Feeding Our Ever-Hungry Poetic Souls

Katy Brown, Davis

FOUNTAIN
—Joy Harold Helsing, Magalia

Six bronze trout
stand erect
on curved tails
in a shallow pool
water spouting
from open mouths

Fish
line dancing

_________________

Thanks, Joy! Joy Harold Helsing's work regularly appears in Rattlesnake Review.

The cheery face in the photo is Katy Brown, Rattlesnake Review columnist ("Snake Eyes"), poet, photographer, SpiralChapper (The Quality of Light), and inaugurator of our Rattlesnake HandyStuff Series last December with her perpetual calendar, A Poet's Book of Days. Now, on Wednesday, April 9, Katy will release her new HandyStuff journal series; the first is entitled Musings (For Capturing Creative Thought) and is a collection of photos and prompts to stir up the minds of poets and non-poets alike. For more info on Katy (and a slightly-more up-to-date photo), check out her page on rattlesnakepress.com (click on SnakeRings SpiralChaps in the menu or Handystuff). Medusa also featured Katy one day last year; click on March, 2007 in the column to the right of this one and scroll down to March 24.

Joy Helsing was also featured on Medusa last year: October 11, 2007.

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Speaking of HandyStuff, today is the inauguration of yet another new Medusa feature: HandyStuff Quickies, a weekly celebration of poetic tools. It's all about favorite poetry resources: books, CD's, your favorite journals to read, your favorite journals to submit to, organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! So Wednesday is Tool Day; send me ideas about what greases your wheels, poetically speaking...

I'll start with Michael Bugeja, an astoundingly prolific author of books about writing and an ex-editor of Poet's Market. Many poets enjoy his classic, The Art And Craft of Poetry, which can be had on Amazon (used) for the amazing price of 44¢!! (Yes, cents!) But today I'd like to extol his Poet's Guide: How to Publish and Perform Your Work (1995), which Amazon (used) has listed for as low as 32¢. There aren't too many books available on these specific subjects, and I think his is excellent, even though I don't necessarily agree with everything he says. In fact, I regularly hand out one of the chapters to brand-new rattlechappers. So check it out. And send me news of your HandyStuff. Wednesday is Tool Day!

SnakePal Ellaraine Lockie writes: I have an hour-long interview on Coffee House to Go: http://coffeehousetogo.blogspot.com/2008/03/coffee-house-to-gos-
across-mic-march-21.html. Ellaraine is also a long-time SnakePal; her work can regularly be seen in Rattlesnake Review.

I got a kick out of this picture on the current Poets & Writers e-newsletter. They used it to call attention to the various contests they have listed. Those must be $1 bills she's holding; nobody's gonna get rich off of winning poetry contests!

But anyway, here are a few journal submissions opportunities. Publishing is its own reward, right?

•••Call for submissions: Canary, a new, on-line magazine devoted to nature and the environmental seeks poems, essays, short fiction and memoir on nature and the environmental crisis. Emphasis on craft and ability to move. Website will be www.hippocketpress.org, click on Canary. Send submissions to gailentrekin@hotmail.com. Previously published OK. [Gail Entrekin, the publisher of Hip Pocket Press, recently moved to Berkeley from Nevada City. Her work has appeared in Rattlesnake Review, and watch for B.L. Kennedy's interview of her in Conversations, Volume 4, coming in October.]

•••Call for submissions of poetry, artwork, or photography for either the next issue of Poet's Espresso, which is looking for April/May holiday-related or seasonal or just plain fun poetry, or else poetry for the next paperback anthology, Moon Mist Valley, to the theme of the symbols of the three words in that title: one, two, or all three of them. Please include two to four lines about the poet, artist, or photographer. Send to Donald R. Anderson, Poet's Espresso, http://www.rainflowers.org or http://www.poetsespresso.com [Don's poetry and computer-art pieces can be seen in Rattlesnake Review, and his and Nikki's previous anthology was beautiful and well-received.]

•••Call for submissions to Pulse, a new online magazine that uses stories and poems from patients and healthcare professionals to talk honestly about giving and receiving medical care. It is also an online community offering a chance for patients, doctors, nurses, social workers and everyone else to come together to share their experiences in health care, and explore the common wish for a humane system of health for all. Info: www.pulsemagazine.org.

•••Cynthia Bryant writes that Poets Lane is back online (www.poetslane.com). She’ll be accepting poems from all over the U.S. and beyond. Write to her at poetslane@everestkc.net. [Cynthia Bryant moved to Kansas from Pleasanton after her recent reign as Pleasanton's Poet Laureate. For years, she ran Poets Lane, a major poetry and poetry calendar resource in the Bay Area, from her computer. Now she's back at it, this time from Kansas! You can't keep a good editor down...]

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SURVIVORS
(of breast cancer)
—Joy Harold Helsing

The cost of admission
into this select society
is much too high—
the shock of invitation
terror of initiation
mutilating rite of passage

Membership dues
must be paid daily
in coins of weakness
stubborn pain

When we meet another member
we recognize each other
by subtle signs—
a look in the eye
tone of voice as we say
You’ve had it?
I’ve had it too.

Sometimes we compare notes
sometimes merely nod
go on our way.

___________________

SANCTUARY
—Joy Harold Helsing

A red fox
head high, tail jaunty
trots across the hill
behind our house

No hunter or hounds
on this protected land
He forages
courts his vixen
raises his kits
in a secure realm
we but long for

__________________


LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul

Taylor Graham sends us her response to yesterday's new feature, our daily LittleNips, which required the use of the word, "agrexophrenia":

NEWLY WED
—Taylor Graham

She solves the Sunday crossword in ink,
in record time. Words like cacoethes
and agrexophrenia spring to her agile
lips, familiar as a childhood rhyme.

But when he locks their door tonight,
lights turned down, who knows what
happens out of sight; what syllables
might rise? You won’t hear a word of it.

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Thanks, TG! We're celebrating the birth of LittleNips with a give-away: A copy of Ann Privateer's new rattlechap, Attracted to Light, is winging its way to TG as we speak. You too can receive a free copy; just send me a poem incorporating the word, "agrexophrenia", in it (either your own poem or—good luck with this—somebody else's) before midnight this coming Friday (4/4) at kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.

Today's LittleNip:

The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then

—Roger McGough

___________________

—Medusa

Confused about all these new features? Here's Medusa's new weekly menu (contributors are welcome to submit to any and all of these!):

Monday: Weekly NorCal calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to me at kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing. Favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorites.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy

Friday: Weekend NorCal calendar

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily food for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, and other inspiration. Yet another way to feed our ever-hungry poetic souls.


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: News from Rattlesnake Press

The latest Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. If you'd like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is May 15 for #18, due out in mid-June.

Coming April 9: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing his Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series of photos and prompts for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS (For Capturing Creative Thought). Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!