Peahen and chicks, including white one
Photo by Marie Riepenhoff-Talty
SHE WAS FAST
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Longboat Key, FL
They pecked at her—
little albino mutation;
maybe not true albino, but
different; inferior.
They already had a small
royal blue tuft of peacock feathers;
she was pale, colorless; so they
pecked at her.
Even the mother pecked her
out of the way. Why do we
dislike difference so much
when each of us is different?
But she was fast—she was
never the last in the brood
when they ran across the street.
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Longboat Key, FL
They pecked at her—
little albino mutation;
maybe not true albino, but
different; inferior.
They already had a small
royal blue tuft of peacock feathers;
she was pale, colorless; so they
pecked at her.
Even the mother pecked her
out of the way. Why do we
dislike difference so much
when each of us is different?
But she was fast—she was
never the last in the brood
when they ran across the street.
Thanks, Marie! Today's poetry is all about birds. Check out Rattlesnake Review 14 for lots more of ex-Sacramentan Marie Riepenhoff-Talty's poetry and photos. Free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one.
California Lecture Series
Subscriptions are on sale now ($150) for the next six lectures in the California Lecture Series. Info or subscribe at (916) 737-1300 or www.californialectures.org/. The series is held at the Crest Theatre, Sacramento, 7:30 PM, and features the following speakers:
YANN MARTEL: Wednesday, October 24, 2007
HA JIN: Thursday, November 15, 2007
SUE MILLER: Thursday, January 10, 2008
GERALDINE BROOKS: Wednesday, February 6, 2008
RICHARD POWERS: Monday, March 3, 2008
TOBIAS WOLFF: Thursday, May 8, 2008
WANGARI MAATHAI*: Friday, September 21, 2007
(*SPECIAL EVENT: not included in the Six-Lecture Subscription
Series)
September Book Fairs
Richard Hansen sends a heads-up of two book fairs in this area in September. First there is the Art Book Fair at the Crocker Art Museum (216 O St., Sac., 916-264-5423) on Saturday, Sept. 8 from 10:30-4 PM, which will feature publishers from around the country bringing in their newest special art books, plus their art classics. Children’s readings, lectures for the whole family.
Then on Saturday, Sept. 15, from 10 AM-5 PM, there will be the Fourteenth Central Valley Antiquarian Book Fair at the Scottish Rite Temple, 6151 H St., Sacramento, 916-849-9248. Come browse books of all kinds and all price ranges from dozens of dealers. $5 entry.
Tonight in NorCal poetry:
•••Tuesday (7/24), 8 PM: Comedy and Poetry Open Mic at Butch-N-Nellie's, corner of 19th & I Streets, Downtown Sacramento. The hue & cry for more open mic opportunities for poets has been answered. Butch-N-Nellie's now host a weekly poetry and comedy feature with open mic. Support the businesses that support the literary arts. Info: 916-548-8391.
______________________
EAGLE
—Raymond Carver
It was a sixteen-inch ling cod that the eagle
dropped near our feet
at the top of Bagley Creek canyon,
at the edge of the green woods.
Puncture marks in the sides of the fish
where the bird gripped with its talons!
That and a piece torn out of the fish's back.
Like an old painting recalled,
or an ancient memory coming back,
that eagle flew with the fish from the Strait
of Juan de Fuca up the canyon to where
the woods begin, and we stood watching.
It lost the fish above our heads,
dropped for it, missed it, and soared on
over the valley where wind beats all day.
We watched it keep going until it was
a speck, then gone. I picked up
the fish. That miraculous ling cod.
Came home from the walk and‚
why the hell not?—cooked it
lightly in oil and ate it
with boiled potatoes and peas and biscuits.
Over dinner, talking about eagles
and an older, fiercer order of things.
____________________
AWAY
—Raymond Carver
I had forgotten about the quail that live
on the hillside over behind Art and Marilyn's
place. I opened up the house, made a fire,
and afterwards slept like a dead man.
The next morning there were quail in the drive
and in the bushes outside the front window.
I talked to you on the phone.
Tried to joke. Don't worry
about me, I said, I have the quail
for company. Well, they took flight
when I opened the door. A week later
and they still haven't come back. When I look
at the silent telephone I think of quail.
When I think of the quail and how they
went away, I remember talking to you that morning
and how the receiver lay in my hand. My heart—
the blurred things it was doing at the time.
_____________________
THE CRANES
—Raymond Carver
Cranes lifting up out of the marshland...
My brother brings his fingers to his temples
and then drops his hands.
Like that, he was dead.
The satin lining of autumn.
O my brother! I miss you now, and I'd like to have you back.
Hug you like a grown man
who knows the worth of things.
The mist of events drifts away.
Not in this life, I told you once.
I was given a different set of marching orders.
I planned to go mule-packing across the Isthmus.
Begone, though, if this is your idea of things!
But I'll think of you out there
when I look at those stars we saw as children.
The cranes wallop their wings.
In a moment, they'll find true north.
Then turn in the opposite direction.
___________________
—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 should have received theirs by now. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux (for postage) to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. If you want more than one, please send $2 for the first one and $1 for copies after that. 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/free 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).