Wallace Stevens
SOMNABULISMA
—Wallace Stevens
On an old shore, the vulgar ocean rolls
Noiselessly, noiselessly, resembling a thin bird,
That thinks of settling, yet never settles, on a nest.
The wings keep spreading and yet are never wings.
The claws keep scratching on the shale, the shallow shale,
The sounding shallow, until by water washed away.
The generations of the bird are all
By water washed away. They follow after.
They follow, follow, follow, in water washed away.
Without this bird that never settles, without
Its generations that follow in their universe,
The ocean, falling and falling on the hollow shore,
Would be a geography of the dead: not of that land
To which they may have gone, but of the place in which
They lived, in which they lacked a pervasive being,
In which no scholar, separately dwelling,
Poured forth the fine fins, the gawky beaks, the personalia,
Which as a man feeling everything, were his.
—Wallace Stevens
On an old shore, the vulgar ocean rolls
Noiselessly, noiselessly, resembling a thin bird,
That thinks of settling, yet never settles, on a nest.
The wings keep spreading and yet are never wings.
The claws keep scratching on the shale, the shallow shale,
The sounding shallow, until by water washed away.
The generations of the bird are all
By water washed away. They follow after.
They follow, follow, follow, in water washed away.
Without this bird that never settles, without
Its generations that follow in their universe,
The ocean, falling and falling on the hollow shore,
Would be a geography of the dead: not of that land
To which they may have gone, but of the place in which
They lived, in which they lacked a pervasive being,
In which no scholar, separately dwelling,
Poured forth the fine fins, the gawky beaks, the personalia,
Which as a man feeling everything, were his.
______________________
Yesterday, Wallace Stevens would've been 128 years old.
Today in NorCal poetry:
•••Weds. (10/3), 7:30 PM: Poems-For-All is pleased to present a poetry reading featuring James DenBoer, reading from his new book, Stonework: Selected Poems, published Sept., 2007 by Sandy McPherson's Swan Scythe Press. Poems-For-All Chaplettes of Mr. DenBoer's work will be dispensed for free! All of this will take place at at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St. (between J & K), Sacramento. Info: 916-442-9295. [See Monday's Medusa for Rattlechapper James DenBoer's bio.]
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Now for something completely different:
TOILET PAPER
—Michelle Kunert, Sacramento
I saw a man struggling through traffic on a junky bicycle
being loaded up with packages of toilet paper.
Yes, such an essential for a poor man without a car;
he wouldn't even have a destiny without it.
My grandmother who lived through Depression and war
considered herself lucky to wipe with old pages from the Sear's catalog
rather than, like others, having to use outhouse corn cobs.
Next, her lumber-company-owning husband won her dream,
getting indoor plumbing with flushing commodes
in which she suddenly got her obession with toilet paper:
she'd hoard it in every different color
like she did with fabric she never got around to quilting,
even if it never matched her bathrooms
and she finally let it go to me for crafting fake flowers.
As I grew into junior high, I realized: without toilet paper
how would you either give or receive a "tepee" job?
For being papered was far preferable to, say, a house-egging.
So toilet paper created vandalism that was kinder and gentler.
But I learned as an adult about toilet paper being revolutionary:
at CSUS a professor/union representative
declared the poor quality of the toilet tissue was the last straw.
She made the analogy when she stood up to the Administration
and demanded the Governor raise professors' wages
because their work had to be taken seriously...
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Thanks, Michelle! Michelle Kunert will be reading at Luna's Cafe tomorrow night, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Open mic starts at 8 PM.
•••Friday (10/5), 7:30 PM: The Other Voice, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, presents two poets, JoAnn Anglin and Carlena Wike. The free reading is in the library of the church at 27074 Patwin Road. Open mic, follows so bring a poem to share. Info: 530-753-2634 or 530-753-1432. Here's a poem from JoAnn:
LAST CALL
—JoAnn Anglin, Sacramento
The zinnia calls out
to any passerby,
flashes her redness in
pride as if she won a
race with the trees.
She smiles at the
petunias, also in a last
flare of purple and scarlet.
They sense the change,
impending cold that
will crush. But today
the sun is at the exact
same angle as in April.
And who are they to
questions its beckoning
glow?
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Thanks, JoAnn! Rattlechapper JoAnn Anglin has taken Medusa's Fall challenge: Send me your poems and/or photos, artwork, whatever about Autumn and I'll send you a free copy of Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. E-mail them to kathykieth@hotmail com or snail them to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 by midnight Wed., Oct. 3—that's tonight!
Another Fall poem, this one by dawn dibartolo, whose littlesnake broadside, blush, is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento—or mail me an SASE and I'll send you one.
fowl
—dawn dibartolo, mather
i dreamt a bird-artist
tucked me under her wing
and schooled me
on hue and shadow.
i became her
box of paints,
and her visions
kept me warm.
when i am ready,
she will push me
from the tallest tree
and i will spread
my own wings,
coast on light and shade
until i’ve found
my own name;
brushstrokes in autumn,
they will call me September,
ruddy brown as
the leaves, and gray
as the wet sky;
and i will fly
in the face
of color
because i am new,
and youth will fade
with season.
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Thanks, dawn!
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—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 latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#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.
Coming for 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 #5 in the Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night will be Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets)—plus other surprises (and cake!). Be there!