Icelandic Monument
—Poetry by Joseph Nolan, Michael Ceraolo,
Caschwa (Carl Schwartz)
—Public Domain Photos by Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA
—Public Domain Photos by Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA
LOVE CAN BE JUST, SO!
—Joseph Nolan
There’s no
Need to kill
A little thing,
Because it will
Not grow.
Maybe you might
Water it,
And let it live,
Even though,
It will never
Come to nothing,
More than just a blessing,
—To let you know—
Love can be just, so!
—Joseph Nolan
There’s no
Need to kill
A little thing,
Because it will
Not grow.
Maybe you might
Water it,
And let it live,
Even though,
It will never
Come to nothing,
More than just a blessing,
—To let you know—
Love can be just, so!
ABANDONED BY OLD SCHOOLS
—Joseph Nolan
The world is full
Of furtive feelings
That may not
Be revealed,
While evening dances
Drag moons down,
To where they
Can’t be healed,
Drying out
On surface sands,
Where dead fish
Wash ashore,
Condemned
To end,
Abandoned,
By all of their
Old schools.
—Joseph Nolan
The world is full
Of furtive feelings
That may not
Be revealed,
While evening dances
Drag moons down,
To where they
Can’t be healed,
Drying out
On surface sands,
Where dead fish
Wash ashore,
Condemned
To end,
Abandoned,
By all of their
Old schools.
AT A SUPERMARKET IN BOULDER
—Joseph Nolan
He kept shooting
Undeterred
By what his shots had wrought.
He shot with eyes open
And saw which way his shots went.
He kept on shooting,
Shooting and shooting.
He watched all
The bodies fall.
He heard the screams
Saw the blood and all
And surely felt the pain
From his bullets
Spraying like rain
In a hurricane
And he kept on shooting,
Shooting and shooting.
Aware enough
To strip himself naked
Before submitting
To arrest,
To not give the cops
Any claim
To return fire.
—Joseph Nolan
He kept shooting
Undeterred
By what his shots had wrought.
He shot with eyes open
And saw which way his shots went.
He kept on shooting,
Shooting and shooting.
He watched all
The bodies fall.
He heard the screams
Saw the blood and all
And surely felt the pain
From his bullets
Spraying like rain
In a hurricane
And he kept on shooting,
Shooting and shooting.
Aware enough
To strip himself naked
Before submitting
To arrest,
To not give the cops
Any claim
To return fire.
ALONE, APART, TOGETHER
—Joseph Nolan
The wealth of love,
That overflows hearts,
In little pieces,
Held apart,
From one-another
Peacefully,
Each, in its own,
Separate culture,
Each, with its own
Religion,
And each demanding
Its right to be,
Beneath the sun
Eternally,
To live and let live,
Together and apart,
Don’t expect us all
To share
The same heart,
Forever and ever,
Beneath the sky,
That harbors us,
But doesn’t ask why,
We feel alone,
Together!
—Joseph Nolan
The wealth of love,
That overflows hearts,
In little pieces,
Held apart,
From one-another
Peacefully,
Each, in its own,
Separate culture,
Each, with its own
Religion,
And each demanding
Its right to be,
Beneath the sun
Eternally,
To live and let live,
Together and apart,
Don’t expect us all
To share
The same heart,
Forever and ever,
Beneath the sky,
That harbors us,
But doesn’t ask why,
We feel alone,
Together!
Blue bananas taste like vanilla
Here are three from Michael Ceraolo’s poem sequence entitled, “Mabel: Selected Lifeography”, poems in the persona of actress Mabel Normand as a sort of autobiography. Michael writes that each poem has the title of one of her movies and is the same number of lines as the running time of that particular movie, as far as is known:
THREE POEMS
from the sequence, “Mabel: Selected Lifeography”
by Michael Ceraolo, S. Euclid, OH
Hot Stuff
Not to be immodest,
but we were all pretty hot stuff
in the early days just by being on-screen
But for David (he'd stopped calling himself Lawrence by then)
I wasn't ethereal enough,
didn't embody his vision of abstract womanhood
because I was a flesh-and-blood woman,
and so others became stars with him
* * *
The Champion
Later generations of moviemakers
sought to have their names above the title
as a sign of their star status
I went them one better:
I was the first,
and still the champion with almost thirty,
to have my name in the title
* * *
Mabel and Fatty Viewing the
World's Fair at San Francisco
I know,
that's a helluva long title,
like those of some books Bill Taylor
would later buy for me to read
It was the last one I directed,
and was my only actual
Once the novelty of seeing things
move on a screen wore off, the public
didn't go in much for actuals
THREE POEMS
from the sequence, “Mabel: Selected Lifeography”
by Michael Ceraolo, S. Euclid, OH
Hot Stuff
Not to be immodest,
but we were all pretty hot stuff
in the early days just by being on-screen
But for David (he'd stopped calling himself Lawrence by then)
I wasn't ethereal enough,
didn't embody his vision of abstract womanhood
because I was a flesh-and-blood woman,
and so others became stars with him
* * *
The Champion
Later generations of moviemakers
sought to have their names above the title
as a sign of their star status
I went them one better:
I was the first,
and still the champion with almost thirty,
to have my name in the title
* * *
Mabel and Fatty Viewing the
World's Fair at San Francisco
I know,
that's a helluva long title,
like those of some books Bill Taylor
would later buy for me to read
It was the last one I directed,
and was my only actual
Once the novelty of seeing things
move on a screen wore off, the public
didn't go in much for actuals
COME LOOK!
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
the dining area was an
immaculate doll house,
table most perfectly set
durable cookware near
to the stove, and early
photographs of older
generations mounted on
the walls, looking down to
ensure that their protocols
were being followed to the
letter, no exceptions, your
compliance not an option
the missing element was
people, young, old, in between,
absent from this scene
but of course! they had all
dashed outside to enjoy the
annual visit of those colorful
Monarch Butterflies; boiled
meat and filtered talk can wait,
as they share a special moment
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
the dining area was an
immaculate doll house,
table most perfectly set
durable cookware near
to the stove, and early
photographs of older
generations mounted on
the walls, looking down to
ensure that their protocols
were being followed to the
letter, no exceptions, your
compliance not an option
the missing element was
people, young, old, in between,
absent from this scene
but of course! they had all
dashed outside to enjoy the
annual visit of those colorful
Monarch Butterflies; boiled
meat and filtered talk can wait,
as they share a special moment
You'll go straight to hell if you eat this....
BRINGS TO MIND
—Caschwa
(after Tom Goff’s work about Keats,
Medusa’s Kitchen, April 8, 2021)
emboldened by words
Severn would skate past Keats’ nerves
over and over
—Caschwa
(after Tom Goff’s work about Keats,
Medusa’s Kitchen, April 8, 2021)
emboldened by words
Severn would skate past Keats’ nerves
over and over
DEALING WITH IT
—Caschwa
there it happened again
a pigeon pooped big
right on the windshield
impossible to find the
exact culprit, but no
matter, just grab a gun
and shoot the gizzards
out of the next pigeon
you see, that does it
won’t solve the problem
which is sure to repeat
but it brings satisfaction
where is the portal
to get back to ground normal?
I’m ready to leave
_____________________
Today’s LittleNip:
SEA LEGS
—Caschwa
no better way to feel at
one with the world, the
whole Third Reich can
rise and fall, rise and fall
and while others are
turning green in the face,
you’re OK strutting down
to the mess hall for some
chicken
_____________________
Our thanks to today’s three contributors of this morning’s poetry and photos, including Carl Schwartz’ paean to Tom Goff’s Keats sonnet cycle last week. Tom sent the following link to the Keatsian tribute mentioned in his work: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb4l7zYeK0U/.
Tonight, Mon. (4/12), 7:30pm: Sac. Poetry Center’s Socially Distant Verse presents Mary Zeppa and Patrick Grizzell online at us04web.zoom.us/j/7638733462/. (Password: r3trnofsdv)
This coming Friday (4/16), 7:30pm, Sac. Poetry Alliance presents Jennifer and Chad Sweeney reading online from Foxlogic, Fireweed and other books, at csus.zoom.us/j/87183068168/. Facebook info: www.facebook.com/events/1616183911906112/. Host: Josh McKinney.
Follow Sacramento Poetry Salon’s Young Laureates interview series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SacramentoPoetrySalon/. Next interview is April 13, hosted by Sac. Poet Laureate Andru Defeye and Sac. Poetry Salon.
Sacramento Poet and SnakePal Jeanine Stevens writes: “My new chapbook, Gertrude Sitting: Portraits of Women, winner of The Heartland Review 2020 Chapbook Contest and a Main Street Rag finalist, has arrived! Many thanks to Mick Kennedy at Heartland.” For info and to order, go to www.theheartlandreview.com/chapbooks/. Congratulations, Jeanine!
And those of us in the Kitchen on this side of the sea send our condolences to our SnakePals in the UK on the death of Prince Philip. He served his his country well; may we all be able to say as much at the ends of our days.
_____________________
—Medusa
—Caschwa
there it happened again
a pigeon pooped big
right on the windshield
impossible to find the
exact culprit, but no
matter, just grab a gun
and shoot the gizzards
out of the next pigeon
you see, that does it
won’t solve the problem
which is sure to repeat
but it brings satisfaction
where is the portal
to get back to ground normal?
I’m ready to leave
_____________________
Today’s LittleNip:
SEA LEGS
—Caschwa
no better way to feel at
one with the world, the
whole Third Reich can
rise and fall, rise and fall
and while others are
turning green in the face,
you’re OK strutting down
to the mess hall for some
chicken
_____________________
Our thanks to today’s three contributors of this morning’s poetry and photos, including Carl Schwartz’ paean to Tom Goff’s Keats sonnet cycle last week. Tom sent the following link to the Keatsian tribute mentioned in his work: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb4l7zYeK0U/.
Tonight, Mon. (4/12), 7:30pm: Sac. Poetry Center’s Socially Distant Verse presents Mary Zeppa and Patrick Grizzell online at us04web.zoom.us/j/7638733462/. (Password: r3trnofsdv)
This coming Friday (4/16), 7:30pm, Sac. Poetry Alliance presents Jennifer and Chad Sweeney reading online from Foxlogic, Fireweed and other books, at csus.zoom.us/j/87183068168/. Facebook info: www.facebook.com/events/1616183911906112/. Host: Josh McKinney.
Follow Sacramento Poetry Salon’s Young Laureates interview series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SacramentoPoetrySalon/. Next interview is April 13, hosted by Sac. Poet Laureate Andru Defeye and Sac. Poetry Salon.
Sacramento Poet and SnakePal Jeanine Stevens writes: “My new chapbook, Gertrude Sitting: Portraits of Women, winner of The Heartland Review 2020 Chapbook Contest and a Main Street Rag finalist, has arrived! Many thanks to Mick Kennedy at Heartland.” For info and to order, go to www.theheartlandreview.com/chapbooks/. Congratulations, Jeanine!
And those of us in the Kitchen on this side of the sea send our condolences to our SnakePals in the UK on the death of Prince Philip. He served his his country well; may we all be able to say as much at the ends of our days.
_____________________
—Medusa
LittleSnake Gets Into a Pickle
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.
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, including
that which was previously-published.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
