CUT THE GRASS
—A.R. Ammons
The wonderful workings of the world: wonderful,
wonderful: I'm surprised half the time:
ground up fine, I puff if a pebble stirs:
I'm nervous: my morality's intricate: if
a squash blossom dies, I feel withered as a stained
zucchini and blame my nature: and
when grassblades flop to the little red-ant
queens burring around trying to get aloft, I blame
my not keeping the grass short, stubble
firm: well, I learn a lot of useless stuff, meant
to be ignored: like when the sun sinking in the
west glares a plane invisible, I think how much
revelation concealment necessitates: and then I
think of the ocean, multiple to a blinding
oneness and realize that only total expression
expresses hiding: I'll have to say everything
to take on the roundness and withdrawal of the deep dark:
less than total is a bucketful of radiant toys.
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Poetry Flash readings return to (the new) Cody's in Berkeley:
•••Saturday (9/1), 7 PM: Kick-off Reading for the new First-Saturday Poetry Series at Cody's Books at 1730 4th Street, Berkeley will feature David Alpaugh and Lynne Knight. David Alpaugh's first collection, Counterpoint, won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize from Story Line Press. His new collection, Heavy Lifting (hailed as "outrageously amusing" by Light Quarterly) collects his poetry from 1995-2006 and includes his landmark essay, "The Professionalization of Poetry." His work has appeared in over 100 literary publications, including Poetry and the popular anthology, California Poetry from the Gold Rush to the Present. X. J. Kennedy has hailed Alpaugh's Heavy Lifting as "hugely the most enjoyable of the the last twenty books of poetry I've read."
Lynne Knight's third collection, Night in the Shape of a Mirror, was published by David Robert Books Press. Her first collection, Dissolving Borders, won a Quarterly Review of Literature prize and her second, The Book of Common Betrayals, won the Dorothy Brunsman Award from Bear Star Press. Other books include Snow Effects (Small Poetry Press Select Poets Series) and her award-winning chapbooks: Deer in Berkeley (Sow's Ear, 2003) and Defying the Flat Surface (just out from The Ledge). The many anthologies that have published her work include Poetry and Best American Poetry.
Info: (510) 559-9500. David Alpaugh will also be reading with Jeff Knorr at The Sacramento Poetry Center on Monday, Sept. 24.
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Poetry in Modesto (and lost cows):
Susan Kelly-DeWitt is everywhere these days! She has a new rattlechap coming out on Sept. 12 at The Book Collector, she's judging the Poet's Corner Sonnet Contest (deadline 9/1), and she's leading the workshop at the next lost cow "coyote caffeine" extravaganza Sept. 14:
•••Friday (9/14), 5 PM: Celebrate downtown Modesto: dig into your psyche for those lost moments that should have fermented into poems by now as lost cow press presents “coyote caffeine”, a special poets’ dinner with writing component. Guest workshop leader Susan Kelly-DeWitt has huge credentials, including a new chapbook from Rattlesnake Press; see her bio at her new website (just add dot-com). The dinner will be held at Picasso’s Deli and Art Gallery, corner of 10th and J Sts. in downtown Modesto. Chef Jordi will be waiting with lovely antipasta and a vegetarian menu (to please even that tempermental palate). Meal includes the works: aforementioned appetizer, salad, bread, butter, lasagne (veggie, homemade of course), tea, coffee and petite dessert from Word of Mouth Bakery. Workshop begins promptly at 5:30, dinner at 6:30, accompanied by a wonderful guitarist. If you like, dress up. Wear a hat. Put a carnation in your lapel or a hibiscus behind your left ear. Celebrate poetry! Reservations required; no walk-ins. Cost: $40, including meal and workshop. send your $$ (must be in hand by Monday, Sept. 10) to: debee loyd, P.O. Box 1065, Modesto, CA 95353 (please, no checks made out to "lost cow press"; he doesn’t have an account, being lost and all.) [Lost Cow Press is run by the folks who put out the wonderful Hardpan poetry journal.]
Also in Modesto:
•••Next deadline is Sept. 15 for the Song of the San Joaquin, a quarterly publication of the Poets of the San Joaquin Chapter of California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc., which accepts submissions of poetry having to do with life in the San Joaquin Valley of California. This area is defined geographically as the region from Fresno to Stockton, and from the foothills on the west to those on the east. Send typed manuscripts to: Editor, Song of the San Joaquin, PO Box 1161, Modesto, CA 95353-1161. Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for return of unused poems and/or notification of acceptance. Be sure your return envelopes have the right amount of postage. Notification time may range from three weeks to three months. Send up to three poems per issue, name and contact information on each poem. E-mail submissions accepted but please put all identification on each separate poem including mailing address. Please send a three to five line bio. For more information e-mail cleor36@yahoo.com (NOTE CHANGE OF E-MAIL). For samples of poetry from previous issues: www.ChaparralPoets.org/SSJarchives.html/. Writers retain all rights. Your submission of manuscripts is considered permission for one-time publication plus publication on our website and/or our calendar. If you do not wish to be considered for these please let us know in your cover letter. The editors reserve the right to correct punctuation and spelling. Every effort will be made to contact the poet in regard to such changes. Payment is one copy of the issue in which your work appears. A single issue is $5.00, the annual subscription $18. Send to address above. Make checks out to Song of the San Joaquin. Deadlines: March 15 for Spring, June 15 for Summer, September 15 for Fall, December 15 for Winter. More about SSJ in the near future, both on Medusa and in Rattlesnake Review 15!
Boot Camp:
Molly Fisk writes: It stuns me that we're almost in September, but there you have it. Which means that it's time to sign up for the September Boot Camp if you'd like to write six poems in six days and amaze yourself. The workshop runs from Sept. 16-21, and takes place via e-mail as usual. If you're needing a jumpstart to boost your productivity, or want to finish up a section of your next book, this is the place to be. If you've never heard of Poetry Boot Camp, visit the site for more information: http://www.poetrybootcamp.com
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EXTRICATION
—A.R. Ammons
I tangled with
the world to
let it go
but couldn't free
it: so I made
words
to wrestle in my
stead and went
off silent to
the quick flow
of brooks, the
slow flow of stone
____________________
WHITE DWARF
—A.R. Ammons
As I grow older
arcs swollen inside
now and then fall
back, collapsing, into
forming walls:
the temperature shoots
up with what I am not
and am: from
multiplicities, dark
knots, twanging twists,
structures come into sight,
chief of these
a blade of fire only now
so late, so sharp and standing,
burning confusion up.
_____________________
—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.) For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).
SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:
ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is still sleeping! There will be no readings/releases in 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/. And read more about Susan at her nifty new website, http://www.susankelly-dewitt.com/. Click on "Chapbooks" for a sneak preview of Cassiopeia's cover.
Also coming in mid-September: The new issue of Rattlesnake Review (15), plus a littlesnake broadside from dawn dibartolo (Blush), and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including #4 (frank andrick) and an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October). Next deadline for Rattlesnake Review (16) is November 15.