THE HARPIST’S HANDS
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
Rhythm is what first emerges from
her careful-caring way about the notes:
reminding us Verdi’s use of harp connotes
the stride of the hero in its dynamic strum.
Yet gazes are beeswings drawn towards the hum’s
gestation: to the touchwind rippling the floating
string-realm, currying this liquid coat
now glossing and lilting under the human plectrum
that is each slender hand. An unfolding, calm,
and then a swandiving into a cardsharp-sleight:
no plucking-up-by-the-roots. Red-coral-pink highlights,
translucencies in each pigeonwing finger and palm.
Hear how a hot breadloaf steams, pried slowly apart;
how a book flutters softly shut on its own white heart.
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Thanks, Tom, for the beautiful imagery. And thanks to Patricia Hickerson and Mitz Sackman for responses to our Seed of the Week: Waiting (Mitz is responding to her own poem yesterday) and to Michael Cluff for the Christmas poem. Keep 'em comin'!
This weekend in NorCal poetry:
•••Friday (12/19), 7:30 PM: Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol/Writers of the New Sun presents The Out Loud Poets (Brad Buchanan, Jacqueline Diaz, Chris Olander and JoAnn Anglin) at La Raza Galeria Posada, 1024 22nd St., Midtown Sacramento. [See last Monday's post for bios.] The Out Loud Poets will read their own poems and also share their Poetry Out Loud experiences from last year. Each worked in Sacramento-region high schools with teen students who memorized poems and competed to see who could present their poems best, at their schools, and then on a county-wide basis, then nationally, competing for prizes including a college scholarship. (See: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/.) POL poets for 2008-09 are also invited to read.
•••Friday (12/19), 7 PM: Poetry at Raven's Tale bookstore, 352 Main Street, Placerville. This will be a community reading; bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet, or just come to listen. There is no charge.
•••Friday (12/19), 7:30 PM: The Other Voice in Davis presents an all-Open Mike reading, celebrating the holidays (holy days) with words of quiet joy or laughter, perhaps even sadness but with peace over all. Plan on five minutes per person says host Allegra Silberstein. Join them in the Library of the UU Church at 27074 Patwin Rd. in Davis. No charge. Bring your own poems or somebody else’s.
•••Monday (12/22): No reading at Sacramento Poetry Center.
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WHILE SHE WAITS
her river
broad and rhythmically lapping
tuned to a deliberate surge
carries her long unhurried story on its back
totes her cargo season to season
washes the banks of the city
where she was born Sunday morning
first saw daylight
three blocks from waterside
while she waits
her river nods to the Palisades
shallow waves sun-sparkled
holds up bridges shore to shore
burrows tunnels through its trenches
ferries one way and another
barges up and down
steams between Battery Park and the Liberty statue
powers into the Atlantic
that's her ocean
(waiting)
where soon she will float on her back
stare up at the stars
it will be Sunday night by then
—Patricia Hickerson, Davis
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A MOTHER’S VIEW
—Mitz Sackman, Murphys
Days
Whirl by
December
Racing quickly
Towards holidays
I think about how time would
Weigh on my hands as a child
Now time is insufficient
Christmas lies in wait unready
I hope time holds back for weary moms
Christmas holiday joy waits for me soon
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DASHER
—Michael Cluff, Highlands
I am the alpha deer
have been for the last
four hundred and fifty-five years
give or take
a few dozen.
The other seven
much less
than that.
Before that time
well we do not talk
about that era
it was during the Reformation
you know.
Reindeer like Anthony
and Augustine
and Lilith
and Ursula,
all bovine saints
it must be said
even
at this late date
were slowly phased out
and replaced
by us
in the Anglo-Saxon clan
if you catch
my drift.
So I will visit them all
after Advent
and never will let Santa know.
He's part Druid
after all.
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Today's LittleNip:
Literature was not born the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels: literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him.
—Vladimir Nabokov
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—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:
Rattlesnake Review: The latest issue (#20) is currently available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one. Contributors' and subscribers' copies will go into the mail this week. Deadline for RR21 is February 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. Meanwhile, the snakes of Medusa are always hungry!
NEW for December: A second chapbook from Danyen Powell (Blue Sky Flies Out); a free littlesnake broadside from Kevin Jones (Low-Rent Dojo), and a brand-new (free) issue of Rattlesnake Review (#20)! Stop by The Book Collector and pick up Christmas gifts such as Katy Brown's calendars and blank journals and all our other books—give the gift of poetry! We even have two books that are appropriate for kids: Poems in a Seashell by Kathy Kieth (a children's approach to writing poetry), and SpiralChap #1: The Heart of a Poet, poetry and art by Ashley Redfield and her brother when they were wee ones. While you're there, of course, you'll want to pick up a book or two for your own Christmas tree. And hey—TBC is even open on Sundays!
Also available (free): littlesnake broadside #46: Snake Secrets: Getting Your Poetry Published in Rattlesnake Press (and lots of other places, besides!): A compendium of ideas for brushing up on your submissions process so as to make editors everywhere more happy, thereby increasing the likelihood of getting your poetry published. Pick up a copy at TBC or write to me and I'll send you one. Free!
Coming in January: Other than the ever-restless Medusa, the Snake will be snoozing during January; no releases or readings. But our October road trips inspired a new Rattlesnake publication, WTF, to be edited by frank andrick. This 30-page, chapbook-style (free) quarterly will primarily showcase the talents of readers at Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café, but anyone over 18 is welcome to submit. Deadline is Jan. 15 for a Feb. 19 premiere at Luna’s. Submission guidelines are the same as for the Snake, but please send three poems (each one page or less in length), photos, smallish art or prose pieces (500 words or less) to fandrickfabpub@hotmail.com (attachments preferred) or, if you’re snailing, to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. And be forewarned: this publication will be for adults only! so you must be over 18 years of age to submit.
Coming February 11: A new rattlechap from Sacramento's Poet Laureate, Julia Connor (Oar); a littlesnake broadside from Josh Fernandez (In The End, It’s A Worthless Machine); and the premiere of our new Rattlesnake Reprints, featuring The Dimensions of the Morning by D.R. Wagner, which was first published by Black Rabbit Press in 1969. That’s February 11 at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s.
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.
