* * *
—Poetry by Nolcha Fox, Stephen Kingsnorth,
Devyanshi Neupane, Sayani Mukherjee,
Caschwa, and Joe Nolan
—Public Domain Poetry Courtesy of
Joe Nolan and Medusa
I’M A WRECK
—Nolcha Fox, Buffalo, WY
You abandoned me,
stranded me, knocked
the wind out of my sails.
What a gut punch.
I lost hope. I’m a mess,
a morass of mourning.
See me sink into sorrow,
a shipwreck, forgotten and gone.
—Nolcha Fox, Buffalo, WY
You abandoned me,
stranded me, knocked
the wind out of my sails.
What a gut punch.
I lost hope. I’m a mess,
a morass of mourning.
See me sink into sorrow,
a shipwreck, forgotten and gone.
—Public Domain Photo
Courtesy of Joe Nolan
ALONE, AVERSE
—Stephen Kingsnorth, Coedpoeth, Wrexham, Wales
As day breaks into fall of night,
dusk time fades line, horizon melt,
the black-white thread of hidden shade,
that strand of thread become the clock.
And on the stretch, long crescent beach,
dividing strand ’twixt land and sea,
the hem that keeps the tide at bay
has shingles, matted, marram grass.
Out there, at end, peninsular,
the colonies, a company
of puffins, gannets, razor bills
in raucous company to breed.
Genetic strands, mixed DNA,
communities, collective crews,
flotilla, fleet, raft, even wreck,
those marine masters, cresting waves.
So thread is cited, day or night,
as sands coast by, bedecked on ship,
but it’s collective, subject, noun,
the common cause alone averse.
—Public Domain Photo
Courtesy of Medusa
HURKLE-DURKLE
—Devyanshi Neupane, Age 5,
Melbourne, Australia
Today is Saturday
I am lying in the bed.
And, holding teddy
Because I like it.
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joe Nolan
GATE
—Sayani Mukherjee, Chandannagar,
W. Bengal, India
The sun and all its flowers
The vision that haunts me
Opening the circus of circumstances
All's well that ends well
That crimson joy of night dreams
Always stand at my periphery
Good days are numbered enough
All that glitters is not gold
God's son is in heaven now
Singing snippets of joyous song
Always ends in a hurry of forgiveness
Till the gates of heaven in choir now.
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Medusa
MY MIRROR MADE THE SAME ARGUMENT
—Caschwa
(Response to “The Least Became the Most and
This Became the Argument of the Day” by
Joyce Odam, Medusa’s Kitchen, May 13, 2025)
Poet’s dominant left hand on the PC keyboard
conformed with the QWERTY system, while the
errant right hand strayed off a little bit and the
outcome was garbage, not suitable for repetition
or publication. Then the mirror intervened to shoo
the author’s image away from the PC, and position
those same fingers at the piano keyboard, where the
left hand rendered a well tempered series of tradi-
tional
open and closed chords, topped by the right hand’s
happy, jubilant, clusters of tones: the icing on the
cake.
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Medusa
THOSE SCARY SERVERS
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
(Upon hearing Medusa was having
trouble with the computer server)
My folks had fine China they never took out
it was kept in a hall closet behind other stuff;
I, too, have fine China that was a wedding gift
from decades ago and ended up archived in
cabinets handily out of reach, above the fridge
Maybe if I had one of those big fancy servers
I might be more disposed to use the fine China
but more likely not, after watching a deft waitress
at a local eatery add plate after plate after plate
onto one large server and then, with the server in
one hand and one more dish in the other, maneuver
through a circus of tables, chairs, and wandering
children to deliver several meals, no slippage, no
drops, as perfect as if she was a master of levitation
Well I’m not shopping for a server, not inviting
those daring moments when I alone could ruin a
meal and destroy a fine set of dishes all in the blink
of an eye
My folks had fine China they never took out
it was kept in a hall closet behind other stuff;
I, too, have fine China that was a wedding gift
from decades ago and ended up archived in
cabinets handily out of reach, above the fridge
Maybe if I had one of those big fancy servers
I might be more disposed to use the fine China
but more likely not, after watching a deft waitress
at a local eatery add plate after plate after plate
onto one large server and then, with the server in
one hand and one more dish in the other, maneuver
through a circus of tables, chairs, and wandering
children to deliver several meals, no slippage, no
drops, as perfect as if she was a master of levitation
Well I’m not shopping for a server, not inviting
those daring moments when I alone could ruin a
meal and destroy a fine set of dishes all in the blink
of an eye
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Medusa
EARLY FALL
—Caschwa
(a Response to a recent Seed of the Week,
“So Extravagant!”)
Half a year till Halloween and ambitious spiders
on the front porch are finding spots from which
to spin their cobwebs, out of the rain, out of the
sun, paying honor to the yellow porch light which
is normally on 24/7. Certainly they knew in their
dear hearts that the “Welcome” on the mat was
meant for spiders, first and foremost. An abundance
of leaves from the aromatic rose garden and from
other flowering plants and tall trees cling together
like that butcher, baker, and candlestick maker,
giggling in the bathtub, and hug the edges of the
porch
awaiting with glee the gentle motion of a rake to
realign their little hills. Various neighbors have
come
and gone, and we’ve learned not to stock up on too
much fun-size candies, as each year fewer kids visit
the door, and our aging organs are no longer able to
metabolize all those tasty left overs.
In my youth, Mom baked
and served us pumpkin pie once
Trick Or Treat was done
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Medusa
BIGGER EYES THAN MINE
—Caschwa
(A response to “Fresh Eyes”; this might be called
a WXYZ poem…)
Why can’t we grade our own papers, you ask
What does it matter to mark comments in red?
Who issues degrees just for nodding your head?
Xenophobia failed to keep immigrants off the
continent, so
X chromosomes dating back to
Xerxes I, became our link to the king of Persia
You didn’t ask for my help
Yet here we are, and I’m grading
Your papers just like all the others
Zombies, you argue, could do this task better, as
Zero human intelligence is required to go to the
Zoo and let the gorillas stare at your papers
—Public Domain Photo
Courtesy of Joe Nolan
BLEACHERS OUTSIDE AUSCHWITZ
—Joe Nolan, Stockton, CA
Don’t take your eyes off the genocide.
They put bleachers
Outside of Auschwitz.
Everyone was watching.
Everyone knew the score.
Everyone was horrified,
But nobody said a thing.
It’s like that, here,
With Gaza—
It’s all across the news.
Everyone is horrified
But nobody says a thing
At our poetry readings.
See, hear, speak no evil,
Lest we ruffle some feathers.
_____________________
Today’s LittleNip:
LOVE IN DISGUISE
—Joe Nolan
Joy in the heart—
Love in disguise
The sweetness of greeting
Pours from our eyes
We just let go
Things move along
In their natural rhythms
We don’t hold on
Or try to train
The growth of budding stems
To the top of their trellis
From which they dangle
Sweet grapes.
We just let go.
______________________
Our thanks to day’s contributors for their fine poetry, and to Joe Nolan for equally fine pix! Our Seed of the Week was "Stranded". Be sure to check every Tuesday for the SOW.
Medusa’s Kitchen will have its 20th anniversary this May 29, and we will celebrate with poetry, of course. Send a poem that celebrates something—anything—form or free verse—and I’ll post it on May 29. 20 years! Amazing!
Devyanshi Neupane, Age 5, Melbourne, Australia
A reminder that
Poetry in Motion meets today
in Placerville, 10:30am;
and Sacramento Poetry Center’s
readers have been switched to
Evan Myquest and Traci Gourdine
tonight in Sacramento, 7:30pm.
For info about these and other
future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
during the week.
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.
Poets’ bios appear on their first MK visit.
To find previous posts, type the name
of the poet (or poem) into the little
beige box at the top left-hand side
of this column. See also
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom
of the blue column on the right
side of this column to find
any date you want.
Miss a post?
You can find our most recent ones by
scrolling down under this daily one.
Or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column.
(Please excuse typos in older posts!
Blogspot has been through a lot of
incarnations in 20 years!)
Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
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—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
Poetry in Motion meets today
in Placerville, 10:30am;
and Sacramento Poetry Center’s
readers have been switched to
Evan Myquest and Traci Gourdine
tonight in Sacramento, 7:30pm.
For info about these and other
future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
during the week.
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.
Poets’ bios appear on their first MK visit.
To find previous posts, type the name
of the poet (or poem) into the little
beige box at the top left-hand side
of this column. See also
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom
of the blue column on the right
side of this column to find
any date you want.
Miss a post?
You can find our most recent ones by
scrolling down under this daily one.
Or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column.
(Please excuse typos in older posts!
Blogspot has been through a lot of
incarnations in 20 years!)
Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
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—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
