652
—Emily Dickinson
A Prison gets to be a friend—
Between its Ponderous face
And Ours—a Kinsmanship express—
And in its narrow Eyes—
We come to look with gratitude
For the appointed Beam
It deal us—stated as our food—
And hungered for—the same—
We learn to know the Planks—
That answer to Our feet—
So miserable a sound—at first—
Nor ever now—so sweet—
As plashing in the Pools—
When Memory was a Boy—
But a Demurer Circuit—
A Geometric Joy—
The posture of the Key
That interrupt the Day
To Our Endeavor—Not so real
The Cheek of Liberty—
As this Phantasm Steel—
Whose features—Day and Night—
Are present to us—as Our Own—
And as escapeless—quite—
The narrow Round—the Stint—
The slow exchange of Hope—
For something passiver—Content
Too steep for looking up—
The Liberty we knew
Avoided—like a Dream—
Too wide for any Night but Heaven—
If That—indeed—redeem—
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Jane Blue writes: I can't resist responding to the Neruda poem [see yesterday’s post]. The following was written after I taught at Folsom. It's in a ms. I call "A Way to Heal," some of which was in The Persistence of Vision in a shortened form. It's a bit complex, mixing Dickinson and Neruda. (What a great, great writer he was!) My translation is by Alistair Reid, but the line you have as "I may move, passing out of windows," I have as "I may move in and out of windows." [Ed. note: we later discovered we were working from two different translations.] We write about what we know, and prisoners write about prison. Emily Dickinson, in poem #652, wrote, “A Prison gets to be a friend—” She was at the height of her creativity then and knew what her gift demanded: a small, quiet room like a cell, and no ordinary social discourse.
XVI. “A Prison Gets to be a Friend”
—Jane Blue, Sacramento
As I was driving there, a pall
of exhaust hung over the rolling hills
that cradle the prison—
in class we didn’t talk about
what it meant to be cooped up
in a woman, and we didn’t talk
about the woman who died in a fire
that morning, behind the bars
she’d had fastened over the window-
eyes of her house nine years before
to keep out burglars; then fog
came up and I didn’t expect
to feel what I felt walking by
that house in the gloom: voyeur
as men sifted through rubble
on her lawn, laughing, the exterior
like my own facade unchanged
since the last time I passed by
but instead we talked of Neruda
and translation, and the lines:
"I may move in and out of windows,
and hearing me, eyes may lift themselves,
asking, ‘How can I reach the sea?’"
_______________________
Thanks, Jane!
Main Street Rag has announced its 2006 Poetry Book Award Winners; First place goes to Salt Memory Poems by Jennifer K. Sweeney of San Francisco, and First Runner-up is Playground of Flesh by Neil Carpathios of Massilon, OH. Among the other eight finalists/runners-up is our own local poet, littlesnake broadsider and SPC Board Member Indigo Moor, for his book, Tap-Root. All of the finalists will be offered book publication. Congratulations, Indigo!
This week’s calendar; let me know what I missed:
•••Tonight (Monday, 5/8), at the Sacramento Poetry Center, students in American River College Professor Michael Spurgeon’s Literature and Composition class will perform a re-enactment of the famous Six Poets and Six Gallery reading, which first took place fifty years ago in October, 1956, and where Allen Ginsberg first read “Howl”. Sac News & Review sez it’s at 7 pm, but there’s no mention of a time change on the SPC website, so I strongly suspect the usual 7:30 pm. HQ, 25th & R Sts., Sac.
•••Weds., May 10, Song Kowbell and Todd Cirillo will be reading at the Rattle-Read at The Book Collector, to celebrate the release of two new rattlechaps: Song's Lick Your Wounds and Want Again, and Todd's Everybody Knows the Dice Are Loaded. Both poets are from Grass Valley and are active in the Nevada County Poetry Series. Also premiering that night is Rhony Bhopla’s littlesnake broadside, Tulip Stem, plus TWO (count ‘em—two!) brand-new editions of VYPER!, the journal of poetry from poets 13-19 years of age. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. 1008 24th St., Sac, 7:30 pm. Info: 916-442-9295. (Rhony will also be reading at The Other Voice in Davis on Friday—see below for details.)
•••Weds. (5/10) is also the deadline for submissions for Squaw Valley. This year, Squaw Valley Community of Writers (July 22-29) will feature Robert Hass, Harryette Mullen, Sharon Olds, C.D. Wright, and Dean Young. Check: info@squawvalleywriters.org or 530-470-8440 for info, or www.squawvalleywriters.org.
•••Thursday (5/11), Poetry Unplugged features Michelle Tea, Cheryl Klein, Tara Jepsen, Mark Ewert and frank andrick at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sac., 8 pm. Info: 916-441-3931. The current Sacramento News & Review has an article about San Francisco poet/novelist Michelle Tea; check it out!
•••Friday (5/12), The Other Voice in Davis presents Rhony Bhopla and rattlechapper James Lee Jobe (What God Said When She Finally Answered Me) in the Unitarian Church Library, 27072 Patwin Rd., Davis, 7:30 pm. Info: 530-902-4591.
•••Saturday (5/13): Renowned poet and translator Lillian Vallee is the featured poet for the Spring Issue of Song of the San Joaquin, and she will read her own work on Saturday at the McHenry Museum, 1402 "I" St., Modesto. The 2 pm program is free, and many valley poets will gather to read their poems from the newest edition of Song. Info: Cleo Griffith, (209) 543-1776 or cleor36@yahoo.com.
•••Also Saturday (5/13): There will be a Think Postcard! workshop in Winters at 10 am at the Winters Branch Library, 201 First St., Winters.
•••It’s not poetry, but on Saturday (5/13) the Crocker Art Museum Art Book Fair will be held in the outdoor courtyard of the Museum from 10 am to 4 pm. Free admission and activities, including hands-on bookmaking and story time; “How to Build Your Art Library” with Richard L. Press; a Think Postcard! workshop; and a special reading by Rachel Rodriquez, author of Through Georgia’s Eyes, a portrait of artist Georgia O’Keefe. All this, plus unique and limited-edition books from specialty publishing houses! That’s at the Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St., Sac. Info: 916-264-5531.
•••And Sunday (5/14), take your mother to hear Donald Sydney-Fryer read the poems of the great California Romantic Poet, George Sterling, at the Poems-for-All reading at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac., from 4-6 pm. Info: 916-442-9295.
______________________
I, too, have been inspired by Emily Dickinson recently. Can you remember her poem that I am referring to here?
CALLA LILIES
—Kathy Kieth, Fair Oaks
ivory teacups
reach for spring
rain: curl around
tissue-wings of butterflies
rainbows of tree frogs
and
Emily’s rush
of cochineal, fresh
from Tunis…
________________________
One more note: Collette Jonopulos informs me that her Tiger’s Eye: A Journal of Poetry co-editor, JoAn Osborne’s, mother passed away last week. We’ll be thinking about you, JoAn. By the way, Collette’s blog is tigerseyepoet.blogspot.com.
—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.)