THE HERMITAGE
—John Haines
In the forest below the stairs
I have a secret home,
my name is carved in the roots.
I own a crevice stuffed with moss
and a couch of lemming fur;
I sit and listen to the music
of water dripping on a distant stone,
or I sing to myself
of stealth and loneliness.
No one comes to see me,
but I hear outside
the scratching of claws,
the warm, inquisitive breath...
And once in a strange silence
I felt quite close
the beating of a human heart.
__________________
IMAGES OF THE FROST KING
—John Haines
Once he stood at the door
like a birch unraveling in the wind.
He pounded the ice in his chest,
and his eyes were cold with grandeur.
In a mirror held by the forest
a cloud of aspens
leans upon a deserted throone.
The Frost King is sleeping,
his face darkened
by the flight of nocturnal thrushes.
___________________
STONES
—John Haines
They are dreaming existence.
One is a man, and one
is a woman. Beside them an animal,
someone who followed them
into the distance
until their feet grew heavy
and sank in the soil
And the life within them became
an expanding shadow,
a blue gravel on which they fed
as they changed;
standing there so solid and dark,
as if they were waiting
for God to remember their names.
___________________
A WINTER LIGHT
—John Haines
We still go about our lives
in shadow, pouring the white cup full
with a hand half in darkness.
Paring potatoes, our heads
bent over a dream—
glazed windows through which
the long, yellow sundown looks.
By candle or firelight your face still holds
a mystery that once
filled caves with the color
of unforgettable beasts.
___________________
—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.