Robert Grossklaus, Managing Editor of Poetry Now and Asst. Wrangler of Rattlesnake Press, will read at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sac. this THURSDAY at 8 p.m. Robbie is a transplant from Santa Cruz who writes in a distinctive voice that you must come and hear. Here's a wee taste (he generally eschews titles...):
Paint my reflection
A frightened stroke
Of crimson across an
Empty canvass of water.
Pluck my eyes and
Affix them to the ocean;
Wash them clean with the tidals.
Mists blown over mo(u)rnings,
Tears resting on white sands
Footsteps across distances
Of romanticism and sunsets
Moon shining over waters
Reflecting what my eyes see
Painted as impermanent
Lasting only long enough to live
The life of rain
Crashing against
Your shore.
______________________
Be there! RG is a tremendous help to our community in the way he serves the Sacramento Poetry Center, and in the way he helps the Snake. Currently he is almost done refurbishing the poetrywithfangs.com website; he has made massive changes (some of which you'll see, some of which you won't). Then he will edit VYPER, the new journalzine for teens; then, later in July, he will put together Fangs I, the huge collection of your poems about snakes. Plus being a full-time accounting student and a part-timer at H & R Block! (And married to the lovely Sabrina...) Ah, youth! It's all I can do to crawl up on the couch to watch LawnOrder re-runs...
In other news, Victoria Dalkey tells me she broke her foot yesterday and is hobbling around on crutches. Oh no! Victoria has Rattlechap #14 coming from Rattlesnake Press (In the Absence of Silver), which will premiere in August.
The last of Snake 6 went into the mail today; saw the end of his tail slither away into the bowels of the post office. He should appear in mailboxes sometime next week.
Medusa (Write to me! Send me poems! I know you're out there; every now and then someone confesses that, well, yes, they do sneak into Medusa's Kitchen for a snack, despite what their friends may think...)