Smoke & Flowers

Photo by Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos

MUSHROOM
—Shinkichi Takahashi

I blow tobacco smoke
into her frozen ear.
A swallow darts aove.

Pleasures are like mushrooms,
rootless, flowerless,
shoot up anywhere.

A metal ring hangs
from her ear, mildew
glowing in the dark.

__________________

This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (1/28), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Frank Graham and Jordan Reynolds at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento, with music by Jenn Rogar. Frank Graham is a political activist in the Sacramento region and the current Poetry Editor of Poetry Now. He originally hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he learned how to throw a screwball from Jim Brewer. Jordan Reynolds is one of the future stars of the Sacramento literary scene, currently a protegé of Josh McKinney at Sacramento State. He has published in Louis Liard Magazine, Calaveras Station, Suisun Valley Review, Poetry Now, Poetry Midwest, hardpan, HazMat Literary Review, Tule Review, and The League of Laboring Poets. His current project is a journey into the world of online literary magazines. He is co-editing A Salt Mag with Brett Wallis, which they describe as “offering the literary salt that accompanies a meal of existing; consider a reading of our magazine a conversation with a trustworthy friend, eat our salt, pinch some of it, throw it over your shoulder.” He is currently accepting submissions for the first issue at a.salt.press@gmail.com/.

•••Thursday (1/31), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Open mic before and after. Info: 916-441-3931.

•••Friday (2/1), 7:30-9 PM: The Other Voice, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, 27074 Patwin Road presents an award-winning husband and wife poetry team: Carol and Laverne Frith. They are the founders and Co-Editors of the poetry journal, Ekphrasis, and both have been widely published. Carol Frith has three chapbooks: Moving Like a Blue Flame (winner of the 2001 Medicinal Purposes chapbook competition), In and Out of Light (Bacchae Press 2002), and Never Enough Zeros (Palanquin Press 2002). Her poetry has appeared in Midwest Quarterly, Eclipse, Seattle Review, Clackamas, Cutbank, Sow’s Ear, Chariton Review, Cumberland Review, Measure, Poetry New York, Baltimore Review, Maryland Poetry Review, Interim, Phoebe (NY), Switched-On Gutenberg, Spillway, Asheville Poetry Review, The Literary Review, Smartish Pace, & others. A poem of Carol’s received Special Mention in the 2003 Pushcart Prize Anthology.

Laverne Frith has chapbooks from Talent House and White Heron Press, and Drinking The Light was recently released from Finishing Line Press. In addition to a Pushcart Prize nomination, Laverne was runner-up for the 2004, 2005, & 2006 Louisiana Literature Prize In Poetry. His poetry has been accepted or appeared in Poetry New York, Christian Science Monitor, Sundog, Comstock, Montserrat, California Quarterly, Song of the San Joaquin, Dalhousie, Perihelion, Architrave, Maryland Poetry Review, Sonoma Mandala, New Laurel Review, Permafrost, Main Street Rag, New Zoo Poetry Review, Blue Unicorn, Kimera, etc. He has won honors and awards in a number of poetry competitions.

The reading will be held in the library of the Church. Refreshments and Open Mike follow, so bring along a poem or two to share.

•••Saturday (2/2), 11 AM: Monthly writing/meeting/potluck for The Writers of the New Sun/Escritores del Nuevo Sol at La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022 – 22nd St., Sacramento. Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol/Writers of the New Sun is a literary community that was established in 1993, primarily to foster and honor the literary arts of the cultures & traditions of Chicano, Native American and Spanish-language communities. Members write in English, Spanish, or both, and the group has published an anthology, Voces del Nuevo Sol/Voices of the New Sun. Info: 916- 456-5323. The public is welcome to all activities. Website: www.escritoresdelnuevosol.com/.

__________________

DOWNY HAIR
—Shinkichi Takahashi

Charmed by a girl's soft ears,
I piled up leaves and burnt them.

How innocent her face
in rising smoke—I longed

to roam the spiral of those ears,
but she clung stiffly

to the tramcar strap, downy
hair fragrant with leafsmoke.

___________________

STONE WALL
—Shinkichi Takahashi

Flower bursts from stone,
in rain and wind
dog sniffs and aims a leak.
Butterfly-trace through haze
where child splashes.

Over the paper screen,
a woman's legs, white, fast.
No more desire, I'm content.

Later I saw her, hands
behind her back—
repulsing nothing really,
welcoming sun
between her thighs.

Near the stone wall,
a golden branch.


(Today's poetry was translated from the Japanese by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto in Triumph of the Sparrow: Zen Poems of Shinkichi Takahashi, Grove Press, 1986.)

__________________

—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.