Lost in the Steam & Chatter

PARADOXES AND OXYMORONS
—John Ashbery

The poem is concerned with language on a very plain level.
Look at it talking to you. You look out a window
Or pretend to fidget. You have it but you don't have it.
You miss it, it misses you. You miss each other.

The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot.
What's a plain level? It is that and other things,
Bringing a system of them into play. Play?
Well, actually, yes, but I consider play to be

A deeper outside thing, a dreamed role-pattern,
As in the division of grace these long August days
Without proof. Open-ended. And before you know
It gets lost in the steam and chatter of typewriters.

It has been played once more. I think you exist only
To tease me into doing it, on your level, and then you aren't there
Or have adopted a different attitude. And the poem
Has set me softly down beside you. The poem is you.

_____________________

This weekend in Nor-Cal poetry:

•••Tonight (Friday, 11/30), 8:30 PM: Open mic (3 poems/songs each) plus features: Vocalist Maryann Mason and poets Terry Moore, Taylor Williams, Khiry Malik Moore and more. Isis Bazaar, 122 - I Street (In Old Sacramento, as soon as you enter on the right). $5.00 admission. Info: 916-208-POET or www.mybmsf.com/terrymoore/. (Before the reading, drop by Underground Books from 6-8 PM for the Terry Moore “Validated” book signing and social event. Address on the website above.)

•••Sat. (12/1), 7 PM: Poetry Flash at Cody’s Books in Berkeley presents Sacramentan/rattlechapper Susan Kelly-DeWitt and Davisite Sandra McPherson at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St., Berkeley, 510-559-9500. Info: Poetry Flash: (510) 525-5476, www.poetryflash.org/.

•••Also Sat. (12/1), 7:30 PM: Julia Levine reads from her new book, Ditchtender, at The Avid Reader, 617 Second St., Davis. Julia's previous collection, Ash, won the 2003 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry. Free.

•••Also Sat. (12/1), 7 PM: Poetry by AriA and music by Grapham Vinson and the Zoo Human Project. Butch N Nellie's, 1827 I St., Sacramento. $5 general, free for open mic performers. Info: 916-443-6133.

•••Monday (12/3), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Lorna Dee Cervantes and Alfred Arteaga, as part of SPC’s weekly series of readings to be held at The Space Theater, 2509 R St., Sacramento. Lorna Dee Cervantes has authored three books of poetry, two of them award-winning: Emplumada; From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger; and Drive: The First Quartet. Her poetry has appeared in 200 highly-recognized anthologies and too-numerous-to-count e-zines and magazines. She has performed her poetry twice at the Library of Congress and has also presented at the Walker Arts Center, The Dodge Poetry Festival, New York YMCA, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Vassar, Wellesley, and numerous other venues, university & college campuses in the US, Mexico, Spain & Colombia.

Alfred Arteaga, born in East Los Angeles, is author of several books of poetry, creative non-fiction, and cultural studies. His latest book of poems is Frozen Accident (Tia Chucha, 2006). He had been a National Endowment for the Arts and a Rockefeller Fellow. He teaches poetry in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley.

_____________________

SUBTERFUGE
—Vassar Miller

I remember my father, slight,
staggering in with his Underwood,
bearing it in his arms like an awkward bouquet

for his spastic child who sits down
on the floor, one knee on the frame
of the typewriter, and holding her left wrist

with her right hand, in that precision known
to the crippled, pecks at the keys
with a sparrow's preoccupation.

Falling by chance on rhyme, novel and curious bubble
blown with a magic pipe, she tries them over and over,
spellbound by life's clashing in accord or against itself,

pretending pretense and playing at playing,
she does her chiildhood backward as children do,
her fun a delaying action against what she knows.

My father must lose her, his runaway on her treadmill,
will lose the terrible favor that life has done him
as she toils at tomorrow, tensed at her makeshift toy.

______________________

GENIUS
—Philip Levine

Two old dancing shoes my grandfather
gave the Christian Ladies,
an unpaid water bill, the rear license
of a dog that messed on your lawn,
a tooth I saved for the good fairy
and which is stained with base metals
and plastic filler. With these images
and your black luck and my bad breath
a bright beginner could make a poem
in fourteen rhyming lines about the purity
of first love or the rose's many thorns
or dew that won't wait long enough
to stand my little gray wren a drink.

_____________________

THEME FOR ENGLISH B
—Langston Hughes

The instructor said,

Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue. Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear you—we two—you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me—who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white—
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
I guess you learn from me—
although you're older—and white—
and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.

____________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Rattlesnake Review: 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. Issue #16 will be out in mid-December; its deadline of Nov. 15 has passed. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in November: On November 14, Rattlesnake Press released Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a free littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. These are now available at The Book Collector, from kathykieth@hotmail.com, or on rattlesnakepress.com/, as is October's Conversations, Vol. One of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming December 12: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro; Notes From An Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Ann Wehrman; and a brand new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#16). Come celebrate all of these on Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's

Rain Dance, uh, Poems

Photo by Stephani Schaefer

WAITING FOR RAIN
—Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos

It may not rain at all
this year, the high clouds
may keep it to themselves,

maybe let down tantalizing virga
in wispy streaks that
never reach the ground.

Meantime, the high desert waits
on the edge
of the last irrigated field.

_____________________

Thanks, Steph! Stephani Schaefer writes: This monster cactus is not far from my house. We are so DRY my hair stands up from my head with static...


Reading today at noon:

•••TODAY (Thurs., 11/29), 12 noon: River City Writers Series presents Zaid Shlah at Sacramento City College in A-6 [Auditorium 6]. A native Calgarian, Zaid Shlah now resides in Walnut Creek, CA. He obtained his BA in English from the University of Calgary and his MA in English from San Francisco State University, where he received the Distinguished Graduate award from San Francisco State University's Creative Writing department. His poetry has appeared in literary journals and anthologies both in Canada and the U.S. In particular, selections from the long poem, "Taqsim", have appeared on CBC Radio's Alberta Anthology. "Asking Iraq to Comply" appeared in the anthology, Canadian Writers Against the War, The Common Sky, 2003. And "Songs of Departure" and "Asking Iraq to Comply" are forthcoming in the anthology, Arab American and Diaspora Literature (Interlink Publishing, 2005). His first full-length book of poetry is Taqsim (Frontenac 2005).


And tonight:

•••Thurs. (11/29), 7:30 PM: Benefit for the Yuba Watershed Institute: “Peaks, Fires & Spirits of Love and Loss,” an evening with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder. Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Admission is $35 including dessert buffet and no-host bar. Tickets: 530-271-7000 or thecenterforthearts.org/. Info: Tania Carlone, Yuba Watershed Institute, 530-265-4459 or taniacarlone@sbcglobal.net/.

•••Thursday (11/29), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sac. Featured readers Terry Moore and Khiry Malik Moore, with open mic before and after. Info: 916-441-3931. [For interviews with both readers, see Conversations, Vol. One of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.]

_____________________

More rain poems, with some wishful thinking. We sorely need both.

ON A PAINTING BY WANG THE CLERK OF YEN LING
—Su Yung P'o (11th century)

The slender bamboo is like a hermit.
The simple flower is like a maiden.
The sparrow tilts on the branch.
A gust of rain sprinkles the flowers.
He spreads his wings to fly
And shakes all the leaves.
The bees gathering honey
Are trapped in the nectar.
What a wonderful talent
That can create an entire Spring
With a brush and a sheet of paper.
If he would try poetry
I know he would be a master of words.

(Translated from the Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth)

_______________________

ALONE
—Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I lov'd—I lov'd alone—
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the sun that round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(Where the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—

____________________

AFTER THIS DELUGE
—Ingebord Bachmann

After this deluge
I would like to see the dove,
and nothing but the dove,
saved once more.

For I'd perish in this sea!
if she didn't fly away,
if she didn't bring back
in the last hour,
the leaf.

_____________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Rattlesnake Review: 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. Issue #16 will be out in mid-December; its deadline of Nov. 15 has passed. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in November: On November 14, Rattlesnake Press released Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a free littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. These are now available at The Book Collector, from kathykieth@hotmail.com, or on rattlesnakepress.com/, as is October's Conversations, Vol. One of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming December 12: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro; Notes From An Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Ann Wehrman; and a brand new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#16). Come celebrate all of these on Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's

Sunflowers in December & Delusions of Ulro

William Blake

AH! SUNFLOWER
—William Blake

Ah Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done;

Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sunflower wishes to go!

_____________________

Thanks, Bill! Today, William Blake would've been 250 years old!


Tonight in poetry, to celebrate Bill's birthday:

•••Weds. (11/28), 6-7 PM: Upstairs Poetry reading at The Upstairs Art Gallery, 420 Main St (2nd floor), Placerville. It's an open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. Free.

•••Wednesday (11/28), 6-8 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center will hold its Annual Benefit at the home of Burnett and Mimi Miller, 1224 40th St., Sacramento. Victoria Dalkey and Quinton Duval will share their poetry; music will be provided by The Swing State (aka SPC Board Member Mary Zeppa and SPC President Bob Stanley); plus food, drink and fellowship. $30. Arts funding is always at a premium. If you can’t fit our party into your busy life, please consider helping to support our ongoing (since 1979) programs with a tax-deductible contribution. Send it to Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 – 25th St., Sacramento, CA 95816.


Calendar addition for Saturday:

Davisite/rattlechapper James Lee Jobe writes: Julia Levine's new book of poems is out, titled Ditchtender. Julia's previous collection, Ash, won the 2003 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry. The local debut for Ditchtender is Saturday, December 1st, at 7:30 pm, at The Avid Reader, 617 Second Street, Davis. Julia gave a reading at the Unitarian Church in Davis a few months ago that was almost Standing Room Only. It was a vibrant, fun, almost electric reading! I encourage you not to miss either this reading or this book.

_____________________

FROM "MILTON"
—William Blake

And every Space that a Man views around his dwelling-place
Standing on his own roof or in his garden on a mount
Of twenty-five cubits in height, such space is his Universe:
And on its verge the Sun rises & sets, the Clouds bow
To meet the flat Earth and the Sea in such an order'd Space:
The Starry heavens reach no further, but here bend and set
On all sides, & the two Poles turn on their valves of gold;
And if he move his dwelling-place, his heavens also move
Where'er he goes, & all his neighbourhood bewail his loss.
Such are the Spaces called Earth & such its dimension.
As to that false appearance which appears to the reasoner
As of a Globe rolling thro' Voidness, it is a delusion of Ulro.

_______________________

A SKETCH FOR A MODERN LOVE POEM
—Tadeusz Rozewicz

And yet whiteness
can be best described by greyness
a bird by a stone
sunflowers
in december

love poems of old
used to be descriptions of flesh
they described this and that
for instance eyelashes

and yet redness
should be described
by greyness the sun by rain
the poppies in november
the lips at night

the most palpable
description of bread
is that of hunger
there is in it
a humid porous core
a warm inside
sunflowers at night
the breasts the belly the thighs of Cybele

a transparent
source-like description
of water is that of thirst
of ash
of desert
it provokes a mirage
clouds and trees enter
a mirror of water
lack hunger
absence
of flesh
is a description of love
in a modern love poem


(Translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz)

___________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Rattlesnake Review: 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. Issue #16 will be out in mid-December; its deadline of Nov. 15 has passed. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in November: On November 14, Rattlesnake Press released Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a free littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. These are now available at The Book Collector, from kathykieth@hotmail.com, or on rattlesnakepress.com/, as is October's Conversations, Vol. One of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming December 12: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro; Notes From An Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Ann Wehrman; and a brand new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#16). Come celebrate all of these on Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

Whitmans of the Wild

Allegra Silberstein

HOME THOUGHTS IN NOVEMBER
—Allegra Silberstein, Davis

In memory's mirror I look home
to the barn on my brother's small farm
in Wisconsin where we grew up.
The cows stand patiently waiting to be milked.
My brother and his wife know each one
by her given name.

When barn swallows leave,
their nesting days done
and the ducks gone from the pond,
cold, hard days come, as now they have.
Breath of the cows makes a mist
as they mumble summer-sunned hay.

No matter if the dark wind howls around
corners, within these walls, all are safe,
warm with shared body heat.
The cows first kneel, then lie down to rest.
The crumbled years shine like lime
spread upon the clean driveway.

____________________

Thanks, Allegra! Allegra Silberstein is a retired teacher who now has more time for writing. She also dances, sings, and plays the recorder when she can find a few spare moments. Her poems have been published in Poetry Depth Quarterly, Blue Unicorn, Rattlesnake Review, Poetry Now, Poetry of the New West, California Quarterly, and other journals. Publication in anthologies includes: The Sacramento Anthology: One Hundred Poems; Gatherings; A Woman's Place, and Where Do I Walk. Her first chapbook, Acceptance, was published in 1999, and her second, In The Folds, was published by Rattlesnake Press in 2005. Look for more poems from Allegra in Rattlesnake Review #16, due out in mid-December, and on rattlesnakepress.com (Rattlechappers' page).

Allegra also co-hosts The Other Voice, a monthly reading series at the Unitarian Church in Davis. December 7 will feature Rattlechappers Danyen Powell and Katy Brown; more about that next week.

Speaking of Katy, do you have your copy of her KatyKalendar yet (A Poet's Book of Days)? Pick one up from rattlesnakepress.com (HandyStuff page) or The Book Collector, or directly from me at P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Or come to Katy and Danyen's reading Dec. 7 in Davis!

If you'd rather have the daily kind of calendar, go to http://www.poets.org/store.php/mt/121/prmID/294/ for some cool poetry stuff, Christmas gifts for yourself or for others.


Calendar additions for this week:

•••Thurs. (11/29), 7:30 PM: Benefit for the Yuba Watershed Institute: “Peaks, Fires & Spirits of Love and Loss,” an evening with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder. Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Admission is $35 including dessert buffet and no-host bar. Tickets: 530-271-7000 or thecenterforthearts.org/. Info: Tania Carlone, Yuba Watershed Institute, 530-265-4459 or taniacarlone@sbcglobal.net/.

•••Friday (11/30), 8:30 PM: Open mic (3 poems/songs each) plus features: Vocalist Maryann Mason and poets Terry Moore, Taylor Williams, Khiry Malik Moore and more. Isis Bazaar, 122 - I Street (In Old Sacramento, as soon as you enter on the right). $5.00 admission. Info: 916-208-POET or www.mybmsf.com/terrymoore/. (Before the reading, drop by Underground Books from 6-8 PM for the Terry Moore “Validated” book signing and social event. Address on the website above.)

Call for Submissions: Be Part of the Premiere Issue

Editor Lisa Espenmiller of Oakland seeks meticulously crafted poems and short prose pieces for her new journal, Singing With The Whale, which intends to use a unique publishing concept that is based more on the idea of being a gallery or a book without ending, rather than specific issues with a beginning and an end. The site seeks in its design format to express a feeling of clean lines and Zen simplicity, enabling the visual focus to be on the words themselves. Check it out at www.singingwiththewhale.com or write to editor@singingwiththewhale.com/.

_____________________

SAMAPATTI OF A HIDDEN LAKE
—Allegra Silberstein

A storm had muddied the small clear lake.
Release came as molecules of water
let go the stirrings spooned by wind
and run-off: a healing time of wait—
the wind wound down
to a gentle breeze like an armistice.

As I walked down this wild-life road
I heard the song of a red-winged blackbird.
The sun well-past mid-day brought slant light.
The lake mirrored overhanging trees,
tule-reeds, elderberry, cattails
and Queen Ann's lace with perfect clarity.

Though storms may come with manifest power—
stronger the stillness that shaped this hour.


Samapatti: a Sanskrit term for a state of mental absorption
that allows a clear vision of the world made possible
when the turnings of the mind have been stopped.

____________________

CONSIDERATIONS OF THE FORMAL
—Allegra Silberstein

I heard the professor of poetics
proclaim the issues of iambic and
pentameter, of villanelle, sestina
and pantoum, of free verse, blank, and lyric,
of sonnets: Petrarchan and Shakespearean;
I heard his fine intellect—then
considered my singular ignorance.

Outside the vaulted window where I sat,
a brown bird singing distracted me.
I could not name this bird,
could not spell out the notes
of his unlettered lyric verse...
a Whitman of the wild, without a pen,
with his syrinx brought me poems.

_____________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Rattlesnake Review: 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. Issue #16 will be out in mid-December; its deadline of Nov. 15 has passed. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in November: On November 14, Rattlesnake Press released Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a free littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. These are now available at The Book Collector, from kathykieth@hotmail.com, or on rattlesnakepress.com/, as is October's Conversations, Vol. One of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming December 12: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro; Notes From An Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Ann Wehrman; and a brand new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#16). Come celebrate all of these on Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

Bull & Otherwise

Photo by Kathy Kieth
(I call this one, "Two Seconds Before Chaos",
which is what broke out right after
the shutter snapped.)

_____________

Air is

the only
interference
between you
and me

and sight
acts
primarily
on the land-
scape

red earth
yellow sun
blue ocean

include humans
(of course)

to know
that
hugging
the coastline
the fog
is the only true
veil in nature

So

exactly what is
a tweed
under the sunshine?

(No one
is looking)

Go Free


—Gordon Preston, Modesto
from his book, Violins, published by Finishing Line Press

________________

Thanks, Gordon. Gordon Preston co-presents a reading series in Modesto, and was one of the editors of Hardpan. Yes, "was"—sadly, that wonderful journal is no longer publishing. Darn—we were all set to do a feature on them in the next Rattlesnake Review. Well, at least we have some poems from Editors Gordon Preston, debee loyd and Karen Baker for the issue, so that'll be a plus.

New from Do Gentry:

Sacramento Poet Do Gentry has a new chapbook from Small Poetry Press that has just been released: The Logic of the Heart. It is available at The Book Collector, (916) 442-9295, 1008 24th Street (between J and K Sts.), Sacramento, CA 95816 (bookcollector@sacfreepress.com/).


December Boot Camp:

Molly Fisk of Nevada City writes: It's not too late to sign up for the December Boot Camp, which runs from Sunday, 12/2 through Friday 12/7, in case you'd like to write poems about how your Thanksgiving went this year, and what it's like to go shopping the day afterward. You can also write gift poems for your loved ones or anything else you feel like writing. If you don't know what Poetry Boot Camp is, visit http://www.poetrybootcamp for a full explanation. This is also a good time to purchase a Camp for any of your poet friends as a holiday present. (You know how hard poets are to buy for...) Go to the Registration page and click on Gift Certificate.

The new year is going to bring some changes to Poetry Boot Camp, including special separate camps for beginners and for experienced poets, guest critiquers, more revision camps, and camps with particular topics. I'll let you know more about these innovations in about a month. Meanwhile, enjoy all the non-shopping aspects of December, and write whenever you can. It's a great stress-reliever.
Merry, Happy, etc., and many thanks for your participation and support as we wrap up the fifth year of Boot Camp.


This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (11/26), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Brad Buchanan's Creative Writing Class from Cal. State University, Sacramento, at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic will follow.

•••Weds. (11/28), 6-7 PM: Upstairs Poetry reading at The Upstairs Art Gallery, 420 Main St (2nd floor), Placerville. It's an open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. Free.

•••Wednesday (11/28), 6-8 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center will hold its Annual Benefit at the home of Burnett and Mimi Miller, 1224 40th St., Sacramento. Victoria Dalkey and Quinton Duval will share their poetry; music will be provided by The Swing State (aka SPC Board Member Mary Zeppa and SPC President Bob Stanley); plus food, drink and fellowship. $30. Arts funding is always at a premium. If you can’t fit our party into your busy life, please consider helping to support our ongoing (since 1979) programs with a tax-deductible contribution. Send it to Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 – 25th St., Sacramento, CA 95816.

•••Thursday (11/29), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sac. Featured readers, with open mic before and after. Info: 916-441-3931.

•••Sat. (12/1), 7 PM: Poetry Flash at Cody’s Books in Berkeley presents Sacramentan/rattlechapper Susan Kelly-DeWitt and Davisite Sandra McPherson at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St., Berkeley, 510-559-9500. Info: Poetry Flash: (510) 525-5476, www.poetryflash.org/.

______________________

Tom Goff sends us the following poem, with this introduction:

[A sonnet naked of rhyme, in which Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford or Oxenford, bewails his inability, by high birth and impolitic disclosure of politics, to claim what plays he hath writ, under the pen name William Shakespeare; whereupon cometh a Stratford man of small education, haply named William Shakspere, under whose seeming authorship, the said plays are enabled to be published. The which sonnet containeth the true author’s name, but in a manner as may chance with courtiers, which do both rise and fall.*]

SHAKESPEARE IN ALL BUT NAME
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

Evil stars in bad courses blast me dead,
Desiring silenced all that I work for.
Whatever I ache to speak, they chide me no:
A partless actor must all speech leave off,
Resentful-mute. What stood my love upon,
Designs of an English stage, in me alone
Originate, yet to one who signs his X,
X or what scribble he can make, must go
Eternal lines and name. This comes as dread
Nonsuits the great who rise and rule, yet fear
Faint semblances which satire out loud—la!—
Oily deceits and policies they speak low.
Reward avoids players and plays that lend the grand
Dark mirrors of darker deeds, that they may see.


*That is, a double acrostic. For the rousing story behind this limping conceit, see Mark Anderson’s 2005 book, Shakespeare By Another Name.

____________________

Thanks, Tom!

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Rattlesnake Review: 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. Issue #16 will be out in mid-December; its deadline of Nov. 15 has passed. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in November: On November 14, Rattlesnake Press released Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a free littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. These are now available at The Book Collector, from kathykieth@hotmail.com, or on rattlesnakepress.com/, as is October's Conversations, Vol. One of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming December 12: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro; Notes From An Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Ann Wehrman; and a brand new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#16). Come celebrate all of these on Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

As Magic as Deer

Photo taken in Fair Oaks, CA
by Sam the Snake Man

SONG FOR THE DEER AND MYSELF TO RETURN ON
—Joy Harjo

This morning when I looked out the roof window
before dawn and a few stars were still caught
in the fragile weft of ebony night
I was overwhelmed. I sang the song Louis taught me:
a song to call the deer in Creek, when hunting,
and I am certainly hunting something as magic as deer
in this city far from the hammock of my mother's belly.
It works, of course, and deer came into this room
and wondered at finding themselves
in a house near downtown Denver.
Now the deer and I are trying to figure out a song
to get them back, to get all of us back,
because if it works I'm going with them.
And it's too early to call Louis
and nearly too late to go home.

_____________________

—Medusa

This Perfection

Norma Kohout

SOUNDLESS DREAM
—Norma Kohout, Sacramento

Walking a long river bottom
I follow a smooth path
which curves in a “U”
between green-gray willows and thick underbrush.

Where the path turns
a grey wolf stands alert and unafraid
with her half-grown pup,
smooth fur flecked with orange;
their unwavering silver eyes look straight ahead.

To avoid alarming them,
I quiet my thoughts, tread past
and make the turn carefully, wondering—
is that a mewling
in the underbrush. . .

_____________________

Thanks, Norma! Norma Kohout played tennis in her San Francisco years, was counselor for The San Francisco Boys Chorus, a secretary, and a student at San Francisco State College. In Modesto, she taught junior high school English and participated in three teacher organizatioins. In Sacramento, it's been poetry, poetry, poetry. She says highlights include receiving the Chaparral Golden Pegasus Award in 2001, being published in Senior Magazine, Tiger's Eye, Rattlesnake Review, and Song of the San Joaquin, plus Chaparral and Ina Coolbrith wins and publications. Also, Norma co-facilitates a weekly senior poetry group with Joyce Odam, and she has a littlesnake broadside, Out the Train Window, from Rattlesnake Press.

THE ZEN OF GRAPEFRUIT
—Norma Kohout

Larry brought me grapefruit from his tree-filled
place in the country.
I've begun cutting the peels
with a knife,
rather than removing them with my fingers;
which leaves
a sticky crowded feeling under my nails.

The yellow covering cuts away nicely
with a few curving motions; so does the white layer
that I rather like, and
purposely keep a bit of,
remembering my neighbor in Los Angeles
said it had lots of Vitamin K.

The bitter-mellow smell comes up; and
my mouth begins salivating when the serrated blade
cuts through the naked fruit, making cubes
of the natural sections
where little cells of juice glisten.
I put the grapefruit in a glass dish,
licking the citric sweetness from my fingers.

But I miss the comedy routines about grapefruit
from my distant girlhood:
grapefruit juice squirting from the spoon
into people's eyes,
and movie incidents like James Cagney
famously squashing
one in his blonde gangster moll's face.

_____________________

THE NIGHT FOR FROG LEGS
—Norma Kohout

Tonight, after a day of hauling freight,
he sautéed frog legs—
standing solid, still neat in the army-style
twill pants and shirt.

Hot butter perfumed the kitchen; the white meat
sizzled, and Mother
drained string beans at the zinc counter,
stepping around
our German shepherd, Frieda.

Even to a daughter's eyes, he was handsome:
ash-blond hair and clipped mustache—
turning frog legs
the way he learned in France in the war.
No other kids in the neighborhood
had frog legs for dinner.

We watched from the dining room table,
past Mother's cooking cabinet,
past the scar on the stove's white enamel,
where he'd hurled the spinach
in Grandma Lindholm's heirloom dish.

(Originally appeared in Rattlesnake Review #14)

_____________________

AT NIGHT
—Norma Kohout

Turning off the bed lamp
filled my room with soft dark.

The night sky came into view.
An oval pearl shone fiercely
on its cushion of indigo velvet.

I was glad the moon
was not yet round;
this perfection was all I could bear.

_______________________

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Rattlesnake Review: 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. Issue #16 will be out in mid-December; its deadline of Nov. 15 has passed. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in November: On November 14, Rattlesnake Press released Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a free littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. These are now available at The Book Collector, from kathykieth@hotmail.com, or on rattlesnakepress.com/, as is October's Conversations, Vol. One of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming December 12: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro; Notes From An Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Ann Wehrman; and a brand new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#16). Come celebrate all of these on Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

Warmer Than Tomorrow

Family
Photo sent in by David Humphreys (right)

RAVENS IN BARE BRANCHES
—David Humphreys, Stockton

A chill on uncovered hands, chin, nose
and cheeks, red yellow brown leaves
piling up alongside the gray street, haze
filling the background with a soft veil lace
curtain into an interior distance. Half a mile
further on parrots mutter, still in their treetop
roosts. In a few days our families will reunite
again, another year gone and harvested and you
will see them all grown a little older with a touch
more gray at a temple or children more mature,
any signs of age or infirmity like a needle in
time’s tablecloth. Ask them all to join you with,
“Bless, oh Lord, this food to our use and make us
ever mindful of the needs of others.”

_____________________

WAITING FOR THE OTHER SHOE
("Ultimate Power Corrupts Ultimately")

to drop dead in its tracks like an enraged and
endangered rhinoceros brought down by some
lovely work of painstaking colonial homeland
industry, tooled to a micrometric perfection now
transcended by a super human nano dimensioned
world craft and workmanship that is presently so
revered with an astronomical sterling value, you feel
perhaps a bit relic and discarded, more precisely like
a garroted shaved head street walker whore fascist
collaborator. How is it that you can calmly wake each
morning to await the afternoon delivery of dividends
checks and balances secure in the principle embodied
in the inert carcass lying still warm at your feet with its
long curved aphrodisiac horn, a principle of lead and brass,
.600 Nitro Express, H & H, side by side, brought to you
clearly now in reverie from your father’s receding era of Sears
Roebuck Christmas Catalog teddy bears and whale bone corsets.

—David Humphreys

____________________

THE LAST GREAT KILLING
—David Humphreys

(His clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames,
and its wheels were burning fire.)
—Judgment of the Ancient One, Book of Daniel, 9

The last century watched newsreels of horrendous
conflagrations and atrocities beyond description
in safe American movie theaters. What brought
this about and who has never read “Flanders

Fields” or “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”?
Who will remember now as another approaching
storm swirls bleached with skulls stacked in catacombs
beside blood stained fields green with forgetfulness,
nuclear winter long with dark eternity?

What sweet child will bring us flowers
to fill with laughter warm afternoon hours?

______________________

Thanks, David, for sending us poems!


This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Saturday (11/24), 7-9 PM: The Show features Neo-soul artist Kevin Sandbloom (kevinsandbloom.com), Praise Dancer Tangela Campbell, House Band LSB, House Vocalist Chris Bush. Wo’se Community Center, 2863 35th St., (off 35th & Broadway), Sacramento. $5. Open mic, all ages. Info: 916-208-POET.

•••Monday (11/26), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Brad Buchanan's Creative Writing Class from Cal. State University, Sacramento, at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic will follow.

______________________

One more from David Humphreys:

A FEW DAYS LATER
—David Humphreys

Early this morning there was a column of smoke
rising just to the north as I started out with the dog.
The smell of it was strong and followed us all the
way around our circuit. When we first saw the cloud
I wondered if I should call the Fire Department but
then decided to wait for the sirens. This is the time
of year when controlled burning happens in the valley’s
fields. The sirens didn’t start though and by the time
we made it home the cloud had moved off and dissipated.
I heard the geese before I looked up and saw them
in a long uneven V. It just takes a few days for another
set of trees to come into full color and the golden yellow
was next to another house around an unexpected corner.
Down on the south street, El Camino, we walked into the
sun and two birches were ablaze in dark shadows. Beyond
them a big Cat back hoe was banging broken up asphalt from
the grade school’s parking lot into a dump truck. Its oversized
loader jaw was a metal Tyrannosaurus in the toothy serrated
dawn, colder than yesterday, warmer than tomorrow.

_____________________

Thanks, David!

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Rattlesnake Review: 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. Issue #16 will be out in mid-December; its deadline of Nov. 15 has passed. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in November: On November 14, Rattlesnake Press released Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a free littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. These are now available at The Book Collector, from kathykieth@hotmail.com, or on rattlesnakepress.com/, as is October's Conversations, Vol. One of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming December 12: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro; Notes From An Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Ann Wehrman; and a brand new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#16). Come celebrate all of these on Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

Let My Hands Find Such Symbols

Photo taken in Fair Oaks, CA
by Sam the Snake Man

PLYMOUTH
—Philip Larkin

A box of teak, a box of sandalwood,
A brass-ringed spyglass in a case,
A coin, leaf-thin with many polishings,
Last kingdom of a gold forgotten face,
These lie about the room, and daily shine
When new-built ships set out towards the sun.

If they had any roughness, any flaw,
An unfamiliar scent, all this has gone;
They are no more than ornaments, or eyes,
No longer knowing what they looked upon,
Turned sightless; rivers of Eden, rivers of blood
Once blinded them, and were not understood.

The hands that chose them rust upon a stick.
Let my hands find such symbols, that can be
Unnoticed in the casual light of day,
Lying in wait for half a century
To split chance lives across, that had not dreamed
Such coasts had echoed, or such seabirds screamed.

Photo taken in Fair Oaks, CA
by Sam the Snake Man

—Medusa, in great gratitude for The Poets

Hearing Music?

Grandfather Stump
Photo by Ann Wehrman

THE GRANDFATHER STUMP
—Ann Wehrman, Sacramento

He has grown here for a thousand years,
before Lewis and Clark reached the Northwest,
back when Nootka, Yorok, and Hupa
ruled the Pacific Coast.
One of countless giants
chopped down without regret,
now he's just a grandfather stump,
his bark dried and gray—
yet, cradling a saucer magnolia sapling,
covered with delicate, white blossoms of spring,
nourished by the soil
collected in the ancient's desiccated heart.

_____________________

Thanks, Ann! Watch for Notes From The Ivory Tower, a new littlesnake broadside from Sacramento's Ann Wehrman, coming December 12 from Rattlesnake Press. More about Ann later.


Dreaming of Mallorca?

Writing For Our Lives is a writing retreat which will be held at La Serrania, a remote and gorgeous retreat center in Mallorca, with Ellen Bass next May 3-10. This week will be an opportunity to delve into writing in an inspiring setting, to nurture the creative voice. There will be time for writing and time for sharing and response, hearing what our work touches in others. We'll help each other to become clearer, go deeper, express our feelings and ideas more powerfully. With the safety, support, and guidance of this gathering, you have the opportunity to create writing that is more vivid, more true, more complex and powerful than you've been able to do before. The focus of this workshop is on generating new writing, but there will also be time for feedback, critique, and guidance. Both beginners and experienced writers are welcome. Whether you are interested in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, memoir or journal writing, this workshop will provide an opportunity to explore and expand your creative world.

This size of the workshop is limited to 14 participants. The early bird fee for the workshop (which includes accommodations and all meals) is $1500 until December 31. After that the regular fee is $1750. A $550 deposit is required to hold your place. Most rooms are doubles, but there may be single rooms available for a surcharge. For more information about LaSerrania, visit www.laserrania.com/. For more information about the workshop and to register, please email ellen@ellenbass.com/.

_____________________

WHAT’S IN A WORD
—Stephanie Schaefer, Los Molinos

No meaning
without memory
translation
recognition.

Here lately I look at a word
and wonder
is it a real word.

Like seeing a friend
in an unlikely setting
and asking myself
do I really know that person.

I use many odd words nowadays.
Words that might be words.
Or not.

Perhaps not too long from now
I'll write in my own language,
without meaning for others.

But maybe they'll hear music.

______________________

Thanks, Steph, and Medusa is tearing her hair out over misspelling your name all over the place this week. (It's one "f", not two!) Watch for more of Stephani Schaefer's poetry, plus a review of her new chapbook from PWJ Publishing, Punk Medusa, in Rattlesnake Review #16.

Finally, one more stump poem, this one from Taylor Graham, who writes: OK, don't ask where this came from, except general pondering on the world and human situation. Plus, once I climbed into a huge old stump like this; the dog found me, but to his handler I was invisible, non-existent, and her dog must be imagining things.

NOTHING BUT

a stump in the meadow —
the stump of a behemoth tree,
a light-swallowing dinosaur of a tree
long gone extinct

so only the tree’s stump is left,
rooted, hollowed out
by rot, its empty center big enough
for a grown man — let’s say

a Hercules of a man, a Lion-Heart,
a St. Francis — to climb
into, and pull slabs of bark
across the door

and disappear, simply go extinct
as he is from human-
kind and unkind — a hero
wrapped in his losses.

Where owls go to dream...

Have a good day.

—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Rattlesnake Review: 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. Issue #16 will be out in mid-December; its deadline of Nov. 15 has passed. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. Sooner than you think!

New in November: On November 14, Rattlesnake Press released Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a free littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. These are now available at The Book Collector, from kathykieth@hotmail.com, or on rattlesnakepress.com/, as is October's Conversations, Vol. One of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming December 12: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro; Notes From An Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Ann Wehrman; and a brand new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#16). Come celebrate all of these on Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

Stumped, Part Three

WHERE DO BIRDS SLEEP?
—Margaret Ellis Hill, Wilton

Ready to go before birds awaken,
the delicate lady paces the house,
feigns calmness, checks her hair,
waits for the car.

On the road, she chats about the cats,
today’s coffee, wraps her coat tightly,
tells us she is not nervous now,
chatters away with ideas and life.

As she is prepared with dressing gown,
warm blankets, attached with sterile lines
she chants the litanies again;
Our hearts reach out to hers.

Fragility like a bird,
etched wrinkles instead of feathers
shows a wearing down,
that wears us thin too.

With the mesmerizing hum of nurses,
soft sounds of family,
induced relaxation takes her
to the mercy of God and the angels.

Where do birds sleep?

_____________________

Thanks, Peggy! Peggy Hill is responding to Katy Brown's question yesterday: Where do owls go in winter?

And you: Have you sent in your stump poem yet? Tonight's the deadline: Send in your poems/photos/art about stumps or being "stumped" or other variations thereof (metaphoric and otherwise) and I'll send you Taylor Graham's latest chapbook, Among Neighbors. (Or, if you already have her new book, another Rattlesnake Press product of your choosing.) Send it all to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 by midnight (postmarked) Tuesday, Nov. 20. That's tonight! Here's one by David Humphreys; thanks, David!

THE WALNUT STUMP

out front is the last of three black walnuts
that lined the south side of the driveway. An
American walnut seedling nearest the house,
that was given to us by a grandmother, has
grown tall enough for shade but it is nothing
like the middle black that reached its zenith
height and glory the year before it succumbed
to a blight that ran through the area like wild fire.
The driveway needs to be jack hammered and
resurfaced. The roof needs to be replaced and
the garage door just broke. It’s an old house, a
beauty, but suffering from this climate of hot
summers. There’s plenty of work for an old
carpenter. I’ll take the chainsaw and grind down
the stump before too long but I’ll miss remembering
the kids climbing up into its branches and jumping
in the leaf piles every fall.

—David Humphreys, Stockton

_____________________

Call for submissions:

Song of the San Joaquin is accepting submissions of poetry through Dec. 15 for the Winter Issue. Info about guidelines: Cleo Griffith, (209) 543-1776, cleor36@yahoo.com/. See the last issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) for a feature article on the SSJ Editorial Staff.


North-state poetry grants:

Jamie FitzGerald of Poets & Writers says: Poets & Writers administers the Readings/Workshops program, which provides matching fees to writers who give public readings of their work or teach writing workshops. One of the program goals is to reach underserved populations and/or rural areas where literary programming is often scarce.

For the past two years, we have chosen three counties to focus some of our efforts on. During this new fiscal year, which began July 1, we are focusing on Siskiyou, Del Norte and Placer counties. The goal is to help jump-start more events in these counties via outreach and education about funds available through the Readings/Workshops program.

Organizations must apply on behalf of writers, but you can help spread the word and initiate your own events with sponsors. Everything you need to learn more about this program (guidelines, application and FAQs) can be accessed on our Web site at http://www.pw.org/rw.

If you have any questions or would like to share your knowledge of literary events in your area that might qualify for support, please feel free to give us a call.

Jamie Asae FitzGerald
Poets & Writers, Program Associate
California Office & Readings/Workshops (West)
2035 Westwood Blvd, Suite 211
Los Angeles, CA 90025
310-481-7195 phone
310-481-7193 fax
jfitzgerald@pw.org


SPC Annual Fund Raiser

•••A week from this Wednesday (11/28), 6-8 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center will hold its Annual Benefit at the home of Burnett and Mimi Miller, 1224 40th St., Sacramento. Victoria Dalkey and Quinton Duval will share their poetry; music will be provided by The Swing State (aka Mary Zeppa and Bob Stanley); plus food, drink and fellowship. $30. Arts funding is always at a premium. If you can’t fit our party into your busy life, please consider helping to support our ongoing (since 1979) programs with a tax-deductible contribution. Send it to Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 – 25th St., Sacramento, CA 95816.

____________________


I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as... a stump!
What? Are you debating me?
It's what you get when you chop down
those "woody" tall shrubs for the sake of progress
Yes, whacking them down in field and forest like big weeds
because it's our destiny
to also tame and conform our landscape
in order to then, likely, later pave over what remains
for houses, buildings, shopping malls, lots, or highway
not knowing how many roots still remain under them
Then sun and weather help make buckled cracks
in which suddenly start poking out little sprouts
Perhaps some of those stumps attempting to resurrect—
rebelling at being buried and forgotten in secret

—Michelle Kunert, Sacramento



—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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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:

Rattlesnake Review: 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. Issue #16 will be out in mid-December; its deadline of Nov. 15 has passed. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15.

New in November: On November 14, Rattlesnake Press released Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a free littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. These are now available at The Book Collector, from kathykieth@hotmail.com, or on rattlesnakepress.com/ as is Conversations, Vol. One of the Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming December 12: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro; Notes From An Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Ann Wehrman; and a brand new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#16). Come celebrate all of these on Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.