BETWEEN
fall and spring semesters the sunlight
that crouched between fogs now gathers
its power and bursts all fog apart
in a winter landscape of hills it is the only
flower although slender green blades turtle
up from beneath from their brown burial
earth mere gravecloth shrugged empty aside
flotsam for the wind the violent wind that only
days ago tore out by their roots many Sacramento
trees here across the college walkway blasted
only sprinkles of the redwood chips
the gardeners use to mulch beds of native grasses
indoors the JLG lift an enormous metal
conveyance jacknifes a custodian clear
to the ceiling in the rotunda for the changing
of fluorescent lights it is here that a man
half shouts we want to get it done today
light is what everyone seems to worry over
this clear to the horizon flower essence light
now lipping the words you California now
to the tawny far houses roofed in the old
way with tile yet too new to wear their lawns
wrapped around them skirts pleatless
yet formal yet in a certain winter light electric
as the spark or snap that sets any young girl whirling
spinning her own centrifuge her personal planet
spinning something eternal in her dance
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
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Thanks, Tom!
Today in NorCal poetry:
•••This afternoon (Wed., 1/16), Sacramentan Luke Breit will be the featured interview subject on public radio’s INSIGHT at 2 pm, discussing his novel, The Tumultuous Times of Jesus in the 21st Century. Since the contemporary satire depicts Jesus returning as a political consultant, it is very, very timely. This is on KXJZ (90.9 FM), Host Jeffrey Callison.
•••Tonight, 9 PM: Poetry Night at Bistro 33 (226 F Street in Davis) presents Joseph and Susan Finkleman, Poems in Two Voices. Of Joseph and Susan Finkleman's poetry, Sacramento Poetry Center Host Arturo Mantecon has said ""It pleases in that primal way that only song can and reminds us of the musicality that once characterized all poetry." Find out more about Joseph and Susan Finkleman at their website: www.visionsandviews.com/.
Pleasanton Poetry Festival coming up:
The 7th Annual Pleasanton Poetry, Prose & Arts Festival, a weekend celebration of poetry, prose, and visual arts will be held Saturday & Sunday, April 5-6 at the Pleasanton Senior Center, 5353 Sunol Blvd, Pleasanton, CA. Keynote Speaker will be Jane Hirshfield, Poet, Essayist, & Translator (www.barclayagency.com/). One- or two-day workshops will be offered by luminaries such as Kim Addonizio and Sacramento’s own Kathleen Lynch; there will also be lots of offerings for youth. Sponsored by the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council (PCAC) and the City of Pleasanton. On-line brochure with fees, schedule, accommodations info and registration form available at www.PleasantonArts.org/. Early registration deadline: Saturday, March 8. Last date to register for Festival is Tuesday, March 25. Contest, open only to registered attendees, has an entry deadline of Saturday, March 8.
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INTO THE GREAT MIST
—Abdulah Sidran, Sarajevo
Listen: how quietly
The tired Earth's hair is turning grey.
The World decamps into the great mist.
This island, this razed field, sinks away.
And when they are sunk
And changed into the slow seeds
These heads of ours will be swayed for a long time
By a thick wind, underground.
Only the words will survive—
Those words we never uttered—
And because of them (this is the marvel)
Our existence here will be long remembered.
Listen: how quietly
The tired Earth's hair is turning grey.
The World decamps into the great mist.
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CHRONICLE OF A MIRACLE
—Abdulah Sidran
With your left hand
You push a thick mass of hair back from your forehead and
As your hand moves I have shifted
That gesture into memory and already
No longer see you push hair with hand from forehead
But am remembering how with your left hand
You push a thick mass of hair back from your forehead
You say with a voice that trembles
And stirs the candle-flame on the table in front of us
'It's stormy outside' and something not me but
Where there is some part of me (and what a part)
Shifts that voice into memory so that I am not
Only listening to you I am remembering
Listening to you and remembering your voice
That trembles and stirs the candle-flame on the table
In front of us and remembering
The evening and the voice saying 'It's stormy outside'
And it goes on being stormy outside and the evening
Goes on just as the life goes on which
No I don't seem to be living only remembering
Like the voice with which you are still saying
'It's stormy outside' the voice I remember like
The hand with which you push a mass of hair back from your
forehead
As you speak the hand I remember, touching itFor the first time
(Sidran's poetry was translated by Ted Hughes and Antonela Glavinic in Scar on the Stone: Contemporary Poetry from Bosnia, ed. by Chris Agee, Bloodaxe Books Ltd., 1998.)
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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.) 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 (Sweet 16) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you one. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15—sooner than you think!
Coming in February: The Snake is still in winter hibernation for January: no readings, no books, no broadsides. Then, on February 13, Rattlesnake Press will roar to life again with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Don and Elsie Feliz (To Berlin With Love), plus a new littlesnake broadside from Carlena Wike (Going the Distance), as well as Volume Two of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series. Come help us launch all of this on Weds., Feb. 13 at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM.