These are the editors of one of Modesto’s quarterly journals, Song of the San Joaquin, including (starting at top left and going clockwise) Dorla Shuman, nancee maya, Jim Shuman, Roberta Bearden, Ed Bearden, Cleo Griffith, Gordon Durham and Linda Prather.
Song of the San Joaquin is a publication of the Poets of the San Joaquin Chapter of California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc., and it accepts submissions of poetry having to do with life in the San Joaquin Valley of California, defined geographically as the region from Fresno to Stockton, and from the foothills on the west to those on the east. Deadlines are 3/15, 6/15, 9/15 and 12/15. For more information, write to Cleo at cleor36@yahoo.com or check out the archives at www.ChaparralPoets.org/SSJarchives.html/.
For more poems from the SSJ editors, check out the new Rattlesnake Review, now available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or mail two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726, and I'll mail you one. Copies are also going in the mail to contributors and subscribers this week.
For more poems from the SSJ editors, check out the new Rattlesnake Review, now available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or mail two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726, and I'll mail you one. Copies are also going in the mail to contributors and subscribers this week.
Here are a couple more samples of the SSJ poets. nancee kinkaid maya's "Marysville" stood out for me because my mother was born in Marysville. They moved to Wheatland, where her father was principal of the high school. She and her dad picked peaches in the summer to earn extra cash; she ended up with life-long back trouble from going up and down the ladders.
James Shuman has served nobly for the past few years as President of California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc.
James Shuman has served nobly for the past few years as President of California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc.
GONE
—James Shuman
San Joaquin spear lies useless
beside the bitter root and arrowhead;
fiddleneck and fillaree encroach
upon tidy tips, goldfields, lupine…
California poppies, owl’s clover, and butter cups
struggle and disappear in fields of nettles,
gone with the beauty and bounty of the
verdant central valley.
Native people no longer whisper their lessons
around hearthfires
nor follow the changing seasons
across meadows of buffalo grass to pine mountain heights;
no longer weave reed and willow baskets,
gathering piñon nuts and acorns
carefully, sparingly,
leaving ample for the little friends to find;
passing over cliffs, ravines, wild tributaries
of the Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers
back to the valley floor,
back to tule elk and kit fox,
back to cattails, bent grass,
valley oaks.
Another cycle fades into forgotten memories.
Mesquite and manzanita still prevail.
______________________
MARYSVILLE
—nancee kinkaid maya
summer of forty-eight
newly-transported from Seattle
we revel in the shimmering heat
in the irrigated peach orchards of Marysville
opening the gates
flooding heavy-laden trees
to the farmer’s fury…
climbing brittle cottonwood trees…
hiding in refrigerated boxcars
motionless on the tracks…
walking down alleys to the movies
on a hot afternoon
peering into dusty windows of
mysterious gold and scarlet
oriental buildings…
stealing trinkets, earrings, lipstick
from the five-and-dime
with my cohort in crime
the landlord’s daughter…
avoiding the step-father’s advances…
sister’s lunatic husband arrives from Texas
squatting across the street staring
until escorted out of town by the sheriff…
golden, frightening, exciting transition
sharpening budding skills of self-destruction
on the threshold of puberty
first summer in California
____________________
That's all Medusa will give you of the SSJ poets; we don't want to spoil the RR15 feature for you. But you might check out the SSJ archives at www.ChaparralPoets.org/SSJarchives.html/. And be sure to submit your poems to them! Next deadline is 12/15.
____________________
FLIGHT
—Jorge Guillén (1893-1984)
Through summer air
The ascending gull
Dominates the expanse, the sea, the world
Under the blue, under clouds
Like the whitest wool-tufts,
And supreme, regal,
It soars.
All of space is a wave transfixed.
White and black feathers
Slow the ascent,
Suddenly slipping on the air,
On the vast light.
It buoys up the whiteness of the void.
And suspended, its wings abandon themselves
To clarity, to the transparent depths
Where flight, with stilled wings,
Subsists,
Gives itself entirely to its own delight, its falling,
And plunges into its own passing—
A pure instant of life.
(Translated from the Spanish by Reginald Gibbons)
_____________________
—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: Journals: The new Rattlesnake Review, Issue #15, is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline for Rattlesnake Review (16) is November 15. The two journals for young people, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.
September's releases: The Snake returned with a bang on Wednesday, September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree, at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Also available at The Book Collector: a littlesnake broadside from dawn dibartolo (Blush), and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including #4 (frank andrick).
Coming in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrates Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, Oct. 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and Rattlesnake Interview Series #5 by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night will be Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series, featuring B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets—plus other surprises (and cake!). Be there!
—James Shuman
San Joaquin spear lies useless
beside the bitter root and arrowhead;
fiddleneck and fillaree encroach
upon tidy tips, goldfields, lupine…
California poppies, owl’s clover, and butter cups
struggle and disappear in fields of nettles,
gone with the beauty and bounty of the
verdant central valley.
Native people no longer whisper their lessons
around hearthfires
nor follow the changing seasons
across meadows of buffalo grass to pine mountain heights;
no longer weave reed and willow baskets,
gathering piñon nuts and acorns
carefully, sparingly,
leaving ample for the little friends to find;
passing over cliffs, ravines, wild tributaries
of the Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers
back to the valley floor,
back to tule elk and kit fox,
back to cattails, bent grass,
valley oaks.
Another cycle fades into forgotten memories.
Mesquite and manzanita still prevail.
______________________
MARYSVILLE
—nancee kinkaid maya
summer of forty-eight
newly-transported from Seattle
we revel in the shimmering heat
in the irrigated peach orchards of Marysville
opening the gates
flooding heavy-laden trees
to the farmer’s fury…
climbing brittle cottonwood trees…
hiding in refrigerated boxcars
motionless on the tracks…
walking down alleys to the movies
on a hot afternoon
peering into dusty windows of
mysterious gold and scarlet
oriental buildings…
stealing trinkets, earrings, lipstick
from the five-and-dime
with my cohort in crime
the landlord’s daughter…
avoiding the step-father’s advances…
sister’s lunatic husband arrives from Texas
squatting across the street staring
until escorted out of town by the sheriff…
golden, frightening, exciting transition
sharpening budding skills of self-destruction
on the threshold of puberty
first summer in California
____________________
That's all Medusa will give you of the SSJ poets; we don't want to spoil the RR15 feature for you. But you might check out the SSJ archives at www.ChaparralPoets.org/SSJarchives.html/. And be sure to submit your poems to them! Next deadline is 12/15.
____________________
FLIGHT
—Jorge Guillén (1893-1984)
Through summer air
The ascending gull
Dominates the expanse, the sea, the world
Under the blue, under clouds
Like the whitest wool-tufts,
And supreme, regal,
It soars.
All of space is a wave transfixed.
White and black feathers
Slow the ascent,
Suddenly slipping on the air,
On the vast light.
It buoys up the whiteness of the void.
And suspended, its wings abandon themselves
To clarity, to the transparent depths
Where flight, with stilled wings,
Subsists,
Gives itself entirely to its own delight, its falling,
And plunges into its own passing—
A pure instant of life.
(Translated from the Spanish by Reginald Gibbons)
_____________________
—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: Journals: The new Rattlesnake Review, Issue #15, is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline for Rattlesnake Review (16) is November 15. The two journals for young people, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.
September's releases: The Snake returned with a bang on Wednesday, September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree, at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Also available at The Book Collector: a littlesnake broadside from dawn dibartolo (Blush), and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including #4 (frank andrick).
Coming in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrates Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, Oct. 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and Rattlesnake Interview Series #5 by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night will be Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series, featuring B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets—plus other surprises (and cake!). Be there!
