Baudelaire is in the House!

frank andrick and Art Luna displaying
the "Best of Sacramento" award from
Sacramento News & Review for
Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe

MYSTERIOUS? TODAY?
—frank andrick, Sacramento

I feel Mysterious today
Everything is humming loudly
I feel mysterious today

Stellectric in Sacra-Paris
it takes touch to erase
the grace on your face
outside the vapors take new shapes
dreaming becomes episodic
god is not the name of god

I feel mysterious today

Saquarra is a state of mind
anima anubis sistered soul
sensation and contemplation
are my favorite drugs
what name a sin that takes two to do
god is not the name of god

I feel mysterious today
Everything is humming loudly
I feel mysterious today


(orginally published in WTF #2)

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Thanks, frank! A Sac-Franciscan experimental mythologist whose work spans poetry, prose, story writing and telling. A Poet who loves mixing it up w/ music and movies while still holding the solo voice high. frank andrick is the producer and host of “The Pomo Literati”, a two-hour spoken word program broadcast on KUSF San Francisco which features live reading performances, contemporary recordings, and archival rarities from pre-beat to post-modern. He also co-hosts Poetry Unplugged @ Luna's, an open mic, featured-reader series, which was Sacramento News & Review’s People’s Choice for Best Open Mic Venue; in 2008, frank edited an anthology of work from these poets for Rattlesnake Press. frank also creates word-driven, multi-media events and poetry/performance tours. He is the author of Soluna, a collection of his poems and prose, and two littlesnake broadsides from Rattlesnake Press: AOL (Aurelia Occultica Lamantia) and Home Is Where You Hang Your Wings. He currently edits WTF, a quarterly journal of Luna’s poets, also for Rattlesnake Press.

Join us at The Book Collector this coming Weds., June 10 at 7:30 PM for the release of another broadside from frank: Mandorla: A Prelude, with its homage to frank's lifelong hero, Charles Baudelaire. That's 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Be there!

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THE EXOTIC PERFUME
—Charles Baudelaire

When, with both eyes shut, on a close autumn evening,
I breathe the perfume of your heated breasts,
I see happy shores unfold themselves
Dazzling in the flames of a monotonous sun;

A lazy island where Nature bestows
Peculiar trees and savoury fruit;
Men with bodies slim and virile,
Women with eyes of astonishing candour.

Led by your odour to climates of charm,
I see a harbour full of sails and masts
Still tired by the waves of the sea,

Whilst the perfume of green tamarind-trees
Circles the air and fills my nostrils,
Meets in my soul with the song of the seamen.

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EVENING HARMONY
—Charles Baudelaire

Now is the time when trembling on its stem
Each flower fades away like incense;
Sounds and scents turn in the evening air;
A melancholy waltz, a soft and giddy mood!

Each flower fades away like incense;
The violin thrills like a tortured heart;
A melancholy waltz, a soft and giddy mood!
The sky is beautifully sad like some great resting-place.

The violin thrills like a tortured heart,
A tender heart, hating the wide black void.
The sky is beautifully sad like some great resting-place;
The sun drowns itself in clotting blood.

A tender heart, hating the wide black void,
Gathers all trace from the pellucid past.
The sun drowns itself in clotting blood.
Like the Host shines O your memory in me!

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BAUDELAIRE
—frank andrick

Ask the question that cannot
be answered;
Question daily, Die daily, Live forever,
Dare to say, Dare to do, Dare to know
what you will not admit to.
A heart laid bare in Flowers Of Evil.
Turning from sun to stone.
Three shades of love: Black, White, and Green.
The sky swallowed his soul.

Intercessor!!!
When you asked the Deity
to judge us by our Arts.
To judge success by the depth
of our dreams,
not their deployment into
the mundane world.
Has our soul known progress since
we first fanned the flame
and turned the wheel?
When you pronounced our creations
as our most eloquent prayers.
When you prayed
that our Poems, Our Paintings, Our Music,
That the Healing Arts, however flawed, would speak for us...

Now...
and at the hour of our death
Pray for Us... Poets All.

Charles Baudelaire
Inset from Painting
by Henri Fantin-Latour:
“Homage à Delacroix”, 1864

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Today's LittleNip:

Rain dropping from eaves
Sounds nature's poetry.
We speak and write to
Explain to ourselves.

—Deng Ming-Dao

__________________


—Medusa

(Today's Baudelaire poems were translated from the French by G.A. Wagner.)


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

COMING JUNE 10: Walt Whitman Orders a Cheeseburger, a rattlechap by Bob Stanley; Mandorla: A Prelude; a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and a brand-new issue of Rattlesnake Review! All at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30, on Wednesday, June 10. Free!

Rattlesnake Review: Snake (RR21) is now available (free) at The Book Collector, or send me four bux and I'll mail you one. RR22 will be available next Wednesday, June 10, at The Book Collector. Deadline is July 15 for RR23: 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!

WTF!: The second issue of WTF, the free quarterly journal from Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe that is edited by frank andrick, is now available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one. Next deadline, for Issue #3, is July 15. 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.


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.......!

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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.