Burrows We'll Never Find

GANDALF TREE
—David Humphreys, Stockton

On the north side street this morning
you heard the wind in its branches
before you saw the fir tree. The sound
was a river rushing in a spring flood torrent
of snowmelt runoff, the tree’s long branches
bobbing thick and green as a wizard in his
late-forties' prime before gray touches his
temple wisdom. Magic gleams everywhere,
flying fleet of cotton sailing white ships into
yesterday. Clear blue now, a flock of finches
rustle flutters like a zigzag motorcycle gang
thundering loud as summertime on its way.

____________________

Thanks, David! and thanks to Kel Munger of Sacramento News & Review for her kind words about kk in the current issue of SN&R. Tonight (Saturday, 4/5, 7:30 PM) Kel will host Cornered: Five Years of Sacramento News & Review's Poet's Corner, featuring Joe Wenderoth and some of the Corner's most frequent contributors (including rattlechappers Bill Gainer and Ann Privateer and rattlechapper-next-fall/Red Fox Underground poet Moira Magneson) for a reading and celebration of Poet's Corner's fifth anniversary. All at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac. And check out Kel’s new SN&R blog, too, at http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/bibliolatry/Blogs.

__________________

SPRING SOUP
—Kathy Kieth, Pollock Pines

Lilies-of-the-valley brush the cheeks of stone
Buddhas as white coral bells ring in a new season;

sharp-eyed daffodils bend to watch
a dedicated honeybee mine the muscari;

pastel fairy rings of wildflowers hem
vernal pools in rickrack;

a Mallard pair makes careful circles, then
skids in for a slick landing on the glassy pond;

calla lily goblets offer up cups of their own nectar
to make wine out of last night's rain;

ferny carrots ripe for pulling rub
shoulders in chocolate soil;

an orange tabby tiptoes along the grape arbor, covets
the tiny, quick hummingbird feeding below;

arching rosemary reaches up to cerulean skies
with long arms dressed in sleeves of mauve;

turkey toms fan showy tails in thanksgiving
for willing hens;

but darkness still brings frosty breath
and pinpricks on bare skin,

and bluebellies still sleep in burrows
we'll never find.

__________________

SPRING
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
—Carl Sandburg

Also this scepter of purple
sage blossoming through sprung springs
and a queen-
size mattress moldering beyond the dead-
end barricade,
with styrofoam immortal
as glass stars shattered by Sunday
target practice, scattered shells. And
redbud—how many shades
in a single petal,
none of them truly red—this morning’s
proof of spring beside a hoard
of flattened cans, tin
weathered brown as good earth.
No one lives here. So
whence this surprise of rose-
mary rooted at the edge
of rusty fridge, just now heavenly blue-
dust blooming with a hundred bees?

__________________

Thanks, TG! Taylor Graham was inspired by yesterday's LittleNip Sandburg quote.

LittleNip for Today:

Check out the following website:
joebrainardspyjamas.blogspot.com/2007/12/odd-facts-poetry-quiz.html

__________________

—Medusa

Here's Medusa's new weekly menu of features. Contributors are welcome to submit to any and all of these!

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to me at kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing. Favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorites.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy

Friday: NorCal poetry calendar for the weekend

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily food for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration. Yet another way to feed our ever-hungry poetic souls.

_________________

SnakeWatch: News from Rattlesnake Press

The latest Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. If you'd like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is May 15 for #18, due out in mid-June.

Coming April 9: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing his Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series of photos and prompts for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS (For Capturing Creative Thought). Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.

Will You Dance This Dance With Me?

Ted Finn

THE ATTACK OF THE LONG, BORING POEM
—Ted Finn, Fair Oaks

there is a clever and insidious criminal presently at large,
freely roaming the streets of San Francisco,
rampantly extorting money from helpless passersby
by reading long, boring poems.
carefully choosing his victims,
people who look like they will give anything
just to be left alone,
he rushes up to them,
soiled pages in hand.
—let me read you my poem,
he says.
he then begins his assault.
a victim, a friend, a local lawyer had been to poetry readings;
he had heard bad poetry before,
but nothing quite so relentlessly awful
that it could only have been created
to leave whoever heard it begging for mercy,
paying whatever was demanded.
—how much will it cost me to get you to stop?
he asks the man.
—five bucks, the man tells him.
my friend gives the man a five
and watches him rush off to find another victim.
who needs a gun to rob when you have a long, boring poem to read?

___________________

Thanks, Ted! Ted Finn has read his poetry just about everywhere: colleges, high schools, libraries, benefits, special events, poetry venues, on-air at radio stations throughout California, and he has been featured in video productions, television appearances and film. As far as the printed word, Ted is most proud that he has been published in The Rolling Stone (1985), but he also sincerely appreciates the other many literary journal and chapbook publishers who have published his work. Ted's latest publication, Damn the Eternal War, will be released by Rattlesnake Press in SnakeRings SpiralChap form this coming Wednesday, April 9, at The Book Collector, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Join us for the free buffet at 7 PM or so, followed by readings by Katy Brown, Ann Menebroker, and Ted Finn.

_________________

NorCal poetry readings this weekend:

•••Tonight (Friday, 4/4), 7:30 PM: The Other Voice, a poetry reading series sponsored by the U.U. Church of Davis, presents three poets: Lisa Dominguez Abraham, Denise Lichtig, and Catherine French. Lisa Abraham's work has appeared in a number of journals, most recently in The Suisan Valley Review and Hardpan. Her chapbook, Low Notes, was released last fall by Red Wing Press. Denise Lichtig has been published in Hayden's Ferry Review, Antioch Review, The Suisun Review, and Dry Heat. She has received a Pushcart nomination and was a semi-finalist in the Discovery/The Nation contest. Here in Davis she has a private practice in Chinese Medicine and teaches Tai Qi. Catherine French lives in Sacramento and is the author of Sideshow from the University of Nevada Press. Her poems have appeared in The Nation, Gettysburg Review, Zyzzyva, and other journals. She is currently at work on her second collection of poems. We meet in the library of the church located at 27074 Patwin Rd. in Davis. Refreshments and Open Mike follow, so bring along a poem or two to share.

•••Saturday (4/5), 7 PM: The Sugar Shack/The Shuga Shaque/The Suga Shak: A Night of Poetry, Music and Art at its Best at Delta of Venus Café, 122 B St., Davis. Host Mario Ellis Hill writes: As some of you may know, some friends and myself had the opportunity in the early ‘90's to start an artists' performance workshop in Davis that went by the name of the SUGAR SHACK. At these events, running from 1993-1998, we invited all of the artists we personally knew—poets, actors, writers, dancers, artists, musicians, singers, etc.—to perform, as well as bring some grub for the potlucks. It was a chance for all of us hibernating-&- in-the-closet artists in the Davis community to get to know each other, as well as share our gifts with other like-minded folks. Well, after so many years, The Shack is Back! Take advantage of this opportunity to come out to see some fantastic music and poetic grooves! Saturday's featured poets include Traci Gourdine, FuhShang! & The Jalapeno Chocolates (Vincent Kobelt & Mario Ellis Hill), Terry Moore, Bill Carr, Jr., Miss Marianna, Susan & Joseph Finkleman, Samuel Iniguez, Sean King, Terryl Wheat & Rob Lozano. Featured musicians include Gentle Creatures (Sacramento), Pais De Trois (Sacramento), and Samilia (Davis). Info: lee@deltaofvenus.org or Mario at 916-752-7275.

•••Saturday (4/5), 7:30 PM: Cornered: Five Years of Sacramento News & Review's Poet's Corner. Join Poet's Corner Editor Kel Munger, special guest Joe Wenderoth, and some of the Corner's frequent contributors for a reading and celebration of its fifth anniversary. All at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac. And check out Kel’s new SN&R blog, too, at http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/bibliolatry/Blogs.

•••Monday (4/7), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Gene Bloom and Nickole Brown, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic afterward. Nickole Brown is the author of Sister, published by Red Hen in September 2007. Her work has been featured in The Writer's Chronicle, Poets & Writers, 32 Poems, Post Road, Florida Review, The Cortland Review, Chautauqua Literary Journal, Diagram Magazine, Lumberyard, Another Chicago Magazine, Mammoth Books' Sudden Stories anthology, and the Starcherone Press anthology, PP / FF. She also co-edited the anthology, Air Fare: Stories, Poems, & Essays on Flight, published in 2004. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky; google her up at http://www.nickolebrown.com/sister.html.

The phrase "living legend" is usually an empty phrase with little or no real meaning, but it applies with distinct legitimacy to local poet Gene Bloom, variously known as "Ram Dog" and "The Brooklyn Flash". Gene Bloom, the erstwhile publisher of the historic magazine, Entrails, has been wowing the audiences at Luna's Cafe for at least a decade now and shows no sign of slowing down or toning down his salaciously humorous verses. With a voice that transports the listener to the lower east side of Manhattan, he is capable of moving, thoughtful work, political satire, and erotica.

__________________

HOW IT GOT THAT WAY
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

Rye bread
like lead?
Grain shed.
Brain-dead
farmers left door wide—mildewed or stale
foodstuffs. Blue stuff? Mold, kissing bales.

__________________

Thanks, Tom! Tom Goff plucked up his courage and tackled the tricky tyburn (see Tuesday's post for how the tyburn form works).

And Taylor Graham's muse is clearly feeling the effects of spring, too! TG sent us responses to two recent LittleNips: the silly haiku on April 2, and yesterday's rice website and colonial flag. She says, I wasn't sure if the LittleNip was just the rice website, or also Ben Franklin's snake. So I played the vocabulary game (almost as addictive as "John Adams" [the HBO series]...) and then used some of the words for my colonial snake:

A cloud, two robins,
and a shooting-star — April’s
minimal haiku.

—Taylor Graham

__________________

JOIN, OR DIE
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

No grudge involved, no odium
but simply the wish to live without
a king’s ratbaggery.
The undulating creature, vermiculate—
no, serpentine, venomous
when held down with the heel,
the pike, the tax—rouses
itself. The time for rogatories
is past. The sundered
segments twitch, reach out
for rapprochement, concerted
motion of a severed spine.
It’s almost sundown.
Watch for a sign.

__________________

Thanks, TG. See yesterday's LittleNip for the "rice" website she's talking about. And it's not too late to send in a poem using the word, "agrexophrenia", to receive a free copy of Ann Privateer's new rattlechap, Attracted to Light. Get it to me by midnight tonight.

LittleNip for Today:

Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
—Carl Sandburg

__________________

IF THIS IS THE LAST DANCE

the music dying,
will you dance this dance with me?
neruda says it’s the little deaths that kill us:
death of dream,
death of laughter,
death of hope of love.
we get drunk on the poison slowly killing us.
already too deep into no returning alive,
so easy now our prayers, so easy now surrender.
so easy now opening to whatever grace welcoming brings.
too long no one to dance with opens us to dance.
our sweat falls on fertile ground
as we fast-dance in the sun,
nurturing seed,
summer thick and swollen.
we are making love in an impossible garden.
something is growing between us.
every day I feel its roots sinking deeper.

—Ted Finn

__________________

—Medusa

Here's Medusa's new weekly menu of features. Contributors are welcome to submit to any and all of these!

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to me at kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing. Favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorites.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy

Friday: NorCal poetry calendar for the weekend

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily food for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, and other inspiration. Yet another way to feed our ever-hungry poetic souls.

_________________

SnakeWatch: News from Rattlesnake Press

The latest Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. If you'd like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is May 15 for #18, due out in mid-June.

Coming April 9: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing his Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series of photos and prompts for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS (For Capturing Creative Thought). Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.

Cherries in Sarajevo

RATTLED
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

Tippy the cockapoo’s on a long leash,
taking the point in our nature platoon.

Her fur glows white gold in the afternoon
heat. Bannister Park. Reptile-heat, almost

a Mexico scorpion-heat, wherever there isn’t
American River to wet the grass, gravel, dust.

Tippy pokes out ahead, tongue lolling
out of her mouth sideways; then of a sudden,

her neck straightens out full—something to play
with, in all this dust! She pats, prods

with her glossy forefeet: something seems
to go zizz! And a coil of something glints

in a loose-lasso shape: a rattlesnake. Nora
sees, screams out once, twice, “Tippy!”

But as the little dog sniffs, then shakes
obedience back into her head and comes,

the serpent’s just zithered, insinuate slinky,
right past Tippy’s legs in an s-curve slither of zinc

and whipcord indifference, with a soupçon
of sapience: little big beast won’t hurt me,

I can belly-run faster than rattle and strike.
Our breaths coming back from astral somewhere off

back to body, we bless ourselves, dogs, and one
nonviolent, almost demonstrably sainted snake.

____________________

Thanks, Tom! I've had plenty of encounters of my own with rattlers, first in Fair Oaks (real ones), and then, of course, through our (demonstrably sainted) poetry with fangs.

But the photos today are of the Revolutionary kind, brought to mind by the current HBO series, John Adams, which I definitely recommend you take a look at during this lively election year. Normally I don't talk directly about politics in my publications, but artists are never far from the life and times of their countries, yes? Like it or not... Yesterday's Sacramento Bee, for example, had an article about ballet students in Iraq, how they and other artists have to keep avoiding extremists, how they almost have to practice in secret. We take our freedoms for granted, and the excellent John Adams mini-series movingly portrays, through the life of [to my mind] one of the most interesting Revolutionary figures, the thinking and the struggles of the people who founded this country.

By the way, these photos are courtesy of Gadsden.info. Check them out for their history of how the symbol of the rattlesnake became so integral to our early history.

Lest we forget:

DATES
—Semezdin Mehmedinovic

On 17th January 1994, he was killed.
For every day since,
he's been dead.

He is dead today too—
Friday the 24th February 1995.
And every evening

something uncanny
happens to me.
When I step into the bathroom

I notice in the mirror
how over my left shoulder
a shadow grows.

It's not mine. And if I look back
over that shoulder,
what do I see?

A dream, but my eyes are open:
a raven has flown down to my table
and it speaks,

saying: on the 17th May,
cherries will be ripe in Sarajevo.

I hear it, and I wait.


(translated from the Bosnian by Kathleen Jamie)

___________________

Calendar additions/reminders for this week:

This weekend has an awesome array of poetry activities; check back to Monday's post for details. Here are some updates to add:

•••Tonight (Thurs., 4/3), SpiralChappers Susan and Joe Finkleman will be reading their two-voice poetry at 8 PM at Poetry Unplugged (Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento). Open mic before and after.

•••Saturday (4/5), 7 PM: The Sugar Shack/The Shuga Shaque/The Suga Shak: A Night of Poetry, Music and Art at its Best at Delta of Venus Café, 122 B St., Davis. Host Mario Ellis Hill writes: As some of you may know, some friends and myself had the opportunity in the early ‘90's to start an artists' performance workshop in Davis that went by the name of the SUGAR SHACK. At these events, running from 1993-1998, we invited all of the artists we personally knew—poets, actors, writers, dancers, artists, musicians, singers, etc.—to perform, as well as bring some grub for the potlucks. It was a chance for all of us hibernating-&- in-the-closet artists in the Davis community to get to know each other, as well as share our gifts with other like-minded folks. Well, after so many years, The Shack is Back! Take advantage of this opportunity to come out to see some fantastic music and poetic grooves! Saturday's featured poets include Traci Gourdine, FuhShang! & The Jalapeno Chocolates (Vincent Kobelt & Mario Ellis Hill), Terry Moore, Bill Carr, Jr., Miss Marianna, Susan & Joseph Finkleman, Samuel Iniguez, Sean King, Terryl Wheat & Rob Lozano. Featured musicians include Gentle Creatures (Sacramento), Pais De Trois (Sacramento), and Samilia (Davis). Info: lee@deltaofvenus.org or Mario at 916-752-7275.

•••Saturday (4/5), 7:30 PM: Cornered: Five Years of Sacramento News & Review's Poet's Corner. Join Poet's Corner Editor Kel Munger, special guest Joe Wenderoth, and some of the Corner's frequent contributors for a reading and celebration of its fifth anniversary. All at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac. And check out Kel’s new SN&R blog, too, at http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/bibliolatry/Blogs.

________________

Taylor Graham is the only one so far to sprout results from this week's Seed of the Week (see Tuesday's post), the gnarly tyburn. Here's what she came up with:

APRIL

Elfish
lavish
impish
ticklish—
the garden blooms elfish-lavish—come
hear the bees (so impish-ticklish) hum.

__________________

SECURITY

Gated
crated
grated
straited
how we live here gated, crated tight
in this iron-grated, straited plight.

__________________

YOUR DOG

Funky
monkey
hunky
punky
leaps and dances, funky monkey, clown;
he grins and spins, hunky-punky— “Down!”

__________________

Thanks, TG! And our give-away continues until Friday at midnight. Send in a poem using the word, "agrexophrenia", and I'll send you a free copy of Ann Privateer's new rattlechap, Attracted to Light.

No B.L. Drive-by this week; Bari is still sick. Not too sick to read, though: send him books, etc. for possible review at the address to the right of this column.

___________________

OUR CORNER LIQUOR STORE

burned down—our “snack shop,”
said our niece once, five years old. Gone,
the bright snacks: Gummi Worms, beer,
Bridgeport bacon, Doritos. Shy-complacent,
I never learned the shopkeepers’ names: kind,
Eastern, watchful. The patriarch, soft-voiced,
self-made, lately self-remade pure Sikh,
black turban and long gray beard. Family lives
to remake now, on insurance and nerve.
Altered, all, in one red whoosh: gigantic
fire ladder, too late, clamping a waterfall.
Portent like a female mantis holding
the Reaper’s black sickle between forefeet.

—Tom Goff

__________________

LittleNip of the Day:

This website contributes a few grains of rice for every vocabulary word you select correctly: http://freerice.com/index.php

__________________



—Medusa

Here's Medusa's new weekly menu of features. Contributors are welcome to submit to any and all of these!

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to me at kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing. Favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorites.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy

Friday: NorCal poetry calendar for the weekend

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily food for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, and other inspiration. Yet another way to feed our ever-hungry poetic souls.

_________________

SnakeWatch: News from Rattlesnake Press

The latest Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. If you'd like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is May 15 for #18, due out in mid-June.

Coming April 9: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing his Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series of photos and prompts for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS (For Capturing Creative Thought). Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.

Feeding Our Ever-Hungry Poetic Souls

Katy Brown, Davis

FOUNTAIN
—Joy Harold Helsing, Magalia

Six bronze trout
stand erect
on curved tails
in a shallow pool
water spouting
from open mouths

Fish
line dancing

_________________

Thanks, Joy! Joy Harold Helsing's work regularly appears in Rattlesnake Review.

The cheery face in the photo is Katy Brown, Rattlesnake Review columnist ("Snake Eyes"), poet, photographer, SpiralChapper (The Quality of Light), and inaugurator of our Rattlesnake HandyStuff Series last December with her perpetual calendar, A Poet's Book of Days. Now, on Wednesday, April 9, Katy will release her new HandyStuff journal series; the first is entitled Musings (For Capturing Creative Thought) and is a collection of photos and prompts to stir up the minds of poets and non-poets alike. For more info on Katy (and a slightly-more up-to-date photo), check out her page on rattlesnakepress.com (click on SnakeRings SpiralChaps in the menu or Handystuff). Medusa also featured Katy one day last year; click on March, 2007 in the column to the right of this one and scroll down to March 24.

Joy Helsing was also featured on Medusa last year: October 11, 2007.

___________________

Speaking of HandyStuff, today is the inauguration of yet another new Medusa feature: HandyStuff Quickies, a weekly celebration of poetic tools. It's all about favorite poetry resources: books, CD's, your favorite journals to read, your favorite journals to submit to, organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! So Wednesday is Tool Day; send me ideas about what greases your wheels, poetically speaking...

I'll start with Michael Bugeja, an astoundingly prolific author of books about writing and an ex-editor of Poet's Market. Many poets enjoy his classic, The Art And Craft of Poetry, which can be had on Amazon (used) for the amazing price of 44¢!! (Yes, cents!) But today I'd like to extol his Poet's Guide: How to Publish and Perform Your Work (1995), which Amazon (used) has listed for as low as 32¢. There aren't too many books available on these specific subjects, and I think his is excellent, even though I don't necessarily agree with everything he says. In fact, I regularly hand out one of the chapters to brand-new rattlechappers. So check it out. And send me news of your HandyStuff. Wednesday is Tool Day!

SnakePal Ellaraine Lockie writes: I have an hour-long interview on Coffee House to Go: http://coffeehousetogo.blogspot.com/2008/03/coffee-house-to-gos-
across-mic-march-21.html. Ellaraine is also a long-time SnakePal; her work can regularly be seen in Rattlesnake Review.

I got a kick out of this picture on the current Poets & Writers e-newsletter. They used it to call attention to the various contests they have listed. Those must be $1 bills she's holding; nobody's gonna get rich off of winning poetry contests!

But anyway, here are a few journal submissions opportunities. Publishing is its own reward, right?

•••Call for submissions: Canary, a new, on-line magazine devoted to nature and the environmental seeks poems, essays, short fiction and memoir on nature and the environmental crisis. Emphasis on craft and ability to move. Website will be www.hippocketpress.org, click on Canary. Send submissions to gailentrekin@hotmail.com. Previously published OK. [Gail Entrekin, the publisher of Hip Pocket Press, recently moved to Berkeley from Nevada City. Her work has appeared in Rattlesnake Review, and watch for B.L. Kennedy's interview of her in Conversations, Volume 4, coming in October.]

•••Call for submissions of poetry, artwork, or photography for either the next issue of Poet's Espresso, which is looking for April/May holiday-related or seasonal or just plain fun poetry, or else poetry for the next paperback anthology, Moon Mist Valley, to the theme of the symbols of the three words in that title: one, two, or all three of them. Please include two to four lines about the poet, artist, or photographer. Send to Donald R. Anderson, Poet's Espresso, http://www.rainflowers.org or http://www.poetsespresso.com [Don's poetry and computer-art pieces can be seen in Rattlesnake Review, and his and Nikki's previous anthology was beautiful and well-received.]

•••Call for submissions to Pulse, a new online magazine that uses stories and poems from patients and healthcare professionals to talk honestly about giving and receiving medical care. It is also an online community offering a chance for patients, doctors, nurses, social workers and everyone else to come together to share their experiences in health care, and explore the common wish for a humane system of health for all. Info: www.pulsemagazine.org.

•••Cynthia Bryant writes that Poets Lane is back online (www.poetslane.com). She’ll be accepting poems from all over the U.S. and beyond. Write to her at poetslane@everestkc.net. [Cynthia Bryant moved to Kansas from Pleasanton after her recent reign as Pleasanton's Poet Laureate. For years, she ran Poets Lane, a major poetry and poetry calendar resource in the Bay Area, from her computer. Now she's back at it, this time from Kansas! You can't keep a good editor down...]

____________________

SURVIVORS
(of breast cancer)
—Joy Harold Helsing

The cost of admission
into this select society
is much too high—
the shock of invitation
terror of initiation
mutilating rite of passage

Membership dues
must be paid daily
in coins of weakness
stubborn pain

When we meet another member
we recognize each other
by subtle signs—
a look in the eye
tone of voice as we say
You’ve had it?
I’ve had it too.

Sometimes we compare notes
sometimes merely nod
go on our way.

___________________

SANCTUARY
—Joy Harold Helsing

A red fox
head high, tail jaunty
trots across the hill
behind our house

No hunter or hounds
on this protected land
He forages
courts his vixen
raises his kits
in a secure realm
we but long for

__________________


LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul

Taylor Graham sends us her response to yesterday's new feature, our daily LittleNips, which required the use of the word, "agrexophrenia":

NEWLY WED
—Taylor Graham

She solves the Sunday crossword in ink,
in record time. Words like cacoethes
and agrexophrenia spring to her agile
lips, familiar as a childhood rhyme.

But when he locks their door tonight,
lights turned down, who knows what
happens out of sight; what syllables
might rise? You won’t hear a word of it.

___________________

Thanks, TG! We're celebrating the birth of LittleNips with a give-away: A copy of Ann Privateer's new rattlechap, Attracted to Light, is winging its way to TG as we speak. You too can receive a free copy; just send me a poem incorporating the word, "agrexophrenia", in it (either your own poem or—good luck with this—somebody else's) before midnight this coming Friday (4/4) at kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.

Today's LittleNip:

The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then

—Roger McGough

___________________

—Medusa

Confused about all these new features? Here's Medusa's new weekly menu (contributors are welcome to submit to any and all of these!):

Monday: Weekly NorCal calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to me at kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing. Favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorites.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy

Friday: Weekend NorCal calendar

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily food for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, and other inspiration. Yet another way to feed our ever-hungry poetic souls.


Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).


SnakeWatch: News from Rattlesnake Press

The latest Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. If you'd like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is May 15 for #18, due out in mid-June.

Coming April 9: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing his Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series of photos and prompts for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS (For Capturing Creative Thought). Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!

The Cruellest Month

IT'S APRIL

and life so unattractive; the dead earth suddenly turns vampire
and breathes, breathes, breathes, with it begin to breathe
the souls of the dead, in harmony,
following orders from the cruellest month;
they yearn to lie down quietly among sweet flowers.

The mirrors in the room get fidgetty
looking into the terror-filled eyes of old men
and in the dumb fear of old men they arouse the desire
to breathe, breathe, breathe......

The whole sky could fit
into a dirty puddle of rain.

—Ferida Durakovic

___________________

Shazam! National Poetry Month is starting with a bang around here, with lots of goings-on this week and for the entire month! See below for this week's offerings, including the Sacramento Poetry Center Conference and the Gathering of California Poets Laureate, all right here in Saca-tomato!

Medusa has a few new snakes flying out of her head, too, including two more new features: LittleNips, our new daily SnakeFood for Poetic Brains, and the weekly (Wednesday) HandyStuff Quickies: Tools for the Poetic Trade. As usual, poets from around the globe will be encouraged to contribute; more about that later.

Meanwhile, it's Tuesday. Time for Seed of the Week. Taylor Graham sent us this response to last week's SOW:

FROM SEED
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

...to make two spires of grass grow where one did not before.
—Elihu Burritt (1874)

Some sickly daisies, and those jaundiced weeds
that find their way between the native stones,
were all the field would bear. Their stubborn seeds
could grow in ground that’s rocks and bones
leached, dried, and worthless. But a man brings trust
and hard hand-labor to the land he weds.
Where once rose nothing from the soil but dust,
now see how wheat and rye-grass nod their heads
and find their way between the native stones
of field-wall and a farther, greener swale.
His broad brown ox is all the help he asks
for plowing, mowing, harvesting. The veil
of twilight covers never-ending tasks.
Don’t speak of fear his rustic rites might fail.
A farmer’s faith, that this new crop succeeds
the sickly daisies and the jaundiced weeds.

___________________

Thanks, TG! All SOW poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to me at kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOWs; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell? When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

This coming week's SOW suggestion comes from Sal Buttaci, who challenges us to write some tyburns, defined as a six-line poem with a set syllable count. The first four lines rhyme and are all descriptive words. The last two lines rhyme and incorporate the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lines as the 5th to 8th syllables. The structure is:

line 1 - 2 syllables
line 2 - 2 syllables
line 3 - 2 syllables
line 4 - 2 syllables
line 5 - 9 syllables
line 6 - 9 syllables

Sal sends us some tyburns of his own:

FLOWERS

One day
Bouquet
Displays
Decay
In the garden, One day bouquet dies.
Early fall yields displays decay-wise.

___________________

POETRY

A crime:
All rhymes
Sublime
In time
Are forgotten. A crime: all rhymes tossed
From creation. Sublime? in time, lost.

___________________

LOVE OR WHAT?

Kisses
Hisses
Misses
Wishes.
It’s up to you. Kisses, hisses? Sick!
Love or dreaming? Misses, wishes? Pick!

__________________

AFTER KNEE SURGERY

A cane?
Insane!
The pain’s
To blame.
I’m not that old. A cane? Insane! Mine.
I have no choice. The pain’s to blame. Fine.

__________________

Try your own hand at tyburns and send me your fruits. Are you (wo)man enough for the mighty tyburn?

Chris Olander of Grass Valley writes: Great news for me: the student I was coaching in the Poetry Out Loud contest won the California State Contest; she and her mother get an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington DC to compete in the National Championship Contest! She has as much chance of winning that as anybody else, and I think she's going to be tough to beat! Congrats, Chris, to you and your charge. Check out B.L. Kennedy's Conversations Volume Two for an interview with Chris, in which he talks about his long-time involvement with California Poets in the Schools.

__________________

This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight (4/1), 6-9 PM: The Bonefolders: Poems-For-All Building Party. Help Richard Hansen’s Poems-For-All crew build the hundreds of poem booklets they want to put on the street for Poetry Month. Each little booklet made as part of the Poems-For-All (PFA) Series goes through the same ritual: Cut. Fold. Staple. Bonefolders are the small tools used to make a neat fold in paper. The Bonefolders are those kind souls willing to come out and help PFA build little booklets to be given away for free. Care to be a bonefolder? Join us anytime between 6 and 9 PM in the relaxed atmosphere of The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Come to fold poems or just hang out and enjoy the light refreshments. There are jobs for any skill level. Building little poem books is theraputic and you're welcome to take some with you! (And the fun will be repeated on Saturday, April 12, too!)

•••April 2-3: Gathering of California Poets Laureate. Schedule as follows:

Wednesday, April 2 — Evening Reception for Laureates
5-9 PM at the Fragrance Garden next to California State Library 10th and N Streets
6-7 PM: informal barbecue dinner
7-9 PM: laureates informal reading (5 minutes per reader)

The public is invited — $15 covers the cost of dinner. Seating is limited, please RSVP to Bob Stanley at bobstanley@sbcglobalnet or 916-240-1897.

Thursday, April 3 — Laureates' Conference
9-9:30 AM: Welcome, presentation by California Poets in the Schools/Poetry Out Loud
9-9:55 AM: Keynote by Al Young, California Poet Laureate
10-12:45 AM: Discussion by Community Poets Laureate

Thursday, April 3 (cont.) — Laureates' Public Poetry Reading
1-3 PM by the Capitol Fountain, Capitol Mall and 10th Street
(5 minutes per poet—bag lunch will be provided for laureates and volunteers)
3-5 PM: Thank yous and farewells

The public is invited. Seating is limited for the morning conference. Please RSVP to Bob Stanley at bobstanley@sbcglobalnet or 916-240-1897

Participating poets laureate: Al Young [California], Sandra Wade [Lake County], Mary McMillan [Lake County], Dorothy Lee Hansen [Napa county], Meredith Laskow [Placentia Library District], Geri DiGiorno [Sonoma County], Mary Rudge [Alameda], Joel Fallon [Benicia], Diane Lando [Brentwood], Ruth Blakeney [Crockett], Connie Post [Livermore], Sam Pierstorff [Modesto], Rod Clark [Pacifica], Garland Thompson [Pacific Grove], Martha Meltzner [Pleasanton], Fionna Perkins [Point Arena], Julia Connor [Sacramento], Dian Sousa [San Luis Obispo], Jack Hirschman [San Francisco], Perie Longo [Santa Barbara], Ursula Gibson [Sunland-Tujunga], David Smith-Ferri [Ukiah] and others.

Brought to you by:

California Arts Council
Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission
Poets and Writers
California Poets in the Schools

•••Wednesday (4/2), 9 PM: Charles Curtis Blackwell and Vincent Kobelt at Bistro 33, 226 F St. in Davis. Playwright, poet, and performance artist Charles Curtis Blackwell has written plays such as Is, The Color of Mississippi Mud, which was produced in Washington D.C. and Sacramento, and I’m a Boxer, a Love Story. His book The Fiery Response To Love’s Calling was published in 1999, and he has produced three spoken word CDs, one featuring jazz drummer Billy Toliver. Currently a resident of the bay area, Blackwell organizes writers’ workshops and community cultural events at the Faithful Fools Agency in the San Francisco Tenderloin.

Founder of the Garage Sale Art Project, poet Vincent Kobelt has been reading and performing his work throughout California since 1990. During the summer Kobelt teaches at the California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA/Innerspark), and every third Saturday of the month he hosts “Live at Carol’s,” a reading and performance series featuring California poets at Carol’s Books on Del Paso Blvd. in Sacramento. Kobelt has recently authored a CD called The Jive and a poetry anthology titled The Jive’s in the Jug. His poetry performed at the Bistro 33 open mics has made him a crowd favorite.

Poetry Night, hosted by Brad Henderson and Andy Jones, takes place on the first and third Wednesdays of the month at Bistro 33.

•••Thurs. (4/3), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Featured poets, with open mic before and after. Info: 916-441-3931.

•••Friday (4/4) and Saturday (4/5): Sacramento Poetry Center Conference, 2008. Schedule as follows:

Friday, April 4:
6 PM: late registration, passes, hors d'ouevres, book sales
6:45 PM: Reception opening, introduction
7 PM: Reading at The Space: Camille Norton, Joshua McKinney, Jane Hirshfield
8-8:30 PM: Closing/Book Sales

Saturday, April 5:
8:45-9:20 AM: Breakfast, Late Registration, Briefing from President
9:30-11:30 AM: Workshop A: Camille Norton
9:30-11:30 AM: Workshop B: Joshua McKinney
11:30 AM: Lunch
1-1:30 PM: Al Young Lecture
2-4 PM: Workshop C: Ellen Bass
2-4 PM: Workshop D: Quinton Duval
4:15-4:30 PM: Closing remarks by President
4:30 PM: Reading at The Space: Quinton Duval, Ellen Bass, Al Young
5:30 PM: Closing Book Signings

Fees: Members: Friday, $10 [Reading only]; Saturday, $10 [Reading/Lecture only] Both Days, $35
Non-members: Friday, $10 [Reading]; Saturday, $15 [Reading/Lecture only]. Both Days $45. Special one-time SPC membership fee at the conference: $25. Mail to: 1719 25th St., Sacramento, CA 95816.

•••Friday (4/4), 7:30 PM: The Other Voice, a poetry reading series sponsored by the U.U. Church of Davis, presents three poets: Lisa Dominguez Abraham, Denise Lichtig, and Catherine French. Lisa Abraham's work has appeared in a number of journals, most recently in The Suisan Valley Review and Hardpan. Her chapbook, Low Notes, was released last fall by Red Wing Press. Denise Lichtig has been published in Hayden's Ferry Review, Antioch Review, The Suisun Review, and Dry Heat. She has received a Pushcart nomination and was a semi-finalist in the Discovery/The Nation contest. Here in Davis she has a private practice in Chinese Medicine and teaches Tai Qi. Catherine French lives in Sacramento and is the author of Sideshow from the University of Nevada Press. Her poems have appeared in The Nation, Gettysburg Review, Zyzzyva, and other journals. She is currently at work on her second collection of poems. We meet in the library of the church located at 27074 Patwin Rd. in Davis. Refreshments and Open Mike follow, so bring along a poem or two to share.

•••Saturday (4/5), 7:30 PM: Cornered: Five Years of SN&R’s Poet’s Corner: A celebration of five years of poetry in the Sacramento News & Review. Poetry Editor Kel Munger is putting together a line-up of poets from among those who've been published in the papers' weekly Poet's Corner.

•••Friday (4/4)-Sunday (4/6): Nevada City Poetry Retreat. Join Nils Peterson and Sally Ashton for a Gold Country get-away in historic Nevada City near Grass Valley. We will divide our time between creating new poems and revisioning old ones. You'll be invited to see if a "golden thread," as William Stafford taught, can lead you to the place where the inner and outer landscapes meet. Saturday evening, we'll have a session working on reading and presentation technique. In your free time, you may wish to explore historic Nevada City’s charming downtown or hiking trails.

Schedule:

Friday: 7-10pm: Reception and Session 1

Saturday: 9:30-Noon: Session 2
Lunch at the cabin
2-5pm: Session 3
Out to no-host Dinner
Evening Session 4: Reading/performance technique

Sunday: 9:30-Noon: Session 5

To Register: Sally Ashton at sallyashtn@aol.com; 408-892-3115 OR Nils Peterson nissepete@aol.com
Fee: $135; $50 deposit due at registration. Saturday lunch & light snacks provided. Meals & lodging not included; please make your own arrangements. (General Lodging Listings: http://www.ncgold.com/lodging/index.html)

___________________

LittleNip of the Day: SnakeFood for Poetic Brains:

Welcome to our new daily corner for odd things to stimulate the brain: quotes, jokes, words, little-known facts about famous/not-so-famous/infamous poets—quick little nips to catapult you into a meditation, a poem, or a delete-in-disgust. Today's LittleNip is a word, and a dandy one it is: agrexophrenia (fear of being overheard or otherwise detected during sex).

We're not going to have a give-away every day, but to inaugurate LittleNips, send me a poem (either your own or somebody else's) with the word, agrexophrenia, in it, and I'll mail you a copy of Ann Privateer's new rattlechap, Attracted to Light. Yes, there's a deadline on this one: Friday, April 4. (Get it done early; you've got a lot to do this weekend!)

And hey, don't be shy. Got a LittleNip of your own to send me?

___________________

APRIL
—Thomas Merton

April, like a leopard in the windy woods,
Sports with the javelins of the weather;

And the hunters,
Eye-level with the world's clean brim,
Sight their strings, in masking rocks not moving,
And shower with arrows
The innocent, immortal season.

Hear how like lights these following releases
Of sharpened shaft-flights sing across the air,
And play right through, unwounding, clearest windworks—

To disappear, unpublished, in the reeds.

Where their words are quenched, the world is quickened:
The lean air suddenly flowers,
The little voices of the rivers change;

So that the hunters put away their silver quivers,
Die to the level of river and rockbrim,
And are translated, homeward,
To the other, solemn, world.

___________________

—Medusa (back with a bang! Didja miss me?)

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).


SnakeWatch: News from Rattlesnake Press

The latest Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. If you'd like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is May 15 for #18, due out in mid-June.

Coming April 9: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing his Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS: Photos and Prompts For Capturing Creative Thought. Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!

The Ascent Still Before Us

THE SUN ON YOUR SHOULDER
—John Haines

We lie together in the grass,
sleep awhile and wake,
look up at the cloverheads
and arrowy blades,
the pale, furred undersides
of leaves and clouds.

Strange to be a seed, and the whole
ascent still before us,
as in childhood
when everything is near
or very far,
and the crawling insect
a lesson in silence.

And maybe not again
that look clear as water,
the sun on your shoulder
when we rise,
shaken free of the grass,
tall in the first green morning.

__________________

Normally, Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers that you have come up with, such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—but starting today, Medusa will be off tending her snakes and turning people into stone, etc., for a few days. So today is this week's Seed of the Week Day, and the prompt is, well, seeds. (Thanks to Taylor Graham for the idea). Medusa readers are encouraged to rise to the occasion. All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to me at kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell? When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.


This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (3/24), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Zaid Shlah and Brad Buchanan (A Night to Touch Your Inner Canadian) at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. A native Calgarian, Zaid Shlah now resides in Walnut Creek, CA. He obtained his BA in English from the University of Calgary and his MA in English from San Francisco State University, where he received the Distinguished Graduate award from San Francisco State University's Creative Writing department. His poetry has appeared in literary journals and anthologies both in Canada and the U.S. In particular, selections from the long poem, "Taqsim", have appeared on CBC Radio's Alberta Anthology. "Asking Iraq to Comply" appeared in the anthology, Canadian Writers Against the War: The Common Sky, 2003. And "Songs of Departure" and "Asking Iraq to Comply" are forthcoming in the anthology, Arab American and Diaspora Literature (Interlink Publishing, 2005). His first full-length book of poetry is Taqsim (Frontenac 2005). Brad Buchanan is originally from Canada and has had his poems published in many of the most widely-read Canadian literary journals, including Grain, Canadian Literature, The Antigonish Review, Descant, The Fiddlehead and Event. He has a Ph.D. from Stanford University and teaches at California State University, Sacramento. His first book is The Miracle Shirker from Poets Corner Press. He is married and has a young daughter, Nora, who has no idea yet that she is a Maple Leafs fan.

Next week (March 31), SPC will feature the Zen Marxist Launderettes (Laura Ann Walton, Emily Wright, Mira Kores, Sandra Senne, Margaret Burns, Erin Doyle, Ellen Johnson, Carolyn Schneider).

•••Weds. (3/26), 6-7 PM: Upstairs Poetry reading at The Upstairs Art Gallery, 420 Main St. (2nd floor), Placerville. It's an open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. No charge.

•••Thurs. (3/27), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe features Jackie Schaffer, Marty the Pirate, Robert Grossklaus and Litany. 1414 16th St., Sacramento.

•••Sat. (3/29), 7-9 PM. The Show Poetry Series for Spoken Word & Music that relaxes the soul and eases the mind. Featured artists Lady Kitty Griffin, Kevin Sandbloom and DeDe Hunt, with special Guest EmCee Comedian Corey Crenshaw. All artists (poets, singers, comedians, musicians, etc., all ages) are welcome to sign-up at the door to perform on the open mic. Any youth 18 years of age and under will be admitted free of charge; $5.00 admission for folks over the age of 18. Wo'se Community Center (Off 35th & Broadway), 2863 35th St., Sacramento. Contact: T-Mo (916)208-POET.

___________________

PICKERS
—John Haines

All day we were bent over,
lifting handfuls of wind and dust.

Scraps of some human conversation
blew by; a coffin on wheels
rolled slowly backward across
the field, and the skinned
bodies of the harvest were loaded.

A red cloud boiling up out
of the darkness became the evening.
Sentinels of a shattered army,
we drank bitter coffee, and spoke
of the field, the light, and the cold.

___________________

IF THE OWL CALLS AGAIN

at dusk
from the island in the river
and it's not too cold,

I'll wait for the moon
to rise,
then take wing and glide
to meet him.

We will not speak,
but hooded against the frost
soar above
the alder flats, searching
with tawny eyes.

And then we'll sit
in the shadowy spruce
and pick the bones
of careless mice,

while the long moon drifts
toward Asia
and the river mutters
in its icy bed.

And when the morning climbs
the limbs
we'll part without a sound,

fulfilled, floating
homeward as
the cold world awakens.


—John Haines

________________

—Medusa (who will be off flying with the owls until the end of March)

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).


SnakeWatch: News from Rattlesnake Press

The brand-new Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Contributor copies and subscriptions will go into the mail this week and next. And if you aren't any of those but would like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.

Also New in March: Attracted to Light, a chapbook by Ann Privateer; Eclipse, a free littlesnake broadside by Jeanine Stevens; and Conversations Volume Two of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming in April: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing the Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading at 7:30 PM. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS: Photos and Prompts For Capturing Creative Thought. Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!

This Yo-Yo World

Photo courtesy of David Humphreys

SPRUNG SPRING
—David Humphreys, Stockton

Hot cold, hot cold. All last week
was balmy warm, short sleeves
instead of flannel plaid and jackets.
You could see the trees and bushes
shuddering back to life in buds turning
flushed with blossoms popping out
in a few weeks. The warm air rose up
and the winds came in yesterday.
Blew the sky clear as a bell and the
temperature dropped like a rock. Hot
cold, hot cold all the way from now until
the end of March, cursed month I was born
into this stupid yo-yo world. Well, it was
nice last week anyway and if I was still a
an idiot skier I could go up and rattle
my edges on the icy wind blown
snow above the tree line.

___________________

MY FATHER'S ECONOMICS
—David Humphreys

He said that the reason we were in Vietnam
was primarily due to the cost of tin, so essential
for electrical connections, in circuitry or anything
really. This he said as I watched shot-down Huey
helicopters drop out of the Southern Hemisphere
sky of Time magazine’s casualty calculations. Do
not assume that anything is ever final or decided.
I will suggest however, that we are currently experiencing
a collusion of exploitations. Who, properly invested
of course, in their comfortably cushioned suites enveloped,
would not benefit immensely from tremors of shuddering
terror in a volatile dynamic marketplace?

__________________

BONNIE BORDNER
—David Humphreys

This girl was absolute top of the line,
everything about her straight out of
something that might easily have been
Social Register, but she was from Blue
Book country, Southern California, and
never made anything of it. We might
consider the differences of one coast or
the other, but Bonnie was the ultimate
of “class” itself. My best friend Peter
wasted a lot of time adoring her. I had
an odd feeling she was a bit too close to
my roots of Brooks Brothers and the
Register and what was proper in that truly
bizarre context. Bottom line for me now
though, looking back forty years: she wore
the hottest pair of Levis I ever laid eyes on.

____________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).


SnakeWatch: News from Rattlesnake Press

The brand-new Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Contributor copies and subscriptions will go into the mail this week and next. And if you aren't any of those but would like me to mail you a copy, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.

Also New in March: Attracted to Light, a chapbook by Ann Privateer; Eclipse, a free littlesnake broadside by Jeanine Stevens; and Conversations Volume Two of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming in April: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing the Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading at 7:30 PM. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS: Photos and Prompts For Capturing Creative Thought. Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!