Friday, February 20, 2009

Coloring Outside The Lines


Susan Wallior


OUTSIDE THE LINES

—Susan Wallior, El Dorado

Multiple choice questions
Still only one right answer
But what about the wobbler
Outside the box

Why does life
Why does love
Why do times
Have to be so defined

I like to color
Outside the lines
I like to dream
Of better times
I like gray
Over black and white
I like green
Our planet’s life
It’s ok to color
Outside the lines

By lining up
Left or right
There is no meeting
Of the minds

So what about
Some dialogue
Some diplomacy
Some common ground

I like to color
Outside the lines
I like to dream
Of better times
I love the color gray
Over black and white
The color green
Is our planet’s life
It’s okay to color
Outside the lines
It’s okay to color
Outside the lines

__________________

Thanks, Susan! Susan Wallior writes: I have been a lyricist and musician for about 30 years, but poetry was first, with my first publication in 1967, with the help of my fifth grade teacher in Ironwood, Michigan—a very unusual poem about recovery after a relationship breakup, odd because I was a kid who had never contemplated a relationship. I look back at the words in that poem, and both cringe and giggle at my naivete. I have been working on a book about becoming a mid-life mini-rancher for a while (we have a couple of acres with sheep, goats, a llama, and a Great Pyrenees named Sunny), as well as writing and playing music, creating stained glass treasures, photography, and of course, working at my paying job to pay for all the tools and instruments needed to do all these hobbies and feed my critters.

__________________

GIRLS AT WAR
—Susan Wallior

As I lay here in this cold dark hole
My buddy died today
I can’t cry, I can’t scream
I can’t leave
Eye to eye
I end your life
And I didn’t know your name
Another time, another place
Maybe we could have been friends
Well, what am I doing here
In this land so strange
The times, they talked me
Out of sanity
My mama cried
My dad stood stern
And waved goodbye
To the girl they knew
As I lay here in this hole
Hugging my gun tonight
I can’t cry, I can’t scream
I can’t leave
For the love of money
For the power of war
For some man’s ego
I can’t go home
No matter how often
I try to get clean
I can never wash away
His last plea
For my captain says
He is the enemy
Eye to eye
I cannot cry
I cannot scream
I pull the trigger
And end my dream
I am no hero
Today, or tomorrow
How will I function
In real life to follow
It will never be the same
I can’t cry, I can’t scream
I can never leave

__________________

88 POSSIBILITIES
—Susan Wallior

My fingers stumble
Between the keys
As I work to produce a song

Theory and melody
And rote practice
Nag me continually

Make white and black agree
To some pleasant harmony
Or none

I rationalize that this moment
is artistic license in discordance
And hope no one else heard

Creation is occasional pain
Like every fledgling moment
Potential fall from my nest

And hope to fly again

___________________

WTF is out!

Be sure to stop by The Book Collector to pick up your free copy of Rattlesnake Press's latest spawn, WTF—our new quarterly journal which premiered last night in a rousing event hosted by frank andrick which ran into the wee hours at Luna's Cafe. WTF #1 features 22 poets, artists and photogs from the Poetry Unplugged scene; next deadline is April 15 (oooo...tax day!). Guidelines are pretty much the same as the RR ones listed below, except that frank wants three poems (instead of 3-5), and you must be over 18 to submit. Send poems, artwork, and photos to fandrickpub@hotmail.com or the RPress snail address. If you can't get to The Book Collector, send me two bux and I'll mail you one, or, I suspect, they're available at Luna's.

What's the difference between Rattlesnake Review and WTF? The over-18 thing should give you a clue. And if you ever go to Poetry Unplugged on Thursday nights at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, you'll see what I mean. The Review is big and fat, has articles and other features, and represents a wide variety of styles and genres. WTF is leaner (smaller), meaner, and more geared to the "Luna's voice", if there is such a thing. Its material also tends to be more X-rated. If you're over 18, you're welcome to submit to either one. I edit the Review; frank andrick edits WTF.


This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Friday (2/20), 7 PM: Poetry at Raven's Tale presents Shawn Pittard and Bob Eakins. Rattlechapper Shawn Pittard is a regular columnist for Rattlesnake Review and The Great American Pin-Up, as well as the author of These Rivers from Rattlesnake Press, which has also done littlesnake broadsides of both his and Bob Eakins' poetry. A short poetry open-mic follows (signup before the featured readers). Raven's Tale bookstore is located at 352 Main St., Placerville. Free!

•••Friday (2/20), 7:30 PM: The Other Voice, sponsored by the UU Church of Davis, presents Charles Halsted and Miles Miniaci, who will be accompanied by musicians. They will be reading their poems in the sanctuary of the church located at 27074 Patwin Road in Davis. Free! Open Mike and refreshments follow, so bring along a poem to share. Charles Halsted is a faculty physician at the UC Davis School of Medicine. During his decades of patient care, teaching and medical research, he wrote many original scientific articles. As part of a recent transition toward retirement, he has studied poetry in workshops led by Hannah Stein and Julia Levine and already has publications in Poetry Now and The Yolo Crow.

Miles Miniaci received his BA from San Francisco State and an MFA from the University of Southern California. His poetry and fiction have appeared in American River Literary Review, Catchphrase Collection, Harpoon and other periodicals. His most recent work is a poetry collection, Maps and Legends, published by Polymer Grove Press. He has made his living at various times as an actor, a high school and college instructor, and an arts administrator. He considers himself an incredibly fortunate person.

•••Sat. (2/21), 7-9 PM: Black History Open Mike Night at Underground Books, 2814 35th St., Sacramento, featuring Lolita Moore and Say Juan History. $3. Info: 916-737-3333 or www.undergroundbooks.com/.

•••Monday (2/23), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Rob Anthony, Vincent Kobelt, Mario Ellis Hill, Kelly Richardson, HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Rob Anthony is the author of Neo-Jasouloetry [http://cdbaby.com/cd/anthonyrob] and has a MySpace page here: [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=89244270]. Vincent Kobelt is the coordinator of readings at Carol’s Books and has been a long-time resident of the Sacramento poetry scene. His poem “Middle Passage” can be read here: http://www.greatleap.org/tar/tar03_sms/tar03-vincent.html/. Mario Ellis Hill is a Sacramento poet and a radio personality for KDVS.

Coming Up at SPC:

March 2: Richard Loranger
March 3 [Tues.]: Brian Turner

__________________

WHY
—David Gay, Sacramento

You slip your foot in water. Doesn’t beauty
deserve a bath? You dip your skin in fragrance
vast as apple blossoms floating on garden
pools between orchards. Around the wetness
of petals blown by breezy steams your bathing
fans to me your aroma naked in bed.

And hollow carved to cup erotic cravings
(fresh red berries sweeten cream), my kneading
colors you red, unknots your back, makes warmer
lovers with softer shoulder blades. You know you
found me ready to burst. I find you melting,

whirling juicy scents. Your apple breasts:
round your limbs I sing them down--so hot--
like magma--catch them, can’t I? Burning,
my skin expands, starts rounding hips in closer
lyric curves, my heart ballooning closer
sounds to sip your juice and lick your coming.

Flute glass champagne-filled by stroking fingers,
notes your body veils in freckles, your smiling
blown balloon-like, cones around my kisses:
by these I know your honey, coffee, paper,
a dawn of touching beauty, body, laughter,
horny calloused soul so soothed to smoothness,
man who drinks the why between your thighs.

__________________

SOMETHING TO WEAR
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

An indecency, nude
mountains in winter:
Expose them to? no—
rather, treat them as,
elements; shroud
them, cloak them,
give them their
aliment. Too long
they’ve dined on
the slimmest of
ice diets. Ah, to see
these waifs of massif,
so long peakéd and
sharp-cheeked,
at last clad, and in
proper snows. How
becoming spring
thaw and plummet,
how comely this
as-yet-unbefallen
waterfall.

__________________

Today's LittleNip:

My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin.

~Karl Kraus

__________________

—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

Rattlesnake Review: The latest issue (RR20) is currently available at The Book Collector, or send me four bux and I'll mail you one. Deadline for RR21 was Sunday, Feb. 15; the issue will appear in mid-March. Next deadline is May 15 for RR22: 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; let us know if your submission is for the Review or for Medusa, or for either one.

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 The Book Collector or write to me and I'll send you one. Free!

New for February: Now available! A new rattlechap from Sacramento's Poet Laureate, Julia Connor (Oar); a free 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. Available from the poets or at The Book Collector (1008 24th St., Sacramento) or (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/.

Coming in March: On Wednesday, March 11, Rattlesnake Press will be releasing a new chapbook from Norma Kohout (All Aboard); a littlesnake broadside from Patricia Hickerson (At Grail Castle Hotel); and a new issue of Rattlesnake Review (the Snake turns 21)! Join us at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30. 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, or any other day!): 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.