Familiar Angels

THE SURGERY
—Ann Menebroker, Sacramento

He writes to tell his undisclosed friends
why we haven't heard from him this last week.
He's had surgery, a bi-femeral bypass—
one of those surprises we all wait for without
much enthusiasm. But I haven't even noticed
his not writing because my head's been up
in that dark place where dreams refuse to
appear, and where no decent law abiding fly would
buzz. I have found some kind of paradise; meadows,
streams, deer, butterflies, skies that don't end
and a desire to stay. Yes, I say, this has to be
a great escape where the piles of papers remain
on my floors and the phone goes unanswered;
where the message machine takes over and
the long summer ends without so much as
a sigh. And I keep saying, "I'll be back."

________________________

Thanks for the B & E poem, Annie (beginnings and endings)! Send me poems about beginnings/endings postmarked before midnight next Tuesday, August 15, and I'll send you a free copy of Irene Lipshin's new chapbook, Shadowlines, and Norma Kohout's littlesnake broadside, Out the Train Window. (Or something else, if you already have these...) Send 'em to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 1647, Orangevale, CA 95662.

In other matters ophidian, the next deadline for submissions to the September Rattlesnake Review is this coming Tuesday, August 15. Send 3-5 of your dandiest poems, art, photos, or article ideas to kathykieth@hotmail.com or POBox 1647, Orangevale, CA 95662. No cover letters, no bios, no prev-pubs or simul-subs, pleez…

As you know, SpiralChapper Vic Selinsky passed away earlier this year. A retrospective of his art is being shown through Friday, Sept. 1 at the 20th St. Art Gallery, 911 20th St., Sacramento. Gallery hours are Tues. through Sat., 12-5 PM, and by appointment, or see it tonight, Aug. 12, at the gallery's Second Saturday Reception, 6-9:30 PM. Info: 916-930-0500.

Also this weekend:

•••Today (8/12), 2 PM: Poet Thomas Barnes of Tahoe Paradise (see Snake 10) writes to say he'll be reading with others in Modesto today, where the Summer Issue of Song of the San Joaquin will be read at the McHenry Museum downstairs theater, 1402 I St., Modesto. This reading features work from poets of the valley as well as across the US. Refreshments.

•••Also this afternoon (8/12), 3 PM: Patricity's "In Spirit and Truth Series" features Terry Moore and Heather Christian-Arlington. Queen Sheba's Restaurant, 1537 Howe Av., Sac. Info: 916-920-1020.

•••And tonight (8/12), 8 PM: Poems-For-All Second Saturday Series presents frank andrick, Becca Costello, Rachel Liebock, and others at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac. Info: 916-442-9295.

•••Speaking of frank andrick (who allegedly has a hecka case of the flu): tune into KUSF (90.3 FM) tomorrow (Sunday, 8/13) at 2 PM for his Pomo Literati radio program, or www.kusf.edu for the global streaming broadcast. Live in studio: Becca Costello, Rachel Leibrock, Gene Bloom, Barbara Noble, Richard Hansen, LOB Instagon. ‘Sativa Rose’ text by frank andrick w/ sounds by The Germ and more. Soundscapes and Wordscapes. Pre-recorded rarities by Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine, Lee Ranaldo, The Haints and Hidros 3 (a sonic sideshow).

_______________________

INTERIM (for K.S.)
—Denise Levertov

A black page of night
flutters: dream on or waken,
words will spring from darkness now,
gold-bright, to fill the hollow mind
laid still to hear them, as an iron cup
laid on the window-ledge, would fill with rain.
Not more alone
waking than sleeping, in darkness than in light,
yet it is now we can assume
an attitude more listening than longing,
extend invisible antennae towards
some intimation, echo, emanation
falling slowly like a destined feather
that lights at last before the feet
of hesitating fear. Not less alone
in city than in solitude, at least
this time—an hour or minute?—left between
dreaming and action, where the only glitter
is the soft gleam of words, affording
intimacy with each submerged regret,
awakes a new lucidity in pain,
so that with day we meet
familiar angels that were lately tears
and smile to know them only fears transformed.

________________________

A DREAM OF CORNWALL
—Denise Levertov

Footprint of fury quiet, now, on the salt sand
hills couched like hares in blue grass of the air
water lifting its glass to star and candle
time curled at rest in a ready hand.

No claw of wind plucking the strings of the sea
never a bough bent, no sad fruit falling;
never a rage of autumn's angry angel
but sails in to the haven of a tree.

O fear dissolves here and now I cease
to hear the hammer the axe the bone the bell,
shade of a shade grown still, grief of a grief
lulled in green hollows of a well of peace.

_______________________

SOMETHING TO WEAR
—Denise Levertov

To sit and sit like the cat
and think my thoughts through—
that might be a deep pleasure:

to learn what news
persistence might discover,
and like a woman knitting

make something from the
skein unwinding, unwinding,
something I could wear

or something you could wear
when at length I rose to meet you
outside the quiet sitting-room

(the room of thinking and knitting
the room of cats and women)
among the clamor of

cars and people,
the stars drumming and poems
leaping from shattered windows.

_______________________

—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.)