FROM OUR GREAT HEIGHT
—Taylor Graham, Somerset
Beside the evening river the emus speak
in guttural grunts and throbbing drums.
We listen from this distant peak
where Westwind through the passes hums,
bringing even more distant news –
from 200 years ago, when this bird’s call
issued from such varied throats and flues:
the song of Tasmanian Emu (all
of those extinct now), Kangaroo Island
Emu, and King Island’s.... What can those
dead birds matter now? Doesn’t humankind
forever look down on a land
of disappearing species? Who chose
what stays? What’s left behind?
_____________________
As you can see, Taylor Graham was the first to take the emu bite—with a sonnet, no less. (What? No sestina?) She writes that she actually wrote four sonnets about emus, altogether! Now all she needs is to find an emu journal somewhere... In case you've just tuned in, send in a poem about emus to kathykieth@hotmail.com before AUGUST 5 and receive a free copy of Colette Jonopulos' rattlechap, The Burden of Wings. Make it a limerick and get a free copy of Rattlechap 13.1, Why We Have Sternums by Kathy Kieth, in addition. Make it a sonnet and get a free year's subscription, as well as both books: 4 Snakes, 3 Snakelets, 2 Vypers, and assorted littlesnake broadsides—all sent to your home!
Actually, I like the sestina idea. Send in a sestina about emus (12 lines or more) before August 5 and I'll send all of the above, plus a copy of Joyce Odam and Charlotte Vincent's SpiralChap, Caught Against the Years. Such a deal, all for one tiny little sestina!
In other news, Poetry Now arrived from the Sacramento Poetry Center yesterday, eye candy to promote Sacramento's poetic ear candy for the month of August. Lots of Snake people in there, including debee loyd, Joyce Odam, Allegra Silberstein, Taylor Graham, Patricia Wellingham-Jones—and two beautiful layouts of upcoming rattlechappers Susan Kelly-DeWitt and Victoria Dalkey, both of whom will release their new chapbooks on August 10 at The Book Collector. More about that, later.
Tomorrow night, August 1, the Sacramento Poetry Center presents Sandra McPherson, Chip Spann, Susan Kelly-DeWitt and others celebrating Charlie MacDonald's new book from Swan Scythe Press: El Sobrante: Selected Poems, 1975-2005. HQ, 25th & R, Sac; 7:30, free. Info: 441-7395.
I'm working on Snakebytes right now; it'll be in your e-boxes within the next few days, and will outline what's coming up with the Snake (don't forget the 8/15 deadline for Snake 7). What I'm NOT outlining yet is all the new features which will debut in the next couple of issues—lots of exciting new columnists and other surprises which will appear this fall. Hang on to your hats—the Snake is shedding and is about to come out with a whole new skin!
—Medusa (let's see: what rhymes with "ee-myoo"?)
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.