Natural Hungers

—Poetry and Photos by Taylor Graham, Placerville, CA
—And scroll down for Form Fiddlers’ Friday!

CLOUDS OVER CLINIC

Enforced segregation by 6-ft distances x-marked on concrete, we’re together apart, a small sample of a billion lifetimes—our world brought together acutely by contagion. I wait my turn to answer: no cough or shortness of breath. My temperature’s remotely read. I’m not sick. I’m here for a tetanus booster. I run up flights of stairs to the procedure room—my vocation, to keep moving. Out an upper window, cloudscape like a billion lifetimes permutating, combining, separating, reconfiguring lives to new stories.

Clouds ever changing—
they make me stop to listen
to my breath, my heart. 

IT’S IN THE AIR

That old tingling—anticipation,
the moment my search-dog’s nose lifts,
eye brightens; stride lengthens, pulled
by invisible thread of a lost child,
an old man wandering from his life:
our quarry. For years I followed
my wordless partners, learned to read
weather and topography, how they mesh
and clash. Today
I knot a bandanna-mask over nose
and mouth, ready to step out into our
COVID world; imagining invisible
microscopic particles traveling, pooling,
hovering like smoke; heavier or lighter.
They cling variably to surfaces;
my dog intently sniffing trailside grass,
surveyor’s tape tied to a tree;
how long these particles can live there.
Poet not scientist, analogy not proof—
I’m searching as I go, hoping to keep
myself from getting lost. 

LOOKING FOR THE COMET

Where do comets hide?
A dry creek displays its rocks.

Does thistle stargaze?
Night counts its constellations,
every star by name.

Inside walls, planets
are just memory of ages.
Out the door, I walk
pasture without a flashlight
and scan the northeast
sky above ridgetop, hoping.
No comet, only
neighbors’ security lights.

We dim the sacred
night, as a poet called it.
We neon our dark,
the comet bright overhead
as I stare blinded.

Horned owl calls who-hu-
whoo-whoo-whoo summoning
my cat safe in-house.
The eastern sky is turning
to soft gray silk before dawn. 

AN INDOOR LIFE

No howling behind woodpiles,
secret thoughts of daring the horned owl,
the wolverine of distant heights.
Cat’s talent is the long black stretch
of claws and fur; fantasies
of field-mouse skitter, silver flutter
of wings. A walled-in world
is needy. See him kneading his dreams
into an afghan on the chair—
amazing fortitude, unrelenting
till the fibers hang in ravels and ringlets.
Hear his never-satisfied dark purr. 

 Golden Bluebird Bills
 

NATURAL HUNGERS

wild turkeys delve through
dead-fall oak leaves for acorns—
relentless forage

volunteer saplings
too close to the house—a buck
cleans up my trimmings

sundown’s bright-dusk edge—
ruddy, low, and cautious, Fox
disappears to dark

lilies opening
in a nest-box—famished gold
lily-mouths of babes

what is this hunger that pulls
me outside looking for wild? 

RELENTLESS

Such churning of leaf-fall into hillside soil,
with twigs riding the waves of rummagings.
Wild turkeys coming through again, scuffing,
kicking for what keeps life going—acorns,
seeds, grubs. They spare oaklings; our hillside’s
spiked with tiny green leaf-pairs on wire-thin
stems. This morning two wild turkey hens
lead the way among furrowings and hummocks
of their foraging. Their turklings leap, flapping
wings at each other, sparring, trying to prove
who’s top turkey. The urge to life relentless. 

Today’s LittleNip:

WITHOUT A SOUND
—Taylor Graham

Setting sun torches
canopies of summer woods,
a buck’s forked antlers
branching like oak limbs, soft-gold
as their leaves—he vanishes. 
 
___________________

Thanks to Taylor Graham today for her poetry from the foothills and all the creatures she sees. She has sent us a Paradigm poem (“Looking for the Comet”, a poem based on paradigms), a Haiku Sonnet (“Natural Hungers”), a Haibun (“Clouds Over Clinic”), and a Waka (“Without a Sound”). Frankly, I can’t find any good resources for the Paradigm, only some examples at www.poetrysoup.com/poems/best/paradigm/. Please let me know if you have any links to descriptions of the form.

___________________

FORM FIDDLERS’ FRIDAY! 

It’s time for more contributions from Form Fiddlers! Each Friday for awhile, there will be poems posted here from some of our readers using forms—either ones which were mentioned on Medusa during the previous week, or whatever else floats through the Kitchen and the perpetually stoned mind of Medusa. If these instructions are vague, it's because they're meant to be. Just fiddle around with some forms and get them posted in the Kitchen. (See the end of this post for links to all the forms used.)

Linda Klein has sent us a poem in an intriguing form. As Linda describes it, “In ‘Once Upon A Summer’, after the first line each subsequent line begins with a word or phrase similar to the previous line's end word.  I've centered it to make the lines flow”:
 

ONCE UPON A SUMMER

—Linda Klein, Los Angeles, CA

 

When I was young and never had a care,

I cared for summer's sweet, enchanting ways

way more than waiting while other seasons passed

and in passing brought another year,

a year of yearning to return to summer's golden days.

Days turn into nights.  It seems dreaming brought me here.

Here is where I live my older years,

years they call golden, as silver strands appear

apparent in my thinning hair,

hair once golden as a summer's day.

 —Public Domain

Carol Louise Moon has sent two interesting, rhymed List poems:

GEMSTONE COLLECTION
—Carol Louise Moon, Placerville, CA

Emerald, zircon, jade and jasper,
iolite, pyrope, yellow beryl—
emperor’s topaz and amber
inlays—amethyst, stone and coral.
Opal, citrine, garnet and pearl. 

* * *

DOG OF MINE
—Carol Louise Moon

English Bulldog, Labradoodle,
Irish Wolfhound, Irish Setter,
English Pointer and French Poodle.
Iceland Sheepdog, German Pinscher,
Otterhound, Corgi... There’s my Boxer. 

  —Public Domain

The intrepid Caschwa (Carl Schwartz) has sent in a Ghazal, and congratulations to him for jumping on this most ancient and daunting of forms! Here are some links that not only show Ghazals, but explain their origins—and don’t forget to “sign” (include) your name in the last stanza:

•••poetryschool.com/theblog/whats-a-ghazal
•••poets.org/glossary/ghazal
•••www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ghazal
•••www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/ghazal.html

 

Here is Carl’s Ghazal:

 
SANDWICH ORDER
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA 
 
feel the mysterious squoosh underfoot
absorb that imperious push underfoot

stand tall and strong for whatever will come
savor the DELIrious cush underfoot

you are the emperor, all honor you
inFLAME the furious bush underfoot

oh glory be! your number has been called
ignore deleterious shoosh underfoot

made to order for Caschwa, all is well
keep your curious tush underfoot 

 Man-Eating Sandwich

 —Public Domain

Carl has also sent a Decannelle and a Pleiades:

WHAT WAS I THINKING?
—Caschwa

marched right into marching band room
saw a silver tuba there
could not fight the big temptation
pursed my lips and sucked in air
blew one note to see what happens
drew the band director’s stare
“Oh, I see you play the tuba”
eyes aglow and smiling wide
“YOU will be our tuba player”
not a choice I could decide

* * *

YOUTH
—Caschwa

you cannot paint eggshells
yellow inside, I know
yesterday when I tried
yanking the shell till it
yielded access to the
yolk, which broke and dripped out,
yuck!! what a mess I made

____________________

Here are links to the forms that appear in today’s post:

•••Decannelle: darksideofthemoon583.com/2018/01/26/10-line-poem-challenge-15-decannelle
•••Haibun: www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/haibun-poems-poetic-form
•••Haiku Sonnet (four Haiku followed by two lines of seven syllables each): www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/haiku-sonnet-poetic-form
•••List Poem: clpe.org.uk/poetryline/poeticforms/list-poem
•••Pleiades: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/pleiades.html
•••Waka: poetscollective.org/poetryforms/waka

And thanks to our brave contributors! Would you like to be a SnakePal? All you have to do is send poetry and/or photos and artwork to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post work from all over the world, in forms or not, including that which was previously-published. Just remember: the snakes of Medusa are always hungry!

____________________

—Medusa

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.