Marie J. Ross
SONG
—Marie J. Ross, Stockton
How it fills me,
how your eyes
flash before me,
like the blue sky.
Emotion
encompasses, tears
creep deep down,
rippling like a water-
less river because I
remember our dance.
Piano keys clicked,
saxophone played,
you touched my bare
shoulder as you whispered
innuendo in my ear.
The night captured us, the
stars danced for us.
Now song is without lyrics,
yet, I hear your soft words speak
like breeze across manuscript,
like verse of a poem, like love on
wings.
I embrace song,
reach out like a paint brush,
paint your face again, your arms
holding me, and your eyes like the
blue sky filling me with love.
__________________
Thanks, Marie! Marie J. Ross is a frequent contributor to Medusa and Rattlesnake Review, including the current issue. She was born in San Francisco in 1938 and has traveled and lived in such places as Hollywood, Las Vegas, and New York City, where she spent seven years, meeting people and gathering intresting bits of knowledge. She has been published in Whispers Along The Delta, Shadows Ink, Song of the San Joaquin, Poet's Espresso, Sun Shadow Mountain, and has a honorable mention in the Ina Coolbrith poetry contest. Her poem, “Oh Honored Stone”, is ingraved in granite at the All Veterans Memorial Plaza in Lodi.
SUNSET ON WAVES
—Marie J. Ross
A splash of yellow flickers
rehearses its dance over the
curl of waves.
It moves like butter cream, settles
on wings of a gull pecking morsels
from the moist sand.
The ocean evolves
with shades of pale scarlet roaming
the sequence of ebbs.
And, like a cello’s bow embroidering
song, symphonic rapport abides.
Stenciled on ribs of driftwood,
tiny pebbles loosen from sway of water,
and seashells lay across ropes of seaweed,
as sunset opens the waves to the fabric of
night.
An ethereal presence saturates the rhythmic
flow, and the dance rescinds with the sound
of a million dresses swishing.
___________________
Marie has also been inspired of late to write poems with another Stocktonite, Donald R. Anderson:
RENDEZVOUS WITH TIME
—Marie J. Ross and Donald R. Anderson
Oh to walk the mystical path where stars are silhouetted in
the brightest prisms and the moon almost speaks to you.
Sand mirages sparkle under the moon, pyramids reach
towards the heavens to walk with the lynx in slinky strides.
To hear the voices of the Gods, hear their silk robes swish
like silver strands of stardust.
The eye looking at eternity, where royal purple horizons meet
in Roman columns, or where gold pours from fountains,
tell me one thing more than the human need to share life.
Of footsteps quiet on the peaceful plains of contentment,
where thought does not crumble in the wind of uncertainty.
The end of time drawing nearer, we scoop the celestial youth in
Big Dippers of stars, fires too bright to see, colliding worlds of memories.
So we walk the mystical path into a castle’s silent dungeon, where there
is mirth with the wandering, or drown in a moat of starless water not lit
by Eden’s light.
Flight, in dream, returns. Flight towards a rendezvous of two angels.
When the night comes, and the stars go out, all will begin again.
__________________
BLUE NEVADA SKY
—Marie J. Ross
We breathed indigo, you and I, Daddy,
on my yearly visit. We sat beneath the
blue Nevada sky and picked fluff off
white clouds that you said “Was fabric for
tiny creatures.”
I was seven that summer and we followed
the path of pebbles, leading to the rim of
the lake.
With fishing poles and dangling hooks
and a bucket of wiggly worms, we cast
like anglers—I, waiting for that moment
when bobber swallowed water and sunk.
And, when twilight spilled scarlet on your
mandolin, we sat on the front porch and
you played for me as we heard nature's
tranquil purr.
But train wheels must click and return me
to my California home, until seasons pass
and loan us another Blue Nevada Sky.
__________________
Seed of the Week:
Where do you hang your hat?
Today's LittleNip:
MIRRORMENT
Birds are flowers flying
and flowers perched birds.
—A.R. Ammons
___________________
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's Up With Rattlesnake Press
New in June: 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 (#18) of Rattlesnake Review! Now available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/. (Snake contributors' and subscribers' copies will go in the mail this week and next, along with contributors' copies of Conversations. If you're not among either of these, and can't get down to The Book Collector to get your free copy, send me two bux and I'll mail you one: P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.)
The Snake will be snoozing through July and August, leaving Medusa to carry on alone. Then on September 10, we shall burst back onto the scene with Ten Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell, plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review. (Deadline is August 15.) Meanwhile, look in on Medusa every day, and, for heaven's sake, keep sending stuff! The snakes of Medusa are always hungry...
Medusa's Weekly Menu:
(Contributors are welcome to cook up something 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 future issues of 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 ravenous poetic souls.
And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!
_________________
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.
