Mount St. Helens, when she blew
POMPEII & HERCULANEUM
—David Humphreys, Stockton
It is pleasant here beside the fountain,
surrounding garden green with figs and
grapes. The fresco painter adjusts his
scaffold just a few streets away. The
baker’s horse is harnessed to the mill
stone grinding flour and this August
afternoon is warm for a wedding in toga
gold brocaded linen.
Pompeii is buried now by pumice and
ash, roofs collapsing beneath twenty feet
of volcanic debris, substrata for future
excavation. Now, the time for Herculaneum
and its pyroclastic flows. Take this brief
moment to look around you. What is it
that you see? Do you see perhaps another
pair of gleaming eyes wet with pulsing wonder?
___________________
Thanks, David!
This week in NorCal poetry:
•••Tonight (Monday, 2/11), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Alice Anderson and Patrick Grizzell at Time Tested Books, 1114 21st St., Sacramento. Open mic will follow. Note temporary location.
•••Wednesday (2/13), 7:30 PM: Rattlesnake Press will roar to life again after winter hibernation, with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Don and Elsie Feliz entitled To Berlin With Love, about their adventures in Germany during the building of the Berlin Wall. Also released that evening will be a new littlesnake broadside from Carlena Wike (Going the Distance). In addition, Ann Wehrman, who gave us December’s littlesnake broadside, Notes From The Ivory Tower, but who was unable to read from it at December’s rattle-read, will be there as well.
But that’s not all!! In addition to the above, another of our area’s fun couples will be handing out a free special publication, and a third set of Sacramento’s sweethearts will be bringing wine…
Unfortunately, Volume 2 of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, won't be ready in time. Nevertheless, you REALLY don’t want to miss this grand Valentine’s return of the Snake! Join us at The Book Collector, 100 24th St. (between J and K) in Sacramento on Weds., February 13 at 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. February is Love Month! And speaking of love...
•••Thursday (2/14), 7:30 PM: Writers of the New Sun/Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol present: Love, Lyrical Love, their Annual Valentine’s event, this year featuring Manuel Pickett, Music & Words, and special guest poet Fernando Castro. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022 24th Street, MidTown Sacramento. Cost: $5.00 or as you can afford. All are invited. For Escritores poetry information, contact Graciela Ramirez at 916-456-5323 or http://escritoresdelnuevosol.com/. Take your Valentine to a poetry reading! How romantic!!
•••Friday (2/15), 7-8 PM: Our House Poetry Reading at El Dorado Dance Academy. Featured readers are Anthony Perciado and Joaquin Fioresi. An open mike follows. There is no charge. The Academy is located at 3921 Sandstone Dr. Suite 4, El Dorado Hills. From Hwy 50, go south on Latrobe Rd past the signals at White Rock Rd, Golden Foothill Pkwy, and Suncast Ln. The next signal is Golden Foothill Pkwy (yes, again — it's a loop). Turn right, follow Golden Foothill around a curve; make a left on Sandstone and go to the dead-end. Park in the parking lot on the right.
•••Deadline for Issue #17 of Rattlesnake Review (due out in mid-March) is this coming Friday, February 15 (postmarked). Send 3-5 poems, plus photos, art, and other poet-phernalia to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No cover or bio needed, but no simultaneous submissions or previously-published work, please. Issue #16 is still available for free at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one. Or pick one up when you're at the reading on Wednesday.
•••February 15 is also the deadline for this year’s Sacramento Poetry Center contest. This year's entry fee is $4 per poem. First, second and third prizes will be awarded [$100, $50, $25]. In addition, 10 honorable mentions will receive $10 gift certificates. Please send two copies of each poem, one with your name and contact info, another without any identifying information on it. No restrictions on length, subject or style. Judging will be done by a suitably notable area poet whom SPC will announce [in other words, a poet to be named later]. Send poems to: Sacramento Poetry Center Poetry Contest, The Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th St., Sacramento, CA 95816.
•••Saturday (2/16), One Human Family: Poems for a Changing World, a reading by Red Fox Underground Poets Taylor Graham, Irene Lipshin, Moira Magneson, Brigit Truex, Kate Wells, and Wendy Patrice Williams (all of whom are current or about-to-be rattlechappers!) at The Cozmic Cafe, 594 Main St., Placerville. Info: 530-642-8481. Sponsored by El Dorado Peace & Justice in the Season for Nonviolence.
Also at The Cozmic Cafe: Vietnam Today: Carrying On, an exhibition of photographs by Irene Lipshin and Janis Arnell. The reception will be held beginning at 5:30 PM on Feb. 16, then the Red Fox reading begins at 8. The photographs will be on display from Feb. 3 to March 31.
•••Also Saturday (2/16), 7 PM: SpiralChappers Joseph and Susan Finkleman read at Underground Books, 2814 35th St (at Broadway) in Sacramento. $3.00.
__________________
JUSTICE IN THE VILLAGE SQUARE
—David Humphreys
He has just seen eight ads in the New York Times
on pages 2 and 3, top left a pair of Chanel earrings,
middle of the page a Cartier watch to the lower left Gucci
of a woman’s shoe. Next to this, same page, a Coach
hand bag and a Clifford Michael ad for a midwinter
sale on mink furs. On the opposite page Tiffany & Co.
up top, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales below.
When he first left school he worked at a Conoco station
for $5 an hour and then later worked as a carpenter. Now,
he watches the homeless pushing grocery carts around town,
aluminum cans in black plastic garbage bags as they dream
the quite real dreams of nothing in particular and he begins
to build guillotines in the splash and gathering red pool of a
distant collective memory and torch-lit imagination.
_________________
THE SECRET MEANING OF LIFE
—David Humphreys
The meaning of life for this great man
was to shine light into every dark corner
having ground the edges of a mirror
found at the scene of a terrible accident
of war. This morning moment is however,
filled with maple sunlit colors
with a perfect pair of new pink roses,
lovely fall season smile.
(This poem was a finalist in Stockton's 55-word contest.)
___________________
—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).