Fire-Flowers & Wandering Stars

How curious—
running errands right and left—
fireflies.

—Kaiga

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FIREFLIES
—Shawn Aveningo, Rescue

Mason jars aglow with entomological luminescence,
pinholes create flickering dances under a tabletop

umbrella. Wonderment in a child’s eye, chasing
lightning across the lawn under the moonlight

as she tries to capture the midsummer magic
between two palms. Today I can’t help but wonder

where have all the fireflies gone?

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Thanks, Shawn. Poetry in Rescue! Shawn was inspired by yesterday's talk of fireflies. Watch for more of Shawn Aveningo's work in Rattlesnake Review #18, coming out in mid-June. (And don't forget the May 15 deadline!)

Rae Gouirand writes: You can still join Prose Poetry, the second workshop in my 2008 series at Cache Creek Nature Preserve. We started a month ago, but have a month of afternoons left, and there's still room for interested parties to join us. In this workshop we'll explore a wide variety of contemporary prose poems, discuss the particularities of the form, and use the spring landscape at the Preserve to feed surprising new work. Expect to be inspired in new directions. Writers in all genres and with all levels of experience are welcome. Please note a time change: this workshop will meet in the afternoons on Thursdays, April 10-May 29, from 1-3 PM. (To register, reply to me by email at rgouirand@gmail.com with your name, email address, and a phone number where you can be reached.)

Thanks, Rae. Rae also sends us this announcement:

Announcing a new journal: The LBJ

The LBJ (http://www.literarybirdjournal.org) is a biannual publication dedicated to birds and creative writing. Its title is drawn from the acronym for "little brown job," used by birders to describe those difficult-to-identify species, such as many sparrows. While there are popular magazines (Audubon), scientific journals (The Auk), and other newsletters about birds, The LBJ is a uniquely literary venue, publishing new creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, narrative scholarship, and literary journalism of the feathered variety. In its pages, The LBJ hopes to encourage an appreciation and practice of environmental literature, and increasing collaboration between scientists, conservationists, and artists. It seeks innovative creative writing and literary reportage-the best writing about birds to be found.

Also announcing The Sparrow Prizes for Poetry and Prose:

For its inaugural issue, The LBJ is pleased to announce two modest prizes of $300 each for the best submissions of previously unpublished poetry and prose. For poetry, each entry may include up to five poems; for prose, one piece of no more than 20 double-spaced, single-side pages. The reading fee for the contest is $10 for one genre, $15 for both. All entrants will receive a one-year subscription to the The LBJ. Please send contest submission(s) with a cover letter, SASE, and check made payable to The LBJ to: The LBJ Sparrow Prizes, English Department/098, University of Nevada - Reno, Reno, NV 89557. Postmark deadline for contest entries: May 15 (date inclusive). The winners of each prize will be notified the first week of June. All entries will be considered for publication.

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN
—Czeslaw Milosz

It does not know it glitters
It does not know it flies
It does not know it is this not that.

And, more and more often, agape,
With my Gauloise dying out,
Over a glass of red wine,
I muse on the meaning of being this not that.

Just as long ago, when I was twenty,
But then there was a hope I would be everything,
Perhaps even a butterfly or a thrush, by magic.
Now I see dusty district roads
And a town where the postmaster gets drunk every day
Melancholy with remaining identical to himself.

If only the stars contained me.
If only everything kept happening in such a way
That the so-called world opposed the so-called flesh.
Were I at least not contradictory. Alas.

___________________

Today's LittleNip:

Firefly: In Japanese mythology, spirits can take the form of a firefly, and the firefly can take the form of a fire-flower, or fireflies can be stars which have left the sky to wander on earth. During the summer there is a Firefly Battle at Uji which is an occasion for Firefly Viewing.

—Dictionary of Symbolic & Mythological Animals by J.C. Cooper

___________________

Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

(Contributors are welcome to cook something up for 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 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 favorite tools.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables 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.

And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

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SnakeWatch: News from Rattlesnake Press

Coming May 14: Join us on Wednesday, May 14 for the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval; a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, by Stephani Schaefer; and Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison and Phillip T. Nails. That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM.

Also in May: Deadline for Issue #18 of Rattlesnake Review is May 15. Free copies of Issue #17 are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one.


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.