Clotilda
LACE-WINGED FRILLYWIT
—Patricia Wellingham-Jones, Tehama
Clotilda the Lace-winged Frillywit
reigns over my garden
Rebar legs
hold up her slender spade body
and tractor-tine head and beak
Filigree from an old screen door
forms her flightless wings
On her brow a metal cockade
wants to tremble in the wind
Glass eyes seasons ago unglued
painted feathers long dimmed
You won't find her
in any bird book
Clotilda holds herself proud
one of a kind
Thanks, PWJ, for the "profile". Clotilda the Poem was another result of a "free write" [see yesterday's post].
Two contests and two retreats:
•••New Southerner Literary Contest:
$200 prizes for poetry, fiction and nonfiction
Postmark deadline: October 1, 2008
Three prizes of $200 each and publication in New Southerner will be awarded for works of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction.
* 5,000 word limit for prose
* 50 line limit for poetry
* Entry Fee: $10 per entry
* Multiple entries accepted
Final judges will include:
Nonfiction — Kathryn Eastburn (author of A Sacred Feast and Simon Says)
Poetry — Erin Keane (author of The Gravity Soundtrack and The One-Hit Wonders) and Cecilia Woloch (author of Tsigan and Late)
Fiction — TBA
Send two copies—one with the author’s name, address, phone number and optional e-mail address in the upper right-hand corrner, the other with no author information. Include separate title page for each entry indicating title of work, category, author’s name, address and phone number.
Entries must be the author’s original, unpublished work and should be appropriate for publication in New Southerner. The magazine’s mission is to promote self-sufficient living, environmental stewardship and support for local economies. For more information, see our submission guidelines online at newsoutherner.com/aboutus.htm.
Entries should be mailed to:
New Southerner Literary Contest
375 Wood Valley Lane
Louisville, KY 40299
Questions regarding entries should be directed to bobbibuchanan@newsoutherner.com.
•••Upcoming Book Contest in FutureCycle Poetry:
FutureCycle Poetry is dedicated to publishing lasting poetry that works in all tenses: past, present, and future. Please submit your work via e-mail to submissions@futurecycle.org/. Please read our Guidelines at www.futurecycle.org before submitting.
Respond to rsking@futurecycle.org
Robert S. King, Director, FutureCycle Press
•••Writing with Laura Davis:
Laura Davis, author and writing coach, is offering four weekly writing classes this fall, all meeting in the Santa Cruz area. Two are writing practice classes, based on the work of Natalie Goldberg, in which you access your wild mind to create powerful first drafts in class. The other two are feedback classes, appropriate for fiction, non-fiction and memoir writers. Daylong Write/Soak/Sweat/Eat retreats are also available once a month this fall for self-indulgent writers who want to be nurtured along with their creativity—write in a yurt, sweat in a sauna, soak in a hot tub and eat a communal meal—all in a rustic setting in Soquel. Beginning and experienced writers welcome to all classes and workshops.
For more information, go to: http://www.lauradavis.net/writing_workshops.asp or call Laura at 831-818-6875.
•••Mountain light studio spaces for artists and writers:
Rustic redwood building on five acres of elemental beauty. Work inside or out. $2/square foot/month. Adaptable sizes, up to 19' x19'. 25 minutes from San Jose/Santa Cruz. Contact LaVerne at 408-353-8085.
__________________
B.L.'s Drive-By: A Micro-Review from B.L. Kennedy:
2012: The War for Souls
By Whitley Strieber
ISBN 13:978-0-7653-1896-1
$24.95 (hardcover)
Whitley Strieber is the author of 18 novels and 9 non-fiction books that range from horror to alien abduction. In this latest book, a novel, the author of Communion and The Hunger takes on the Mayan mythology which surrounds the year 2012. It has always amazed me that Strieber can take such a simple subject and induce fear into any reader with his skill and grace as an artist. With his 2012: The War for Souls, the author reaches beyond anything that he has written in the past and accomplishes his mission with masterful narrative and poetic imagination. So, for those of you who are in love with this particular school of literature, I highly recommend this book; and for those of you unfamiliar with the work that Strieber has turned out over the years—hey, 2012: The War for Souls is a great place to start.
—B.L. Kennedy, Reviewer-in-Residence
___________________
OF THREE OR FOUR IN A ROOM
—Yehuda Amichai
Of three or four in a room
there is always one who stands beside the window.
He must see the evil among thorns
and the fires on the hill.
And how people who went out of their houses whole
are given back in the evening like small change.
Of three or four in a room
there is always one who stands beside the window,
his dark hair above his thoughts.
Behind him, words.
And in front of him, voices wandering without a knapsack,
hearts without provisions, prophecies without water,
large stones that have been returned
and stay sealed, like letters that have no
address and no one to receive them.
___________________
AUTUMN RAIN IN TEL AVIV
—Yehuda Amichai
A proud, very beautiful woman sold me
a piece of sweet cake
across the counter. Her eyes hard, her back to the sea.
Black clouds on the horizon
forecast storm and lightning
and her body answered them from inside
her sheer dress,
still a summer dress,
like fierce dogs awakening.
That night, among friends in a closed room,
I listened to the heavy rain pelting the window
and the voice of a dead man on tape:
the reel was turning
against the direction of time.
__________________
LOOK: THOUGHTS AND DREAMS
—Yehuda Amichai
Look: thoughts and dreams are weaving over us
their warp and woof, their wide camouflage-net,
and the reconnaissance planes and God
will never know
what we really want
and where we are going.
Only the voice that rises at the end of a question
still rises above the world and hangs there,
even if it was made by
mortar shells, like a ripped flag,
like a mutilated cloud.
Look, we too are going
in the reverse-flower way:
to begin with a calyx exulting toward the light,
to descend with the stem growing more and more solemn,
to arrive at the closed earth and to wait there for a while,
and to end as a root, in the darkness, in the deep womb.
__________________
THE PLACE WHERE WE ARE RIGHT
—Yehuda Amachai
From the place where we are right
flowers will never grow
in the spring.
The place where we are right
is hard and trampled
like a yard.
But doubts and loves
dig up the world
like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
where the ruined
house once stood.
_________________
Today's LittleNip:
BEFORE
—Yehuda Amichai
Before the gate has been closed,
before the last question is posed,
before I am transposed.
Before the weeds fill the gardens,
before there are no more pardons,
before the concrete hardens.
Before all the flute-holes are covered,
before things are locked in the cupboard,
before the rules are discovered.
Before the conclusion is planned,
before God closes his hand,
before we have nowhere to stand.
__________________
—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 and in-between! 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.
