PORCHES I
—Virginia Hamilton Adair
In those days the front porches
with their wicker chairs and hanging baskets of flowers
became chapels of rest at the day's end,
long arms of the setting sun reaching out to us.
Talk came in soft murmurs like a prayer.
The children gathered from their games
to sit in silence on the wooden steps.
The trees were ancient guardians around us
and the closing down of evening was like violet eyelids
lowered over the day's brightness.
"We should light the lamps," someone said.
But who would care to spoil the quiet ritual
of sundown, nightfall? Somewhere just ahead
lay the ceremony of sleep.
___________________
An addition to this week's calendar:
•••Wednesday (5/7), 9 PM: Native American Studies Professor Emeritus Jack Forbes will read from his poetry at Bistro 33, 226 F St., Davis. Jack D. Forbes is professor emeritus and former chair of Native American Studies at the University of California at Davis, where he has served since 1969. He is of Powhatan-Renápe, Delaware-Lenápe and other background. In 1960-61 he developed proposals for Native American Studies programs and for an indigenous university. In l971 the D-Q University came into being as a result of that proposal. He is also a poet, a writer of fiction, and a guest lecturer in Russia, Japan, Britain, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Mexico and elsewhere. Forbes is the author of more than a dozen books, including the recent publications, Only Approved Indians (fiction), and The American Discovery of Europe (non-fiction). He will be reading from a recently completed poetry manuscript called California Songs. For more on Jack Forbes, see http://nas.ucdavis.edu/nasforbes.htm. Open mic follows. Free.
Andy Jones and Brad Henderson are the hosts of the Bistro 33 Reading Series, which is held on the first and third Weds. of the month. See Volume 3 of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series, for an interview with Dr. Andy Jones, due out May 14.
Coming June 1 in SF:
•••Save Sunday, June 1 from 11 AM to 3 PM for the Annual Poets With Trees Reading in Sutro Heights Park, San Francisco (at the end of Clement Street by the ocean). Bring poems of your own or poems by your favorite poets. Multiple reading stations if you want. Bring your own lunch, and an additional goodie to share. Info: http://www.clarahsu.com/hotel.html/.
P&W litlist:
Several months back, Poets & Writers Magazine graciously set up a YahooGroups literary listserv for Valley writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, publicists, literary event coordinators and others. They already run thriving listservs for northern and southern California, so we're thrilled to have one of our own. At present, there are about 80 members from Bakersfield to Sacramento. A Valley literary listserv is a great place for Central California writers or other event coordinators to post Valley-wide literary events, freelance opportunities or other writing discussions. Join in the discussion! Simply go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/valleylitlist/. If you don't already have a YahooGroups account, then you'll need to set one up. Then, once you're on the list, you can simply send your announcements to the following email address, and it'll go out to the list: valleylitlist@yahoogroups.com/. Any questions, just ask Cindy at http://www.cindywathen.com/.
Porches!
This week's Seed of the Week is porches: gathering place with its swings, rocking chairs, windchimes, old men smoking their pipes or teenagers smooching in the dark. Crickets, summer evenings, the sound of frogs, iced tea and the perfume of honeysuckle. Above all, conversations. Hours and hours of conversation. Here's another poem about porches, this one about their demise:
PORCHES II
—Virginia Hamilton Adair
All over our U.S. the porches were dying.
The porch swing and the rocking chair moved to the village dump.
The floorboards trembled, and the steps creaked.
For a couple of decades a new light burned in the parlor,
the family sitting there silent in front of the box,
voices and music squawking mysteriously from far places
into the dim-lit room. Conversation was hushed.
In the next two decades, a window in the box
flashed unbelievable pictures into the room.
Strangers guffawed and howled with laughter.
Shots rang out, people died in front of our eyes.
We learned not to care, drinking Coca-Cola from bottles,
spilling popcorn into the sofa.
A highway came past the house with its deserted porch
and no one noticed. The children wandered off to rob houses
a few blocks away, not out of need, but simple boredom.
No more family games or read-alouds.
Grandparents sometimes pulled their chairs outside
hoping neighbors would stop in.
They might even drag out an extra chair or two;
still no one came, not even to borrow something.
But it was hard to talk with the TV at their backs,
the traffic screeching by in front, the rest of the neighorhood
on relief, or in rest homes and reformatories.
The old porch is removed, and the grandparents with it.
So long, friends, neighbors, passersby.
___________________
Here are two poems from local poets who have responded to some of the poetry posted on Medusa recently. The first is from Shawn Aveningo, and it was inspired by Sunday's violin poem by Hafiz, and the second is Marie Ross's poem about fireflies.
MUSE-IC
—Shawn Aveningo, Rescue
Etude in ebony,
sharpened senses,
flattened fears.
Anticipated arpeggios
escalate my dreams.
I languish in lucid legato.
Sweet minstrel
strum your tips upon
my ivory flesh.
A sultry song we shall sing.
Tickle the ivories, my love.
Plunk the melody you mastered
but composed
just for me.
Tickle my fancy.
Hear my crescendo,
while violins for
ecstasy weep.
__________________
FIREFLY
—Marie J. Ross, Stockton
You were alien to me,
it was in Missouri that
your light bulb dress
flickered.
I knew you existed, buzzed
around in acrobatic parlay;
yet, I never witnessed your
clicking lights.
Never saw you swim the dark
night in your flourescent night
frock, sparkling and flashing
like fire works on 4th of July.
Never witnessed your leap and
whirl among the leafy limbs,
the night stars competing for
your space among the branches.
You pasted a concert of light
on each blink of my eyes, that
night in Sedalia, all the way back
to California, to await another.
___________________
Today's LittleNip:
THEIR SEX LIFE
One failure on
Top of another
—A.R. Ammons
_________________
—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.......!
_________________
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.
