Marie Riepenhoff-Talty
THOROUGHLY MODERN
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Roseville
eHarmony has conquered time and place.
In cyberspace my profile was so real.
Your photo, posed; it showed your handsome face.
Our conversations had a modern feel
our emails, candid, sometimes even true.
We met and talked and talked, absorbed but free.
It seems we fell in love, I did, but you—
were cautious, slipping only by degree.
Sometimes you loved me; sometimes not at all.
You blamed your mother for the vile abuse,
that kept you distant, always cast a pall
on any romance. I said, That’s a ruse.
My therapist is right. You’re wrong for me.
So now what’s left; old-fashioned misery.
_____________________
Thanks, Marie! The sunny Marie Riepenhoff-Talty is leaving us, heading for Florida. About herself, Marie says: I started my professional life as an RN, but in my early forties went back to graduate school for a PhD in Microbiology. For 28 years I worked as a research scientist, studying viruses and running a Virology Diagnostic Laboratory. I never really understood why scientific writing was difficult and boring (past tense with no adjectives or adverbs) until I discovered writing poetry (attempting) and found there was a right side to my brain. That was about three years ago. Poetry is difficult, too, but there is so much more life in it! My work has appeared or will appear in Rattlesnake Review, Poetry Now, Brevities, Poets' Forum Magazine, Free Wheeling, Sun Shadow Mountain Poetry and Art Anthology and of course, Medusa's Kitchen.
I leave here on June 18 for the drive across country with my kayak on the top of my car and two bikes on the back. My address will be 610 Broadway St., Longboat Key, Fl 34228. (You can put it in Medusa.) I will be fixing up an 1895 cottage (plumbing was updated in the 1970's). BUT I will be back for 3-4 week stays with my daughter here in Roseville, starting in September. So I will still think of myself as being part of the Northern California poetry scene. After all, this is where I learned about poetry.
Thanks again, Marie; bon voyage, and don't forget to keep sending us poems and your wonderful photographs! [See more of Marie's poems and photos in Rattlesnake Review #14, due out later this month.]
_____________________
Tonight:
•••Thursday (6/7), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged presents Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Open mic before and after.
Poetry Map:
JoAnn Anglin sends us the following address:
http://www.poets.org/state.php/varState/CA
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Roseville
eHarmony has conquered time and place.
In cyberspace my profile was so real.
Your photo, posed; it showed your handsome face.
Our conversations had a modern feel
our emails, candid, sometimes even true.
We met and talked and talked, absorbed but free.
It seems we fell in love, I did, but you—
were cautious, slipping only by degree.
Sometimes you loved me; sometimes not at all.
You blamed your mother for the vile abuse,
that kept you distant, always cast a pall
on any romance. I said, That’s a ruse.
My therapist is right. You’re wrong for me.
So now what’s left; old-fashioned misery.
_____________________
Thanks, Marie! The sunny Marie Riepenhoff-Talty is leaving us, heading for Florida. About herself, Marie says: I started my professional life as an RN, but in my early forties went back to graduate school for a PhD in Microbiology. For 28 years I worked as a research scientist, studying viruses and running a Virology Diagnostic Laboratory. I never really understood why scientific writing was difficult and boring (past tense with no adjectives or adverbs) until I discovered writing poetry (attempting) and found there was a right side to my brain. That was about three years ago. Poetry is difficult, too, but there is so much more life in it! My work has appeared or will appear in Rattlesnake Review, Poetry Now, Brevities, Poets' Forum Magazine, Free Wheeling, Sun Shadow Mountain Poetry and Art Anthology and of course, Medusa's Kitchen.
I leave here on June 18 for the drive across country with my kayak on the top of my car and two bikes on the back. My address will be 610 Broadway St., Longboat Key, Fl 34228. (You can put it in Medusa.) I will be fixing up an 1895 cottage (plumbing was updated in the 1970's). BUT I will be back for 3-4 week stays with my daughter here in Roseville, starting in September. So I will still think of myself as being part of the Northern California poetry scene. After all, this is where I learned about poetry.
Thanks again, Marie; bon voyage, and don't forget to keep sending us poems and your wonderful photographs! [See more of Marie's poems and photos in Rattlesnake Review #14, due out later this month.]
_____________________
Tonight:
•••Thursday (6/7), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged presents Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Open mic before and after.
Poetry Map:
JoAnn Anglin sends us the following address:
http://www.poets.org/state.php/varState/CA
She says: This is part of the Poetry Nation project by the Academy of American Poets. We can all think of different people and places we would add, but this is a good starting place.
Thanks, JoAnn!
____________________
FAMILIARITY
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty
I have learned how to live in this body.
that has housed my soul for seventy-one years.
We learned to walk on red and black-checked
linoleum; to square dance, round dance and soar.
We drank breast milk, whole milk,
skim milk, champagne and mint tea.
We slept on satin sheets and rocky ground—
made love on four continents.
We have given birth and have felt life taken back.
After all this familiarity—
how will we separate?
_____________________
I COULD WIN
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty
It had nothing to do with the
crazy love I felt for him
twenty years ago—or the
exhausted love that informed
my caretaking now.
When he said
I know you would
trade places with me
if you could—
part of me thought:
how could he ever
think I was that unselfish.
part of me pulled back
with real fear— then stopped:
I could win this battle;
level the playing field;
study every damn cat scan,
x-ray, lab test, MRI; plague the
doctors with questions;
surf the net—find out
exactly—
where the enemy cells
were; fight them with every
tool available.
As it was, I just nodded
a helpless response.
He died soon after.
____________________
—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 Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; RR #14 will be out in mid-June. (Next deadline, for RR #15, is August 15.) VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets #10 (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.