind with Neeli Cherkovski, recipient of a PEN Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature. Participants will write in class, read from their own work, and will begin writing a spiritual autobiography. Cherkovski is also a 2006 Friends of the San Francisco Public Library Literary Laureate. The SF Chronicle says in a review, “What stamps Cherkovski's poetry as unique is its unbounded lyricism, a lyrical gift easily greater than that of any other poet of his generation.” Among his books are Animal, Leaning Against Time, Whitman’s Wild Children, and Bukowski: A Life. He is currently completing a memoir and a new collection of poems.

A Writer’s Weekend will be held in San Francisco (Bernal Heights) on Sat.-Sun., March 1-2 or Sat.-Sun., March 29-30. Class is limited to eight participants; please call or write for information: 415-215-8190 or cherkovski@earthlink.net/.

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This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight (Friday, 2/1), 7:30-9 PM: The Other Voice, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, 27074 Patwin Road presents an award-winning husband and wife poetry team: Carol and Laverne Frith. They are the founders and Co-Editors of the poetry journal, Ekphrasis, and both have been widely published. Carol Frith has three chapbooks: Moving Like a Blue Flame (winner of the 2001 Medicinal Purposes chapbook competition), In and Out of Light (Bacchae Press 2002), and Never Enough Zeros (Palanquin Press 2002). Her poetry has appeared in Midwest Quarterly, Eclipse, Seattle Review, Clackamas, Cutbank, Sow’s Ear, Chariton Review, Cumberland Review, Measure, Poetry New York, Baltimore Review, Maryland Poetry Review, Interim, Phoebe (NY), Switched-On Gutenberg, Spillway, Asheville Poetry Review, The Literary Review, Smartish Pace, & others. A poem of Carol’s received Special Mention in the 2003 Pushcart Prize Anthology.

Laverne Frith has chapbooks from Talent House and White Heron Press, and Drinking The Light was recently released from Finishing Line Press. In addition to a Pushcart Prize nomination, Laverne was runner-up for the 2004, 2005, & 2006 Louisiana Literature Prize In Poetry. His poetry has been accepted or appeared in Poetry New York, Christian Science Monitor, Sundog, Comstock, Montserrat, California Quarterly, Song of the San Joaquin, Dalhousie, Perihelion, Architrave, Maryland Poetry Review, Sonoma Mandala, New Laurel Review, Permafrost, Main Street Rag, New Zoo Poetry Review, Blue Unicorn, Kimera, etc. He has won honors and awards in a number of poetry competitions.

The reading will be held in the library of the Church. Refreshments and Open Mike follow, so bring along a poem or two to share.

•••Saturday (2/2), 11 AM: Monthly writing/meeting/potluck for The Writers of the New Sun/Escritores del Nuevo Sol at La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022 – 22nd St., Sacramento. Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol/Writers of the New Sun is a literary community that was established in 1993, primarily to foster and honor the literary arts of the cultures & traditions of Chicano, Native American and Spanish-language communities. Members write in English, Spanish, or both, and the group has published an anthology, Voces del Nuevo Sol/Voices of the New Sun. Info: 916- 456-5323. The public is welcome to all activities. Website: www.escritoresdelnuevosol.com/.

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IN MEMORY OF THE SPANISH POET FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
—Thomas Merton

Where the white bridge rears up its stamping arches
Proud as a colt across the clatter of the shallow river,
The sharp guitars
Have never forgotten your name.

Only the swordspeech of the cruel strings
Can pierce the minds of those who remain,
Sitting in the eyeless ruins of the houses,
The shelter of the broken wall.

A woman has begun to sing:
O music the color of olives!
Her eyes are darker than the deep cathedrals;
Her words come dressed as mourners,
In the gate of her shadowy voice,
Each with a meaning like a sheaf of seven blades!

The spires and high Giraldas, still as nails
Nailed in the four cross roads,
Watch where the song becomes the color of carnations,
And flowers like wounds in the white dust of Spain.

(Under what crossless Calvary lie your lost bones, Garcia Lorca?
What white Sierra hid your murder in a rocky valley?)

In the four quarters of the world, the wind is still,
And wonders at the swordplay of the fierce guitar:
The voice has turned to iron in the naked air,
More loud and more despairing than a ruined tower.

(Under what crossless Calvary lie your lost bones, Garcia Lorca?
What white Sierra hid your murder in a rocky valley?)


(Today, Thomas Merton would've been 92 years old.)


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—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.) 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:

Rattlesnake Review: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (Sweet 16) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you one. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15—sooner than you think!

Also coming in February: On February 13, Rattlesnake Press will present a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Don and Elsie Feliz (To Berlin With Love), plus a new littlesnake broadside from Carlena Wike (Going the Distance), as well as Volume Two of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series. Come help us launch all of this on Weds., Feb. 13 at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM.