Photo by Katy Brown, Davis
BREAKING AWAY
—Phil Weidman, Pollock Pines
Jackson Pollock, when asked why
he didn't paint nature,
answered: I am nature!
He had a hell of a run
reshaping the art of painting
before allowing self-doubt,
that worrisome aspect
of human nature,
to run him off the road.
—Phil Weidman, Pollock Pines
Jackson Pollock, when asked why
he didn't paint nature,
answered: I am nature!
He had a hell of a run
reshaping the art of painting
before allowing self-doubt,
that worrisome aspect
of human nature,
to run him off the road.
__________________
Thanks, Phil! See the new issue of Rattlesnake Review for more of Phil Weidman's poetry, or go to rattlesnakepress.com and order his chapbook, Fictional Character: The Ernie Poems.
This weekend in NorCal poetry:
•••Tonight (Friday, 9/14), 7:30 PM: Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol presents its annual all-Spanish poetry reading, featuring the work of the controversial Spanish poet, Rafael Alberti and the students of the CSUS Foreign Languages Dept. Emcee is Dr. Fausto Avendaño. Contributing to the evening will be Graciela Ramirez, Jim Michael, and musician/composer Alfredo González. Open mic to follow. Cost: $5 or as you can afford. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1024 22nd St., Midtown Sacramento. Info: Graciela Ramirez (916-456-5323) or website: www.escritoresdelnuevosol.com/
•••Also tonight (Friday, 9/14), 7-9 PM: Sacramento Book Collector's Club presents "My California Journeys by Great Writers" with speakers Mary Mackey and Patty Milich. Arden-Dimick Library, 891 Watt Av., Sacramento. Free. Info: 916-451-2113.
•••Sat. (9/15), 10 AM-5 PM: The Eighth Annual Sonoma County Book Festival will take place in Old Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa, with more than seventy booths showcasing independent booksellers and publishers. Sonoma County presents the oldest and largest general interest book festival in Northern California. Admission is free and includes readings, panels and activities for all ages. Throughout the day, poets including Kay Ryan, California Poet Laureate Al Young and Francisco X. Alarcón will read on the main stage of Old Courthouse Square. At noon, Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, will introduce The Big Read Sonoma County and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, followed by the young winners of the bilingual essay contest reading from their “Which Book Would You Save?” essays. In addition to this full day of poetry, the Festival also offers a Teen Poetry Slam at 1 PM at the Target Young People’s Tent. The Target Young People’s Tent will host events all day, with readings, a “Let’s Talk about Writing” panel and a Fantasy Hour. The spacious white tent offers young people the chance to sit or sprawl on the grass on the Square’s east side and the chance to win free books. The Art Bus will once again join the Book Festival to help celebrate creativity and the literary arts. This fully-equipped mobile art studio will park close to the tent. A unique element to the Festival’s kick-off of The Big Read Sonoma County will be a group of modern day troubadours walking around reciting passages from their most cherished books. Maxine Hong Kingston will introduce Veterans of War; Veterans of Peace, the winner of the 2007 Northern California Book Reviewers Special Award in Publishing. For a full list of authors, panels, times and locations visit www.socobookfest.org/.
•••Sunday (9/16), 4-6:30 PM: Release of Yuba Flows, a new book of poetry from Hip Pocket Press featuring Kirsten Casey, Gary Cooke, Cheryl Dumesnil, Judy Halebsky, Iven Lourie, Scott Young. Fine poets published in beautiful form by Hip Pocket! Mowen Solinsky Gallery, 225 Broad St., Nevada City. Info: 530-265-4682.
•••Also Sunday (9/16), 7 PM: Book release party for Sun Shadow Mountain, this one to be held at Java Aroma, 1825 Pacific Avenue, Stockton. The book, Sun Shadow Mountain, contains an astounding banquet of poetry, prose, photography and artwork taken from 38 poets from California and abroad. Visit www.sunshadowmountain.com/.
•••Monday (9/17), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center present Crawdad Nelson and Lori Blair at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic after. Crawdad Nelson is a freelance journalist and a full-time student. His poems have appeared in many publications and online journals, beginning in 1986. He hopes one day to live as a simple hunter-gatherer on the outskirts of civilization. Lori Blair is a performing artist from Fresno. She works for Californians Against Waste and uses poetry and performance to establish important links between art and life.
__________________
A CURE FOR DEMONS
(for R.P.)
—Phil Weidman
Derek spent two nights
a week in an outpost bunker
while serving in Viet Nam.
Nerve-wracking; but fear,
he said, always gave
way to tedium.
Twelve hours alone,
waiting for hell to break loose,
or the blessing of daylight
and relief, tedium
triggered Derek's memory.
His mind routinely reviewed
his 24 years with an emphasis
on failures: regrettable behavior,
botched relationships, lack of achievement.
One night, disparaging thoughts
threatening his sanity, Derek
withdrew a meat tin from
an old case of C-rations.
When he broke it open
the stench startled him,
and he flung it into the gloom.
Its odor soon drew village dogs
to his bunker. They came for
C-rations from then on,
staying the night, sharing
his bunker or lounging
on the upper ring of sandbags.
__________________
DOUBLE FEATURE
—Phil Weidman
Lying in bed, window open,
fan pushing cool air down
onto my overheated body,
I hear an intermittent sound
like a distant dog barking.
Listening carefully, I realize
it's our 90-year-old neighbor,
volume turned up on his TV
and a holy roller preaching
the fear of God.
Fortunately, needle-laden pine
trees between our houses
filter out the message,
and I slip gently into
a dream theater just in time
for a second feature.
___________________
—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 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. Also available now: a littlesnake broadside from dawn dibartolo (Blush), and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series (#4—frank andrick).
Coming in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrates Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, Oct. 10 (at The Book Collector, Home of the Snake, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM) 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!