INTO THE GREAT MIST
—Abdulah Sidran
Listen: how quietly
The tired Earth's hair is turning grey.
The World decamps into the great mist.
This island, this razed field, sinks away.
And when they are sunk
And changed into the slow seeds
These heads of ours will be swayed for a long time
By a thick wind, underground.
Only the words will survive—
Those words we never uttered—
And because of them (this is the marvel)
Our existence here will be long remembered.
Listen: how quietly
The tired Earth's hair is turning grey.
The World decamps into the great mist.
_____________________
That's by a Bosnian poet, from the collection, Scar on the Stone: Contemporary Poetry from Bosnia, edited by Chris Agee. Here's another:
PREGNANT GIRL
—Hadzem Hamdarevic
You feel sea-murmur, a buzzing April galop.
The waves are rumbustious greyhounds
but you are a full-fig garden.
Turn your eyes deepsea to the crimson-
and-tequila-sunrise rocks
where south wind swells the bellies of the sails.
The rippled-snakeskin wind is a black sailor
with a silver ear-hoop. Don't break out
in shame. Don't get any nearer pure blue.
Touch wild roots at high tide
as the sea grows gentler with itself and you,
and splashes your ankles. St George's hour
ticks over louder, for you. Young rain falls
on the softsilk membrane
where scarlet angels pucker
the umbilical cord.
As if you'd made love with a dolphin
in a sailor's dream; or mine.
_______________________
Grab a fistful of your poems and head on down to HQ tonight (25th & R, Sac.) to the Open Mic, 7:30pm. Fifth Mondays are always Open Mic at Sac. Poetry Center.
The latest issue of EKPHRASIS is out, including poems by our own Jeanine Stevens and Taylor Graham and Hannah Stein. This is a high-class national journal of poetry written to works of art, edited by Sacramentans Carol and Laverne Frith. Send for a copy: Frith Press, P.O. Box 161236, Sacramento, CA 95816. Or check out the website: www. hometown.aol.com/ekphrasis1.
Medusa loves mail; three days recently, the Kitchen has received Comments (see the bottom of each post). I wish you didn't have to sign up on Blogspot to be able to comment. But I'm very glad to see that others appreciate Longfellow (Colette Jonopulos; and Teresa McCourt, who wrote to kathykieth@hotmail.com), and thanks, Rhony Bhopla, for commenting on Basho, who is indeed credited with the birth of the Haiku.
As for Jim Jobe's comment, well, Ben Hiatt came at me at just the right time in my publishing sojourn, asking hard questions and knocking the sissy out of me. And finally he did let me do a rattlechap of his work, Rooting for the Rooster. Are you out there, you old snake? If you're watching, rattle your tail...
—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.