GOD TO THE SERPENT
—Virginia Hamilton Adair
Beloved Snake, perhaps my finest blueprint,
How can I not take pride in your design?
Your passage without hoof- or paw- or shoe-print
Revels in art's and nature's S-curve line.
No ears, no whiskers, fingers, legs or teeth,
No cries, complaints, nor curses from you start;
But silence shares your body in its sheath,
Full-functioning with no superfluous part.
Men try to emulate your forkéd tongue,
Their prideful piece dwarfed by your lordly length.
Two arms for blows or hugging loosely hung
Are mocked by Boa Constrictor's single strength.
How dare men claim their image as my own,
With all those limbs and features sticking out?
You, Snake, with continuity of bone
Need but a spine to coil and cruise about.
Men fear the force of your hypnotic eyes,
Make myths to damn your being wise and deft.
You, Snake, not men, deserve my cosmic prize.
I'm glad you stayed in Eden when they left.
___________________
Tonight, April 9, we will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday with his Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector, starting with a buffet at 7 PM, followed by 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!
Let us mark the day with poetry, poetry, and more poetry:
RAIN IN OHIO
—Mary Oliver
The robin cries: rain!
The crow calls: plunder!
The blacksnake climbing
in the vines halts
his long ladder of muscle
while the thunderheads whirl up
out of the white west,
their dark hooves nicking
the tall trees as they come.
Rain, rain, rain! sings the robin
frantically, then flies for cover.
The crow hunches.
The blacksnake
pours himself swift and heavy
into the ground.
_________________
WATER SNAKE
—Mary Oliver
I saw him
in a dry place
on a hot day,
a traveler
making his way
from one pond
to another,
and he lifted up
his chary face
and looked at me
with his gravel eyes,
and the feather of his tongue
shot in and out
of his otherwise clamped mouth,
and I stopped on the path
to give him room,
and he went past me
with his head high,
loathing me, I think,
for my long legs,
my poor body, like a post,
my many fingers,
for he didn't linger
but, touching the other side of the path,
he headed, in long lunges and quick heaves,
straight to the nearest basin
of sweet black water and weeds,
and solitude—
__________________
This week's HandyStuff Quickie:
Laura LeHew of Eugene, Oregon writes: I'd like to submit my favorite tool, an excellent book called Roget's Super Thesaurus. It is arranged like a dictionary, so if you want a good alternative word for "love", that's what would you would look up. Great for when you start the editing process.
My second favorite book has to do with poetry forms: The Making of a Poem by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland. The book is well-organized, giving the form, and then examples of the form.
Thanks, Laura! Roget's is probably my favorite poetry tool, too. It's listed in SnakeFaves on rattlesnakepress.com. I also use it as a poetry trigger, looking up a word and letting the many synonyms get my juices rolling...
Today's LittleNip:
The snake flees—
but the eyes that peered at me
remain in the weeds
—Kyoshi
—Medusa
Here's Medusa's new weekly menu of features. Contributors are welcome to submit to any and all of these!
Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry 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: NorCal poetry calendar for the weekend
Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily food for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, 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). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.
