New Snake room, "Before"
(Note green-striped wallpaper)
photo by Kathy Kieth
(Note green-striped wallpaper)
photo by Kathy Kieth
C.S. CONVERTS PSYCHE
(written after reading Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis)
—Colette Jonopulos, Eugene, OR
She’s your ugly girl
sword in hand
with something to prove
neither Greek fox nor priest gives
easy grace; men layer
philosophies on philosophies; you
hand her a book of grievances
she’ll carry from shadow to shadow
her face in veils
your Oreul loves Psyche
more than she loves herself
absurd love like this
is found in the DSM-IV, an
obsession, an unfurled sheet
draped over the kingdom of Glome
over Psyche
a suffocating cloth
C.S., your myth gives breath
to the female no one
notices or desires before
talk therapy or SSRIs could save her
a woman with complaints against the gods
who become one God while
Psyche becomes two while
beauty no longer
matters to you or
Oruel; her conversion
like yours
two words: no answer
_______________________
Thanks, Colette, for another shadow poem, this one being of Jungian ilk. How can poets talk about shadows without mentioning The Dark Side of all of us! Ex-Sacramentan Colette Jonopulos is the co-editor of Tiger's Eye: A Journal of Poetry which is, like all journals, hungry for submissions. Click on the link to Colette to the right of this for more info. She is also the author of rattlechap #7, The Burden of Wings, and a littlesnake broadside, too.
______________________
Caesura deadline this Thursday:
The editors of cæsura, the Poetry Center of San Jose, invite you to submit 1-3 poems addressing the issue of MORTALITY and the general theme of mortality in our age. Submissions should not exceed 4-pages in total. All styles are welcome.Deadline for submissions is February 15, 2007. In addition to poetry, we are interested in essays and reviews of poetry or mixed genre collections (please query). The Spring 2007 issue of cæsura will be published in May of 2007. Provide the following contact information with your submission: name, address, phone number, and email address. Previously published work (in print or online) will not be considered. We accept simultaneous submissions on the condition that you notify us immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. Send your work in an email attachment in Word.doc format or pasted as plain text into the body of an email message to caesura@pcsj.org. If your work requires the preservation of a particular visual format or contains special characters, also send a hard copy to:
caesura
Poetry Center San José
1127 Polk Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Suisun Valley Review deadline:
Quinton Duval writes: My colleague Michael Wyly is coordinating the Suisun Valley Review this Spring and he has asked me to help get the word out. They are looking for poetry, prose and short fiction (not to exceed 2500 words). Their deadline is March 31st and they ask for a brief bio and an SASE with submissions. It always ends up being a pretty good magazine, though modest in format. Please help pass the word to interested friends.
Send to:
SUISUN VALLEY REVIEW
Humanities Division
Solano Community College
4000 Suisun Valley Road
Fairfield, CA 94534-3197
_______________________
And tomorrow, take your valentine to the Rattlesnake Press rattle-read at The Book Collector at 7:30 PM. Featured will be Brigit Truex's new chapbook, A Counterpane Without, and Wendy Patrice Williams' littlesnake broadside, I Brake for Wildflowers. Here's a sample from Wendy:
FLURRY
—Wendy Patrice Williams
One spring day
snow had fallen
overnight—
a flurry of white blossoms
tiny cups
of manzanita flowers
sprinkled onto the gray boards
of the benches, the table,
the earth's fragile
shards of shale.
_______________________
Thanks, Wendy! And now for something completely different: a little shadow-talk to get us ready for Valentine's Day:
THE MAD SCENE
—James Merrill
Again last night I dreamed the dream called Laundry.
In it, the sheets and towels of a life we were going to share,
The mild-stiff bibs, the shroud, each rag to be ever
Trampled or soiled, bled on or groped for blindly,
Came swooning out of an enormous willow hamper
Onto moon-marbly boards. We had just met. I watched
From outer darkness. I had dressed myself in clothes
Of a new fiber that never stains or wrinkles, never
Wears thin. The opera house sparkled with tiers
And tiers of eyes, like mine enlarged by belladonna,
Trained inward. There I saw the cloud-clot, gust by gust,
Form, and the lightning bite, and roan mane unloosen.
Fingers were running in panic over the flute's nine gates.
Why did I flinch? I loved you. And in the downpour laughed
To have us wrung white, gnarled together, one
Topmost mordent of wisteria,
As the lean tree burst into grief.
_______________________
—Medusa
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.)
(written after reading Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis)
—Colette Jonopulos, Eugene, OR
She’s your ugly girl
sword in hand
with something to prove
neither Greek fox nor priest gives
easy grace; men layer
philosophies on philosophies; you
hand her a book of grievances
she’ll carry from shadow to shadow
her face in veils
your Oreul loves Psyche
more than she loves herself
absurd love like this
is found in the DSM-IV, an
obsession, an unfurled sheet
draped over the kingdom of Glome
over Psyche
a suffocating cloth
C.S., your myth gives breath
to the female no one
notices or desires before
talk therapy or SSRIs could save her
a woman with complaints against the gods
who become one God while
Psyche becomes two while
beauty no longer
matters to you or
Oruel; her conversion
like yours
two words: no answer
_______________________
Thanks, Colette, for another shadow poem, this one being of Jungian ilk. How can poets talk about shadows without mentioning The Dark Side of all of us! Ex-Sacramentan Colette Jonopulos is the co-editor of Tiger's Eye: A Journal of Poetry which is, like all journals, hungry for submissions. Click on the link to Colette to the right of this for more info. She is also the author of rattlechap #7, The Burden of Wings, and a littlesnake broadside, too.
______________________
Caesura deadline this Thursday:
The editors of cæsura, the Poetry Center of San Jose, invite you to submit 1-3 poems addressing the issue of MORTALITY and the general theme of mortality in our age. Submissions should not exceed 4-pages in total. All styles are welcome.Deadline for submissions is February 15, 2007. In addition to poetry, we are interested in essays and reviews of poetry or mixed genre collections (please query). The Spring 2007 issue of cæsura will be published in May of 2007. Provide the following contact information with your submission: name, address, phone number, and email address. Previously published work (in print or online) will not be considered. We accept simultaneous submissions on the condition that you notify us immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. Send your work in an email attachment in Word.doc format or pasted as plain text into the body of an email message to caesura@pcsj.org. If your work requires the preservation of a particular visual format or contains special characters, also send a hard copy to:
caesura
Poetry Center San José
1127 Polk Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Suisun Valley Review deadline:
Quinton Duval writes: My colleague Michael Wyly is coordinating the Suisun Valley Review this Spring and he has asked me to help get the word out. They are looking for poetry, prose and short fiction (not to exceed 2500 words). Their deadline is March 31st and they ask for a brief bio and an SASE with submissions. It always ends up being a pretty good magazine, though modest in format. Please help pass the word to interested friends.
Send to:
SUISUN VALLEY REVIEW
Humanities Division
Solano Community College
4000 Suisun Valley Road
Fairfield, CA 94534-3197
_______________________
And tomorrow, take your valentine to the Rattlesnake Press rattle-read at The Book Collector at 7:30 PM. Featured will be Brigit Truex's new chapbook, A Counterpane Without, and Wendy Patrice Williams' littlesnake broadside, I Brake for Wildflowers. Here's a sample from Wendy:
FLURRY
—Wendy Patrice Williams
One spring day
snow had fallen
overnight—
a flurry of white blossoms
tiny cups
of manzanita flowers
sprinkled onto the gray boards
of the benches, the table,
the earth's fragile
shards of shale.
_______________________
Thanks, Wendy! And now for something completely different: a little shadow-talk to get us ready for Valentine's Day:
THE MAD SCENE
—James Merrill
Again last night I dreamed the dream called Laundry.
In it, the sheets and towels of a life we were going to share,
The mild-stiff bibs, the shroud, each rag to be ever
Trampled or soiled, bled on or groped for blindly,
Came swooning out of an enormous willow hamper
Onto moon-marbly boards. We had just met. I watched
From outer darkness. I had dressed myself in clothes
Of a new fiber that never stains or wrinkles, never
Wears thin. The opera house sparkled with tiers
And tiers of eyes, like mine enlarged by belladonna,
Trained inward. There I saw the cloud-clot, gust by gust,
Form, and the lightning bite, and roan mane unloosen.
Fingers were running in panic over the flute's nine gates.
Why did I flinch? I loved you. And in the downpour laughed
To have us wrung white, gnarled together, one
Topmost mordent of wisteria,
As the lean tree burst into grief.
_______________________
—Medusa
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) 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.)
