Journal
Photo courtesy of Jane Blue
JOURNAL, APRIL 2
—Jane Blue, Sacramento
The smell of orange rind under my fingernails,
the taste of strawberries, the destroyed
still life on the black saucer. I ate all the grapes.
Some people are talkers, some are writers.
A murderer left detailed notes on his crime.
He was, unfortunately, a note-taker, a writer.
His words condemned him. Some think
it's dangerous to commit anything to paper.
Words can't capture an accent. Hers is Texan,
a Texan storyteller I'm eavesdropping on.
"The cat was right behind me." A cougar,
a puma, or her own housecat? The hostage-taker
of the storyteller. Words. Once I wrote
that I wanted fewer of them. They fill up the world.
Rumors of war and celebrity gossip.
I am not a good storyteller, nor a good joke teller.
A woman from Ukraine finishes my joke:
What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks one?
American.
______________________
Thanks, Jane! To kick off National Poetry Month, Medusa is having a give-away: Send me your poems about The Writing Life—any take on it that you see fit—by midnight Wednesday, April 4, and I'll send you a free copy of Steve Williams' new rattlechap, Skin Stretched Around the Hollow—or any other Rattlesnake Press chap of your choosing (collect 'em all!). Send your musings and commiserations to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Remember: prev-pubs are A-OK for Medusa, but please cite previous publication.
This month, we're extending the freebee to include a photo, drawing—any visual about The Writing Life (loosely interpreted) that can be posted on Medusa. Email them or snail them before midnight on Wednesday, and you'll get a free chap, too. Or send me a picture AND poem(s) and get TWO freebees! Such a deal...!
Celebrate Nat'l Poetry Month by checking out The Alley:
Last Friday (3/30), Carl Nolte wrote a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle about last Saturday’s ceremony to dedicate the refurbished Jack Kerouac Alley. He says, Only 60 or so feet long, it connects Grant Avenue, the main street of Chinatown, with Columbus Avenue, the main drag of North Beach. City Lights bookstore, the mother ship of the poets and writers of the Beat Generation, is on the Columbus Avenue end of the alley; Wing Kee Game Birds, a Chinese poultry shop, is on the Grant Avenue end. For more information about how the alley came to be named, and how it came to be refurbished, check out http://sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/30/BAG4NOUONC1.DTL
(I know, I know, it’s a long address—just cut and paste it. Or do what I did: Google up “Jack Kerouac Alley.”)
Poets Corner has a winner:
David Humphreys writes to say that Judge Camille Norton has selected the winner of Poets Corner Press’s National Poetry Series Contest. The First Place Award of $500.00 is to be awarded to Dion Farquhar of Santa Cruz, for her manuscript Cleaving. For further info, please visit Poets Corner Press at http://www.poetscornerpress.com.
_______________________
WHAT IS THE SOUND OF ONE WRITER, WRITING?
—Ann Wehrman, Sacramento
Pen to paper
I spill black ink
in strict form.
Words are signs
to guide you;
code, eliciting
sparkles of color and light
along a ganglion trail—
at its end,
understanding waits.
Pen to paper,
message received—
your response?
_______________________
A POET’S VOCABULARY
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Roseville
Concordance, lambent, sonorities, quotidian,
conundrum, buffoonery, stridulation , lacrimation:
I wish these were mine—my vocabulary;
committed to my memory—then
they’d roll off my tongue—
I recognize them—I could use them, but…
I don’t; I’m afraid.
Someone else used them first—
better.
_______________________
at the kitchen table
—joy helsing, magalia
on a rainy afternoon
we share muffins, lemonade
peppermint tea
pass around
bits and pieces
of our lives
mixed and shaped
like cookie dough
into savory poems
____________________
catharsis
—joy helsing, magalia
she pierces a vein
with the point of her pen
bleeds out a poem
(First published 2005 in Brevities)
____________________
—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:
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 April 11. 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 by Brad Buchanan: Ultrasound. Next release: April 11, 7:30 PM, at the Snake’s Third Annual Birthday Bash and Buffet at The Book Collector: SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept, and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker.
Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy also premieres April 11; #1 is Ann Menebroker.
JOURNAL, APRIL 2
—Jane Blue, Sacramento
The smell of orange rind under my fingernails,
the taste of strawberries, the destroyed
still life on the black saucer. I ate all the grapes.
Some people are talkers, some are writers.
A murderer left detailed notes on his crime.
He was, unfortunately, a note-taker, a writer.
His words condemned him. Some think
it's dangerous to commit anything to paper.
Words can't capture an accent. Hers is Texan,
a Texan storyteller I'm eavesdropping on.
"The cat was right behind me." A cougar,
a puma, or her own housecat? The hostage-taker
of the storyteller. Words. Once I wrote
that I wanted fewer of them. They fill up the world.
Rumors of war and celebrity gossip.
I am not a good storyteller, nor a good joke teller.
A woman from Ukraine finishes my joke:
What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks one?
American.
______________________
Thanks, Jane! To kick off National Poetry Month, Medusa is having a give-away: Send me your poems about The Writing Life—any take on it that you see fit—by midnight Wednesday, April 4, and I'll send you a free copy of Steve Williams' new rattlechap, Skin Stretched Around the Hollow—or any other Rattlesnake Press chap of your choosing (collect 'em all!). Send your musings and commiserations to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Remember: prev-pubs are A-OK for Medusa, but please cite previous publication.
This month, we're extending the freebee to include a photo, drawing—any visual about The Writing Life (loosely interpreted) that can be posted on Medusa. Email them or snail them before midnight on Wednesday, and you'll get a free chap, too. Or send me a picture AND poem(s) and get TWO freebees! Such a deal...!
Celebrate Nat'l Poetry Month by checking out The Alley:
Last Friday (3/30), Carl Nolte wrote a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle about last Saturday’s ceremony to dedicate the refurbished Jack Kerouac Alley. He says, Only 60 or so feet long, it connects Grant Avenue, the main street of Chinatown, with Columbus Avenue, the main drag of North Beach. City Lights bookstore, the mother ship of the poets and writers of the Beat Generation, is on the Columbus Avenue end of the alley; Wing Kee Game Birds, a Chinese poultry shop, is on the Grant Avenue end. For more information about how the alley came to be named, and how it came to be refurbished, check out http://sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/30/BAG4NOUONC1.DTL
(I know, I know, it’s a long address—just cut and paste it. Or do what I did: Google up “Jack Kerouac Alley.”)
Poets Corner has a winner:
David Humphreys writes to say that Judge Camille Norton has selected the winner of Poets Corner Press’s National Poetry Series Contest. The First Place Award of $500.00 is to be awarded to Dion Farquhar of Santa Cruz, for her manuscript Cleaving. For further info, please visit Poets Corner Press at http://www.poetscornerpress.com.
_______________________
WHAT IS THE SOUND OF ONE WRITER, WRITING?
—Ann Wehrman, Sacramento
Pen to paper
I spill black ink
in strict form.
Words are signs
to guide you;
code, eliciting
sparkles of color and light
along a ganglion trail—
at its end,
understanding waits.
Pen to paper,
message received—
your response?
_______________________
A POET’S VOCABULARY
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Roseville
Concordance, lambent, sonorities, quotidian,
conundrum, buffoonery, stridulation , lacrimation:
I wish these were mine—my vocabulary;
committed to my memory—then
they’d roll off my tongue—
I recognize them—I could use them, but…
I don’t; I’m afraid.
Someone else used them first—
better.
_______________________
at the kitchen table
—joy helsing, magalia
on a rainy afternoon
we share muffins, lemonade
peppermint tea
pass around
bits and pieces
of our lives
mixed and shaped
like cookie dough
into savory poems
____________________
catharsis
—joy helsing, magalia
she pierces a vein
with the point of her pen
bleeds out a poem
(First published 2005 in Brevities)
____________________
—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:
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 April 11. 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 by Brad Buchanan: Ultrasound. Next release: April 11, 7:30 PM, at the Snake’s Third Annual Birthday Bash and Buffet at The Book Collector: SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept, and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker.
Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy also premieres April 11; #1 is Ann Menebroker.