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).