Photo by Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Sacramento
PLASTIC CLOWN
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty
Perfect—tears cannot smudge the make-up;
pain contort the face or fold the body.
Giant floppy shoes do not dance.
No blood runs in the veins nor does a
heart pump or lungs expand; nor a
billion thoughts a day in a teeming brain;
ridere non, il pagliaccio;
no soul; what’s perfection?
_______________________
Thanks, Marie—a vivid image for a gray Monday.
This week in poetry:
•••Tonight (Monday, 2/26), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center will feature Julia Levine and Kate Northrop at HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sac. Free; open mic.
•••Tuesday (2/27), 8:30 PM (but get there early): the alternating-Tuesdays series at Bistro 33, 3rd & F Sts., Davis, presents National Book Award nominee Clarence Major. Free; open mic.
•••Weds. (2/28), 6-7 PM is the Hidden Passage Poetry Reading at Hidden Passage Books, 352 Main St., Placerville. It's an open-mic read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen.
•••Weds. is also the next deadline for Tiger's Eye: A Journal of Poetry. Google them up at tigerseyejournal.com and get the details.
•••Thursday (3/1), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sac. Open mic before/after, free. Info: 916-441-3931.
•••Thursday (3/1) is the first session of "The Universe and Other Words" writing workshop at Cache Creek Nature Preserve. It will meet on Thursdays from 10 AM-12 PM, from March 1-April 19. I don't know if there are still slots; check with Rae Gouirand, Writer-in-Residence, at rae_gouirand@yahoo.com.
•••Thursday (3/1) is also the deadline for Poets Corner Press's Annual Chapbook Poetry Contest. Camille Norton, winner of the National Poetry Series Contest, will judge. The First Place Award of $500 will be announced June 1, 2007. Send your manuscript of 24 text pages of poetry with $20 reading fee, check or money order made out to:
Poets Corner Press
8049 Thornton Rd.
Stockton CA 95209
Further info: http://www.poetscornerpress.com/Competition.html#poet
•••Thursday (3/1) is also the deadline for VYPER, the journal of poetry from people 13-19. Send poems, photos, art to kathykieth@hotmail.com, or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.
•••Also Thursday (3/1), 7:30 PM at University of the Pacific in Stockton, in Wendall Phillips (WPC) 140: Marilyn Chin, a figure whose work has helped define Asian American poetry, will be reading. Take I-5 South, get off at the Alpine exit and take a left on Alpine all the way to Pershing, where you go straight across and into the back entrance of UOP. Go past the stadiums and into a parking lot that is straight ahead of you. Then walk through the parking lot and Wendall Phillips will be a brick buidling on your left. Reception and book signing will follow.
•••Sunday, 3/4, 6 PM: All are welcome when the PoemSpirits of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento assemble; the invited feature reader is Kathy Kieth. Attendees are also invited to bring a poem to read—your own, or one that you particularly like. Free and open to the public; open mic, light refreshments. We meet in the library/foyer of the UUSS, 2425 Sierra Blvd., Sacramento, between Howe & Fulton Avenues, 2 blocks north of Fair Oaks Blvd. Contact: Tom Goff or Nora Staklis at 916-481-3312, or JoAnn Anglin at 451-1372.
Celebrating the life of Leah Zeff DenBoer:
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Between 5-8 PM
Sacramento Poetry Center
1719 25th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
In lieu of flowers the family is
suggesting donations to
Sacramento Peace Action
For additional information
please contact (530) 867-4293
_______________________
THE GERANIUM
—Theodore Roethke
When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail,
She looked so limp and bedraggled,
So foolish and trusting, like a sick poodle,
Or a wizened aster in late September,
I brought her back in again
For a new routine—
Vitamins, water, and whatever
Sustenance seemed sensible
At the time: she'd lived
So long on gin, bobbie pins, half-smoked cigars, dead beer,
Her shriveled petals falling
On the faded carpet, the stale
Steak grease stuck to her fuzzy leaves.
(Dried-out, she creaked like a tulip.)
The things she endured!—
The dumb dames shrieking half the night
Or the two of us, alone, both seedy,
Me breathing booze at her,
She leaning out of her pot toward the window.
Near the end, she seemed almost to hear me—
And that was scary—
So when that snuffling cretin of a maid
Threw her, pot and all, into the trash-can,
I said nothing.
But I sacked the presumptious hag the next week,
I was that lonely.
________________________
—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.)
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty
Perfect—tears cannot smudge the make-up;
pain contort the face or fold the body.
Giant floppy shoes do not dance.
No blood runs in the veins nor does a
heart pump or lungs expand; nor a
billion thoughts a day in a teeming brain;
ridere non, il pagliaccio;
no soul; what’s perfection?
_______________________
Thanks, Marie—a vivid image for a gray Monday.
This week in poetry:
•••Tonight (Monday, 2/26), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center will feature Julia Levine and Kate Northrop at HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sac. Free; open mic.
•••Tuesday (2/27), 8:30 PM (but get there early): the alternating-Tuesdays series at Bistro 33, 3rd & F Sts., Davis, presents National Book Award nominee Clarence Major. Free; open mic.
•••Weds. (2/28), 6-7 PM is the Hidden Passage Poetry Reading at Hidden Passage Books, 352 Main St., Placerville. It's an open-mic read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen.
•••Weds. is also the next deadline for Tiger's Eye: A Journal of Poetry. Google them up at tigerseyejournal.com and get the details.
•••Thursday (3/1), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sac. Open mic before/after, free. Info: 916-441-3931.
•••Thursday (3/1) is the first session of "The Universe and Other Words" writing workshop at Cache Creek Nature Preserve. It will meet on Thursdays from 10 AM-12 PM, from March 1-April 19. I don't know if there are still slots; check with Rae Gouirand, Writer-in-Residence, at rae_gouirand@yahoo.com.
•••Thursday (3/1) is also the deadline for Poets Corner Press's Annual Chapbook Poetry Contest. Camille Norton, winner of the National Poetry Series Contest, will judge. The First Place Award of $500 will be announced June 1, 2007. Send your manuscript of 24 text pages of poetry with $20 reading fee, check or money order made out to:
Poets Corner Press
8049 Thornton Rd.
Stockton CA 95209
Further info: http://www.poetscornerpress.com/Competition.html#poet
•••Thursday (3/1) is also the deadline for VYPER, the journal of poetry from people 13-19. Send poems, photos, art to kathykieth@hotmail.com, or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.
•••Also Thursday (3/1), 7:30 PM at University of the Pacific in Stockton, in Wendall Phillips (WPC) 140: Marilyn Chin, a figure whose work has helped define Asian American poetry, will be reading. Take I-5 South, get off at the Alpine exit and take a left on Alpine all the way to Pershing, where you go straight across and into the back entrance of UOP. Go past the stadiums and into a parking lot that is straight ahead of you. Then walk through the parking lot and Wendall Phillips will be a brick buidling on your left. Reception and book signing will follow.
•••Sunday, 3/4, 6 PM: All are welcome when the PoemSpirits of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento assemble; the invited feature reader is Kathy Kieth. Attendees are also invited to bring a poem to read—your own, or one that you particularly like. Free and open to the public; open mic, light refreshments. We meet in the library/foyer of the UUSS, 2425 Sierra Blvd., Sacramento, between Howe & Fulton Avenues, 2 blocks north of Fair Oaks Blvd. Contact: Tom Goff or Nora Staklis at 916-481-3312, or JoAnn Anglin at 451-1372.
Celebrating the life of Leah Zeff DenBoer:
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Between 5-8 PM
Sacramento Poetry Center
1719 25th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
In lieu of flowers the family is
suggesting donations to
Sacramento Peace Action
For additional information
please contact (530) 867-4293
_______________________
THE GERANIUM
—Theodore Roethke
When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail,
She looked so limp and bedraggled,
So foolish and trusting, like a sick poodle,
Or a wizened aster in late September,
I brought her back in again
For a new routine—
Vitamins, water, and whatever
Sustenance seemed sensible
At the time: she'd lived
So long on gin, bobbie pins, half-smoked cigars, dead beer,
Her shriveled petals falling
On the faded carpet, the stale
Steak grease stuck to her fuzzy leaves.
(Dried-out, she creaked like a tulip.)
The things she endured!—
The dumb dames shrieking half the night
Or the two of us, alone, both seedy,
Me breathing booze at her,
She leaning out of her pot toward the window.
Near the end, she seemed almost to hear me—
And that was scary—
So when that snuffling cretin of a maid
Threw her, pot and all, into the trash-can,
I said nothing.
But I sacked the presumptious hag the next week,
I was that lonely.
________________________
—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.)