Fairy Tale Town, Sacramento
Photo by Katy Brown, Davis
pharmacopoeia
—dawn di bartolo, sacramento
~ this place
is
beauty ~
took a walk
thru my remedy today
and realized
God;
this place
is for me
right now
because He knows
the moment,
however brief.
i walked
and took the Sun
~ rubbed it
into my skin;
breathed stillness
until my lungs
were full;
let silence drip
into my ringing ears ~
accepting peace
to my fear of quiet;
i felt
every
muscle
vibrate in symphony
with the Earth;
and i dreamed
for the first time
in days.
______________________
Thanks, Dawn! See more of Dawn Di Bartolo's work in Rattlesnake Review #13, now available for free at The Book Collector.
New website for Dancing Poetry Contest, Festival and more:
Artists Embassy International is proud to announce the opening of their new website, www.dancingpoetry.com. For information on the Dancing Poetry Contest and the Dancing Poetry Festival, visit this exciting new site. There are Grand Prize- winning poems from 2006, and photos from the 2006 Festival. Since this is a new site, visit us frequently and watch us grow. Contest information, Festival information, Dancing Poetry classes, poetic products related to various arts, reports on recent and upcoming events are all scheduled to be regularly updated. Mark your calendars for two important dates: May 15, 2007 is the deadline to submit your poems to the Dancing Poetry Contest. (See www.dancingpoetry.com for rules.) Then, on Saturday, September 29, 2007, come to the fabulous California Palace of the Legion of Honor to see and hear the premier dance performance of the three Grand Prize-winning poems, plus all Dancing Poetry Contest prize-winning poets are invited to read their poems at this prestigious podium. Dance troupes from around the world will offer an afternoon of performing to poetry in this spectacular theatrical setting. Check it out!
Big poetry doin's up the hill in April:
•••Every Sunday in April, 1-3 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series is celebrating National Poetry Month by holding its annual April open-mic readings at Booktown Books & Tomes. Bill Gainer says, This year we again had the opportunity to partner with Booktown to be part the largest literary celebration in the world and we jumped on it! What better place to showcase National Poetry Month than the community's largest independent, co-operative bookstore? It is a great location and a great venue. The place is alive with poetry! Everyone is invited to bring a friend and a poem and be part of the largest annual literary celebration in the world! Booktown is a fun, safe and often enchanting place to spend a Sunday afternoon in April. Free at Booktown Books and Tomes, 107 Bank Street (corner of South Auburn) in Grass Valley. For more info, call: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 272-4655.
•••Monday (4/16), 7 PM: California Poet Laureate Al Young will visit Nevada City as part of his "Top to Bottom" tour of the Golden State. The visit corresponds with National Poetry and National Library month in April, and the tour is focused on California's rural areas. Like all culture, poetry travels where people often can't or don't, said Young. The object of this tour is not so much to bring poetry to California's artistically vibrant communities but, rather, to bring out inspire and cheer the poetic impulse, which is human. Young will be reading his work, along with local poets Bill Gainer and Gail Entrekin, at the Madelyn Helling Library, 980 Helling Way (just outside downtown Nevada City). Admission is free. For more information, please call (530) 265-7050. Funding for these local poets is provided by the California Office of Poets and Writers, a national service organization. Young's selection of poetry will be derived from past and current works: Heaven; The Sound of Dreams Remembered; and Coastal Nights and Inland Afternoons. He will also be reading from brand-new works, including some poetry from his new book, Something About the Blues, which will be released in October 2007.
•••Then on Thursday (4/19), 7:30 PM: the Nevada County Poetry Series presents Poets Joyce Jenkins, Richard Silberg and Daryl Chinn. Bill Gainer says, Editor, publisher, teacher, writer, poet and more—there is nothing left out when Joyce Jenkins, Richard Silberg and Daryl Chinn enter the building. They are major, long-time contributors to the West Coast literary scene. It is a very special gift to have them bring their talents to our stage. These are the shoulders the aspiring need to lean against. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included. The show will be in Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley, CA. For more information call (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384.
Tonight:
•••Thursday (3/29), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe (1414 16th St., Sac.) presents Kathy Kieth and Rattlesnake Press. Info: 916-441-3931 or www.lunascafe.com. Open mic before/after.
New Medusa feature:
If you look at the bottom of each daily post, you will now see SnakeWatch, a daily progress report of where we are with each of our publications and events. Watch this spot for the most recent, up-to-the-minute ophidian chicanery you can find!
_______________________
unlullaby
—dawn di bartolo
rock-a-by
to a sky unblue ~
i sing to you
of truths:
closet monsters
lurk in the clouds;
the sun is asleep.
don't weep to oblige
the storm's fitful cries ~
life needs to be fed,
not tears for water;
hasn't had real meat
in days,
and the moon is not at rest,
but rots
in the diaper
of an unchanged season.
_______________________
pocket change
—dawn di bartolo
the Sun
blessed our endeavors
until the expansion
of Love
was burning
in our pockets.
_______________________
treading verse
—dawn di bartolo
i could write
the emotion of the sky
not mine
but soulful all the same;
or the ghosts of folks
that breezed by
at the flea market today,
everyone in varieties of gone ~
stages deceased...
levels of living;
my own little girl
gone ageless
before my very eyes ~
i cried at her birth
and watered her into womanhood
without even blinking.
i could write
to test the waters
at the shallows,
but seem always to end up
treading in the deep.
_______________________
—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.)
SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news hot off the griddle:
Journals: Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; next deadline is May 15. The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) will be out next week (sometime around April 1); next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets 10 (for kids-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.
Books/broadsides: Current releases are Skin Stretched Around the Hollow by Steve Williams, and littlesnake broadside #32 (Ultrasound) by Brad Buchanan. Next release party is April 11 (4-1-1), 7:30 PM, at the Snake’s Third Annual Birthday Bash and Buffet at The Book Collector. To be released that night: SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept (A Collection of Poetry and Art), and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker. Also:
Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series (conversations between B.L. Kennedy and NorCal poets) also premiers April 11; #1 is Ann Menebroker.
Photo by Katy Brown, Davis
pharmacopoeia
—dawn di bartolo, sacramento
~ this place
is
beauty ~
took a walk
thru my remedy today
and realized
God;
this place
is for me
right now
because He knows
the moment,
however brief.
i walked
and took the Sun
~ rubbed it
into my skin;
breathed stillness
until my lungs
were full;
let silence drip
into my ringing ears ~
accepting peace
to my fear of quiet;
i felt
every
muscle
vibrate in symphony
with the Earth;
and i dreamed
for the first time
in days.
______________________
Thanks, Dawn! See more of Dawn Di Bartolo's work in Rattlesnake Review #13, now available for free at The Book Collector.
New website for Dancing Poetry Contest, Festival and more:
Artists Embassy International is proud to announce the opening of their new website, www.dancingpoetry.com. For information on the Dancing Poetry Contest and the Dancing Poetry Festival, visit this exciting new site. There are Grand Prize- winning poems from 2006, and photos from the 2006 Festival. Since this is a new site, visit us frequently and watch us grow. Contest information, Festival information, Dancing Poetry classes, poetic products related to various arts, reports on recent and upcoming events are all scheduled to be regularly updated. Mark your calendars for two important dates: May 15, 2007 is the deadline to submit your poems to the Dancing Poetry Contest. (See www.dancingpoetry.com for rules.) Then, on Saturday, September 29, 2007, come to the fabulous California Palace of the Legion of Honor to see and hear the premier dance performance of the three Grand Prize-winning poems, plus all Dancing Poetry Contest prize-winning poets are invited to read their poems at this prestigious podium. Dance troupes from around the world will offer an afternoon of performing to poetry in this spectacular theatrical setting. Check it out!
Big poetry doin's up the hill in April:
•••Every Sunday in April, 1-3 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series is celebrating National Poetry Month by holding its annual April open-mic readings at Booktown Books & Tomes. Bill Gainer says, This year we again had the opportunity to partner with Booktown to be part the largest literary celebration in the world and we jumped on it! What better place to showcase National Poetry Month than the community's largest independent, co-operative bookstore? It is a great location and a great venue. The place is alive with poetry! Everyone is invited to bring a friend and a poem and be part of the largest annual literary celebration in the world! Booktown is a fun, safe and often enchanting place to spend a Sunday afternoon in April. Free at Booktown Books and Tomes, 107 Bank Street (corner of South Auburn) in Grass Valley. For more info, call: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 272-4655.
•••Monday (4/16), 7 PM: California Poet Laureate Al Young will visit Nevada City as part of his "Top to Bottom" tour of the Golden State. The visit corresponds with National Poetry and National Library month in April, and the tour is focused on California's rural areas. Like all culture, poetry travels where people often can't or don't, said Young. The object of this tour is not so much to bring poetry to California's artistically vibrant communities but, rather, to bring out inspire and cheer the poetic impulse, which is human. Young will be reading his work, along with local poets Bill Gainer and Gail Entrekin, at the Madelyn Helling Library, 980 Helling Way (just outside downtown Nevada City). Admission is free. For more information, please call (530) 265-7050. Funding for these local poets is provided by the California Office of Poets and Writers, a national service organization. Young's selection of poetry will be derived from past and current works: Heaven; The Sound of Dreams Remembered; and Coastal Nights and Inland Afternoons. He will also be reading from brand-new works, including some poetry from his new book, Something About the Blues, which will be released in October 2007.
•••Then on Thursday (4/19), 7:30 PM: the Nevada County Poetry Series presents Poets Joyce Jenkins, Richard Silberg and Daryl Chinn. Bill Gainer says, Editor, publisher, teacher, writer, poet and more—there is nothing left out when Joyce Jenkins, Richard Silberg and Daryl Chinn enter the building. They are major, long-time contributors to the West Coast literary scene. It is a very special gift to have them bring their talents to our stage. These are the shoulders the aspiring need to lean against. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included. The show will be in Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley, CA. For more information call (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384.
Tonight:
•••Thursday (3/29), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe (1414 16th St., Sac.) presents Kathy Kieth and Rattlesnake Press. Info: 916-441-3931 or www.lunascafe.com. Open mic before/after.
New Medusa feature:
If you look at the bottom of each daily post, you will now see SnakeWatch, a daily progress report of where we are with each of our publications and events. Watch this spot for the most recent, up-to-the-minute ophidian chicanery you can find!
_______________________
unlullaby
—dawn di bartolo
rock-a-by
to a sky unblue ~
i sing to you
of truths:
closet monsters
lurk in the clouds;
the sun is asleep.
don't weep to oblige
the storm's fitful cries ~
life needs to be fed,
not tears for water;
hasn't had real meat
in days,
and the moon is not at rest,
but rots
in the diaper
of an unchanged season.
_______________________
pocket change
—dawn di bartolo
the Sun
blessed our endeavors
until the expansion
of Love
was burning
in our pockets.
_______________________
treading verse
—dawn di bartolo
i could write
the emotion of the sky
not mine
but soulful all the same;
or the ghosts of folks
that breezed by
at the flea market today,
everyone in varieties of gone ~
stages deceased...
levels of living;
my own little girl
gone ageless
before my very eyes ~
i cried at her birth
and watered her into womanhood
without even blinking.
i could write
to test the waters
at the shallows,
but seem always to end up
treading in the deep.
_______________________
—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.)
SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news hot off the griddle:
Journals: Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; next deadline is May 15. The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) will be out next week (sometime around April 1); next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets 10 (for kids-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.
Books/broadsides: Current releases are Skin Stretched Around the Hollow by Steve Williams, and littlesnake broadside #32 (Ultrasound) by Brad Buchanan. Next release party is April 11 (4-1-1), 7:30 PM, at the Snake’s Third Annual Birthday Bash and Buffet at The Book Collector. To be released that night: SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept (A Collection of Poetry and Art), and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker. Also:
Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series (conversations between B.L. Kennedy and NorCal poets) also premiers April 11; #1 is Ann Menebroker.