Not

WINTER SKY
—Katy Brown, Davis

The Milky Way swirls across glittering voids
washed darker by winter storms.
Polaris flashes above the dipper’s bowl
and the Seven Sisters gather with icy clarity.

A comfort in the constant stars
whose light began a million years ago:
even if we boil the seas and fracture mountains,
the hunter, bull, and dragon
will chase in slow precision down the void.

________________________

Thanks, Katy! The winter poems continue.

Yeats Premiers Tonight:

Opening Friday (6/30) at Sacramento Poetry Center's neighbor, California Stage: Fastened to a Dying Animal: Eros, revelation & the life of the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats, a world premiere written and performed by local dramaturgist Rick Foster. California Stage is a non-profit professional theatre company dedicated to supporting and encouraging arts created by local artists for local audiences; it’s located right across the parking lot from SPC, at 1723 25th St. (25th & R), Sac. Opens Friday, June 30, runs through Sunday, July 23. Fridays and Sat. at 8 PM, Sunday at 2 PM. Reservations: 916-451-5822. For more info on Cal. Stage and on Rick Foster, check out www.calstage.org.

THE GIFT OF WORDS: Poetry for the Iraqi People

Cynthia Bryant, Pleasanton Poet Laureate, challenges poets everywhere to write a poem for the Iraqi people, something that you want to express to their citizens. Send it to Pleasanton Poet Laureate, P. O. Box 520, Pleasanton, CA 94566 or e-mail it to PoetsLane@comcast.net. Please include your full name, area code and phone number, along with your e-mail address, if you have one. Anyone of any age can write a poem and submit it to be included in The Gift of Words: Poetry for the Iraqi People. Deadline: November 1, 2006. Poems will be translated into Arabic, put into a booklet and sent to Iraq. In addition, a celebration will be held December 3, 2006 at the Century House, Pleasanton, CA from 1pm-5pm, at which time the poems will be read, followed by a festive pot luck.

_______________________

FLOOD REFUGEE IN THE BYPASS
—Katy Brown, Davis

The hawk moves lower in the bare poplar,
surveying the inland sea where yesterday
spread her hunting ground.

Winter flooding swept away
voles, mice, gophers,
dry ground for hunting.

She is not a fisher:
cannot snatch prey
from the moving water.

Not a scavenger:
uninterested in carrion
snagged in the low branches.

Saving her energy,
she watches from the tree
for the signs of the receding flood;

and for quick movement
in tall grass
to tempt her from her branch.

_______________________

NOT
—Katy Brown, Davis

I’m not writing a poem
about life or the human condition.

My poem is not about far-off lands—
not about internal truth.

This poem does not reflect grand emotion:
no searing pain, no dazzling joy.

This poem, line by line, pulls me
into awareness of this foggy morning:

opening my senses to soft light,
muffled bird song, newly-fallen damp leaves.

Chill air leaks through the mail slot.
The dog and cats, rarely allies,

have fallen asleep in a twist
of velvet fur on my bed. Repudiating the fog—

oblivious to the birdsong
unaware they are part of this poem

which is not about far-off lands,
the human condition, or grand emotion.

_______________________

Thanks again, Katy Brown. Catch Katy's "Marketeer-in-Residence" column in Rattlesnake Review.

—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.)