Doc Dachtler and Steve Sanfield
•••Tonight (Thurs., 10/16), 7:30 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series presents Doc Dachtler and Steve Sanfield in Grass Valley. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included. The show will be in Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Info: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384. [See last Monday's post for bios.]
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RETURNED TO SAY
—William Stafford
When I face north a lost Cree
on some new shore puts a moccasin down,
rock in the light and noon for seeing,
he in a hurry and I beside him.
It will be a long trip; he will be a new chief;
we have drunk new water from an unnamed stream;
under little dark trees he is to find a path
we both must travel because we have met.
Henceforth we gesture even by waiting;
there is a grain of sand on his knifeblade
so small he blows it and while his breathing
darkens the steel his eyes become set
And start a new vision: the rest of his life.
We will mean what he does. Back of this page
the path turns north. We are looking for a sign.
Our moccasins do not mark the ground.
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AT COVE ON THE CROOKED RIVER
—William Stafford
At Cove at our camp in the open canyon
it was the kind of place where you might look out
some evening and see trouble walking away.
And the river there meant something
always coming from snow and flashing around boulders
after shadow-fish lurking below the mesa.
We stood with wet towels over our heads for shade,
looking past the Indian picture rock and the kind of trees
that act out whatever has happened to them.
Oh civilization, I want to carve you like this,
decisively outward the way evening comes
over that kind of twist in the scenery
When people cramp into their station wagons
and roll up the windows and drive away.
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NEAR
—William Stafford
Talking along in this not quite prose way
we all know it is not quite prose we speak,
and it is time to notice this intolerable snow
innumerably touching, before we sink.
It is time to notice, I say, the freezing snow
hesitating toward us from others' grey heaven;
listen—it is falling not quite silently
and under it still you and I are walking.
Maybe there are trumpets in the houses we pass
and a redbird watching from an evergreen—
but nothing will happen until we pause
to flame what we know, before any signal's given.
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WERE YOU A BRICK
—Patricia Wellingham-Jones, Tehama
Were you a brick
would you be part of the wall
that winds serpentine
around Colonial gardens?
Would you hold up a courthouse
centering the town square?
Were you a brick
would people follow your path
anywhere you wished to lead them?
Would you be formed
of mud, water and straw
for a humble dwelling?
Or would you become
the life of the party,
the one others count on?
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Thanks, PWJ, for the response to last week's Seed of the Week: Poems in the form of questions. And Margaret Bell sends us her etheree in response to this week's SOW: Cats, which is also a giveaway. Send poems you've written about cats before midnight tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 17) and I'll send you a free copy of Moira Magneson's new chapbook, He Drank Because.
SERFING FOR FELINES
—Margaret E. Bell, Citrus Heights
They walked into my life in velvet slippers,
making themselves at home.
From that time forward, I was seldom home alone.
With an air of royalty, they demanded attention
and announced their needs—which I met without complaint,
becoming a slave to a schedule not my own.
I served their meals, cleaned their quarters,
groomed and comforted them, worried if they went out,
and breathed a sigh of relief when they returned.
How can I make you understand
why I became subservient to these interlopers,
their purring voices and soft touch my only reward?
I came to love the feel of their velvety paws
as they reached up to tap my cheek before the sleek,
soft, creatures snuggled down to nap in my lap.
I struggled to understand a language that depends
on pitch, tone, and body language to send a message
until I felt the gentle vibration of a purr and understood.
If you have had the good fortune to welcome such a creature
into your life, you understand my sorrow when they left
my memory littered with caterific moments, good and bad.
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Today's LittleNip:
HYPE
—A.R. Ammons
A pollen
fly makes
so much
of sounding
like a
bee because
he has
no sting.
__________________
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:
October is Sacramento Poetry Month! October’s releases from Rattlesnake Press include a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a free littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). Both are available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or from me (kathykieth@hotmail.com), or—soon—from rattlesnakepress.com/. Rattlechaps are $6 by mail, $5 at The Book Collector.
Be sure to join us on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, when Rattlesnake Press will release not one, but two SpiralChaps to honor and celebrate Luna’s Café, including a new collection of art and poetry from B.L. Kennedy (Luna’s House of Words) and an anthology of Luna’s poets, artists and photographs (La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café) edited by Frank Andrick. Come travel with our Away Team as we leave the Home of the Snake for a brief road trip/time travel to Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento to celebrate Art Luna and the 13 years of Luna's long-running poetry series. Who knows what auspicious adventures await us there??
And check out B.L. Kennedy’s interview with Art Luna in the latest Rattlesnake Review (#19)! Free copies are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I’ll mail you one (address below). Next deadline, by the way, is November 15.
Coming in November: November will feature a new rattlechap from Red Fox Underground Poet Wendy Patrice Williams (Some New Forgetting); a littlesnake broadside from South Lake Tahoe Poet Ray Hadley; our 2009 calendar from Katy Brown (Beyond the Hill: A Poet’s Calendar) as well as Conversations, Vol. 4 of B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series. That’s Weds., November 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.
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 SOWs; 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.......!
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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.
