—Poetry and Photos by Taylor Graham,
Placerville, CA
—And then scroll down for
Form Fiddlers’ Friday, with poetry by
Lynn White, Nolcha Fox, Claire J. Baker,
Stephen Kingsnorth, Andrew Brindle,
and Christina Chin
COCO
Dog eyes hold me like deep wells in desert—
two dark brown aughts encompassing the world.
She spent most of her young life in a crate.
Just let her out, she’s game for anything,
appreciating an oak leaf’s free-fall,
the possibilities of two humans
walking from ranch gate to her kennel door.
Dog eyes hold me like deep wells in desert—
two dark brown aughts encompassing the world.
She spent most of her young life in a crate.
Just let her out, she’s game for anything,
appreciating an oak leaf’s free-fall,
the possibilities of two humans
walking from ranch gate to her kennel door.
DIXIE
She doesn’t shiver, but her tail won’t wag.
I rub her chest, a spot behind her ear.
She doesn’t flinch nor ease. She’s frozen stiff,
ignoring the treats I offer. She was
dropped at the shelter just the day before
she whelped puppies, but she’s practically
a pup herself. Now she’s at this rescue.
She’s mine to mind for a few moments. Might
I become her friend? How could I tempt her
not to fear me and the world? to believe?
She doesn’t shiver, but her tail won’t wag.
I rub her chest, a spot behind her ear.
She doesn’t flinch nor ease. She’s frozen stiff,
ignoring the treats I offer. She was
dropped at the shelter just the day before
she whelped puppies, but she’s practically
a pup herself. Now she’s at this rescue.
She’s mine to mind for a few moments. Might
I become her friend? How could I tempt her
not to fear me and the world? to believe?
RHAPSODY AT 8000 FT
Big red Indian paintbrush,
white coyote mint & blue delphinium
mountain meadow National Forest—
public land belongs to all of us and no one.
No fences or locked gates, no signs against
trespass. Red bandanna, white clouds
in a deep blue sky. We walk
among lodgepole pine and aspen coming
back after fire, its leaves vibrating the wind’s
music. Listen for the song of chickadee,
call of nutcracker and raven.
Here’s scarlet gilia, white snow in patches
higher up, melting to blue creek
that winds through willow. Bountiful
nature plays its rhapsody for all
of us and no one.
Big red Indian paintbrush,
white coyote mint & blue delphinium
mountain meadow National Forest—
public land belongs to all of us and no one.
No fences or locked gates, no signs against
trespass. Red bandanna, white clouds
in a deep blue sky. We walk
among lodgepole pine and aspen coming
back after fire, its leaves vibrating the wind’s
music. Listen for the song of chickadee,
call of nutcracker and raven.
Here’s scarlet gilia, white snow in patches
higher up, melting to blue creek
that winds through willow. Bountiful
nature plays its rhapsody for all
of us and no one.
STILL LIFE WITH BOOT
A study in static angles:
a walled open-air corner with used
cardboard boxes flattened, not
neatly stacked but one atop another
tossed at random. A single
work boot. Does someone sleep here
lonely, unseen by truckers at the
loading dock? Does this boot
whisper in the night for its
lost mate?
A study in static angles:
a walled open-air corner with used
cardboard boxes flattened, not
neatly stacked but one atop another
tossed at random. A single
work boot. Does someone sleep here
lonely, unseen by truckers at the
loading dock? Does this boot
whisper in the night for its
lost mate?
HALF-MOON WHISPERS
A lone boot dreams beside the trail
beneath a moon that’s half and pale.
What can it whisper with a tongue
of leather, though it has no lung
to call its mate, to join it here
before the dawn comes cold and clear?
A lone boot dreams beside the trail
beneath a moon that’s half and pale.
What can it whisper with a tongue
of leather, though it has no lung
to call its mate, to join it here
before the dawn comes cold and clear?
“RAGE AGAINST THE REGIME”
Here we are on the bridge
with our flags and our protest placards.
“Veterans Are Not Suckers or Losers”
“Save Our Democracy”
Some drivers wave, thumbs-up, honk—
horn blast from an 18-wheeler.
One driver stops:
“It’s horrible to call someone a Fascist!”
Motorcycle guy gives us
a two-finger Victory.
That truck’s full speed ahead
spewing black exhaust in our faces.
I’m between a flag and the sign
“Peaceful Protest—We Live Here”
___________________
Today’s LittleNip:
WHISPER DUAS
—Taylor Graham
bedtime with open windows
breeze whispers the owl’s hunt
*
cat whiskers against my cheek
dog’s asleep at foot of bed
*
what do the ghosts say
always in whispers, surprise
___________________
Taylor Graham writes that she’s been searching for a rescue housemate for Otis, and Coco and Dixie are two of the candidates.
Forms TG has used this week include some Blank Verse (“Coco”; “Dixie”); some Dua in Response to our Tuesday Seed of the Week, Whispers in the Night (“Whisper Duas”); a Nocturnette (“Half-Moon Whispers”); a Rhapsody (“Rhapsody at 8000 Ft”); and a Just 15s ("Rage Against the Regime”). The Nocturnette was one of last week’s Triple-F Challenges.
In El Dorado County poetry this week, Poetic License meets on Monday in Placerville, and info about El Dorado Country’s regular workshops is listed on Medusa’s calendar (if you scroll down on http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html/). For more news about such events and about EDC poetry—past (photos!) and future—see Taylor Graham’s Western Slope El Dorado Poetry on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry. Or see Lara Gularte’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/382234029968077/. And you can always click on Medusa's UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS (http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html). Poetry is Gold in El Dorado County!
And now it’s time for…
FORM FIDDLERS’ FRIDAY!
Here we are on the bridge
with our flags and our protest placards.
“Veterans Are Not Suckers or Losers”
“Save Our Democracy”
Some drivers wave, thumbs-up, honk—
horn blast from an 18-wheeler.
One driver stops:
“It’s horrible to call someone a Fascist!”
Motorcycle guy gives us
a two-finger Victory.
That truck’s full speed ahead
spewing black exhaust in our faces.
I’m between a flag and the sign
“Peaceful Protest—We Live Here”
___________________
Today’s LittleNip:
WHISPER DUAS
—Taylor Graham
bedtime with open windows
breeze whispers the owl’s hunt
*
cat whiskers against my cheek
dog’s asleep at foot of bed
*
what do the ghosts say
always in whispers, surprise
___________________
Taylor Graham writes that she’s been searching for a rescue housemate for Otis, and Coco and Dixie are two of the candidates.
Forms TG has used this week include some Blank Verse (“Coco”; “Dixie”); some Dua in Response to our Tuesday Seed of the Week, Whispers in the Night (“Whisper Duas”); a Nocturnette (“Half-Moon Whispers”); a Rhapsody (“Rhapsody at 8000 Ft”); and a Just 15s ("Rage Against the Regime”). The Nocturnette was one of last week’s Triple-F Challenges.
In El Dorado County poetry this week, Poetic License meets on Monday in Placerville, and info about El Dorado Country’s regular workshops is listed on Medusa’s calendar (if you scroll down on http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html/). For more news about such events and about EDC poetry—past (photos!) and future—see Taylor Graham’s Western Slope El Dorado Poetry on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry. Or see Lara Gularte’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/382234029968077/. And you can always click on Medusa's UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS (http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html). Poetry is Gold in El Dorado County!
And now it’s time for…
FORM FIDDLERS’ FRIDAY!
Check out our recently-refurbed page at the top of Medusa’s Kitchen called, “FORMS! OMG!!!” which expresses some of my (take ‘em or leave 'em) opinions about the use of forms in poetry writing, as well as listing some more resources to help you navigate through Form Quicksand and other ways of poetry. Got any more resources to add to our list? Send them to kathykieth@hotmail.com for the benefit of all man/woman/poetkind!
* * *
Poets who sent responses to last week’s Ekphrastic photo were Lynn White, Nolcha Fox, Claire J Baker, and Stephen Kingsnorth:
WEIGHING IT UP
—Lynn White, Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales
The weight is threatening
to overcome me
so much pressure
I can hardly breathe
I know I need to turn the scales
and shift the weight
to rebalance
it all
and lift the threat
from the weight
to grow a pear
or take a bite
of an apple.
* * *
WAITS AND MEASURES
—Nolcha Fox, Buffalo, WY
She measures out
the time she’ll spend
to nourish mind and body.
She waits with baited
breath to see if scales
match reality. Most often,
measurements fall short.
She packs her bag
with books and fruit
and runs to her
appointments.
* * *
AS A VICTIM OF PETTY THEFT
—Claire J. Baker, Pinole, CA
I’m not prepared to weigh-in just yet.
I need more light wine than fight whine.
I’ll try to forget that my door area
was vandalized, my plant stand
and speaks-volumes Mobile Poets sign
stolen in a kind of night-shade shade
one calls dapple. And the misbegotten
rotten didn’t even leave an apple!
* * *
CARROT CAKE
—Stephen Kingsnorth, Coedpoeth, Wrexham, Wales
It’s less the volume, but mass, weight,
the physics of those kitchen scales,
blind justice that the cake should be
not guesswork of ingredients,
but measured as per recipe.
The brew will stand, as rising bread,
if based on wisdom of those books,
the combined learning from the past—
of motherhood and apple pie—
not just some tart of radicals.
I’ll not deny part volume plays;
the number, stops at coffee shops
where weight and volume intersect.
Result of calories consumed,
though nod to veg in carrot cake.
A core problem I do foresee:
appealing apples, stalked, still pipped,
weighed cauliflower not just florets,
or peas without their podding first,
and pears yet resting in their skins.
I cannot see the dial employed—
if, as exam, convert required—
but upper storey with its fruit
must less than lower level be;
the lower should read higher, see?
So magnifier out at length
to focus on appointed hands;
and sure enough the readings fair.
Ten units mark the set above;
beneath scores twenty in its ring.
So Better Homes and Gardens claim
attention for their magazine,
with homegrown produce in the mix.
* * *
Today we have three Tan-Renga from Andrew Brindle of Taiwan (plain text) and Christina Chin of Malaysia (italics):
white lotus
in a field of mud
petals of silence
she struggles
in tight flip-flops
~ ~ ~
in a field of mud
petals of silence
she struggles
in tight flip-flops
~ ~ ~
farmyard rooster crows
in early morning light
dew stirs in the grass
he stumbles home
the smell of stale beer
~ ~ ~
climbing step
to the mountain temple
Easter lilies wilt
letting go she lit
sandalwood joss
* * *
And here is an Ekphrastic poem from Stephen Kingsnorth: “The choice is ours in looking glass/to see or not how we to be . . ."
GATHERING EVIDENCE
—Stephen Kingsnorth
Include the sun’s sphere in the frame,
but, joined up thinking, shadows lie.
When orbits, orbs come into play,
what eye see may print licensed plate.
The least we have is question marked,
as where am I, this frontispiece?
And what the title, deed in space,
for where my place if core misdeeds?
So I must gather evidence
and court the thought, not all is well;
‘A Murder is Announced’ I fear—
though Agatha is always near.
Her window, opportunity,
as ransomed with a transom face,
from shuttered dark with lowly sill,
a fall so easy to achieve.
Can billow hue of chimney cloud
suggest fire smoulders flames within?
Oppressive storey uppermost,
but downcast, carefree—with intent?
Does he prepare for her descent,
a decent lounge once cushions laid,
or has he had enough of her,
determined stride, haul dragged behind?
Enquiries of suspicious mind,
is not the poet of a kind;
but know hopes, fears grow from within,
so what I see tells who I am?
Those sunny dispositions I
mistrust; diseased unease I say.
A veil of tears and pain I see;
but glory, there, love’s victory.
The choice is ours in looking glass
to see or not how we to be;
façade in view, but magnify;
to fore suspect a bloodied arm…
—Stephen Kingsnorth
Include the sun’s sphere in the frame,
but, joined up thinking, shadows lie.
When orbits, orbs come into play,
what eye see may print licensed plate.
The least we have is question marked,
as where am I, this frontispiece?
And what the title, deed in space,
for where my place if core misdeeds?
So I must gather evidence
and court the thought, not all is well;
‘A Murder is Announced’ I fear—
though Agatha is always near.
Her window, opportunity,
as ransomed with a transom face,
from shuttered dark with lowly sill,
a fall so easy to achieve.
Can billow hue of chimney cloud
suggest fire smoulders flames within?
Oppressive storey uppermost,
but downcast, carefree—with intent?
Does he prepare for her descent,
a decent lounge once cushions laid,
or has he had enough of her,
determined stride, haul dragged behind?
Enquiries of suspicious mind,
is not the poet of a kind;
but know hopes, fears grow from within,
so what I see tells who I am?
Those sunny dispositions I
mistrust; diseased unease I say.
A veil of tears and pain I see;
but glory, there, love’s victory.
The choice is ours in looking glass
to see or not how we to be;
façade in view, but magnify;
to fore suspect a bloodied arm…
__________________
Many thanks to today’s writers for their lively contributions! Wouldn’t you like to join them? 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!
__________________
TRIPLE-F CHALLENGES!
Many thanks to today’s writers for their lively contributions! Wouldn’t you like to join them? 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!
__________________
TRIPLE-F CHALLENGES!
See what you can make of these challenges, and send your results to kathykieth@hotmail.com/. (No deadline.) ’Tis the season for dragonflies:
•••Dragonfly (devised by Edna St. Vincent Millay): rhymes a b b a b a | c d d c d c with the first line’s end-word repeated at the end of the last line of each stanza
•••AND/OR drift off, summer dreaming:
•••Dream Poem: https://www.bing.com/search?q=dream+poem+form&pc=cosp&ptag=C999N1234A316A5D3C6E&form=0A1010&conlogo=CT3210127&showconv=1
•••AND/OR you could take a cue from TG's Rhapsody and rhapsodize about something. . .
•••See also the bottom of this post for another challenge, this one an Ekphrastic one.
•••And don’t forget each Tuesday Seed of the Week! This week it’s “Vacation”.
____________________
MEDUSA’S FORM FINDER: Links to poetry terms mentioned today:
•••Blank Verse: literarydevices.net/blank-verse AND/OR www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-what-is-the-difference-between-blank-verse-and-free-verse#quiz-0
•••Dragonfly (devised by Edna St. Vincent Millay): rhymes a b b a b a | c d d c d c with the first line’s end-word repeated at the end of the last line of each stanza
•••Dream Poem: https://www.bing.com/search?q=dream+poem+form&pc=cosp&ptag=C999N1234A316A5D3C6E&form=0A1010&conlogo=CT3210127&showconv=1
•••Dua (devised by Ai Li): a two-line poems with two spaces between each line, no periods and no titles
•••Ekphrastic Poem: notesofoak.com/discover-literature/ekphrastic-poetry
•••Just 15s (devised by Sarah Harding): poem or stanza of 15 syllables
•••Nocturnette: 6 lines broken into 3 couplets; each couplet rhymed aa bb cc; 4 iambic feet to a line
•••Response Poem: creativetalentsunleashed.com/2015/11/18/writing-tip-response-poems
•••Rhapsody: https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100418381
•••Tan-Renga: https://www.graceguts.com/essays/an-introduction-to-tan-renga
•••Tuesday Seed of the Week: a prompt listed in Medusa’s Kitchen every Tuesday; poems may be any shape or size, form or no form. No deadlines; past ones are listed at http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/calliopes-closet.html/. Send results to kathykieth#hotmail.com/.
•••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
__________________
—Medusa
Today's Ekphrastic Challenge!
Make what you can of today's
picture, and send your poetic results to
kathykieth@hotmail.com/. (No deadline.)
* * *
—Artwork Courtesy of Public Domain
For info about
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!
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!
