TIME
—Shinkichi Takahashi
Time like a lake breeze
Touched his face,
All thought left his mind.
One morning the sun, menacing,
Rose from behind a mountain,
Singeing—like hope—the trees.
Fully awakened, he lit his pipe
And assumed the sun-inhaling pose:
Time poured down—like rain, like fruit.
He glanced back and saw a ship
Moving towards the past. In one hand
He gripped the sail of eternity,
And stuffed the universe into his eyes.
______________________
PENGUINS
—Shinkichi Takahashi
Penguins waddle across the Antarctic
Without hands, shadows.
There's no life, no death,
Stopping, advancing,
Raining, blossoming.
I had a fish drying in the sun
To eat. Well, there was
Neither fish nor sun.
Penguins do not eat, and all night through
The sun roams the bottom of the sea.
_____________________
COLLAPSE
—Shinkichi Takahashi
Time oozed from my pores,
Drinking tea
I tasted the seven seas.
I saw in the mist formed
Around me
The fatal chrysanthemum, myself.
Its scent choked, and as I
Rose, squaring
My shoulders, the earth collapsed.
_______________________
HAND
—Shinkichi Takahashi
I stretch my hand—
everything disappears.
I saw in the snake-head
my dead mother's face,
in ragged clouds
grief of my dead father.
Snap my fingers—
time's no more.
My hand's the universe,
it can do anything.
_____________________
Shawn, our Great American Pin-up!
Shawn Pittard, our newest columnist for Rattlesnake Review, is also a writer for The Great American Pinup website. Check him out on their “Poetry is a Kind of Lying” post at http://greatamericanpinup.blogspot.com/2008/01/poetry-is-kind-of-lying.html/. And find out more about Shawn on his Rattlechap page at rattlesnakepress.com/.
David Humphreys was inspired by the New Year and by Steph Schaefer's fog poem yesterday. Thanks, David!
RAKING LEAVES FOR LOU
—David Humphreys, Stockton
Went out to walk the dog in fog
this morning, New Year’s yesterday
a quiet holiday. Passed a hawk in
a fir tree, stopped to make sure and
it flew over to another tree setting up
on the very top, made you remember
your Mom’s love of hawks. They have
always been her favorite bird, like some
people think of crows or ravens as messengers
from another world same as cats were sacred
in Ancient Egypt. In the shady chill on
the south street you thought again that
there would probably come a time when
she would not be there to call and talk to
and you resolved again to end your mourning
for your father’s passing away last year.
Walking farther down into the rising sun
you passed a choir of birds off in darkness
to the south. Returning home to yard work
fallen leaves and trimming the Crape Myrtle
out back you read about your neighbor Lou,
whose ash trees light up the sky each fall,
passed away like another year in the Obituaries.
_____________________
—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 new 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 has crawled into winter hibernation for January: no readings, no books, no broadsides. (Medusa is always awake, however, and will keep posting through most of that time. Send stuff.) 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.
