The Sun Will Rise

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

CREEKSIDE
—Sue Crisp, Shingle Springs, CA                                            

Remembering the days of my youth,
laying creekside in the sun, listening
to the creek burble as I watched the
rippling water run over half-submerged
rocks and water sparkled stones.

The peace, tranquility, of that creekside
sound, soothed by the scent of wildflowers
that abound in that springtime veld.
Song of birds, croak of resident frogs,
natures voices, a blended meld.

Those days are gone, the creekside pleasures,
but not the mind’s eye of nature’s treasures.

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Sue Crisp

BYGONES
—Sue Crisp
                                          
The creekside log cabin,
set back in the wooded glen,
spoke of the peace, tranquility,
that the days once had been.

Now brambles, weed patches,
fill once-flowered beds.  Wild
flowers of poppy, sunflower,
and lupines now nod their
summer heads.

Home now for the skitter and
squeak of mice, webs of a spider
or two.   Insect-seeking bats make
an occasional fly through.

Her days of glory gone, yes, a sad
thing, but she can still hear her
tinkling creek sing.

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Sue Crisp

POEM AT SEVENTY-ONE
—Kevin Jones, Elk Grove, CA

Creek side,
Oh yes!
Hips and knees
Too. In fact,
Everything. 

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

MEMORY LOSS
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA

are you losing your memory?
well, to tell you the whole truth,
there are occasions when
sensations experienced do not
seem to ever formulate as a
memory in the first place

like when you are half-awake
and the connections are just
not there to reliably file away
what is perceived on the spot
so in place of memory one is
left with a suggestion of déjà vu

or like at the end of a movie
when they roll the credits and
you might just barely be able
to remember a few of them,
but most of them never reach
your memory at all

what was the twelfth word of
this poem? don’t look back,
just answer right now! Come on,
you read it seconds ago and
you should be able to recall that
one point easily.     or not 

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

DISPLACED
—Caschwa

It was the era of Cassius Clay, Lew
Alcindor, air raid sirens sending
school kids under their desks every
Friday at 10:00 a.m.

My dad went to work at a giant
aerospace firm, put a slide rule
in the pocket of his shirt, freshly
retrieved from a Chinese laundry

once a week we dined out at a
café that still served real cream
with the coffee, a gallon of gasoline
cost well under a buck

we pledged allegiance to 48, 49, 50
stars on the flag, comedians used
language you could share with mom,
long distance calls cost a lot more

we were on the winning side of a
world war, hope and renewal were
the framework of our plans, onward
to a better life, we could do it!

then, like a driver without a map, we
hit some bad roads and missed a few
turns, allowing the voice of corporate
dominance to speak for everyone

the material expenses of death were
to become a traded commodity, so
no lives really mattered any more
(it’s the economy, stupid)

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

LONG DIVISION
—Caschwa

the framers of the Constitution were farmers
and fully understood the advantages of
rotating the crops, which is why they made
sure to include the flexibility of amendments,
some of which would fail because their acidity
level was not matched to the task

Our Second Amendment, for example, does
well to nourish egos, but can kill old roots
that were striving to reach sunlight

Our Thirteenth Amendment attempted to carve
into stone a new pecking order for our menagerie
of appetites: food chain link sausage fencing
allowed prey to run free before unleashing the
predators to get their fill 

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

CHILD-PROOFED
—Caschwa

starting way back in that earliest time
when original thoughts became vanguard
reconnaissance parties in mud and grime
people double-digit older worked hard

to build an uncrossable barrier
a foolproof blockade for generations
as if age was a common carrier
of a germ that kills emancipation

and so it is when older poets read
the thoughts set down by folks a bit older
than they are, up comes that wall to impede
their access, and up comes that cold shoulder

and so the beacon of enlightenment
comes with darkened shades of disappointment 

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

A statue of actor John Wayne still stands at Orange County airport bearing his name
         and there’s been discussion to put this memory of John Wayne “out to pasture”
         just as other statues have been removed in California, such as that of Captain John Sutter in Sacramento
         John Wayne starred in Hollywood-made movies about whites murdering the “evil savage" Native Americans in the Western U.S
         even while the civil rights movement heated up  
         Wayne unrepentantly told Playboy in 1971, "I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them, if that’s what you’re asking. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves. …”
         Meanwhile there’s a company called BradFord Exchange which sells replicas of John Wayne’s jackets and clothes from his “iconic" characters in the movies
          I think the “Duke” jacket should come stained with “Indian blood”
          and on it, feature Wayne’s white racist statement, "What happened between their forefathers and our forefathers is so far back—right, wrong or indifferent—that I don’t see why we owe them anything. I don’t know why the government should give them something that it wouldn’t give me.”
          For the Native American, of course, that meant genocide instead of “liberty”.

—Michelle Kunert, Sacramento, CA

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

THE LIMB
—Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA
 
The limb
Barely makes its range
Through faltered, frail-made
Movement.

Misshapen, now, and weak,
Its muscle-memory
Recalls smooth, fluid swings,

But with aging’s changes,
It wears down
Worn and bleak.

 Distancing Sucks
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

FROM LIGHT INTO DARKNESS
—Joseph Nolan
 
When you look into darkness
From a place of bright light,
From a position of great illumination,
Of brilliant radiance,
Of pervasive luminescence,
You really can’t tell
What’s in there
Very well
Because of the size
Of your pupils.

Pupils must shrink
In a place of bright light
So its rays
Won’t burn
Dear retinas.

There are only so many
Sunbeams
Retinas can absorb
Before they are done.
It’s a matter of adaptation.

It’s also why rich folks
Don’t get what goes
Down in ghettoes.
They don’t like to look
Into darkness.
They’d rather enjoy the light.

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

WISDOM VERSUS MADNESS
—Joseph Nolan

I’m just not clear about wisdom.
It seems so out of place
In a world devoid of meaning,
Where souls have lost their grace,

Where they try to control each other,
And push each other around,
And burn and shoot
And hang and loot,
Whenever the lights go down.

In a world devoid of reason,
A wise-man must be mad—
Stung by tears of son-stripped mothers
Who’ve lost everything they had!

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

PENDULUMS
—Joseph Nolan

The balance of a pendulum
Is found throughout its motion,
Swinging blithely, back and forth,
Its every south
Begins its north,
Back and forth,
Back and forth.
It always stops
Dead-center. 

Keep On Skatin' 

—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan
 

WE NEED NOT BLESS THE SUN
—Joseph Nolan
 
The narrowness of golden rules,
Of virtues and prescriptions,
Of religious observations,
Do not outshine
The glimmering of ivory,
The shininess of ebony,
The ruby glow, mahogany
Or the firmness of oak wood.

We need not bless
The sun
To get
The sun to shine.
The sun will rise a’morning,
Regardless, and
Everything will be just fine!

______________________

Today’s LittleNip:

JUST LIVE IT
—Caschwa

a mountain is not humbled
by the courageous efforts
of climbers to ascend it

a sniper is not humbled
by the meritorious
qualities of its target

but the parents of infants
are truly humbled by the
amazing beauty of life

______________________

Another crazy-quilt Monday of fine poetry in the Kitchen today, and many thanks to our contributors for that!

Here in our area, Sac. Poetry Center uses Zoom for weekly readings and workshops. For more info, go to www.sacramentopoetrycenter.com; here is a list of what's going on there this week:

•••Mon., 10am: Writers on the Air hosted by Todd Boyd: RSVP in advance via email to writersontheair.message@gmail.com. Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/358106078; meeting ID: 358 106 078

•••Mon. 7:15pm: SPC Monday Night Socially Distant Verse online, featuring Connie Post. Host: Stuart Canton. Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/7638733462?pwd=YVltWXFFa2Rid2pZQ3pWaVordmZ5UT09; meeting ID: 763 873 3462 ("P O E T R E E I N C”); password: spcsdv2020

•••SPC Tuesday night workshop hosted by Danyen Powell: Bring a poem for critique: us02web.zoom.us/j/346316163; meeting ID: 346 316 163

•••Wed., 6pm: MarieWriters workshop (prompts) hosted by Patricia Wentzel: zoom.us/j/671443996

•••Fri., 4pm: Writing from the Inside Out workshop led by Nick LeForce. Reg. in advance at zoom.us/meeting/register/upwkde-opjkpnyQECAVBKolY4hKCdl61uA/. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. (If you have registered before, use the same link.)

* * *

Also this week:

•••Tues. (7/14), 6pm: Second Tuesday Poetry Series online, hosted by Modesto Poet Laureate Stella Beratlis, featuring Connie Post, Michael Meyerhofer. Zoom: cccconfer.zoom.us/j/99196095308/.

•••Fri. (7/17), 7:30pm: Video poetry reading on Facebook by Davis Poet Laureate James Lee Jobe at james-lee-jobe.blogspot.com/.

•••Sun. (7/19), 4-5pm: Book Launch: Writers on the Air features Mimosa Sundays, with Jennifer O’Neill Pickering reading from her new book, Fruit Box Castles: Poems From a Peach Rancher’s Daughter (Finishing Line Press: info and pre-order at www.finishinglinepress.com/product/fruit-box-castles-poems-from-a-peach-ranchers-daughter-by-jennifer-oneill-pickering/). Host: Todd Boyd. Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/358106078; meeting ID: 358 106 078; password: 025674

For more about El Dorado County poetry events, check Western Slope El Dorado poetry on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry/.

______________________

—Medusa

—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

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