NO TRAINS IN BREUGEL
—Ray Hadley, South Lake Tahoe
It was about 1565 and the tracks converged
just below the vanishing point of the painting
where a light would have appeared if the train arrived
at night, out where the thatched roofs of stone houses
became lost in the shadow
of the snow-capped mountain.
The tracks divided the medieval village according
to the Renaissance principle of the golden mean.
At the train station two children were spinning tops
on the table made by their families' trunks, a third
was winding the string for another.
The men looked down the tracks toward infinity
as the women hid behind colorful scarves.
I could see myself standing with them on the station's
platform as I did in my childhood
around Chicago in the 1950's.
When the train came it looked like one of our trains
from the 1870's with a large cow-catcher
and a kite-shaped chimney puffing balls of black smoke.
When the train pulled away, Breugel showed us
two gargoyle-like men who've just stepped off the roof
of the nearby cathedral.
"Hell-on-Wheels," sparks reflected off the ice where
children had been skating.
Everywhere the trees had been cut down for charcoal.
Chimneys caught fire. Blacksmiths' shops
were open all night.
There are no trains in Breugel I'm told,
so there's no painting like this. But once I thought of it,
I couldn't get it out of my mind.
From then on I couldn't stop searching
the deep landscapes of Dutch paintings
for signs of smoke and the straight lines
of iron track.
__________________
Thanks, Ray! Ray Hadley was born in a suburb of Chicago and attended the University of Illinois, where he majored in psychology while competing in gymnastics. In the ‘60’s he moved to California, and in the early ‘70’s became active in the Sacramento poetry scene as an editor of Ellen Roser Smith’s Hard Press. After a time in L.A., he moved to Lake Tahoe where he opened Keynote, a used record and bookstore. He has been published in Rattlesnake Review, Illuminations, Pearl, Poetry Now, Sierra Nevada Review and many others. He has a chapbook out from Blackberry Press in Maine called Smoking Mt. Shasta. Ray is a member of the Ash Canyon Poets and the Lake Tahoe Writing Club.
Join us this coming Wednesday at The Book Collector, when Rattlesnake Press will release a new littlesnake broadside from Ray Hadley (Children's Games), along with a new chapbook from Red Fox Underground Poet Wendy Patrice Williams (Some New Forgetting); 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.
Here's another poem from Ray, this one from his new broadside:
IN BREUGEL'S "CHILDREN'S GAMES" (1560)
—Ray Hadley
We look and fail to find something familiar
from our childhood.
No one is skipping rope, no one
seems to be playing hop-scotch.
Of course, no one expects to see a toy airplane
but we look in vain for a folded paper one.
No rubber bands yet, so no sling-shots.
There’s a teeter-totter, but no bicycle,
A cart with wheels and a boy in it
pulled by a girl, but no skateboard.
A hoop, and yes, a hula hoop.
Fishing line but strangely no kite; of course,
no balloons. No toy guns,
a rag doll, but no Barbie doll,
No toy soldiers either, but a wooden sword.
No light-weight bows and arrows.
A little fork and shovel for boys,
of course, games of cards, and barrels
to point at, hide inside of and roll across the top,
gone now only fifty years. No comic books,
and the ones we have just disappearing.
And no Boom Box, iPod, cell phone, but a child
ringing a bell is raised up off the ground.
There’s no hobby-horse but there’s a fence
to ride like a horse. There’s a steep incline;
you can run up and do a flip off of it.
There’s leap-frog and follow-the-leader.
There’s a boy in a blindfold. blind man’s bluff,
There are poems and no way out of poems.
There’s juggling and a boy on stilts,
someone reading a book to figure it all out,
a labyrinth and someone cutting the hedge
under a blue Renaissance sky
while white birds scream in his ear
defending the young hatchlings
sitting three in a nest, deep in the leaves.
__________________
Today's LittleNip:
MODALITY
—A.R. Ammons
A grackle
flicks
down from
the cedar
onto
the shiny
alley
to see
if the
shower softened
the garbage
bags.
__________________
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:
Next deadline for Rattlesnake Review is November 15!!! Send 3-5 poems, smallish art pieces and/or photos (no bio, no cover letter, no simultaneous submissions or previously-published poems) to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. E-mail attachments are preferred, but be sure to include all contact info, including snail address.
Also coming in November: On November 12, Rattlesnake Press will release a new rattlechap from Red Fox Underground Poet Wendy Patrice Williams (Some New Forgetting); a littlesnake broadside from South Lake Tahoe Poet Ray Hadley (Children's Games); 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.
