Margaret Ellis Hill and her Dad
A LITTLE LONGER
(for my father at 91)
—Margaret Ellis Hill, Wilton
The afternoon wanes.
Twilight’s nearly here.
I watch the sky change—
colors of orange sherbet
meld into pink hues
topped with cream clouds—
a good enough dessert
to keep you here with me.
(for my father at 91)
—Margaret Ellis Hill, Wilton
The afternoon wanes.
Twilight’s nearly here.
I watch the sky change—
colors of orange sherbet
meld into pink hues
topped with cream clouds—
a good enough dessert
to keep you here with me.
Thanks, Peggy. Margaret Ellis Hill writes to say that her dad will be 92 years old today! Unfortunately, the two of them returned from a cruise with various illnesses; Dad has been in the hospital and remains there for now, though he's doing better.
Medusa is having a give-away! Send in your poems about fire, whichever side of her you choose—horrifying, capricious, passionate, humbling, cleansing—and I'll send you a free copy of Tom Miner's new rattlechap, North of Everything. Email your poems to kathykieth@hotmail.com or snail them to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 by midnight next Weds., July 25. Here's Peggy Hill's contribution:
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, SUMMER 1988
(Dance of Veils)
—Margaret Ellis Hill, Wilton
Is it you, Salome that dances
a new choreography—a play of orange veils
around firs, the sultry weave
through lodge-pole pines and spruce?
It must be your red scarves that lick geysers
rising to color the sky,
yellow and hot blue silks play with oaks, purple gauze
aiding the topography of striptease.
The wind wails accompaniment from warped lutes
clanging cymbals and sajat,
the long kahool, the "Harook!” of elks’ exodus,
a continuous "skree, skree" of hawks.
Will a thousand severed pines and spruce
served to you on a platter soothe your black heat?
I wonder if you give any thought
to the tenacity of seeds.
(This poem won the Appaloosa Fusion Poet Contest, Sept, 2003, and was
selected for the Ina Coolbrith Anthology, 2005.)
_____________________
—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/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).