Mysterious Happiness

photo by Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos

WOMAN, 80, STRANDED
—Patricia Wellingham-Jones, Tehama

The woman plucks her baseball cap
from thin white hair
Spreads the map
worn thin at the folds
Stars emerge
mosquitoes nip at her arms
her cell phone is out of range
Forehead creased like the travel-frayed map
she ponders the next stage of her journey
Hopes someone drives by
somebody safe
Hopes she isn't referred to on TV news
as a confused old thing
when she's merely lost

___________________

Thanks, PWJ! Patricia Wellingham-Jones and Stephanie Schaefer are among the many contributors to Rattlesnake Review. Be sure to get your poems in by this coming Saturday, November 15, for the next issue, due out in mid-December. See SnakeWatch below for information about submitting.

Patricia sent us the disturbing news that her publishing company, PWJ Press, is closing down for good. PWJ Press has published many poets through the years, including my second chapbook, Keeping Time in the Clock Shop. Thanks, Patricia, for all the support and plain ol' elbox grease you've put into poetry. And keep writing!

Here are some of her thoughts on the subject:


THINGS THAT MATTER
—Patricia Wellingham-Jones

Friends look with alarm
as I downsize my house
afraid I'll ship myself out
in the final box

Latest to go
is my late husband's glass and china
complete with oak cupboard
and wavy-glass front

I sold the Mata Ortiz pots
kept the Maria and Acoma ones
Auctioned off folk arts of Japan
turned indigo batik into pillows

Succulents in pots
and the hundred ivies
long ago went to friends
and the Friends of the Library
get cartons of books
every few months

My head expands with blessed space
when I shred reams of old paper
free up whole sections
in my files

I relish living with carpets
knotted by hand
paintings and carvings
made by real people
furniture with the patina of age

___________________

MRI WITHOUT VALIUM
—Patricia Wellingham-Jones

Head first I slide
into the cigar tube
Strapped in place
arms at my side

Plastic and metal
wrap my body
stifle breath

Voices echo from beyond
Soothing phrases
mean nothing
to my clammy skin

Clanking begins
The groan of a monster
My mouth opens
a whimper forms

Instead I grab
a firm hold
on my scrabbling mind

Eyes closed
I pull up a picture
blue Pacific sky
My body stretched
on a sailboat deck

I listen to the creak and moan
of mast and spar
The faint shudder
against my skin
is the swish of waves

My heart rate slows
The machine surrounds me
does what it must

__________________

The Foxes will be out tonight! Be sure to join us at The Book Collector as Rattlesnake Press releases 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 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

And here's a poem from another Red Fox, Taylor Graham, in response to yesterday's Seed of the Week: Secret Gardens and Other Enchanted Places:


EDGE OF THE WOOD
—Taylor Graham

Who painted this familiar scene? The shade of trees
on either side a lane that runs between,
with gates and split-rail fence to mark the edges.
What kind of half-remembered trees
in summer feather of their smooth dark limbs?
Someone—a barely-sketched figure
in the pathway’s shadow—walks below the leaves.
Where could he be going? A place you’ve just
forgotten? Beyond the fence, a sloping pasture catches
sun. Drowsy with sheep or grazing rocks,
how sunlight, simply flowing, glows
until a human figure disappears in bright-and-shadow
brush-strokes of a scene you’ve known and have
no name for. The play of light already changes
as a painting does with too much looking,
beckoning to enter. Step into this lane, to see
where the next turning leads, a place you’ve never,
always been. The pupiled eye dissolves in landscape.

__________________

Today's LittleNip:

A poet's mission is to make others confound fiction and reality in order to render them, for an hour, mysteriously happy.

—Isak Dineson

[Come join us for an hour of mysterious happiness tonight!]

__________________

—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.