THE CROW’S TALE
Softly the screen-door
after supper—sweet residue
of carrots in the roast, a bitter edge
of celery. Old man tired of words.
In the distance, some neighbor
at last-light’s target practice, plink-
plink-silence-plink, a sort of
Sunday evening Morse. Old man up
the eastern hill, shadows down
behind him in the swale,
dark water in a cistern. Crows
out of treetops, wing-tips aflame
in sunset of an agate sky,
their rise and circling, bank
and swirl in figure-eights a black
equation, answer: night.
Except one crow to one old man
as if by name. What
words? What language?
(prev. pub. in Taylor Graham's book, Uplift)
END & BEGINNINGS
After the fire then frost-bit winter,
breakup’s raw rebirth
we walked as strangers
through field gone wild
with flickering pink-flame—
fireweed rising
LAND NOT CEDED
Five Chinese Pistache trees we planted here
have turned from green to flame unto ember.
Now only a few dull leaves malinger
on limbs, these skeleton arms and fingers.
We left the home we built on Miwok land.
BELOW ABOVE
Carcass
of old
white-with-blue-splotch
jalopy bright
tonight as a mirror
of Milky Way travel-
way way-up higher than an old
homeless clunker’s wildest dreaming.
END OF AN ERA
for Elihu Burritt
On the shore of autumn
you stepped quietly among lichened stones
under the gaze of chiseled angels. A gauzy mist
lay over the hollow, and soon evening would dim
the churchyard graves. You’d peer
through tree canopies to orient yourself
in the gratitude of stars, constellations you knew
by name, constancy of the zodiac.
Abruptly your contemplation
was ripped by the scream and steam of that
new invention, a locomotive rushing
to rend the future.
GHOST DOGS
for Prissy, Bart, Sardy, Roxy & Cody
They come in dreams unbidden as stars fall.
The first, to tell me everything’s all right;
the second circling my oubliette, all
a-search to find me out of my lost night.
The third passed soundless thru a bolted door.
The fourth leaping clouds, glancing back: a call
for me to follow toward a sky-blue shore.
The fifth, in words as written on a wall:
Remember us, no matter what befall.
Today’s LittleNip:
DAWNING
—Taylor Graham
A raw gray morning
to dump cold ashes. But look!
the gray heron flies.
_____________________
A thankful thanksgiving to Taylor Graham for today's fine seasonal poems and photos (love that crow!). Some of these are based on various Medusa challenges, and some are forms: a Verbless Poem (“The Crow's Tale”); a Cherita (“End & Beginnings”); a Word-Can Poem (“End of an Era”); a Haiku (“Dawning”); some Blank Verse (“Land Not Ceded”); a Double Cinquain/Verbless/Ekphrastic poem (“Below Above”); and a Rainis Sonnet (“Ghost Dogs”).
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, there will be poems posted here from our readers using forms—either ones which were sent to 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 resources and for links to poetry terms used today.)
Today we have two forms from Joyce Odam; first, a “Dr Stella”:
Dr. Stella 8-line pattern:
Iambic, alternating tetrameter and trimeter
Rhymed: a, b, c, d a, b, c, d
(Lines 2 and 6 have feminine (/u) endings)
MAP
—Joyce Odam, Sacramento, CA
The ending is erased by time;
the mind redoes the meaning.
A fragile edge begins to fray . . .
you can’t untie the knot.
You live by some old nursery rhyme
and time becomes a weaning.
It’s best to put that thought away . . .
you go from dot to dot.
* * *
And Joyce has also sent us a Wavelet:
Wavelet:
Syllables: 5, 5, 8, 8, 8, 5, 5, 8, 8, 8, 5, 5
Rhymed: a a b c b d d e c e f f
SLEEP BREAK
—Joyce Odam
The rain is streaming . . .
or else I’m dreaming . . .
that almost-sound upon the pane—
that soft wet sound that wakens me
to such relief—it must be rain.
I lie, half-sleeping,
my soul in keeping,
and feel some movement whisper by . . .
some breeze that rustles in some tree . . .
dry lightning-crackle in dry sky . . .
and d i s t a n t t h u n d e r . . .
I go back under.
(prev. pub. in Poets’ Forum Magazine,
1997/1998)
Caschwa (Carl Schwartz) has sent a Verbless Haiku in response both to last week’s Fiddlers’ and Ekphrastic challenges—a two-fer!
EUREKA OR SOMETHING
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
all keys now in hand
dizzy old clowns, cavern car,
keyholes, barren land
* * *
Stephen Kingsnorth also sent a response to last week’s Ekphrastic challenge (the VW above):
INNER LIGHT
—Stephen Kingsnorth, Coedpoeth, Wrexham, Wales, UK
In Babylon pride built the tower,
though God thought kind should lower eyes,
confused their talking, babble-wise.
And so it was with deals on cars,
those used, to sales, reputed males,
whose language changed, as lemons told.
Your sedan trunk my saloon boot—
that jumbo chair by bar footwear—
no lingua franca in these streets.
A hood and shield my bonnet screen,
knight’s armour for my granny’s hat,
filled gas for petrol, fender, wing.
It’s moonshine lubricates the tongue,
the model bought, rust bucket soon—
bright light inside, though body died.
That common firmament in skies,
the galaxies where time shifts red,
high octane make reduced to this.
* * *
And here is another Ekphrastic poem about the VW, this one from Joseph Nolan:
Ah,
To rust
Beneath the stars,
The brilliant Milky-Way!
Hollowed out,
With no dreams left,
No motor left inside.
No dreams, no drive, no ambitions,
Only this place,
And nowhere to go.
But what a lovely,
Starry show!
Filling the dark, night skies,
To witness my slow demise.
______________________
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:
•••Dr Stella: poetscollective.org/poetryforms/dr-stella OR forums.familyfriendpoems.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=115687
AND/OR
•••Wavelet: poetscollective.org/poetryforms/wavelet
And see the bottom of this post for another challenge—an Ekphrastic one!
__________________
MEDUSA’S FORM FINDER: Links to poetry terms mentioned today:
•••Blank Verse: literarydevices.net/blank-verse OR www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-what-is-the-difference-between-blank-verse-and-free-verse#quiz-0
•••Cherita: medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/search?q=cherita
•••Cinquain: poets.org/glossary/cinquain OR www.poewar.com/poetry-in-forms-series-cinquain./ See www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/adelaide-crapsey for info about its inventor, Adelaide Crapsey.
•••Dr Stella: poetscollective.org/poetryforms/dr-stella OR forums.familyfriendpoems.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=115687
•••Ekphrastic: notesofoak.com/discover-literature/ekphrastic-poetry
•••Haiku: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/haiku/haiku.html
•••Sonnet, Rainis: everysonnet.blogspot.com/2012/11/rainis-sonnet.html?m=0
•••Verbless Poetry: poets.org/glossary/verbless-poetry
•••Wavelet: poetscollective.org/poetryforms/wavelet
•••Word-Can Poem: putting random words on slips of paper into a can, then drawing out a few and making a poem out of them.
RESOURCES:
•••Shadow Poetry: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/types.html
•••Poets’ Collective: poetscollective.org/poetryforms/example-index
•••Poets.org: poets.org/glossary
•••Poetry Foundation: www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms?category=209
•••Bob’s Byway: www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html
•••Desolation Poems by Sacramento’s Jan Haag: janhaag.com/PODesIntro.html
•••Baymoon: www.baymoon.com/~ariadne
•••The Poets Garret: thepoetsgarret.com/list.html
•••Lewis Turco: www.amazon.com/Lewis-Turco/e/B001K7LAUQ%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
•••Writer’s Digest: www.writersdigest.com/?s=poetry&submit= (just type in the form you want in the search bar at upper right) OR www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/list-of-50-poetic-forms-for-poets
ALSO:
•••Annie Finch: "Listening to Poetry": www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/03/listening-to-poetry/.
•••"What is Poetic Form?" by Emily Jarvis, a short description of how/why poetry is structured into forms: penandthepad.com/poetic-form-8726589.html/. Also by the same author: “Examples of Musical Devices in Poetry”: penandthepad.com/examples-musical-devices-poems-20170.html/.
•••The Guardian Poem of the Week: www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/nov/20/poem-of-the-week-yoga-for-leaders-and-others-by-philip-fried/.
__________________
A reminder: Tonight at 7pm, El Gigante presents An Evening With Joshua McKinney plus open mic at cccconfer.zoom.us/j/9348057923/, hosted by Danny Romero. A Sac. City College program in collaboration with the Center on Race, Immigration and Social Justice at CSUS (www.csus.edu/center/race-immigration-social-justice/).
__________________
—Medusa
Today's Ekphrastic Challenge!
See what you can make of the above
photo, and send it to
kathykieth@hotmail.com/. (No deadline.)
***
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of
Joseph Nolan
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.
