El Dorado National Forest
Photo by Kathy Kieth, Pollock Pines
The streams of time
on stone dreams
the rush of streams
on time's stones.
Rustling sedge
at the lake's edge.
Reverent hush
reverberant rush.
on stone dreams
the rush of streams
on time's stones.
Rustling sedge
at the lake's edge.
Reverent hush
reverberant rush.
—Velimir Khlebnikov, 1908
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This weekend in NorCal poetry:
•••Saturday (6/9), 7:30 PM: Poems-For-All Second Saturday Series presents Jonathan Kiefer, Bill Pieper, Josh Fernandez, and musical guest Dean Haakenson (Be Brave Bold Robot) at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St. (between J & K Sts.), (916) 442-9295 or www.poems-for-all.com. About the bookstore (Home of the Snake): http://www.sacfreepress.com/poems/blog/2006/05/book-collector.html or rattlesnakepress.com
•••Sunday (6/10), 2:30-4:30 PM: Poets on the Ridge Open Mic Poetry Reading at Juice & Java in Paradise, CA (7067 Skyway). Info: 530-872-9633.
•••Sunday (6/10), 4 PM: Lyon Books in Chico (5th St., between Main and Broadway), celebrates Susan Wooldridge’s new book, Foolsgold: Making Something from Nothing and Freeing Your Creative Process. Music, foolishness, snacks and celebration (and a brief reading). Susan is a poet from the Chico area who leads workshops for children and adults and has several previous books.
•••Monday (6/11), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Jan Haag and Sue Staats at the Carmichael Library, 5605 Marconi Ave., Carmichael [note new location for this week's reading]. Open mic to follow. Jan Haag was born in Long Beach, California, and as a child imagined herself as a young Louisa May Alcott, sitting in a tree, writing poems and stories. She found a career in writing and editing for newspapers, books and magazines. She now teaches journalism and creative writing at Sacramento City College, but she is grateful for the healing spontaneity of Sutterwriters, which has her once again scribbling happily in that metaphoric tree. She also teaches classes at Sutterwriters and has a book out from LAMP [Literature, Arts & Medicine] Press entitled Companion Spirit. Sue Staats is also an instructor at Sutterwriters. She has won the NCRAA Literary Award in Poetry for “Trash”, and has won First Place in the Sacramento News & Review’s student poetry contest for “Martha Stewart Leaves Prison.”
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Let's Talk Poetry
Coming June 24, from 1-3 PM, Tim Bellows presents Let’s Talk Poetry: Discovering new poetry landscapes, friends and good conversation. About this event, he says: Call it a small celebration where we take a break from the torrent of daily doings, get time to talk, and savor “The best words in the best order.” It’s an informal open forum for reading a favorite poem, getting supportive feedback on your own creation, or simply voicing your words for applause only. We meet for coffee or lunch or pie at Marie Callender’s on Sunrise Blvd. in Citrus Heights, just north of Madison Ave., on the left. Our “Library Room” holds 14 max at one big table. Most inviting. So . . . please RSVP tbp45@sbcglobal.net by Tuesday, June 12 to reserve your spot, so we can be sure of our numbers.
•••Admission: a poem to share. Or a tip for poets in the craft dept.
•••Attitude: Just to share something of yourself and your favorite lines. And enjoy!
•••Remember: “The poem is not made up of these letters that I plant like nails, but of the white that remains on the paper.”
—Paul Claudel (1868-1955), French writer and diplomat
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You are my song, my dark blue dream
Of doves, of winter's drowsy drone,
And sleighs that slow and golden go
Through gray blue shadows on the snow.
—Velimir Khlebnikov, 1907
______________________
Where the winking wax-wings whistle
In the shadows of the cedars,
Where the branches shake and shiver,
The mockingbird minutes fly away;
In the shadows of the cedars
a flock of flickers flutter,
where the branches shake and shiver
the swallows turn to seasons
as they fly away.
In the tatters of the shadows
in the deepest dark of day
where they wheel above and whistle
like a flock of floating hours
that fleeting, flies away.
You are sun and song and siren
and you touch our souls with sound,
make our hearts a wave of wonder,
little singers of all seasons
as you fly away.
—Velimir Khlebnikov, 1908
(Today's poetry was translated from the Russian by Paul Schmidt for The Stray Dog Cabaret: A Book of Russian Poems, New York Review Books, 2007)
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—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.