Barbara MarchKNITTING—AGAIN
—Barbara March, Cedarville
I stare at my hands
they stare back
numbly wondering what it is
I want them to do
miles of memory separate us
as I take the knitting needles up
stab into the loop
catch the next loop
hands balk at every step
soured at the notion of a new trick
until I softly lay wool between
ring finger and pinky
just as reins fit
by nature, by rote
right hand welcomes
familiar pressure
left follows
we are home
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Thanks, Barbara! Barbara March, a third generation Nevadan, is a life-long journalist and publisher. Her roots are in the desert and, after a sojourn in Central California, she now lives with her husband, author Ray A. March, in Surprise Valley, California, where sagebrush grows outside her front door. March is the co-founder of the Surprise Valley Writers' Conference. She can be contacted at bmarch@frontiernet.net/. [Watch for more of Barbara's work in Rattlesnake Review #19, due out in mid-September. And get your own work in by the deadline this Friday, August 15!]
Surprise!
Environmental historian Philip L. Fradkin will be the guest keynote speaker at the third Surprise Valley Writers’ Conference to be held Sept. 18-21 in Cedarville, CA. Fradkin is the author of eleven books on the interior West, California, and Alaska. His most recent publication is Wallace Stegner and the American West—the definitive life of the West’s outstanding writer, teacher of writers, and conservationist. Each year the Surprise Valley Writers’ Conference invites a major writer to speak on the theme of “a literary assessment of the state of the West.” Past speakers have been William Kittredge and Gary Snyder. The four-day conference includes morning workshops for writers in fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor will lead this year's Poetry Workshop. There are afternoon lecture sessions that are open to both workshop attendees and non-writers, as is the Fradkin keynote dinner evening. Anyone interested in attending the Fradkin keynote speech, afternoon lectures or morning workshops may contact Ray A. March, conference program chair, at (530) 279-2099 or visit www.modocforum.org for more information.
Special SPC reading on Thursday this week!
•••Thursday (8/14), 7 PM [note time change!]: Sacramento Poetry Center presents a special reading with Dan Guerra, Alex Stephens and Mary Rosenberry at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Daniel Guerra is growing a mustache and enjoys riding his bike around Santa Cruz. After college graduation last May, he bought a one-way ticket to Europe and ran out of money in two months. He returned to America. If pressed, he would contend that he is highly influenced by Whitman, Neruda, Hemingway, Tolstoy, WCW, Li Po, and several of the Beat writers; moreover, he would maintain that he is also influenced by rock-n-roll, foreign women, whiskey, the ocean, and a wanderlust that gnaws away at his bones at dusk.
Alex Stephens fishes without a license and drinks wine before its time. He studied geology at the University of the Pacific, and during his last semester of school he took a poetry class and has not stopped writing since. An avid San Jose Sharks fan and dedicated punk rocker, he too is influenced by Hemingway, Neruda and the Beats as well as Hunter S. Thompson and smoky casinos with cheap cocktails. At present he is pining away at a wonderful novella set in Las Vegas.
Mary Rosenberry enjoys singing and writing haikus. A self-admitted vagabond, Mary has studied in London as well as Buenos Aires when she is not in Malibu at Pepperdine Univeristy. Mary finds inspiration in Silver Lake, Jurassic Park, Nutella, and the blissful sounds of The Grateful Dead, Dylan, Bad Religion, Radiohead and Woody Gunthrie. At the moment she is in love with the poetry of Alfonsina Storni.
The aforementioned culprits have formed One Less Straight Jacket, a literary group composed of charlatans and booze hounds. They have a few readings coming up next month in Oakland and Sacramento and hope to join their comrade Todd Hollenbeck in LA for some readings this fall.
___________________
put jigsaw puzzle away
too many bumps, voids
wrong turns
cipher tank of gas instead
—Barbara March
__________________
mother’s mother’s mother cut
ends off the ham to fit it in the pan
mother’s mother bought a bigger pan
still cut ends off the ham
mother cuts ends too, off a leg of lamb
—Barbara March
___________________
TRUE BELIEVERS
—Barbara March
“Settle Here”
they heard God say and
with hard-scrabble know-how
man and wife cleared sagebrush,
moved a house, dug a well by hand,
17 feet down—where he declared the water lay.
His off-the-grid shop is humbly honed
to salt-of-the-earth order
in a corner hangs a speed bag
seductive, round, red,
the size of a woman’s head,
mute testament to his righteous anger.
She hid in a ditch fleeing her high desert home
after he choked her with her long brown hair
appaloosa gelding was blamed for her black eye
they said he bucked her off shying
at a shiny beer can, the time he threatened her
with a kitchen knife she took haven
at the women’s shelter 30 miles away.
They bear witness to the love of God
yet deny the truth
on the stoop outside their door
is a square of hand-poured cement.
In a corner, etched ever so lightly,
a heart with an arrow through it.
__________________
Today's LittleNip:
We like that a sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end.
—Henry David Thoreau
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Modoc County Road 1, heading north
—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.
