Next Wednesday, August 31, will be a special Rattle-read at The Book Collector to celebrate Ron Tranquilla's new chapbook, An Ocean-Front Hotel Room. Here's a sample from this highly personal collection:
APPLES
—Ron Tranquilla, Grass Valley
A boy, I climbed the neighborhood
apple tree; it lifted me to its shoulders
so I could see my school, our church,
the candy store. Leaning, holding on
tightly, I had apples easily at hand.
A boy perched in the trombones,
I thought that girl with the pony tail
in the second row of saxes was cute.
I didn’t know then that I would be winded
climbing such a little hill, the path lifting
beside little houses all the same, all fruits
gone. I didn’t know that I would fall in love
with the saxophonist, or that she
would be climbing at my side, as I
lean on her, holding on for dear life.
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Thanks, Ron! We'll be hearing a lot from the Grass Valley people this year, including broadsides from Todd Cirillo, Song Kowbell, and one (already out) from Bill Gainer. And then chaps from Ron, Bill, Todd and Song. Those hills are alive with... well, poetry, anyway.
Ron just returned from a poetry festival in Yosemite—though the highlight for him was probably the chance to visit his granddaughter. How about a D.H. Lawrence sonnet on the subject:
BABY RUNNING BAREFOOT
—D. H. Lawrence
When the white feet of the baby beat across the grass
The little white feet nod like white flowers in a wind.
They poise and run like puffs of wind that pass
Over water where the weeds are thinned.
And the sight of their white playing in the grass
Is winsome as a robin's song, so fluttering;
Or like two butterflies that settle on a glass
Cup for a moment, soft little wing-beats uttering.
And I wish that the baby would tack across here to me
Like a wind-shadow running on a pond, so she could stand
With two little bare white feet upon my knee
And I could feel her feet in either hand
Cool as syringa buds in morning hours,
Or firm and silken as young peony flowers.
______________________
Thanks, D.H.! Interesting use of repeated words—and enjambments, too.
Have a good hump day...
—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.