Frank Dixon Graham
KOI
—Frank Dixon Graham,
Sacramento
swim by sleepy fish
bright orange spot
evening water cools
the bow of the bridge
your reflection,
leaves in ripples
water-grasses
bend to your lips
murky water,
lotus blossom
one above, one below
fins and petals,
two fish, two bubbles
__________________
Thanks, Frank! Frank Dixon Graham says: I grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa. Childhood was full of curiosities and discovery. The obstacles I’ve faced and solutions I’ve found have enriched me in some way I can only begin to describe. After attending college in Oklahoma and Arkansas, I went to work for the banking business that my paternal grandfather bought and ran over sixty-five years ago. At the beginning of my poetry career, I moved to Boston, Massachusetts to study the craft and live among a vibrant poetry community. My poetry has benefited from the instruction of Daniel Bosch, Naomi Shihab Nye, Richard Moore, Geoff Olesner, Cheryl Gravis and the Sacramento Poetry Center workshops. A few years ago I moved to California’s state capitol, where I currently reside, to engage in political activism. Along with an appreciation for the astounding beauty of Northern California, I found that the poetry community in Sacramento is as active as it gets. I serve as a board member of the Sacramento Poetry Center, a preliminary judge for poetry contests, have read poetry for a recital performance of the Sacramento Ballet, organized numerous poetry readings, and have conducted interviews for publication with many poets. I’ve also won contests, including ”The Most Romantic Reading of an Original Love Poem” by a Tulsa area bookstore and a Master Poet distinction from the Harwelden Institute. I currently edit Sacramento Poetry Center's monthly publication, Poetry Now. I hope the reader finds my poems convey a sense of gratitude for people and nature.
—Frank Dixon Graham,
Sacramento
swim by sleepy fish
bright orange spot
evening water cools
the bow of the bridge
your reflection,
leaves in ripples
water-grasses
bend to your lips
murky water,
lotus blossom
one above, one below
fins and petals,
two fish, two bubbles
__________________
Thanks, Frank! Frank Dixon Graham says: I grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa. Childhood was full of curiosities and discovery. The obstacles I’ve faced and solutions I’ve found have enriched me in some way I can only begin to describe. After attending college in Oklahoma and Arkansas, I went to work for the banking business that my paternal grandfather bought and ran over sixty-five years ago. At the beginning of my poetry career, I moved to Boston, Massachusetts to study the craft and live among a vibrant poetry community. My poetry has benefited from the instruction of Daniel Bosch, Naomi Shihab Nye, Richard Moore, Geoff Olesner, Cheryl Gravis and the Sacramento Poetry Center workshops. A few years ago I moved to California’s state capitol, where I currently reside, to engage in political activism. Along with an appreciation for the astounding beauty of Northern California, I found that the poetry community in Sacramento is as active as it gets. I serve as a board member of the Sacramento Poetry Center, a preliminary judge for poetry contests, have read poetry for a recital performance of the Sacramento Ballet, organized numerous poetry readings, and have conducted interviews for publication with many poets. I’ve also won contests, including ”The Most Romantic Reading of an Original Love Poem” by a Tulsa area bookstore and a Master Poet distinction from the Harwelden Institute. I currently edit Sacramento Poetry Center's monthly publication, Poetry Now. I hope the reader finds my poems convey a sense of gratitude for people and nature.
You may have noticed Frank's photographs in Rattlesnake Review, too. The following poem is from the recent chapbook he has produced of his poetry, entitled Out on the Reach. "The Night Birds" also appears in frank andrick's new Luna's anthology of poems, art and photographs: La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Café, which will be released by Rattlesnake Press on Thursday, October 30 at Luna's Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento.
THE NIGHT BIRDS
—Frank Dixon Graham
Bicycling through Midtown
Our voices spill into empty streets
We found the moon over a palm tree
And the night birds, his easy libretto.
You are leaving.
The gentle wind says so.
You are the night bird
And the night bird’s cooing
___________________
This week in NorCal poetry:
•••Monday (10/20), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Dan Bellm, Terry Ehret and Gilliam Wegener of Sixteen Rivers Press at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic after. [See last Friday's post for bios.] Next Monday (10/27), SPC will present Meg Withers and Tom Goff.
•••Wednesday (10/22), 6-7 PM: The Upstairs Art Gallery poetry reading, 420 Main St. (2nd floor), Placerville. It's a poetry open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. No charge.
•••Thursday (10/23), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento features Rafael A. and Corry. Open mic before and after.
•••Friday (10/24), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Katy Lederer and Rebecca Morrison at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento.
•••Sat. (10/25), 7-9 PM: ‘The Show’ poetry series presents the Berkeley Slam Team, which has won many local, regional, and national titles and features Christian Drake, the 2008 Berkeley Grand Slam Champion. Wo'se Community Center 2863 35th St. (off 35th and Broadway), Sacramento. $5 general admission. All artists (poets, singers, musicians, comedians, etc.) are encouraged to sign up early for open mic. Info: 916-208-POET.
About Berkeley Slam Team Coach Charles Ekabhumi Ellik:
Ekabhumi embodies a rare combination of successful published poet, award-winning performer, respected organizer, and popular emcee. He produces the Berkeley Poetry Slam, which has earned 'Best of The East Bay' and many critics' choice awards since its inception in 1999. The Berkeley teams he coached have won many local, regional, and national titles. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in '97, he took over the SF slam and touched off an explosion in the Northern California performance poetry scene, resulting in a First Place tie at the National Slam in '99 between SF and San Jose, with Oakland in third.
•••Sunday (10/26), 11 AM: El Camino Poets (a chapter of California Society of Chaparral Poets, Inc.) meets at the Ethel Hart Sr. Center, 27th & J Sts., Sacramento for a poetry workshop. Bring 8 copies of your poems for critique. All poets welcome.
__________________
BEFORE I TELL YOU
let you see it in my eyes
and wonder, perhaps our secret.
before i hold your hand
or kiss you,
let my breath rise and fall
imagine your body the same.
and like tides
the ocean lives inside us.
—Frank Dixon Graham
__________________
A VAGABOND SONG
—Bliss Carman
There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood—
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.
The scarlet of the maple can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.
There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir;
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill of flame
She calls and calls each vagabond by name.
__________________
Today's LittleNip:
SPRUCE WOODS
—A.R. Ammons
It's so still
today that a
dipping bough means
a squirrel
has gone through.
__________________
Photograph by Frank Dixon Graham—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 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.......!
_________________
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.
