Three Cheers for the Ants!

Mind Your P's and Q's
Photo by Katy Brown, Davis

IN PRAISE OF MY SISTER
—Wislawa Szymborska

My sister does not write poems
and it's unlikely she'll suddenly start writing poems.
She takes after her mother, who did not write poems,
and after her father, who also did not write poems.
Under my sister's roof I feel safe:
nothing would move my sister's husband to write poems.
And though it sounds like a poem by Adam Macedonski,
none of my relatives is engaged in the writing of poems.

In my sister's desk there are no old poems
nor any new ones in her handbag.
And when my sister invites me to dinner,
I know she has no intention of reading me poems.
She makes superb soups without half trying,
and her coffee does not spill on manuscripts.

In many families no one writes poems,
but when they do, it's seldom just one person.
Sometimes poetry flows in cascades of generations,
which sets up fearsome eddies in family relations.

My sister cultivates a decent spoken prose,
her entire literary output is on vacation postcards
that promise the same thing every year:
that when she returns,
she'll tell us, everything,
everything,
everything.

_____________________

IN PRAISE OF SELF-DEPRECATION
—Wislawa Szymborska

The buzzard has nothing to fault himself with.
Scruples are alien to the black panther.
Piranhas do not doubt the rightness of their actions.
The rattlesnake approves of himself without reservations.

The self-critical jackal does not exist.
The locust, alligator, trichina, horsefly
live as they live and are glad of it.

The killer-whale's heart weights one hundred kilos
but in other respects it is light.

There is nothing more animal-like
than a clear conscience
on the third planet of the Sun.

____________________

FOUR IN THE MORNING
—Wislawa Szymborska

The hour from night to day.
The hour from side to side.
The hour for those past thirty.

The hour swept clean to the crowing of cocks.
The hour when earth betrays us.
The hour when wind blows from extinguished stars.
The hour of and-what-if-nothing-remains-after-us.

The hollow hour.
Blank, empty.
The very pit of all other hours.

No one feels good at four in the morning.
If ants feel good at four in the morning
—three cheers for the ants. And let five o'clock come
if we're to go on living.

_____________________

SEEN FROM ABOVE
—Wislawa Szymborska

On a dirt road lies a dead beetle.
Three little pairs of legs carefully folded on his belly.
Instead of death's chaos—neatness and order.
The horror of this sight is mitigated,
the range strictly local, from witchgrass to spearmint.
Sadness is not contagious.
The sky is blue.

For our peace of mind, their death seemingly shallower,
animals do not pass away, but simply die,
losing—we wish to believe—less of awareness and the world,
leaving—it seems to us—a stage less tragic.
Their humble little souls do not haunt our dreams,
they keep their distance,
know their place.

So here lies the dead beetle on the road,
glistens unlamented when the sun hits.
A glance at him is as good as a thought:
he looks as though nothing important had befallen him.
What's important is valid supposedly for us.
For just our life, for just our death,
a death that enjoys an extorted primacy.

(Today's poetry was translated from the Polish by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire.)

__________________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers will receive theirs in the next couple of weeks. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is Oct. 1.

Books/broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.

ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).

Scatter the Ashes

BOATS IN FOG
—Robinson Jeffers

Sports and gallantries, the stage, the arts, the antics of dancer,
The exuberant voices of music,
Have charm for children but lack nobility; it is bitter earnestness
That makes beauty; the mind
Knows, grown adult.

A sudden fog-drift muffled the ocean,

A throbbing of engines moved in it,
At length, a stone's throw out, between the rocks and the vapor,
One by one moved shadows
Out of the mystery, shadows, fishing-boats, trailing each other
Following the cliff for guidance,
Holding a difficult path between the peril of the sea-fog
And the foam on the shore granite.
One by one, trailing their leader, six crept by me,
Out of the vapor and into it,
The throb of their engines subdued by the fog, patient and cautious,
Coasting all round the peninsula
Back to the buoys in Monterey harbor. A flight of pelicans
Is nothing lovelier to look at;
The flight of the planets is nothing nobler; all the arts lose virtue
Against the essential reality
Of creatures going about their business among the equally
Earnest elements of nature.

_____________________

EVENING EBB
—Robinson Jeffers

The ocean has not been so quiet for a long while; five night-herons
Fly shorelong voiceless in the hush of the air
Over the calm of an ebb that almost mirrors their wings.
The sun has gone down, and the water has gone down
From the weed-clad rock, but the distant cloud-wall rises. The ebb whispers.
Great cloud-shadows float in the opal water.
Through rifts in the screen of the world pale gold gleams, and the evening
Star suddenly glides like a flying torch.
As if we had not been meant to see her; rehearsing behind
The screen of the world for another audience.

______________________

CREMATION
—Robinson Jeffers

It nearly cancels my fear of death, my dearest said,
When I think of cremation. To rot in the earth
Is a loathsome end, but to roar up in flame—besides, I
am used to it,
I have flamed with love or fury so often in my life,
No wonder my body is tired, no wonder it is dying.
We had great joy of my body. Scatter the ashes.

Robinson Jeffers in 1937

_____________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers will receive theirs in the next couple of weeks. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is Oct. 1.

Books/broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.

ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).

Humane is a Tricky Concept

Art Beck (Dennis Dybeck)

MY DEMENTED FATHER ENTERS HIS 90th YEAR
—Art Beck, San Francisco

After weeks of bitter insomnia,
you finally collapse and begin
to dream of the sacred forest and huge
thorn trees that scream all night.

Burglars, sent by your starved dead
wife to steal your hidden breath,
rummage the bedside drawers. But
you've already — slipped into the wood

through the old cracked bark — begun to swim
with the dark pulsing sap into the tunneling
taproot and the blind greed for earth and the diamond

of dazzling light at the core where all of us
always live. That frightening place, the blinding
flash, the eye that can't bear our touch.

_____________________

HUMANE
—Art Beck

is a tricky concept. A word we take visiting to some
very dark places. The CIA practices humane interrogation.
Lethal injection is humane — as were the electric chair

and the long drop, before. The Humane Society gasses our
unwanted pets. The ancients were being human as well
as humane when they sacrificed a half pound or so of

ritually slaughtered calf to the nectar nourished
gods — enticing heaven to share and absolve
carnivorous guilt. Our slaughterhouses with their

conveyers, hooks and pneumatic machines are inhumane
but efficient. As are cats who play for hours with their
prey, just to savor their own cruel saliva.

But are they inhuman as well? The really big, wild
cats, after all, don’t toy with their kill. Hunger
is too insistent. It’s the sleek, Purina fed housecat

that revels in torturing the starved trembling mouse,
the peeping crippled sparrow. And the ordinary
guy with a bit of a Budweiser gut who patiently

chomps a pizza on his gently rocking boat and nurses
his excitement — waiting for the nibble of a really big one,
the still ignorant pull on the barely visible line.

The kind of fish we all want, the kind that fights
desperately against the thin steel in its craw
and runs again and again from the fisherman,

full of hope, then ever so slowly,
losing hope, ever so slowly reeled
in by his brand new, slick equipment.

____________________

Thanks, Dennis (Art)! Art Beck is a San Francisco poet and translator who has published three books of original poetry — most recently Summer With All Its Clothes Off (Gravida, 2005), and selected poems of Luxorius and Rilke in two translation volumes. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies and journals, including Translation Review, Two Lines, Artful Dodge, Alaska Quarterly, Tule Review, and the 2004 Heyday Books anthology, California Poetry from the Gold Rush to the Present. An on-and-off lifelong project has been translating the complete poems of Luxorius — a 6th-century North African Roman poet whose work was literally lost for 1000 years, until the single manuscript containing his 90 extant poems resurfaced in 1615.

In the mid 1980s, the company Dennis worked for sent him to Sacramento on a temporary assignment that ended up lasting some two years. During that time he formed enduring friendships with many Sacramento poets and continues to regularly participate in Sacramento events and readings. For the interesting story about how "Art Beck" came about, go to http://www.centrum.org/residencies/.

Here's a picture of Art (Dennis) reading at Luna's Cafe in Sacramento:



•••Speaking of Luna's: tonight (6/28), at 8 PM, Poetry Unplugged presents Gene Bloom, Leslie Bally, Julie Valin at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Open mic before and after. [See the new issue of Rattlesnake Review for poetry from Gene and Julie.]

•••Also tonight (6/28), 7 PM, head up the Valley to hear Connie Post, the current Poet Laureate of Livermore, who is this month's featured reader in the Writers Read series at Colored Horse Studio in Ukiah. Post has been a published poet for over 20 years, and her work has appeared in many anthologies and journals. She has published five books of poetry, has presented at many Bay Area readings, and received numerous awards. Her most recent book is titled Waking State. In May 2005, she presented her poetry on the nationally syndicated radio program, “West Coast Live”. She also presents poetry and discussion on the subject of parenting, poetry and autism to local colleges and affiliated groups. In March 2007, she was the keynote speaker at a state conference in Sacramento for special education. The featured reading starts at 7 PM and will be followed by an open mike session. Refreshments available. Donation requested. Colored Horse Studio is locate at 780 Waugh Lane in Ukiah. For more information call: (707)275-9010, (707)468-9488 or check online at www.coloredhorse.com.

_______________________

THE NEW CENTURY
—Art Beck

Exhaustion and then
a trivial artfulness
while something bruised
quietly licks its darkness

and waits — not at all sure
it can heal.
The shouters have shouted
the curious into submission.

The know it alls own
it all. The fruit’s been plucked
the trees are bare and their roots

inch deeper to escape, certain
that only what earth accepts
can ever hope to blossom.

_____________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers will receive theirs in the next couple of weeks. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is October 1.

Books/broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.

ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).

Stories, Without Words

Night
—Anyssa Neumann, Berlin

MIDSUMMER
—Anyssa Neumann, Berlin

If the world were to end tomorrow
I would make love to you
in the sweet shadow of moonlight,
and at the explosion of dawn
we would melt into flame
and burst into stardust.

But

Tomorrow is not the end.
The world continues.
And I’m left here,
dissolving into the sad, moonless night
which kisses your silent skin

as lightly as the air

blowing me away

_______________________

Thanks, Ex-Sacramentan Anyssa Neumann!

Current Sacramentan (well, Carmichaelean) Tom Goff writes: Just wondered what Medusa would think of this exercise. I saw Elizabeth Bishop's posthumously published "Villanelle," really only a rough heap of prosaic notes, and thought, "She's crazy—she couldn't have made a villanelle out of these." Then (though Bishop, like me, apparently found villanelles terribly difficult) I remembered her "One Art," and took a closer look, resulting in the following:

LOUISE'S DREAM
(Completion of Elizabeth Bishop's unfinished "Villanelle")
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

During her trial, the hour of death is set.
Lips, brushing her ear: Louise, Louise, you know.
But she only knows it hasn't happened yet.

Stamped August 18, this police notice reached
her mailbox. Illegible as to where to go;
her trial and hour of execution set.

Condemned, her trousers bellow, firehouse red.
Set free, she's pelting after the next train, though
god only knows what has or hasn't left.

An ancient stationmaster cries, Forget
these fears, my child. The court did not disclose
during your trial what execution date.

It's an informal sentence. So her debt's
been outsourced; anyone can strike the blow
she knows is hers—but only not just yet.

The train has stopped; the platform alone has left.
She's lost her voice, her mouth shapes frames of No.
Enduring this trial, her execution set,
Louise only knows what hasn't happened yet.

(See page 35 of Bishop's posthumous volume, Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box. This constitutes a "completion" even less than, say, Deryck Cooke's "completion" of Mahler's Tenth Symphony.)

____________________

Thanks, Tom. Here's another one from the Goff-ster:

SUSPICIONS OF RAPTURE
—Tom Goff

I must be a strange poet, holding such suspicions
of rapture. A doubter of epiphanies
casting one thing in the shape of another:
Tulip tree petals fall outside our window.
I say, plantain-skins peeling away
early in June.

***

Luckless countries burst out war-flame
and blood. We homedwellers who hold
an unseen fist in the proceedings
enjoy peace, may God and horror
forgive us. We asphalt our meadows,

yet as we trench new underground gas station tanks
we keep a segment of respect
for the valley oak, the black oak, the yellow-billed
magpie whose white is heaven’s
illusionary radiance, whose black is the puddle’s
oil-rainbow under the streetlamp.

***

Our jug of home brims with small dogs who leap.
Cats asleep in the caress of their fur. One
dear beagle sickened on the substance
of her own body and died. Then came
a new joyful beagle, even as the lost one
lives inside us. Nora gives the new one medicine;
the instructions she writes for the pet sitter are poems:

“Give one drop of the flurbiprofen in each eye in the morning.
Reward Skaidra with a few of her dog kibbles.”

***

Mysteries throng us, droplets of one secret
profound as the vessels, often scarcely bedded
at dermis level, through which flows our blood

unapparent except in blushes or the flesh-tone
suffusion of skin; bright heavy red
if exposed, but for the most part pulsing along
dark and equable,
liquid and silent.

_____________________

Tonight in poetry:

•••Wednesday (6/27), 6-7 PM: Hidden Passage poetry reading at Hidden Passage Books, 352 Main St. in Placerville. It's an open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. Medusa will be there, by the way, passing out new Snakes...


Two Up-Coming Bay Area Poetry Fests:

•••Thursday, July 26 through Sunday, July 29 is the weekend of the San Francisco International Poetry Festival, starting with a Kick-off Celebration on Thursday in Jack Kerouac Alley in North Beach (6:30 PM), hosted by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The Main Reading at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater on Friday (7 PM) will feature Ferlinghetti, Bei Dao, and lots of other readers from around the world. Saturday is Branch Library Day, with readings at various SF Library branches beginning at 2:30 PM; then at 7 PM, another reading at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater featuring Jack Hirschman and many international artists. Sunday’s North Beach Poetry Crawl, beginning at noon at the Beat Museum, 540 Broadway, will feature readings at several venues (one after the other), including Purple Onion, Caffe Trieste, City Lights, and Live Worms Gallery. Info, including featured poets, can be seen at: www.sfinternationalpoetryfestival.org/.

•••Then, in September, plan to go down to San Jose to celebrate California's distinctive heritage of poets, poetry, and presses on Saturday, September 22, 2007 at Poetry Center San Jose's second California Poets Festival. This all-day outdoor festival will be held at History Park San Jose, 1650 Senter Road, San Jose from 10am to 4:30pm. Open to the public and free of charge. Last year's inaugural event proved a great success with over 20 presses and 200 poets in attendance. Come and listen to readings throughout the day by California poets such as Francisco Alarcon, Robert Hass, and Jane Hirschfield. Stroll through the small press fair. Meet editors, purchase books, journals, subscriptions, and obtain submission guidelines from a variety of California publications. Enjoy a picnic or glass of wine from local restaurants offered in this historical park setting. Spend a memorable day with people from San José, the greater Bay Area and beyond. Readings on Main Stage are outdoors in partially shaded amphitheater style seating. Lawn seating also available. Info: californiapoetsfestival.org/.

_____________________

Finally, food for thought from Stephani Schaefer, who's taking a leetle break from writing—though I suspect she won't be able to abstain for long, will fall off the wagon and write us something more...

I'M SWEARING OFF WORDS
—Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos

I'll stutter to a halt,
hobble out to my hammock
and lie back in silence.

Let the bird weave its nest,
let dragonflies stitch the air.
Stories, without words.

_____________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers will receive theirs in the next couple of weeks. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is October 1.

Books/broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.

ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).

Silver-Halide Dreams

TO THE FIRST,
THE SENSELESS, WARM,

ever-rising caress:
let me go disincarnate,
reckless over asphalt
where cars hiss,
crouch forward, sleek
in dusky rain.
the journey free
of radio’s jagged pitches,
but exact and tight
as a strung
mandolin. give me

arrival to cabins
clustered. and all
around, a brown-yellow mat
of leaves, softening even
the faintest song in the branches,
in the unburdened
air of fall, where even

the hoary-white, far
streaks of cloud
seem chill
as I
thin with age,
sending friends
into the most charming panics.

—Tim Bellows, Gold River

____________________

Thanks, Tim! See further announcements about Tim Bellows' poetry group that meets on the fourth Sunday of the month at Marie Callendar's on Sunrise Blvd. out in Citrus Heights. Their first meeting last week was a grand success! Info/RSVP: tbp45@sbcglobal.net/.


Tonight in San Francisco:

Head on down to the City tonight to hear Snake Pals Noel Kroeplin, B.L. Kennedy, Todd Cirillo and Matt Amott, as Six Ft. Swells Press presents its "Stab 'Em in the Heart" SF Tour 2007. The festivities start at 7 PM at the Amnesia Bar (853 Valencia, between 19th and 20th), then continues at 9 PM at the Cafe Deluxe (in the Haight). Info: myspace.com/sixftswells/.


Or sit at home and hear Bill Gainer:

Another Snake Pal and Rattlechapper, Bill Gainer, can be seen and heard on youtube.com for nine whole minutes, plus! Type in youtube.com, then "Bill Gainer". Kewl!!


Or link up to the Snake through Placerville's website:

Yet another Snake Pal, G. Thomas Edwards, has put a link to rattlesnakepress.com on the Placerville website; thanks, Gary!! Go to http://www.historichwy49.com/placer/placerville.html/ and scroll down to "newspapers", and there we lurk...


Feel like a little workshopping?

•••Molly Fisk writes: The July Boot Camp is coming up, from Sunday (7/15) to Friday (7/20). If you'd like an excuse to stay indoors in the air conditioning, or stay outdoors (with your pad of paper or laptop) by the river, bay, stream, creek, brook, lake, pond, or ocean, this is the month to join us. You'll end up with a collection of six new poems, as well as whatever shells you've gathered from the tide line. To register, or to find out more about this six-day intensive Internet workshop, visit http://www.poetrybootcamp.com or send me an e-mail (molly@mollyfisk.com) and I'll answer your questions. PS: The Boulder, Utah workshop is not filling this year (unless five of you slap your foreheads and call me in the next week to sign up), but we'll plan on it for next year.

•••Rae Gouirand of Davis writes: Two of my summer classes are starting next week: the July/August session of my ongoing Creative Nonfiction workshop at the Davis Art Center, and a new class that I'm offering, a creative writing workshop for teens aged 13-18. The teen class will run on Sundays from 4:30-6:30 PM for eight weeks, and CNF will run immediately after, from 7-9 PM. Both are scheduled to begin July 1st. If you're interested in registering or know someone who is, please contact the DAC in the next couple days to register. You can either call them at 530-756-4100, register online on their website, or visit in person at F & Covell in downtown Davis. It's no longer possible to push the start dates of classes back or to register people on the first day of class (it makes it hard to prepare efficiently!), so don't assume there will be a spot at the last minute. :) I'm really excited about both of these classes, and hope to see lots of returning writers and lots of new faces. The teen class plants the seed for a combined movement/writing class for teen women that I'll be teaching with Meghan Bowen at The Bo Tree starting in September, so if you know any teen writers, please spread the word!


Muses Review:

Andrew Angus, Editor of Muses Review, has put out a call for poem submissions for Muses Review’s Summer 2007 issue (JulAugSep) and Fall 2007 issue (OctNovDec). Submit 3-6 poems for publication, either for the online version of Muses Review or the Anthology of Muses Review. Any themes (nature poems, city poems, romantic poems, etc.). Submit your poems to www.musesreview.org/reviewmypoem/ Evaluation of poems will only take TWO WEEKS......You will know if your poem is approved in two weeks’ time. Also: Free Poetry book ads. Submit poetrybook ads or poem chap ads to: www.musesreview.org/freebookads/

_____________________

POEM AS WISH TO COMPOSE BY DUMB LUCK
—Tim Bellows

I get in the habit of counting in 9s or 12s.
Surely they formulate the order of all gasses, dust and
suggested in the wilds of space. At the same time,

I keep a snapshot here inside: sunlight on understory shrubs —
glossy oval leaves, the small, uncounted bells of flowers. Surely
such habits of study lead me toward the origin of solar wind, sweeping
along in the same air where astronauts exploded

into a bright aerosol in the quiet heights. I decide that all known light
feeds my power to run, counting steps, fields of timothy and bunchgrass.
Days off I cultivate this worldly talent; I shout, sprint,

stain my feet a streaked green, keep body and soul
limber, well versed in the deeper breathing sound that
rises even now to greet my dying, beating, faintly orderly body —
blood and nerves in constant communion. Body that,

in late hours finds its thrill listening in on a tuneful strand of DNA.
Ah, we’re all singers — living and dead; are we not run here and there
by the ruminations of stars? But just you wait; they’ll

sing forward along lines of mystic sight. Your eyes and mine as we
persevere in study, keep the steady count in meditation,
come to track the journeys of vaporized astronauts. Friends,
how they cloud around us. Close. Bending beams of light,

urging us to all manner of bodily tumbling and other completed circles.
We end, giddy with defying Einstein, and begin the new tradition,
diving and diving into the sun forever.

_____________________
UNDER THE HARDWOODS,

the night. the wind, clearing the moon, eye
clarifying the cement pool deck to silvery lithograph.
Oak leaves, shadowy, scramble along the lawns
in randy, phantom breezes. And that moon
floats across my whims — surely nothing
exists but these two forces: the quick of wind,
the slow of moon. I think

to go back into the house where Jill
will click and lisp in baby talk to the cat she loves.
And say to pet him. But no. I’ll take my time,
stay out back to loiter, to clarify my empty wonder
with the emptiness of this good night. The wizened pine
of these Nantucket chairs — their lunar-washed whiteness —
could stand up any time and whisper-shout

my own wooden pleadings and hopes for nakedness: Come
and love me; take time, in spite of the occasional return
of hurry and miscalculation, to visit the roofed prayer hall of my life.
At any moment, with any rolling of the moon, I’ll go in and say,
Come love me, my planetary brightness, my worn girl sifting
her seashore and backyard memories, her old stars in late,
red-giant stages. Love so all impressions

photographed by the sky can wash into our cool rooms
and we’ll sleep, roaming silver-halide dreams
under the hardwood trees that
cluster their acorns full of coming vows, fed
from leaves that capture swinging breezes
and the stillness of the moon’s given light
that lets us dance, that lets us kiss.

—Tim Bellows

_____________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers will receive theirs in the next couple of weeks. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is October 1.

Books/broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.

ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).

Those LIghts We Call Stars

Downtown Sacramento
Photo by Jane Blue, Sacramento

YESTERDAY
—Raymond Carver

Yesterday I dressed in a dead man's
woolen underwear. Then drove to the end
of an icy road where I passed
some time with Indian fishermen.
I stepped into water over my boots.
Saw four pintails spring from the creek.
Never mind that my thoughts were elsewhere
and I missed the perfect shot.
Or that my socks froze. I lost track
of everything and didn't make it back
for lunch. You could say
it wasn't my day. But it was!
And to prove it I have this little bite
she gave me last night. A bruise
coloring my lip today, to remind me.

_____________________

Thanks, Jane Blue, for the fun photograph! Pick up a free copy of B.L. Kennedy's interview of Jane Blue at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, and find out more about her on rattlesnakepress.com (Rattlechaps page). Her chapbook, Turf Daisies and Dandelions, is also available at The Book Collector and from the rattlesnakepress.com website.


NorCal poetry this week:

•••Tonight (Monday, 6/25), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center features the editors of the Modesto journal, Hardpan, including, among others, debee loyd, Gordon Preston, and Karen Baker. Tim Kahl writes: Please come out and provide a warm Sacramento welcome to our out-of-town guests and show moral support for Modesto’s newest literary magazine, Hardpan. Recent contributors include Brad Buchanan, Taylor Graham, Robert Roden, Patricia Wellingham-Jones, A. D. Winans and William O’ Daly. Hardpan has also begun to sponsor Coyote Caffeine, a semi-quarterly event that is geared to pairing poetry with fine dining [their next event features Sacramento’s own Susan Kelly-Dewitt]. Come and see what it’s all about. [See last Friday's post for bios of two of the readers.]

•••Wednesday (6/27), 6-7 PM: Hidden Passage poetry reading at Hidden Passage Books, 352 Main St. in Placerville. It's an open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. Medusa will be there, by the way, passing out new Snakes...

•••Thursday (6/28), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged presents Gene Bloom, Leslie Bally, Julie Valin at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Open mic before and after.

•••Also Thursday (6/28), 7 PM: Connie Post, the current Poet Laureate of Livermore, will be this month's featured reader in the Writers Read series at Colored Horse Studio in Ukiah. Post has been a published poet for over 20 years, and her work has appeared in many anthologies and journals. She has published five books of poetry, has presented at many Bay Area readings, and received numerous awards. Her most recent book is titled Waking State. In May 2005, she presented her poetry on the nationally syndicated radio program, “West Coast Live”. She also presents poetry and discussion on the subject of parenting, poetry and autism to local colleges and affiliated groups. In March 2007, she was the keynote speaker at a state conference in Sacramento for special education. The featured reading starts at 7 PM and will be followed by an open mike session. Refreshments available. Donation requested. Colored Horse Studio is locate at 780 Waugh Lane in Ukiah. For more information call: (707)275-9010, (707)468-9488 or check online at www.coloredhorse.com.


_____________________

THE COBWEB
—Raymond Carver

A few minutes ago, I stepped onto the deck
of the house. From there I could see and hear the water,
and everything that's happened to me all these years.
It was hot and still. The tide was out.
No birds sang. As I leaned against the railing
a cobweb touched my forehead.
It caught in my hair. No one can blame me that I turned
and went inside. There was no wind. The sea
was dead calm. I hung the cobweb from the lampshade.
Where I watch it shudder now and then when my breath
touches it. A fine thread. Intricate.
Before long, before anyone realizes,
I'll be gone from here.

______________________

TOMORROW
—Raymond Carver

Cigarette smoke hanging on
in the living room. The ship's lights
out on the water, dimming. The stars
burning holes in the sky. Becoming ash, yes.
But it's all right, they're supposed to do that.
Those lights we call stars.
Burn for a time and then die.
Me hell-bent. Wishing
it were tomorrow already.
I remember my mother, God love her,
saying, Don't wish for tomorrrow.
You're wishing your life away. Nevertheless, I wish
for tomorrow. In all its finery.
I want sleep to come and go, smoothly.
Like passing out of the door of one car
into another. And then to wake up!
Find tomorrow in my bedroom.
I'm more tired now than I can say.
My bowl is empty. But it's my bowl, you see,
and I love it.

_____________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers will receive theirs in the next couple of weeks. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is October 1.

Books/broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.

ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).

A Run For The Money

THE RAMPAGE
—Miroslav Holub

The last time
there was a genuine rampage,
herds stampeding
with the zest of hurricanes,
with the pulsations of a storm,
and the force of destiny,

when the roar went up
against the villous ceiling,
when the stronger ones
pushed forward to the cruel
thunder of whips while the zombies
fell back into permanent darkness,

the last time
when the cavalry charged
across the whole width of the enemy line
into the gap between life and death,
and not even one single droplet of misery
drizzled,

the last time
something really won
and the rest turned into compost

that was when the sperm
make the journey
up the oviduct.

That was a run for the money.

Since that time we've been tottering round
with the embarrassment of softening skeletons,
with the wistful caution
of mountain gorillas in the rain;
we keep hoping for the time-lapse soul,
we are secreting
marital problems and
a stationary home metaphysics,
against which
the adenoisine triphosphate of every fucked-up cell
is like the explosion of a star
in a chicken coop.

(Translated from the Czech by Miroslav Holub and David Young)

_____________________

—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.)

The Ravens Come

Ruth St. Denis

TO ANNA AKHMATOVA
—Alexander Blok

I sent you a rose in a glass of champagne
while the gypsies played as the gypsies do.
Then you turned to the man you were with and said:
"You see his eyes? He's in love with me too."

That night you left me a look in the mirror—
a look I've had too much of.
And the gypsy singer kept jangling her bracelets
and singing of love, and of love, and of love.

______________________

Why don't you look at me, don't you love me?
You bastard, you really are beautiful
And I'm hooked. I can't fly away
The way I've always been able to do.
I get dizzy just looking at you, everything
blurs. There's only a single thing I can see:
The silly red tulip
stuck in your lapel.

—Anna Akhmatova

______________________

No, I won't go have a drink with you.
You're a very bad boy. And you're crazy.
I know all about you—you'd do it
with anyone you met by moonlight.

Thank God we live
a quiet life nowadays.
Nobody tells us to look
into beautiful eyes.

—Anna Akhmatova

______________________

LOT'S WIFE
—Anna Akhmatova

The righteous man followed God's luminous angels
And hurried after them over the hill.
But his wife heard an anxious voice that whispered:
"It isn't too late, not yet; you can still

Look back at the towers of the town you came from,
At the street where you sang and the room where you spun,
At the empty windows of the house you cared for
and the bed where all your children were born."

And of course she looked back. She felt a quick pang
And then everything ended. Her eyes closed
And her body dissolved into bitter crystals.
Her small feet stopped and grew into the ground.

No one seems to have mourned this woman;
She was only a minor event in the book.
But my heart holds fast to her memory;
A woman who gave up her life for a look.

____________________

Why is this age worse than all the others? Perhaps
in this: it has touched the point of putrefaction,
Touched it in a rush of pain and sorrow,
But cannot make it whole.

In the west the familiar light still shines
And the spires of cities glow in the sun.
But here a dark figure is marking the houses
and called the ravens, and the ravens come.

—Anna Akhmatova

____________________

This is the moment they told us would come some day
when there's nobody left alive to hear what we say.
The world is no longer the place it used to be.
Be still, don't break my heart. Be silent, poetry.

—Anna Akhmatova

(Today's poetry is from The Stray Dog Caberet from New York Review Books, translated by Paul Schmidt.)

____________________

Anna Akhmatova would've been 118 years old today.

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers will receive theirs in the next couple of weeks. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is October 1.

Books/broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.

ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).

Who Writes the Poem?

L Street, Sacramento (Capitol Park)
Photo by Katy Brown, Davis

I am an empty page beneath your pen.
I soak up all. I am blank white paper.
I am the guardian of all you own:
I will multiply your riches forever.

I am the countryside, the rich black earth.
You are my sunlight and the rain's moisture.
You are Lord and Master, Word of God—
I am rich black earth, and blank white paper.

—Marina Tsvetaeva

____________________

We are a pair, close as the right hand
holding the left.

We are one, warm as the right wing
enfolding the left.

But the whirlwind carves a crater between us,
and nothing is left.

—Marina Tsvetaeva

______________________

I'm still alive. That may be soon
a sin. Perhaps these days to live
is not the human thing to do.
Perhaps this age is iron and all
must fall. Perhaps it's not the poet
anymore who writes the poem.

—Marina Tsvetaeva

______________________

This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Saturday (6/23), 7:30 PM: The Book Collector presents Unheimlich Theater: Antonin Artaud and His Dopplegangers. Unheimlich Theater re-emerges from the Bardo state to inseminate a new myth of Chaos, Anarchy, and Lucid Unreason. Unheimlich is here not to raise consciousness, but to release the tide of the Uncanny, to break out the underside of Pandora's hoary box and release the likes of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Poe, Hoffmann, Holderline, Michaux, and especially Antonin Artaud order to undermine a society that has allowed psychology & technology to be on a first-name basis with the creation of its imperious culture. We invite you to the first performance of Antonin Artaud and His Dopplegangers. That’s at The Book collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento (between J and K Sts.). Info: 916-442-9295 or www.poems-for-all.com.

•••Sunday (6/24), Open mic at 6, program at 7 PM: Borders Books in Stockton (10776 Trinity Parkway, just off Eight Mile Road) presents Marie Ross. [See the new Snake14 for a sample of Marie’s poetry.]

•••Monday (6/25), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center features the editors of the Modesto journal, Hardpan, including, among others, debee loyd, Gordon Preston, and Karen Baker. Tim Kahl writes: Please come out and provide a warm Sacramento welcome to our out-of-town guests and show moral support for Modesto’s newest literary magazine, Hardpan. Recent contributors include Brad Buchanan, Taylor Graham, Robert Roden, Patricia Wellingham-Jones, A. D. Winans and William O’ Daly. Hardpan has also begun to sponsor Coyote Caffeine, a semi-quarterly event that is geared to pairing poetry with fine dining [their next event features Sacramento’s own Susan Kelly-Dewitt]. Come and see what it’s all about.

debee loyd [one "L"] is a co-editor of Hardpan, past Poet Laureate of Modesto, and author of Noon, Twilight, Midnight by Rattlesnake Press. She sez: due diligence and all that gets you zip. Stop at a rough-looking diner off I-10, where poetry hides out. Or somewhere in Sinaloa, Mexico. Gordon Preston is also a co-editor of Hardpan and has published in Tar Wolf Review, and elsewhere. Co-editor Karen Baker is a Modesto poet and author of Vocal Exercises in Stone from Rattlesnake Press. She was born on Staten Island, grew up in Rockford, Illinois, and has lived in California’s Central Valley for many years. She is fascinated by the possibilities and limitations of language.

_________________

The rowan-bush
Began to burn.
Leaves were falling.
I was born.

The noisy sound
Of steeple-chime.
A holy day:
St. John the Diviine.

And even now
I love the tang
Of that bitter branch,
the rowan-thorn.

—Marina Tsvetaeva

____________________

I'd like to live with you
in some small town,
in never-ending twilight
and the endless sound of bells.

And in the little town's hotel
the thin chime of an antique clock,
like little drops of time.
And sometimes, evenings, from some attic room,
a flute,
a flute player by a window.
And huge tulips at the windows.
And if you didn't love me, I wouldn't even mind...

In the middle of a room, a great tile stove,
and a picture on every tile:
a heart, a sailboat, a rose.
And out beyond our only window
snow, snow, snow.

You'd lie around the way I like you: lazy,
indifferent, unconcerned.
Once or twice the harsh crack
of a match.
Your cigarette flares and then burns down,
and trembling, trembling at its tip
a short gray stump—the ash
you're too lazy to shake away—
and the cigarette flies into the fire.

—Marina Tsvetaeva

(Today's poetry is from The Stray Dog Caberet from New York Review Books, translated by Paul Schmidt.)

_________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers will receive theirs in the next couple of weeks. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is October 1.

Books/broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.

ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).

A Fine Frenzy

Photo by Sergei Kovalenko, Boston

SUNNEDLY
—Georgia Jones, Sonora

I waited all year,
Half in dark
Half in rising light
For Summer Solstice —
Like High Noon
It came in a rush of drama
a swirl of dust
warmer weather drawn like
six-shooters
And passed.

Dark encroaches again
In July, month of hot days
No longer long
Shortening into winter
As I write.

____________________

Thanks, Georgia, who's been on my mind, lately... mostly because this poem appears in the brand new Rattlesnake Review, which hit the stands last night at our rousing (and packed!) rattle-read to celebrate the birth of four new Snake publications. If you'd like a copy (they're free!), head on down to The Book Collector (1008 24th St., Sacramento), where action-packed copies await. This issue features 88 contributors, and almost twice as many poems! If you're a contributor or a subscriber, copies will go in the mail to you (in batches) this week and next. Anyway, thanks, Georgia Jones, for helping us celebrate the Summer Solstice today.

I'm guessing you already know that the other Rattlesnake Press publications released yesterday include Tom Miner's North of Everything, David Humphreys' Cominciare Adagio, and B.L. Kennedy's interview of Jane Blue—who, incidentally, had a birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday, JB!


Tonight in NorCal Poetry:

•••Tonight (Thursday, 6/21), 7:30 PM: Poetry Unplugged presents another Six Ft. Swells Book Release Party at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, wherein Six Ft. Swells Press presents the release of the third chapbook in their Cheap Shots Poetry Series: Cocktails & Confessions: A Collection of Poetry Inspired by Lust and Libations. Free. Special guests include Ann Menebroker, B.L. Kennedy, Matt Amott, Todd Cirillo, Luke Warm Water, Gene Bloom, Barbara Noble and, bringing up the/her rear, Kathy Kieth—plus others too numerous to mention! Info: (530) 271-0662.

•••Also tonight (Thursday, 6/21), 7:30 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series presents Terry Moore and Theresa McCourt at the Off Center Stage, (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street), at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. For more info, call (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384. $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open mic included. For map: http://offcenterstage.org/. For info about the readers, see last Monday's post, plus there is an interview of Terry Moore in Snake 12.

_____________________

AN HOUR
—Czeslaw Milosz

Leaves glowing in the sun, zealous hum of bumblebees,
From afar, from somewhere beyond the river, echoes of lingering voices
And the unhurried sounds of a hammer gave joy not only to me.
They waited, ready, for all those who would call themselves mortals,
So that they might praise, as I do, life, that is, happiness.

_____________________

And, to especially praise the longest, sunniest day of the year, one of my favorites from Will S. Read it with new eyes:

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:—
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,—
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

(Theseus in A Midsummer's Dream, Act V, Scene I)

_____________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers will receive theirs in the next couple of weeks. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is now available at The Book Collector; next deadline is 10/1.

Books/broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.

ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. We return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the fall: more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).

If You Are Rash Enough...

A SHADOW
—Ad al-Rahim Salih al-Rahim, Iraq

Like a spooky shadow
under a disc of moon,
a cat crouches on a wall.
Then he sneaks with terrifying silence into a distant hiding place,
leaving behind him
in the darkness
an uncanny moan.

Nobody knows
his secrets
nor the intention of his steps.
He alone understands that darkness is the way into what he wants.

_____________________

Tonight in NorCal poetry:

•••Wednesday (6/20), 7:30 PM: Rattlesnake Press is proud to present a new chapbook by Sacramento Poet Tom Miner, entitled North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a brand-new littlesnake broadside from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, entitled Cominciare Adagio, and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one a conversation with Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Not to mention the hefty Rattlesnake Review #14! Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

•••Also Wed. (6/20), 7 PM: Writers of the New Sun / Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol presents Rosa Martha Villarreal introducing The Stillness of Love & Exile (Tertulia Press), her contemporary novel of a spirited Mexican woman’s escape from entrapment in a loveless and abusive marriage. The author, a local teacher and writer, follows Lilia’s escape from a wrathful Mexican drug lord to a rural Mexican town where a series of events that started in Medieval Spain come to fruition, leading Lilia to her final journey of love and magic. Rose is the co-founder of Tertulia Press, an online magazine dedicated to the tradition of independent, non-ideological discourse through art and written word. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022-1024 22nd St., Midtown Sacramento, 916-446-5133. Rosa will answer questions about her writing and publication process. Her novel is available for sale. No charge for this event. You may contact her at: (916) 543-9364 or (916) 367-1167. For more information about Los Escritores call Graciela Ramirez at 916- 456-5323; website is http://escritoresdelnuevosol.com/

_____________________

WHO?
—Ad al-Rahim Salih al-Rahim, Iraq

Who wants to claw my heart
so the tears flow?
My trees have withered in this trackless wilderness
and my stars lost their way.
Who claws my heart?
In the valley of the soul I scream: Wake!
But I am even more hopelessly lost.
I search for the pure fountain that once glittered there.
My mirror is smashed
And I see only a monstrous desert that gnaws my trees.
Who claws at my heart?
Water is my element
but desert surrounds me.
The sky of the sand is covered with a litter of foliage.
Who in the trackless wilderness can see
the pure fountain that once glittered there?
Who?

___________________

WHO ARE YOU?
—Ad al-Rahim Salih al-Rahim, Iraq

He walked beside me smiling
teasing
winking at me
and joking endlessly.

He told me our journey was over
and the appointed hour for return had come.

I asked: who are you?
He answered: Death.
My blood ran cold
and my sight clouded over.

Trying to reassure me, he said:
"If you are rash enough
to want to stay on in this vale of tears,
be my guest!"
With that he vanished.

(Today's poetry is from Iraqi Poetry Today, Ed. by Saadi Simawe for Modern Poetry in Translation)

_______________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review13 is available at The Book Collector; RR14 will be out tonight, June 20. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is now available at The Book Collector; next deadline is 10/1.

Books/broadsides: Rattlesnake Press presents Sacramento Poet Tom Miner at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, June 20 from 7:30-9 PM to celebrate the release of his new chapbook, North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a new littlesnake broadside (Cominciare Adagio) from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, plus #3 in the Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. More info: kathykieth@hotmail.com/ NOTE: For June, and for June only, our monthly Rattlesnake reading will be on the THIRD Weds. instead of the second one. And there will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August.

Snake Whisperer

MAGNOLIA EGRETS
—David Humphreys, Stockton

They perch June on forest green
as you come around the corner,
steam engine pistons breathing
down a morning combustion
concussion so far ahead
of yourself
arriving with details
streaming in the background
of this sudden flowering bloom.
Two or three weeks from now
they will all be gone, long fallen ears
of white, petals like curled
tongues lifted in a song exultation,
eagles heads white against
dark Ketchikan,
sea gulls circling Monterey
dark cypress, wind twisted bonsai,
cherry blossoms showering early
summer Bear Tooth Pass snow flurries.

_____________________

Thanks, David! You may've heard, and it's all true! This Weds., 7:30 PM at The Book Collector (1008 24th St., Sacramento), Rattlesnake Press is proud to present a new chapbook by Sacramento Poet Tom Miner, entitled North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a brand-new littlesnake broadside from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, entitled Cominciare Adagio, and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one a conversation with Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Not to mention the hefty Rattlesnake Review #14, rolling off the presses as we speak! Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

Today there is an article in The Sacramento Bee about the "demand for snake wranglers" and Snake Whisperers, due to the drought in Southern California. Clearly there are plenty of jobs waiting for me down there...!

Here's another poem by David, in celebration of our ever-waning June:

JUNE ASPEN
—David Humphreys, Stockton

shimmering in breeze blown
new lime leaves,
day’s lights flashing
on water. Jupiter rules
nesting near a sickle sliced moon.
Magnolias are heavy as musk,
a visual scent perfume of summer lust.
Sheets are hot and electric with wanting.
Satellites circle. Investiture perfects
various avenues.

____________________

Coming this Thursday:

•••Thursday (6/21), 7:30 PM, Poetry Unplugged presents another Six Ft. Swells Book Release Party at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, wherein Six Ft. Swells Press presents the release of the third chapbook in their Cheap Shots Poetry Series: Cocktails & Confessions: A Collection of Poetry Inspired by Lust and Libations. Free. Special guests include Ann Menebroker, B.L. Kennedy, Matt Amott, Todd Cirillo, Luke Warm Water, Gene Bloom, Barbara Noble and, bringing up the/her rear, Kathy Kieth—plus others too numerous to mention! Info: (530) 271-0662.

THIS JUST IN: Todd Cirillo informs me that B.L. Kennedy has been inadvertently left off some of the earlier publicity for the 6FSwells release party, and that he will definitely be reading. Todd says: "Todd Cirillo would not read if BL Kennedy was unavailable to read; it is important to observe mastery of the poet on stage."


CSUS Writers Conference:

Registration is now open for the CSU, Sacramento Writers Conference on Aug. 10-12, which will feature three days of lectures, workshops, critiques, panel discussions and reading events. Through July 21, the registration fee is $245; after that it's $285. Some of the evening readings will be free to the public. Register at 916-278-4433 or www.cce.csus.edu/conferences/writers/Conf07/index/htm/. Info: Amy Ruddell at aruddell@csus.edu/.

_____________________

You can't even imagine what my house looks like right now, due to the serious neglect that goes with putting together four publications in two days. Yes, I know—plan ahead. Hopefully I'll get a better system put together this summer. Meanwhile, I've called in the calvary: Pat Weidman has taken mercy on me and will be over to help fold and staple this afternoon. (Bless her!) In light of this Kiethian chaos, this poem seems appropriate (and not a little unsettling):

THE DIRTY FLOOR
—Edward Field

The floor is dirty:
Not only the soot from the city air
But a surprising amount of hair litters the room.
It is hard to keep up with. Even before
The room is all swept up it is dirty again.

We are shedding more than we realize.
The amount of hair I've shed so far
Could make sixty of those great rugs
The Duke of China killed his weavers for,
And strangle half the sons of Islam.

Time doesn't stop even while I scrub the floor
Though it seems that the mind empties like a bathtub,
That all the minds of the world go down the drain
Into the sewer; but hair keeps falling
And not for a moment can the floor be totally clean.

What is left of us after years of shitting and shedding?
Are we whom our mothers bore or some stranger now
With the name of son, but nameless,
Continually relearning the same words
That mean, with each retelling, less.

He whom you knew is a trail of leavings round the world.
Renewal is a lie: Who I was has no more kisses.
Barbara's fierce eyes were long ago swept up from her floor.
A stranger goes by the name of Marianne; it is not she,
Nor for that matter was the Marianne I knew.

The floor having accumulated particles of myself
I call it dirty; dirty, the streets thick with the dead;
Dirty, the thick air I am used to breathing.
I am alive at least. Quick, who said that?
Give me the broom. The leftovers sweep the leavings away.

______________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review13 is available at The Book Collector; RR14 will be out June 20. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is now available at The Book Collector; next deadline is 10/1.

Books/broadsides: May's releases are Grass Valley Poet Ron Tranquilla’s Playing Favorites: Selected Poems, 1971-2006, plus a littlesnake broadside by Julie Valin (Still Life With Sun) and a Rattlesnake Interview Broadside (#2) featuring Khiry Malik Moore and B.L. Kennedy. All are now available at The Book Collector. Rattlechaps are $5; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com or rattlesnakepress.com for ordering information.

Next rattle-read: Rattlesnake Press will present Sacramento Poet Tom Miner at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, June 20 from 7:30-9 PM to celebrate the release of his new chapbook, North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a new littlesnake broadside (Cominciare Adagio) from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, plus #3 in the Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. More info: kathykieth@hotmail.com/ NOTE: For June, and for June only, our monthly Rattlesnake reading will be on the THIRD Weds. instead of the second one. And there will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August.