Foothill Summer

 

—Poetry and Photos by Taylor Graham, Placerville, CA

—And scroll down for Form Fiddlers’ Friday!!

 

FOOTHILL SUMMER

Night’s a sweaty veil.
Day heats up the swale
too soon
while stick-weeds assail
the socks, same old tale
of June
into August. Wail
the tune

that will go on and
on. You cannot stand
no-rain?
No way to command
mercy from the land.
Complain?
Take yourself in hand.
Our job’s to withstand.
Remain. 

 

 

 

 

 

MY GARDEN GREW

Juicy red tomatoes
grew
in
my
garden,
grew
for
rodents’
teeth,
grew
juicy-red, tomatoes…. 

 

 

 

 

GARDEN OF VERSE

This garden blossoms
with ground squirrels, hardpan, drought,
also with poems
composing tomatoes for
the bowl you offer outstretched.

How many colors
can you name for a salad?
persimmon, rose, gold. 

 

 

 

 

 

NATURAL GOLD

I drive the backroads—
August dusty & hot, these
dilapidated
outskirts, and in someone’s front
yard, a scraggly row of sun-
flowers surviving
summer, wrong side of the tracks
and oh, such pure gold.

 

 

 

 

 

YEARS BETWEEN

The time between my dog coughing up blood
(me waiting masked in the vet’s parking lot)
and her loading in the car for home-again—
time for remembering her a puppy
scouting backyard grass as high as her head,
deep amber eyes intent on the unknown;
how on leash she’d drag me along behind
(don’t call it “heeling”) to search the planet
entire, her sable shadow coyote-
shifting always on the move, the never-
satisfied hunt—how she’d grab at joy with
wide open jaws as if to capture sky—
5 hours of parking lot, waiting out fears
with remembrance—hours are so many years. 

 

 

 

 

 

OLD DOG

She’s back home—
there
were
x-rays
tests
there
was
worry
waiting—
there,
home—she’s back! 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s LittleNip:

92 DEGREES
—Taylor Graham

She waits
in scant shade—waits
dog-patient in triple
digit heat for me to open
the gate.

_______________________

Thank you, Taylor Graham, for poetry and photos today, and forms, including a Lai (our Form Fiddlers’ Challenge: “Foothill Summer”); a  Cinquain (“92 Degrees”); a Boketto (“Garden of Verse”); a Smith Sonnet (“Years Between”); a Skinny (“Old Dog” & “My Garden Grew”); and an Oriental Octet (“Natural Gold”).

And now it’s time for . . .


FORM FIDDLERS’ FRIDAY! 

 

It’s time for more contributions from Form Fiddlers, in addition to those sent to us by Taylor Graham! 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, by golly! (See Medusa’s Form Finder at the end of this post for links to definitions of the forms used this week.)

Last week’s Fiddlers’ Challenge was the Lai (www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/lai.htm). Taylor Graham sent us one (see above), and here is one from Caschwa (Carl Schwartz):



NO ONE KNOWS   
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA

no one knows the cause
dogs sleep with their paws
in pairs
some have long, sharp claws
one looks, finds no flaws
just hairs
what might say those jaws?
invisible gauze?
affairs? 

 

 

 

 

Carl also sent us a Limerick this week:


OUT OF NOWHERE
—Caschwa

I once sat in a humble-tee-pee
alongside a bumble-bee-bee
it promised not to sting
if I promised not to sing
so we got along quite well, tee-hee 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks to our SnakePals for their brave fiddling! Would you like to be a SnakePal? All you have to do is send poetry—forms or not—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!

__________________

FIDDLERS’ CHALLENGE!  

See what you can make of this week’s poetry form, and send it to kathykieth@hotmail.com! (No deadline.) This week's challenge:

Constanza: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/constanza.html

__________________

MEDUSA’S FORM FINDER: Links to poetry forms mentioned today:

•••Boketto (“Listen to the Light”):
poeticbloomings2.wordpress.com2016/05/11/inform-poets-boketto
•••Cinquain: poets.org/glossary/cinquain OR www.poewar.com/poetry-in-forms-series-cinquain
•••Constanza: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/constanza.html
•••Lai: www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/lai.htm
•••Limerick: poets.org/glossary/limerick
•••Oriental Octet: www.poetrymagnumopus.com/topic/2008-form-unique-to-the-study-and-writing-of-poetry-american-women-poets-discuss/#anna OR tao-talk.com/2020/05/17/haikai-challenge-139-fragrant-breeze-kunpuu-springs-fragrant-array
•••Skinny: duotrope.com/listing/20565/skinny-poetry-journal
•••Smith Sonnet: 14 lines, 5 feet (pentameter), unrhymed except for final couplet

__________________

—Medusa

 

 

 

She is blind, and he takes her for a walk every day.
—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.