Wisteria
Photo by D.R. Wagner
FOR LISA
—D.R. Wagner, Elk Grove
The seasons know her by name.
Each one calls out to her as they pass.
Each one shows her its most beautiful
Gifts. Long fields dressed in
Snow. The blue light of the moon
Adorning. These flowers,
These zephyrs, these clouds
Of pink and dawn. Summer
Laying out its long evenings,
Its lexicons of bird song.
The Autumn; harvests, all
The mountains dressed in colors.
Hello they call. And she calls back.
Night allows her capes
Made of stars and secrets.
And day, the finest of its
Horses, its most delightful vistas.
Such is she surrounded by this earth.
And here she walks beside me.
And lets me kiss her lips.
And hear her laugh,
And this state alone
Allows these words and lets
Me say these things.
_________________
Thanks to DR Wagner for today's photo and poem, to BZ Niditch for his poems of the sea from the "other coast", and to Claire J. Baker for our LittleNip. SpiralChapper and Snake Pal DR writes to say he has been in an auto accident and just spent four days in the hospital! Yikes! Get well soon, DR!
This weekend in NorCal poetry:
•••Friday (4/17), 7:30 PM: The Other Voice (sponsored by the UU Church of Davis) presents Hannah Stein. [See last Monday's post for bio.] Refreshments and Open Mike follow the reading, so bring along a poem or two to share.
•••Friday (4/17), 7 PM: Poetry at Raven's Tale bookstore, 352 Main St., Placerville. Featured reader is Molly Fisk. A short poetry open-mic follows (signup before the feature). Free.
•••Sat. (4/18), 7:30 PM: Six Ft. Swells Press presents Poems from the Night Shift featuring Matt Amott, Julie Valin, Todd Cirillo & Will Staple, an evening to celebrate the Ridge release of Will's newest chapbook (published by Six Ft. Swells Press), The One That Got Away. The evening also celebrates the Six Ft. Swells release of Poems from the Night Shift, featuring, for the first time ever, the co-founders, publishers, pirates & poets of Six Ft. Swells: Matt Amott, Julie Valin & Todd Cirillo. The reading will be held at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center, 17894 Tyler Foote Rd. (on the San Juan Ridge), Nevada City. Info: 265-2826 or 277-4379, sixfootswells@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/sixftswells/.
•••Sat. (4/18), 7-8:30 PM: Poetry at The (new) Vox , 4th and F in West Sac just over the I Street Bridge from downtown (Old Union Hall). Readers: Rachel Leibrock, Joe Atkins, Lytton Bell, Genelle Chaconas, James Benton, Jen Jenkins, Matt Veazey, and Crystal Anderson. Hosted by Cynthia Linville. Benefit for the Sacramento Homeless; donations welcome. Info: clinville@csus.edu or VoxSac.com/.
•••Sat. (4/18), 7-9 PM: The Black Men Expressing Tour for one night only at Underground Books, 2814 35th St. (off 35th and Broadway) in Oak Park, Sacramento. $3 general admission. Terry Moore, along with "Neketia Brown", will be co-hosting. Info: (916) 208-POET.
•••Sunday (4/19), 6-8 PM: Frank Andrick hosts his Pomo Literati radio program on KUSF-San Francisco 90.3 FM (worldwide at www.live365.com/stations/kusf). This week features Sacramento Poetry Center President Bob Stanley, along with Kathy Kieth and numerous other goodies. Check it out!
•••Monday (4/20), 7:30 PM. Sacramento Poetry Center presents Mary Zeppa and Friends (Julia Connor, Victoria Dalkey, Patrick Grizzell, Kathryn Hohlwein, Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Ann Menebroker, Tom Miner, Stan Zumbiel) at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. No open mic this week. 2009 marks SPC’s 30th anniversary. “As a way of keeping that history alive, of celebrating all we’ve accomplished together,” Zeppa has invited a group of SPC’s “Veteran Voices” to join her for the second half of the evening. Each of these readers (names and bios of confirmed readers appear below) will have 5 minutes. Zeppa and friends will also read from the work of various people important to SPC’s history but unable to be a part of this evening.
Mary Zeppa, who has been active in the Sacramento Poetry Center since 1981, served as Executive Director from 12/85-9/87, was a Co-Editor of Poet News from 1984-1995 and was a founding Editor (1993) of The Tule Review. Her poems have appeared in a variety of print and on-line journals, including Perihelion, Switched-on Gutenberg, Zone 3, The New York Quarterly and Permafrost, and in several anthologies. She is the author of two chapbooks, Little Ship of Blessing (Poets Corner Press, 2002) and The Battered Bride Overture (Rattlesnake Press, 2005). Zeppa, who currently serves as SPC’s Principal Archivist, was a 1996 recipient of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission Literary Fellowship in Community Arts and a 2008 recipient of a Resident Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
_________________
NIGHT OWL
—B.Z. Niditch, Brookline, MA
under the burning blankets
asleep on sheets
of papyrus or paper
nearly blind from writing notes
and keeping one's eyes
scarcely open,
beside her silent lips
reading of the unspeakable
one wishes to speak to
unless an abandoned field
of choice on summer nights
breaks through voices,
or a chorus from cicadas
in city victory gardens
is derisively murmured
to survive in reeking bedclothes
another salubrious night.
_________________
THE ORCHARD
—B.Z. Niditch
Passing hands
blush in the lake
as it begins to rain
headlines melt
under the road bridge
recalling an overflow
of accumlated secrets
water color paintings
of clouds
appear to sky dive
for bees slide
cover the poplar shade
the wind echos
by indifferent lightning
and morning gates
open for an indifferent
humming
in the sun-screened orchard
as your sandals fall off.
_________________
RUST ISLAND
—B.Z. Niditch
Blackbirds call
under a buried sky,
seaflakes depart
on an ocean scent
besieged by clouds
of hibiscus and rose.
You walk
a pebbled sand path
as shore winds murmur,
an island flutters
over your sealed lids
till you awaken
in a sleepless dune
between night and shade.
In the barest of grasses
you wander aimlessly,
passing forgotten kayaks
on a dispersion of shells
till you reach the ocean's
fresh air memory
and sea gulls appear,
gliding over
a daytime's limpid waters.
__________________
SCITUATE HARBER, 2008
—B.Z. Niditch
A seasoned refugee
feeling alone
on a sunduned blanket
opens to tall tales
without business lunches
and corners memories
where the day dreams.
On an elbow of pain
by cell phone rows
of beachcombers,
you will cruise happy hours
amid black birds' cacophony
and a shamed child
by a gazebo
excuses a lost bicycle.
Praying for a cool sky
by infallible umbrellas
waiting to befriend
an evasive ocean
in the vagrant air
ravishing gulls amuse
with mysterious wings
over the indigo shore.
By orange and green kayaks
the child hunts
among coral shells
crawling in the home harbor
your eyelids sink
in shades of seaweed
you compensate for obscurity
by circling the lighthouse
hiding your shadows
by oak picnic canopies
covering nomadic grasslands.
__________________
AT TWELVE YEARS
—B.Z. Niditch
You are hiding
where lilacs gesture
no promise by elms
for a luminous tomorrow
nor to enlighten
a thousand sunrises
before the white sand
and stones
across the landing
yet the sea opens
your foggy underbrush eyes
wandering in a sailor suit
in the morning air
lifting darkness
from the rain
taking your leave
by the river's gnarled edge.
_________________
Today's LittleNip:
Every poem must be made up of lines that are poems.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
_________________
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:
Rattlesnake Review: The latest Snake (RR21) is now available (free) at The Book Collector, or send me four bux and I'll mail you one. 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, and please—only one submission per issue.
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 APRIL: A SpiralChap of poetry and photos from Laverne Frith (Celebrations: Images and Texts); a (free!) littlesnake broadside from Taylor Graham (Edge of Wildwood); and Musings3: An English Affair, a new blank journal of photos and writing prompts from Katy Brown. Now available from the authors, or The Book Collector, or (soon) rattlesnakepress.com/.
April 15 was the deadline for the second issue of WTF, the free quarterly journal from Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe that is edited by frank andrick. Submission guidelines are the same as for the Snake, but send your poems, 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 is for adults only, so you must be over 18 years of age to submit. Copies of the first issue are at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one. Next deadline, for issue #3, is July 15.
COMING IN MAY: Join us Weds., May 13 for a new rattlechap, Sinfonietta, from Tom Goff; Vol. 5 of Conversations, the Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy; and the inauguration of a new series, Rattlesnake LittleBooks, with Shorts: Quatrains and Epigrams by Iven Lourie. That’s at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Free!
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.
