Many Moons

MOSQUITO MOON
—Dawn DiBartolo, Sacramento

predator to prey
the moon is haunting.

the dark side,
perfect half

at its apogee,
holds my heart

like a hand,
squeezing

and squeezing
to revive.

willing to be haunted,
i lean into the night,

suckle at the darkness
because it feeds

while my eyes seek light,
perfect half

at its perigee
calls to me

by my perfect name ~

i never learned
to recognize it.

_______________________

Thanks, Dawn! Dawn DiBartolo will receive a free copy of Todd Cirillo's new rattlechap, Everybody Knows the Dice Are Loaded, to be released next Weds., May 10. Send me one of your moon poems (kathykieth@hotmail.com) by midnight this Friday (5/5) and receive your own copy of Todd's book.

Sacramento poet Kathleen Lynch currently has a poem ("Canned Food Drive") posted on the Poetry Magazine website (www.poetrymagazine.org). Congrats, Kathleen!

Poets Bei Dao, Danyen Powell, Ilya Kaminsky, and Susan Kelly-DeWitt read and discuss their work tonight (Thurs., May 4) at Poets for Peace at the San Francicso Main Library Latino/Hispanic A, Main Library Latino/Hispanic B, 100 Larkin St. (at Grove) in San Francisco, 6-7:30 pm.

Also tonight (5/4): Poetry Unplugged at Luna's, 1414 16th St., Sac., 8 pm.

Also tonight (5/4): Prize-winning poet, translator, and essayist Jane Hirshfield will read from 7-8:30 p.m. as part of Sutter’s Literature, Art, and Medicine Program (LAMP) Author Series. She will answer questions and sign books as part of the reading on the first floor of the Sutter Cancer Center, 2800 L St., Sac. The program is free and open to all.

Today!! is the deadline to RSVP for the Poets & Writers Literary Roundtable on Thursday, May 11 from 10:30am to Noon at HQ: Headquarters for the Arts (25th & R Sts., Sac.). The meeting will provide a forum for dialogue and exchange of ideas between a diverse group of presenters, presses, and writers. Previous P&W Roundtable gatherings have been an excellent opportunity to network, brainstorm and collaborate with others from around the region. Anyone with an interest in the literary arts is encouraged to attend. Those interested in doing so need to contact P&W program assistant Jamie Fitzgerald (jfitzgerald@pw.org) by May 4 (today!).

Spiralchapper (The Quality of Light) and Rattlesnake Review Marketeer-in-Residence Katy Brown sends us a gaggle of moon poems:

MOONSHADOWS
—Katy Brown, Davis

Faint Pleiades and bold
Polaris hang overhead
watching the less constant
moon roll from horizon
to horizon.

I fill my lungs with
moonlight.

In honeyed air,
the cricket chirps
the temperature under
silver lilies:
time marked by
shifting moonshadows
cast on dark grass.

_______________________

PETROGLYPH
—Katy Brown

My mother’s face is on the shadowed moon tonight.
Thirteen years after laying her to rest, she comes—
rising on the golden sphere—
drifting above a dark skyline on the near-full surface.

Distant now as she was in life, she watches:
a petroglyph drawn with indirect light on the airless moon,
her enigmatic gaze neither warm nor harsh.
What calls her to this autumn sky tonight?

________________________

THE LANGUAGE OF THE NIGHT
—Katy Brown

The night pours moonlight
on the murmuring sea,
slips soft shadows under
charcoal rocks and silver driftwood.

The concrete moon
flat as a spotlight
illuminates clouds
and sparkles on the sand.

On nights like this the land calls
to creatures from the deep;
calls to them with the
mournful solo of the foghorn;
calls up creatures with silver eyes
glowing with phosphorus
whose phantoms have always been
swimming in our dreams.

_______________________

Thanks, Katy!

—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. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)