Sat/Sun (4/21-22): Sacramento Orchid Society presents its 60th Annual Orchid Show at
Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 6151 H St., Sacramento.
Saturday, 10-5; Sunday, 10-4. Info: www.sacramentoorchids.org or 916-489-3263.
ALONE
—Celia Thaxter
The lilies clustered fair and tall;
I stood outside the garden wall;
I saw her light robe glimmering through
The fragrant evening's dusk and dew.
She stopped above the lilies pale;
Up the clear east the moon did sail;
I saw her bend her lovely head
O'er her rich roses blushing red.
Her slender hand the flowers caressed,
Her touch the unconscious blossoms blessed;
The rose against her perfumed palm
Leaned its soft cheek in blissful calm.
I would have given my soul to be
That rose she touched so tenderly!
I stood alone, outside the gate,
And knew that life was desolate.
_____________________
Drive-by give-away! Send me a poem about flowers (or a photograph or artpiece) by midnight tonight and receive a poetry present. Let's celebrate Earth Day (Sunday) with flowers—so beautiful, so fleeting, like this give-away...
This weekend:
What a huge bouquet of poetry events our area has this weekend! I'm not going to recap every detail of all the readings; see Monday's post for that, or e-mail me. In sum, though:
Tonight (Friday): The Sacramento Poetry Center Writers' Conference begins with a reading tonight; Tim Bellows appears at East-West Bookstore in Sacramento; Tom Goff and Nora Laila Staklis read at Our House Framing & Gallery in El Dorado Hills; Robert Hass and Brenda Hillman read at Copperfield's Books in Santa Rosa; Literature Alive! presents Listening to the Wild, a celebration of Earth Day in Grass Valley [see yesterday's post for details about that one].
Tomorrow (Sat.): Jane Blue reads at McClatchy Library in Sac.; SPC Writers' Conference continues; A Day in April is celebrated at Cache Creek Nature Preserve; Manzanita writers celebrate with a Historical Reading in San Andreas; hardpan contributors read at the Mistlin Gallery in Modesto; Underground Books in Sacramento features He Spit Fire, Random Abiladeze and Indigo Moor. Or, if those aren't enough choices for Saturday, you could attend the "Poetic License" meeting of poets that takes place at Books 'n Bears in El Dorado, 6211-A Main St., 3 PM.
Sunday: The Four Horsemen of the Incredibly Improbable Explanation read for Poets Corner Press in Stockton; Nevada County Poetry Society holds an open mic at Booktown Books and Tomes in Grass Valley.
____________________
Speaking of Jane Blue, she sent us two tips yesterday. One is about Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, a wonderful poet from the center of our state who passed away last week. Jane found her obituary in the Fresno Bee; look it up at http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/42667.html
Jane also reminds us that out-of-print books are best purchased at abebooks.com She says: You will get your book from the independent bookseller themselves, and you won't have to pay Amazon a middleman fee. Don't forget that Jane will be reading at the McClatchy Library at 2 PM tomorrow (22nd St., between U and V), with harp music and refreshments!
_____________________
NOVEMBER NIGHT
—Adelaide Crapsey
Listen...
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees
And fall.
NIGHT WINDS
—Adelaide Crapsey
The old
Old winds that blew
When chaos was, what do
They tell the clattered tree that I
Should weep?
THE WARNING
—Adelaide Crapsey
Just now,
Out of the strange
Still dusk... as strange, as still...
A white moth flew... Why am I grown
So cold?
__________________
One more thing: In Medusa's comment box (which you can read by clicking on the "1 comment" at this bottom of yesterday's post), Darcy Minter of the Western Wildlife Center (I was talking about it and cowboy poetry yesterday) wrote to say Come on up to Elko, Girlfriend! Thanks, Darcy! Medusa is always tickled to make new poetry connections; we see them as a link to all of us poets, NorCal and otherwise. Maybe we should organize a field trip next year.
Today we have female poets; I'll end with a couple of cowgirl poems from Graining the Mare:
RELAPSE
—Audrey Hankins
AA books and Coors cans—
Fresh starts, forgotten vows.
Everything of yours
Wears the "hard-use" brand
Earmarked by neglect.
Through prisms of tears
Somber shadows and fears
I watch you mount
That same old bronc
And know he'll kill you yet.
___________________
AFTER THE FUNERAL
—Doris Bircham
my aunt and I are drinking coffee
with him in his kitchen
it has been five days
since the jaws of life opened
his daughter's new car
he's been working more hours
than usual in his shop
I can see the line
where his welder's cap
creases his brow sadness
hides in the shadows under his eyes
I can cry, he says, not just at night
but any hour of the morning
or afternoon sometimes
there's no way I can stop
it's not until we're driving home
that my aunt says,
men have come a long way
it's okay now for them to cry
and I say, maybe we're the ones
who've travelled enough distance
to let them
______________________
—Medusa (who does her own share of wrangling...)
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) has gone into the mail; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets 10 (for kids 0-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.
Books/broadsides: April’s releases are 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. Both are now available at The Book Collector. SpiralChaps are $8; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com for ordering information.
Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy is also available (free) at The Book Collector (or contact Kathy Kieth). #1 is Ann Menebroker.
Also: Check out the Rattlechaps Chapbook Series page on the rattlesnakepress.com website! We've started generating separate pages for each rattlechapper/spiralchapper; scroll down through the list of books we've published and click on the names that are in red. That should lead you to a separate page for each of them, including photos, bios, poems, contact info—and more to come, once we get them all up and running. Sweet!
—Celia Thaxter
The lilies clustered fair and tall;
I stood outside the garden wall;
I saw her light robe glimmering through
The fragrant evening's dusk and dew.
She stopped above the lilies pale;
Up the clear east the moon did sail;
I saw her bend her lovely head
O'er her rich roses blushing red.
Her slender hand the flowers caressed,
Her touch the unconscious blossoms blessed;
The rose against her perfumed palm
Leaned its soft cheek in blissful calm.
I would have given my soul to be
That rose she touched so tenderly!
I stood alone, outside the gate,
And knew that life was desolate.
_____________________
Drive-by give-away! Send me a poem about flowers (or a photograph or artpiece) by midnight tonight and receive a poetry present. Let's celebrate Earth Day (Sunday) with flowers—so beautiful, so fleeting, like this give-away...
This weekend:
What a huge bouquet of poetry events our area has this weekend! I'm not going to recap every detail of all the readings; see Monday's post for that, or e-mail me. In sum, though:
Tonight (Friday): The Sacramento Poetry Center Writers' Conference begins with a reading tonight; Tim Bellows appears at East-West Bookstore in Sacramento; Tom Goff and Nora Laila Staklis read at Our House Framing & Gallery in El Dorado Hills; Robert Hass and Brenda Hillman read at Copperfield's Books in Santa Rosa; Literature Alive! presents Listening to the Wild, a celebration of Earth Day in Grass Valley [see yesterday's post for details about that one].
Tomorrow (Sat.): Jane Blue reads at McClatchy Library in Sac.; SPC Writers' Conference continues; A Day in April is celebrated at Cache Creek Nature Preserve; Manzanita writers celebrate with a Historical Reading in San Andreas; hardpan contributors read at the Mistlin Gallery in Modesto; Underground Books in Sacramento features He Spit Fire, Random Abiladeze and Indigo Moor. Or, if those aren't enough choices for Saturday, you could attend the "Poetic License" meeting of poets that takes place at Books 'n Bears in El Dorado, 6211-A Main St., 3 PM.
Sunday: The Four Horsemen of the Incredibly Improbable Explanation read for Poets Corner Press in Stockton; Nevada County Poetry Society holds an open mic at Booktown Books and Tomes in Grass Valley.
____________________
Speaking of Jane Blue, she sent us two tips yesterday. One is about Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, a wonderful poet from the center of our state who passed away last week. Jane found her obituary in the Fresno Bee; look it up at http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/42667.html
Jane also reminds us that out-of-print books are best purchased at abebooks.com She says: You will get your book from the independent bookseller themselves, and you won't have to pay Amazon a middleman fee. Don't forget that Jane will be reading at the McClatchy Library at 2 PM tomorrow (22nd St., between U and V), with harp music and refreshments!
_____________________
NOVEMBER NIGHT
—Adelaide Crapsey
Listen...
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees
And fall.
NIGHT WINDS
—Adelaide Crapsey
The old
Old winds that blew
When chaos was, what do
They tell the clattered tree that I
Should weep?
THE WARNING
—Adelaide Crapsey
Just now,
Out of the strange
Still dusk... as strange, as still...
A white moth flew... Why am I grown
So cold?
__________________
One more thing: In Medusa's comment box (which you can read by clicking on the "1 comment" at this bottom of yesterday's post), Darcy Minter of the Western Wildlife Center (I was talking about it and cowboy poetry yesterday) wrote to say Come on up to Elko, Girlfriend! Thanks, Darcy! Medusa is always tickled to make new poetry connections; we see them as a link to all of us poets, NorCal and otherwise. Maybe we should organize a field trip next year.
Today we have female poets; I'll end with a couple of cowgirl poems from Graining the Mare:
RELAPSE
—Audrey Hankins
AA books and Coors cans—
Fresh starts, forgotten vows.
Everything of yours
Wears the "hard-use" brand
Earmarked by neglect.
Through prisms of tears
Somber shadows and fears
I watch you mount
That same old bronc
And know he'll kill you yet.
___________________
AFTER THE FUNERAL
—Doris Bircham
my aunt and I are drinking coffee
with him in his kitchen
it has been five days
since the jaws of life opened
his daughter's new car
he's been working more hours
than usual in his shop
I can see the line
where his welder's cap
creases his brow sadness
hides in the shadows under his eyes
I can cry, he says, not just at night
but any hour of the morning
or afternoon sometimes
there's no way I can stop
it's not until we're driving home
that my aunt says,
men have come a long way
it's okay now for them to cry
and I say, maybe we're the ones
who've travelled enough distance
to let them
______________________
—Medusa (who does her own share of wrangling...)
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) has gone into the mail; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets 10 (for kids 0-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.
Books/broadsides: April’s releases are 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. Both are now available at The Book Collector. SpiralChaps are $8; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com for ordering information.
Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy is also available (free) at The Book Collector (or contact Kathy Kieth). #1 is Ann Menebroker.
Also: Check out the Rattlechaps Chapbook Series page on the rattlesnakepress.com website! We've started generating separate pages for each rattlechapper/spiralchapper; scroll down through the list of books we've published and click on the names that are in red. That should lead you to a separate page for each of them, including photos, bios, poems, contact info—and more to come, once we get them all up and running. Sweet!