1848 Lanterns

Joe Tetro

ANGER
—Joe Tetro, Bakersfield

Anger is a cat
scooting in circles
with one foot
nailed to the floor.

Anger
is a mother's heart
ripped apart
by the 21-gun salute
honoring her soldier son.

Anger
is the sound
of the famished gnawing
on the rocks of broken
promises.

Anger
is love pressed thin
as leaves
between lips of stone—feelings
too fragile
to hazard the wind

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Thanks, Joe! After a rural Nebraska childhood, the military, and getting a B.A. in German, Joe Tetro led a restless, travel-stained life, learned four languages and moved to Mexico at age 65, where he wrote poetry on scraps of lumber about "...herring-gutted village dogs abandoning the gravesides of dusty memories," and "...wine weeping into the lap of the ocean's ruffled skirts". Now he's back at 72, and has finished a memoir coming out soon online, called Lost in America, about which Nick Belardes, publisher and author of Lords, Part I, had this to say: "Joe Tetro's memoir is a raw journey, and adventurous read, a real bull ride through the consciousness of America."

Watch for more of Joe Tetro's work in Rattlesnake Review #19, due out in mid-September. Deadline, by the way, is this Friday: August 15.

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This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (8/11), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Wendy Taylor Carlisle and Brad Buchanan at HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. [See last Friday's post for bios.] Open mic after.

Next Monday (8/18), SPC will present Nancy Wallace & Melen Lunn.

•••Thursday (7/6), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged, reader TBA. Open mic before/after. Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sac. Info: 441-3931 or www.lunascafe.com. Free.

•••Also Thursday (8/14), 7:30 PM: Special SPC reading featuring Dan Guerra, Alex Stephens, Mary Rosenberry and Paul Roundtree. HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento.

•••Friday (8/15), 7:30 PM: Writers of the New Sun/Escritores del Nuevo Sol presents Migrations, Loss, and Defiance, a public reading of new material by Poet Felicia Martinez. Felicia, who recently received her MFA from Mills College, is a poet and writer who has spent her career working with and reporting on the struggles and endurance of humans in distress—students, immigrants, and workers who use ingenuity, hard work and human dignity in defiance of fences and fear. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1024 – 22nd St., Sacramento. $5 donation, or as you can afford (no one turned away for lack of $$).

For information about Escritores del Nuevo Sol, established in 1993, contact Graciela B. Ramirez, 916-456-5323, or see the website: http://escritoresdelnuevosol.com/. Escritores is for those who want a support group for their writing practice and who appreciate Chicano/Latino/Native American culture and arts. It also holds writing groups/potlucks on the first Friday of each month.

•••Also Friday (8/15), 7 PM: Raven's Tale poetry reading features Visions And Views, poems in two voices by Susan and Joe Finkleman. A short poetry open-mic follows (signup before the featured program). Raven's Tale Bookstore (formerly Wild Mountain) is located at 352 Main Street, Placerville. There is no charge.

•••Also Friday (8/15), just before sun-up: Lisa Franklin will place the first of 1848 small Chinese paper lanterns in the middle of the Sacramento River, setting them afloat one by one from the back of a slow boat which will begin at Garcia Bend Park in the Pocket neighborhood of Sacramento and will go 25 miles down the river to Green Bridge in Walnut Grove. Her performance art piece will memorialize the Chinese who came to California, starting in 1848, to look for a better life and better work. Friday’s journey should last about five hours. Franklin’s cousin, Deanna Torres, will follow in another boat a mile or so behind the first one, retrieving the lanterns with a net pole. For more information, see last Sunday’s new “Explore” section of The Sacramento Bee.

•••Saturday (8/16), 7-9 PM: Underground Books poetry series presents Jock Smith, Yolanda Stevenson and Jamila Ali at 2814 35th St. (off 35th & Broadway), Sacramento. $3.00. Info: (916) 208-POET.


Death of a poet:

The poetry world was saddened this weekend to learn of the death of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), who passed away last Saturday following open heart surgery in a Houston hospital. According to Wikipedia, he was a contemporary poet and writer of prose who published over thirty volumes of poetry, eight books of prose, and has served as the editor of several publications, including Al-Jadid, Al-Fajr, Shu'un Filistiniyya and Al-Karmel. He was recognized internationally for his poetry, which focused on his strong affection for his lost homeland. His work won numerous awards, and has been published in at least twenty-two languages. Many of Darwish’s poems have also been put into music. The majority of his work has not been translated into English.

Mahmoud Darwish

THE 21ST CENTURY ARTIST

leaps into night
dreams, inhales the
dangers of darkness
hidden in mysteries of the
eyes, of heat
bursting into ice, of
the universe expanding
in the mirrors
of its own trembling
demise...

—Joe Tetro

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AMERICAN DEATH
—Joe Tetro

Beyond repair, her body,
soft-tied in a wheelchair
on the fourth floor of the
Country Lane nursing home.
The thin, high
pitched voice of the
babies she once raised
now echo in her own
dry throat, and
with dimming eyesight
she peers into
unfamiliar faces
passing by.

Sap’s drawn back down
to her wintry roots, her
cracked and whining voice
whimpers like frozen winds
mewling through
leafless trees of winter.

Her life trembles on
its last thin edge, while her white
knuckled hands
grip the nothingness
they’re terrified of losing. Her
vanished appetite, rejection
of a world that she no longer
understands, as, confused and
mentally unclear, she gazes
into the emptiness, waiting
for someone or something,
for whom or what
she doesn’t say—perhaps
for some stranger walking by
who will knows what she’s waiting
here for, and, perhaps, even
stop to tell her.

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Today's LittleNip:

Great authors do not discover nor produce great authors; great authors create and produce great publishers.*

—John Farrar


*Don't forget the Snake's deadline this Friday!! Your work makes ME a great publisher!

_________________

—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's Up With Rattlesnake Press

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 Thirteen Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell; #2 in Katy Brown's series of blank journals (Musings2: Vices, Virtues and Obsessions); a littlesnake broadside (Wind Physics) from Jordan Reynolds; 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 (sometimes): 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.......!

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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.