A NOISELESS, PATIENT SPIDER
—Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launched forth filament, filament, filmament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to
connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
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Thanks, Walt! May and June bring a gaggle of Gemini poets: Dante, Creeley, Roethke, Emerson, Carver, Whitman, Hardy, Ginsberg, Lorca, California Poet Laureate Al Young—and the list goes on from there. I'll leave you to check Katy Brown's perpetual calendar, A Poet's Book of Days, from Rattlesnake Press (which is available at rattlesnakepress.com or The Book Collector in Sacramento) for more. But today we celebrate a few of them:
I LOOK INTO MY GLASS
—Thomas Hardy
I look into my glass,
And view my wasting skin,
And say, "Would God it came to pass
My heart had shrunk as thin!"
For then, I, undistrest
By hearts grown cold to me,
Could lonely wait my endless rest
With equanimity.
But Time, to make me grieve,
Part steals, lets part abide;
And shakes this fragile frame at eve
With throbbings of noontide.
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This weekend in NorCal poetry:
•••Monday (5/26), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Chad Sweeney and Joshua McKinney at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic to follow. Chad Sweeney is coeditor of Parthenon West Review and the author of two full-length books of poetry, An Architecture (BlazeVOX, 2007) and Arranging the Blaze (Anhinga, 2009), as well as the chapbook, A Mirror to Shatter the Hammer (Tarpaulin Sky, 2006). He was chosen for Best American Poetry 2008 by Charles Wright, and his work has appeared in journals such as New American Writing, Barrow Street, Verse, Black Warrior, Colorado Review, Tea Party, Runes, Poetry Flash, Crazyhorse, H_ngm_n, GutCult, Indiana Review, Poetry International, American Letters & Commentary, Interim, Denver Qtly, Slope, Coconut, Forklift, Big Bell, Pool, T-Sky, Ping Pong, the tiny, and Electronic Poetry Review. With Iranian writer and scholar, Mojdeh Marashi, Chad has translated the selected works of poet H. E. Sayeh with the support of a grant from the SF Arts Commission. Chad lives in San Francisco with his wife, poet Jennifer K. Sweeney, but will begin a PhD in English/Poetry at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo in the Fall of 2008. Joshua McKinney’s Permutations of the Gallery was the winner of the Pavement Saw Press chapbook contest. Saunter won the University of Georgia Press Contemporary Poetry Series Competition for 2001. The Novice Mourner won the Dorothy Brunsman Prize of Bear Star Press. His work has appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Boulevard, The Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Ploughshares, International Quarterly, Volt, and many others. He is a black belt in Kendo and in verbal jujitsu. He also occasionally morphs into a meteorologist in South Carolina where he has become passionately immersed in thunderstorm dynamics [http://news14.com/content/about_us/joshua_mckinney/].
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THE MOON SAILS OUT
—Federico García Lorca
When the moon sails out
the church bells die away
and the paths overgrown
with brush appear.
When the moon sails out
the waters cover the earth
and the heart feels it is
a little island in the infinite.
No one eats oranges
under the full moon.
The right things are fruits
green and chilled.
When the moon sails out
with a hundred faces all the same,
the coins made of silver
break out in sobs in the pocket.
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from THE SHAPE OF FIRE
—Theodore Roethke
Morning-fair, follow me further back
Into that minnowy world of weeds and ditches,
When the herons floated high over the white houses,
And the little crabs slipped into silvery craters.
When the sun for me glinted the sides of a sand grain.
And my intent stretched over the buds at their first trembling.
That air and shine: and the flicker's loud summer call:
The bearded boards in the stream and the all of apples;
The glad hen on the hill; and the trellis humming.
Death was not. I lived in a simple drowse:
Hands and hair moved through a dream of wakening blossoms.
Rain sweetened the cave and dove still called;
The flowers leaned on themselves, the flowers in hollows;
And love, love sang toward.
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VIGIL
—Raymond Carver
They waited all day for the sun to appear. Then,
late in the afternoon, like a good prince,
it showed itself for a few minutes.
Blazing high over the benchland that lies at the foot
of the peaks behind their borrowed house.
Then the clouds were drawn once more.
They were happy enough. But all evening
the curtains made melancholy gestures,
swishing in front of the open windows. After dinner
they stepped onto the balcony.
Where they heard the river plunging in the canyon and,
closer, the creak of trees, sigh of boughs.
The tall grasses promised to rustle forever.
She put her hand on his neck. He touched her cheek.
Then bats came from all sides to harry them back.
Inside, they closed the windows. Kept their distance.
Watched a procession of stars. And, once in a awhile,
creatures that flung themselves in front of the moon.
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Today's LittleNip:
A box of cobwebs, the self he protected for so long.
—Stephen Dobyns
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—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 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
New for May: Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval and a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, by Stephani Schaefer. Both of these are now available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, and will soon be available at rattlesnakepress.com/.
Coming June 11: Two Moons in June: Join us at The Book Collector for the premiere of Day Moon, a new chapbook by James DenBoer, and Mindfully Moon, a littlesnake broadside by Carol Louise Moon, as well as 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, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. All this PLUS a brand-new edition of Rattlesnake Review! That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM, June 11.
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.
