Surprised by Joy

Some cautionary words from Wordsworth, who would've been 236 years old today:

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US
—William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The Winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.—Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus coming from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

________________________

Tonight (4/7), hie thee over to Davis, where The Other Voice presents acclaimed poets (and rattlechappers) Susan Kelly-DeWitt (The Land) and Allegra Jostad Silberstein (In The Folds) at 7:30 in the library of the Unitarian Church at 27074 Patwin Road in Davis. Open mic follows, so bring along a poem to share. Info: 530-753-2634 or 530-753-1432.

Poets & Writers' Focus on California e-zine reminds us about their Directory of American Poets and Writers, which includes contact information for over 6,400 poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and spoken word artists. The Directory is used by writers, agents, editors, and reading series coordinators. If you qualify for listing, you can apply, free-of-charge, on their Web site, http://www.pw.org. The application is easy to complete and should take no more than five minutes of your time. They would like you to help them spread the word about the Directory by letting other writers know about it.

And learn about National Poetry Month (NPM) from the organization that started it all. The Academy of American Poets Website, http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41, offers 30 Ways to Celebrate, plus tip sheets for teachers, librarians, and booksellers who want to make the most of this poetically charged time. For more NPM information, be sure to visit the Poets and Writers Website for the online-only feature, "The Busy Poets Guide to National Poetry Month" at http://www.pw.org/mag/is_npm2006.htm.

_______________________

TO CATHERINE WORDSWORTH 1808-1812
—William Wordsworth

Surprised by joy—impatient as the Wind
I turned to share the transport—Oh! with whom
But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,
That spot which no vicissitude can find?
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind—
But how could I forget thee? Through what power,
Even for the least division of an hour,
Have I been so beguiled as to be blind,
To my most grievous loss!—That thought's return
Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,
Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn.,
Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;
That niether present time, nor years unborn
Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.

_______________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

Snakes and Chrysanthemums

FLOWER-PATTERNED SNAKE
—So Chong-Ju

A back path, steeped in musk and mint.
A beautiful snake.
Into what monstrous sorrow must you have been born
to bear a form so repulsive.

Like flower-patterned anklets.
Your grandfather's eloquent, Eve-beguiling tongue,
voiceless, flickers round your red mouth.
The blue skies—bite them,
in your resentment bite them

and flee, take your face away!

I follow,
hurling stone upon stone after you
down the scented, grass-choked path,
gasping as if I had swallowed oil,
but not because Eve was an ancestor's wife.

How I would like to wear your colors
more lovely than flower-patterned anklets.

The lovely mouth, gleaming red
as if wet with Cleopatra's blood.
Sink down, my snake!

Twenty-year-old Sunie's mouth, beautiful
as a cat's... Sink down, my snake!

and flee, take your face away!

_________________________

Something to add to this week’s busy calendar: Some of us NorCal poets know Connie Post, who will be reading at Valona Deli in Crockett (1327 Pomona St.) at the Second Sunday Poetry Reading series this Sunday, April 9 from 4-6 pm. Connie writes powerful poetry that addresses issues such as autism, diagnosis, parenting, divorce and a broad range of life experiences. A published poet for twenty years in such journals as California State Poetry Quarterly, Carquinez Poetry Review, Mid West Poetry Review and Mobius, Connie has won over fifty awards (including first and grand prizes) in various poetry contests. As the City of Livermore’s First Poet Laureate, she has conducted workshops for teenagers and has initiated poetry readings at the Ravenswood historical site and at Garré Winery’s Martinelli Event Center. Author of five books of poetry (most recently Waking State), Connie presented her work in 2005 on the nationally-syndicated radio program, “West Coast Live”.

Tonight (4/6), hear Straight Out Scribe Staajabu (with family and friends) at Poetry Unplugged, Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sac., 8 pm. Info: 916-441-3931. If you miss the gals tonight—or even if you do hear them—come hear them at the SECOND ANNUAL RATTLESNAKE PRESS BIRTHDAY BASH next Wednesday, April 12, at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac., 7:30 pm. Free broadsides and a serious, industrial-strength buffet...

Heyday Institute, the Merced County Arts Council, and the University of California, Merced are proud to present the first Great Valley Book Writers Conference—a stimulating, interactive literary gathering that aims to cultivate audiences of writers and readers in this rapidly changing, creatively dynamic part of California. The conference will be held on Saturday, April 15 at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center, 645 Main Street, Merced. Events, including afternoon panels, morning workshops led by Gerald Haslam and Lucy Corin (Fiction); Tim Z. Hernandez and Lawson Fusao Inada (Poetry); Mark Arax and JoAnn Levy (Non-Fiction), and an evening keynote speech by Juan Felipe Herrera, are co-sponsored by the Poets and Writers Readings/Workshops program. The afternoon will include Merced Union High School students from the Valley Voices Poetry Program, who will read original work from their Footsteps in Time project, followed by "Writing from the Valley: Experiences by Valley Journalists", a panel discussion moderated by David Hosley of KVIE public television, featuring panelists Steve Magagnini, Sacramento Bee; Franz Weinschenk, Valley Writers Read (VPR 89.3 Fresno, KPRX 89.1 Bakersfield); Eduardo Stanley, Pacific News Service and KFCF 88.1; Dr. Andy’s Poetry Hour (KDVS 90.3 FM); and Karen Tellalian, Refine magazine. Finally, there will be a panel discussion on the topic, "Do Books Matter? Building a Literary Community", moderated by Ray Tatar of the California Arts Council and featuring panelists Cheryl Klein, Poets & Writers; Vicki Bailey, Merced Barnes & Noble; Cindy Wathen, Yosemite Writers Conference; Steve Mettee, Quill Driver Books; Howard Lachtman, Stockton Writers Group. The only cost for the day is $50 to attend a morning workshop of your choice, and that fee includes lunch.

For more information, or to register for the Great Valley Books Writers' conference, go to http://www.heydaybooks.com/gvbconference/index.html. If you have any questions, please contact Patricia Wakida at patricia@heydaybooks.com. (Technically the deadline for registration has passed, but Patricia assures Medusa that she is still welcoming folks in all three workshops—she just doesn’t want to have to register people at the door. Also, technically, this conference is geared toward encouraging Central Valley writers, those to the south of us, but it looks like it might have more general appeal, as well.)

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WINTER SKY
—So Chong-Ju

With a thousand night's dream
I have rinsed clear the gentle brow
of my heart's love,
to transplant it
into the heavens.
A fierce bird
knows, and in mimicry
arcs through the midwinter sky.

_____________________

BESIDE A CHRYSANTHEMUM
—So Chong-Ju

To bring one chrysanthemum
to flower, the cuckoo has cried
since spring.

To bring one chrysanthemum to bloom,
thunder has rolled
through the black clouds.

Flower, like my sister returning
from distant, youthful byways
of throat-tight longing
to stand by the mirror:

for your yellow petals to open
last night such a frost fell,
and I could not sleep.

(Today's poems were translated from the Korean by David R. McCann)

________________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

Passion

GOOD GOD, WHAT A NIGHT THAT WAS
—Petronius (1st Century, A.D.)

Good God, what a night that was,
The bed was so soft, and how we clung,
Burning together, lying this way and that,
Our uncontrollable passions
Flowing through our mouths.
If I could only die that way,
I'd say goodbye to the business of living.

_______________________

OPAL
—Amy Lowell

You are ice and fire,
The touch of you burns my hands like snow.
You are cold and flame.
You are the crimson of amaryllis,
The silver of moon-touched magnolias.
When I am with you,
My heart is a frozen pond
Gleaming with agitated torches.

_______________________

AN ARAB LOVE SONG
—Francis Thompson

The hunched camels of the night
Trouble the bright
And silver waters of the moon.
The Maiden of the Morn will soon
Through Heaven stray and sing,
Star gathering.

Now while the dark about our loves is strewn,
Light of my dark, blood of my heart, O come!
And night will catch her breath up, and be dumb.

Leave thy father, leave thy mother
And thy brother;
Leave the black tents of thy tribe apart!
Am I not thy father and thy brother,
And thy mother?
And thou—what needest with thy tribe's black tents
Who hast the red pavilion of my heart?

_______________________

Wild Nights—Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile—the Winds—
To a Heart in port—
Done with the Compass—
Done with the Chart!—

Rowing in Eden—
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor—Tonight—
In Thee!

—Emily Dickinson

_______________________

ALICANTE
—Jacques Prevert

An orange on the table
Your dress on the rug
And you in my bed
Sweet present of the present
Cool of night
Warmth of my life.

_______________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

Just Write!

DAMNED FOOLS
—Kathy Kieth, Fair Oaks

Spring green along the highway already breaking
my heart: then there he is—that damned fool

cropduster: flipping off gravity and fate and all those
furies that stand and shake their fingers at us: looping

his tiny plane over and under deadly power-
lines, nose nearly straight down, belly-running inches

above the ground, stretching courage every which way
like a rubber band, looping and looping back and forth

over tidy rows: then suddenly lifting his ruby throat
straight up into the blue to dip and soar full throttle

like a hummingbird drunk on rosewater. . . But, well,
the world is full of damned fools, like kids who sneak

into the woods, or strangers who make love on a train,
or me here, scribbling in the dark, trying to fly. . .

_______________________

National Poetry Month. Bill Gainer writes: About National Poetry Month, the Academy of American Poets says, "In 1996, with the help of a variety of government agencies, educators, publishers, sponsors, poets, and arts organizations the Academy of American Poets established April as National Poetry Month. The concept was to create a month-long, national celebration of poetry to increase the attention paid—by individuals and the media—to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our poetic heritage, and to poetry books and magazines. In the end, the Academy hoped to achieve an increase in the visibility, presence, and accessibility of poetry in our culture. National Poetry Month has been successful beyond all anticipation and has grown over the years into the largest literary celebration in the world."

National Poetry Month is about celebrating other people's poetry, but it's also about celebrating your own. I look at every poem as a kind of love-letter, even if it's only to ourselves: we write about our thoughts and feelings and experiences in order to make sense of them, or celebrate them—or maybe just record them. From Day One, the whole Snake enterprise has been meant to funnel those love letters out into the world, from you to yourself or your friends or your colleagues or.... With Medusa on the airwaves, the possibilities are endless!

So send us your poems! Good, bad, cranky, silly, hopeless or hopelessly optimistic. Nobody in the world has had the same life you have had, so tell us about it! The Snakes of Medusa need their daily feeding.

And know that, whatever problems you have with your writing, somebody else commiserates:

TOO EASY: TO WRITE OF MIRACLES
—Denise Levertov

Too easy: to write of miracles, dreams where the famous give
mysterious utterance to silent truth;
to confuse snow with the stars,
simulate a star's fantastic wisdom.

Easy like the willow to lament,
rant in trampled roads where pools
are red with sorrowful fires, and sullen rain
drips from the willows' ornamental leaves;
or die in words and angrily turn
to pace like ghosts about the walls of war.

But difficult when, innocent and cold,
day, a bird over a hill, flies in
—resolving anguish to a strange perspective,
a scene within a marble; returning
the brilliant shower of coloured dreams to dust,
a smell of fireworks lingering by canals
on autumn evenings—difficult to write
of the real image, real hand, the heart
of day or autumn beating steadily:
to speak of human gestures, clarify
all the context of a simple phrase
—the hour, the shadow, the fire,
the loaf on a bare table.

Hard, under the honest sun, to weigh
a word until it balances with love—
burden of happiness on fearful shoulders;
in the ease of daylight to discover
what measure has its music, and achieve
the unhaunted country of the final poem.

________________________

The April Snakebytes just went out, that e-mail compendium of Rattlesnake Press events for the coming month.

And if your own writing is stalled, or if you just want a summer injection of courage and/or brushing up:

WRITING AND KNOWING: A Poetry Workshop with Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux, and Joseph Millar, August 20-25, 2006, at Esalen, Big Sur, CA. Ellen Bass writes: Welcome to the third annual Writing And Knowing Poetry Workshop with Dorianne Laux, Joe Millar, and me (Ellen Bass). Dorianne and Joe are incredible teachers. Dorianne has been my mentor for many years now and Joe is also a terrific poet and teacher. This is the event I look forward to all year! Please join us if:

*You've hit a plateau in your writing and want to break through to the next level.

*You're just beginning and want to get started with supportive teachers.

*You're an experienced writer and just want a chance to learn more from the best.

*You're in a dry spell, due to lack of inspiration or time.

*You love to write and want a gorgeous, inspiring retreat.

We will write poems, share our writing, and hear what our work touches in others. We'll also read model poems by contemporary poets and discuss aspects of the craft. But mainly this will be a writing retreat— time to explore and create in a supportive community. Though we'll focus on poetry, prose writers who want to enrich their language will find it a fertile environment. Rich, textured, evocative language is the province of all writers, so this workshop will be applicable to writers of fiction and memoir as well.

Lastly, there's Esalen itself. If you've been to Esalen before, you already know it's one of the most magnificent places on the planet. If you haven't, don't postpone it. It's breathtakingly beautiful and deeply nourishing. We'll be having our whole groups meetings in the Big House overlooking the Pacific. We'll also be breaking into smaller groups for individual attention. Participants will have an oportunity to work with all three teachers.

Esalen fees cover tuition, food and lodging and vary according to accommodations—ranging from $475 to $1060. The least expensive rate is for sleeping bag space which can be very comfortable, but it's limited, so you need to sign up for it early. Some work-scholarship assistance is available, as well as small prepayment discounts and senior discounts. All arrangements and registration must be made directly with Esalen. If you have questions about the workshop itself, please email me [mailto:ellen@ellenbass.com] or call me at 831-426-8006. But please register directly with Esalen at 831-667-3005 or visit www.esalen.org.

_______________________

JUST WRITE—

about cannibals and headhunters and circus
clowns, about the red spade leaning against
the barn. Write, even though your pen runs

dry/jams up/spits out big blobs of bluey-
purple ink and the cat won't stay off your lap
and it's 'way past breakfast time. . . Write

about that deer staring against old snow, about
the mole over your mother's left eye, about
brave children never born, chances grabbed

and missed, regrets tossed away like worn-
out party hats. . . Write, write! Don't let
there be space between pen and paper, air

after the periods, blank spots on yellow pads.

Just write.


—Kathy Kieth, Fair Oaks

________________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

Is It Really April? Plus Events, 4/3-9

PICTURE POSTCARD FROM OUR YOUTH
—Dan Pagis

On your piano a plaster Beethoven stands
and thinks: Thank goodness I've gone deaf.
Even the neighborhood sparrows are singing out of tune this morning.

Only the Kurdish peddler is being true to himself
as he limps along the street shouting Old clothes!
in his bargain-basement Hebrew.

It doesn't matter. From the tangle of voices, the one voice ascends.
A blue bell of air
arches above us.

(translated from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell)

_______________________

Here's the haps for this week:

•••Tonight (Monday, 4/3), Rattlesnake Reviewer-in-Residence, SpiralChapper (Been Born Bronx) and Rattlechapper-to-be (The Settich Manor Poems, due out in June) B.L. Kennedy will read at the Sacramento Poetry Center, along with CSUS instructor Brad Buchanan, at 7:30 p.m., Headquarters for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sac. Click on the SPC link to the right of this for more biographical details on both of these fine readers.

•••Thursday (4/6), hear Straight Out Scribe Staajabu (with family and friends) at Poetry Unplugged, Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sac., 8 pm. Info: 916-441-3931.

•••On Friday, April 7, The Other Voice presents acclaimed poets (and rattlechappers) Susan Kelly-DeWitt (The Land) and Allegra Jostad Silberstein (In The Folds). The Other Voice meets at 7:30 in the library of the Unitarian Church at 27074 Patwin Road in Davis. Open mic follows, so bring along a poem to share. Info: 530-753-2634 or 530-753-1432.

•••Saturday (4/8) will be action-packed! First, Pulitzer Prize winner Franz Wright (son of James Wright and Liberty Kovacs) will be reading at Trinity Cathedral at 2620 Capitol Ave., Sac., at 3:00 PM. Get there early! Then, after that reading:

•••N Magazine’s 2nd Saturday Art Show features their cover artists for the past year. SpiralChapper Vic Selinsky (Love and Other Complaints, with his wife, Pearl) is the featured artist for November, 2005. You are invited to attend the free opening reception on Saturday, April 8, from 5:30-8:30 p.m. There will be refreshments and entertainment. The exhibit will be held at the South Natomas Community Center, 2921 Truxel Rd., Sac. If you cannot make the opening, the work will still be exhibited there on Sunday from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

•••Also Saturday afternoon, from 3-5:30 pm., Rob Anthony, Seronda Holder and Yossarian Bowen appear at Queen Sheba's Fiine Dining, 1537 Howe Av., Ste. 116, Sac. Info: 916-920-1020.

•••Then, grab a quick dinner and head over to The Book Collector, as Pink Toupee Collective gears up for its Fluxus-inspired Aktion/Art piece, Miss Fortune and the Carnival Of Fools (an original musical/theatrical/performance art piece opening Friday, 4/28 at The Space at California Stage) with a performance prequel at Saturday's (4/8) Poems-For-All Second Saturday Series (now back at The Book Collector after a month at HQ: 1008 24th St., Sac., 8 pm.). This work explores themes of conformity and the search for identiy in our increasingly homogenized and media-dominated culture. Fortune/Fools takes its inspiration from the Fluxus Movement in art, which fourished from the early '60's to the mid-'70's. Fluxus ("a flow") was know for its Dadaist leanings and its emphasis on artistic exploration and socio-policalo activism, expressed through performance art pieces known as "Aktions". Info: 916-442-9295.



•••If you miss Franz Wright on Saturday here in Sacramento, he will be reading in the Bay Area on April 9 (Sunday) at 3 pm in Oakland at Diesel Books on 5433 College Ave. and the next day, April 10, at 7 pm, he will be at Book Passages, 5 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera.

•••Also Sunday (4/9), the Nevada County Poetry Series will continue to celebrate National Poetry Month by holding another open-mic reading at Booktown Books & Tomes. Open-mic readers are invited to submit their poems for possible inclusion in the NCPS 2006 Anthology. The readings are free, from 12 to 3pm, Sundays, April 2, 9, 23 and 30 at Booktown Books and Tomes, 107 Bank Street (corner of South Auburn) in Grass Valley. For more information call: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 272-4655. That's every Sunday in April except the 16th, which is Easter.

_______________________

CONVERSATION
—Dan Pagis

Four talked about the pine tree. One defined it by genus, species, and variety. One assessed its disadvantages for the lumber industry. One quoted poems about pine trees in many languages. One took root, stretched out brances, and rustled.

(translated from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell)


WALL CALENDAR
—Dan Pagis

December. An arctic wind, new
And bitter. Angels and polar bears
Sink into their winter slumber.
Just then,
Above, in the folds of soft snow,
The traps of spring get set.

June. In a military ceremony
Filled with sunshine,
The man is buried at noon.
Just then
It is midnight in the woman's belly. The fetus
Reports for duty: he recognizes the code.

December. Suddenly the boat
Turns over, I drown in a squalid
Sea, and watch, as expected,
Just then
All my stolen years drift by
Like sweet water.

(translated from the Hebrew by Tsipi Keller)

________________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

On Time

THE KINGDOM
—Russell Edson

...That's funny, my watch is melting on my wrist.
I wonder if it's painful?
I have been living in my mind.

Out in the provinces of my extremities, where any event seems central, a simple folk of fingers, yoked in habits, are beginning to find evidence that nature is at least changing its mind.

Out in the province of my left wrist, my watch is melting—hands reaching out, curl back to their breast of numbers in the sudden heat. An old man's supplication.
Time, the bringer, finally ruins everything.

I have been living in my mind. Pain rides in. I no longer care; the king is sick with doubt.

________________________

TIME
—Mary Ursula Bethell

'Established' is a good word, much used in garden books,
'The plant, when established'...
Oh, become established quickly, quickly, garden!
For I am fugitive, I am very fugitive—

Those that come after me will gather these roses,
And watch, as I do now, the white wistaria
Burst, in the sunshine, from its pale green sheath.

Planned. Planted. Established. Then neglected,
Till at last the loiterer by the gate will wonder
At the old, old cottage, the old wooden cottage,
And say, 'One might build here, the view is glorious;
This must have been a pretty garden once.'

_______________________

Gotcha! Medusa played a wee April Fool's joke yesterday, switching the authors on the two poems posted, and apparently nobody noticed! At least, nobody complained. I do have respect for Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry, but by no stretch of the imagination was that poem written by Will Shakespeare... Gotcha! April Fools.......!

Poems? In The Bee??? Turn to the Scene section today for—yes—poems!—about Daylight Savings Time. You did sproinnnggg your clock forward an hour, didn't you?


AND SUDDENLY IT IS EVENING
—Salvatore Quasimodo

Everyone stands alone at the heart of this earth
Stunned by a ray of sunlight
and suddenly it is evening.

_______________________

See the latest Rattlesnake Review for Taylor Graham's article on time and poetry.

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

Do Thy Worst, Old Time

SPRING
—William Shakespeare

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

______________________

Lots to do this weekend:

•••Today, April 1, ranting will be the order of the day at Carol’s Books, 300 Florin Road, Sac., where mother/daughter poets Straight Out Scribes V.S. Chochezi and Staajabu will MC the second annual Rant-A-Thon, Read-a-thon, Speak-a-thon, Speak up, Speak out, poetry reading and open mic.This is for all those who are just itching to let folks know what’s on their mind, get something off their chest, inform, entertain, apologize, complain, congratulate, lament or commiserate. Just one thing to remember: those who address the audience are asked to donate $1 a minute. The fun begins at 1 p.m. and ends at 5 p.m. There will be refreshments, door prizes, networking and lots of fun. Info: 916-452-1290. The Scribes do say, however: no nudity—and performers are asked to be mindful of children and elders in the audience.

•••The Sacramento Bee's Second Annual Share a Story Children's Book Drive kicks off today (April 1) and will run through the month. The goal is to collect 60,000 new and "gently used" books for young readers at 75 sites throught the region and to donate them to nonprofit agencies, which will place them in children's homes. Last year, 48,000 books were collected. Books in Spanish, Russian and Hmong languages are also hoped for, in addition to tax-deductible cash donations, and volunteers are needed to help sort the books. The Borders chain is offering a 15% discount on books bought and donated to the drive. For info on donating or volunteering: 916-556-5667 or www.sacbee.com/bookdrive.

•••Tonight (4/1), 7-11 pm: Adios party at KINKS International, 619 15th St. Sac. (corner of 15th & G). The Scribe matriarch Staajabu is moving back home to New Jersey after the Scribes' reading at The Book Collector Birthday Bash on April 12, so come by tonight and wish her well. Music, food, and lots of fun. For more info, call BJ or Gail (www.itsabouttimebpp.org), 916-455-0908.

•••Tomorrow (Sunday 4/2), come hear Nevada City Poet Molly Fisk at PoemSpirits in Room 11, Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento, 2425 Sierra Blvd. (2 blocks north of Fair Oaks Blvd, between Howe and Fulton Avs.), 6 pm. A radio host and essayist on Grass Valley’s KVMR, Molly has published widely and received grants from the California Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and others. She teaches Writing to Heal classes, poetry critique workshops, and an Internet Poetry Boot Camp. Co-host Nora Staklis will make a brief presentation on Anne Sexton, a key figure in modern confessional poetry. As always, you are welcome to bring a favorite poem or two, your own or by another, to read. Free, and snacks, too!

•••Also Sunday (4/2): This year the Nevada County Poetry Series is celebrating National Poetry Month by holding its annual April open-mic readings at Booktown Books & Tomes. Open-mic readers are invited to submit their poems for possible inclusion in the NCPS 2006 Anthology. The readings are free, from 12 to 3pm, Sundays, April 2, 9, 23 and 30 at Booktown Books and Tomes, 107 Bank Street (corner of South Auburn) in Grass Valley. For more information call: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 272-4655. That's every Sunday in April except the 16th, which is Easter.

And don't forget to spring your clocks forward an hour tonight, too!

_______________________

SONNET 19
—Edna St. Vincent Millay

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet do thy worst, old Time, despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.

_______________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)