NET HAMMOCK
—Taylor Graham, Somerset
I think the knots were his way
of getting fingers weaving thoughts
of cord, the finer thoughts slipping through
the net like water of a sea
so far away, like shuttle through loop,
this going-away gift
from a boss who wove his leisure
on the Chesapeake and knew I’d need
a knotted hammock to hold me
between cloud and granite ridgetop
almost a continent away,
to anchor me to ponderosa
while I sail the pages of my book
and poems shimmer fishlike
in the net.
__________________
Thanks, TG! This poem is a response to yesterday's Seed of the Week. Taylor Graham will be reading at Ravenswood in Livermore this Sunday; check last Monday's post for details. You can also see her at the Upstairs Poetry Reading tonight in Placerville; details for that are on Monday's post, too.
Also tonight:
•••Tonight (Weds., 2/27), 7 PM: Stephen Elliott reads from his new anthology, Sex For America: Politically Inspired Erotica, and Josh Fernandez, Associate Arts Editor at Sacramento News & Review, opens for him. Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Read about it at http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=626203. Watch for an interview of Josh, by the way, in the new Conversations, Vol. 2 of B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series, due out March 12.
CFCP Monthly contest needs entries:
California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc., reminds us that their monthly contest continues [see below for themes], with prizes of $25, $15, and $10. Send $2/poem or 3 poems for $5 (checks made out to CFCP, Inc.) to Cleo Griffith, Monthly Contest Editor, CFCP, Inc., 4409 Diamond Court, Salida, CA 95368. There is no limit to the number of poems submitted each month with the appropriate fees. Cleo writes to say that entries are sparse these days; take the hint, poets!
Poems for the monthly contests must be postmarked by the last day of the month for that category. For those entrants who use a post office that does not date-stamp mail, a written date beneath the return address will suffice. All forms accepted for all categories, within line limits; except where otherwise indicated, poems are limited to 28 lines of text not including the title or space following the title.
Send TWO copies of each poem with author's name and address front upper right corner on ONE copy only. Put no identification on the second copy. Poems must not have previously been awarded a money prize. If previously published, please state where. Print contest month on outside of mailing envelope, at the front right top corner of both copies of each poem. If you wish to receive a winners’ list, please send SASE with proper postage and note the contest month on the envelope. For information: cleor36@yahoo.com or (209) 543-1776
2008 SUBJECTS FOR CFCP MONTHLY CONTEST/JUDGE
JANUARY: Water / Melody Sherosky
FEBRUARY: Blues and ballads/ Martha Meltzer
MARCH: Grandmother’s story/ Cynthia Brackett-Vincent
APRIL: Fashions/ Debra Harmes-Kurth
MAY: Sitting on a train/ Jonathan Rice
JUNE: Plastic Pleasures, Tacky Treasures/ Colette Jonopulos
JULY: NO CONTEST
AUGUST: Pearls and Platinum/ Cynthia Bryant
SEPTEMBER: What I should have said/ June Saraceno
OCTOBER: Boredoms (12 lines or less)/ Lora Zill
NOVEMBER: Spangles and tangles/ TBA
DECEMBER: NO CONTEST
____________________
Hey—the theme for March is "Grandmother's Story"! Here's a Wendell Berry poem to inspire you—only three days left 'til the deadline, though!
THE GRANDMOTHER
—Wendell Berry
Better born than married, misled,
in the heavy summers of the river bottom
and the long winters cut off by snow
she would crave gentle dainty things,
"a pretty little cookie or a cup of tea,"
but spent her days over a wood stove
cooking cornbread, kettles of jowl and beans
for the heavy, hungry, hard-handed
men she had married and mothered, bent
past unbending by her days of labor
that love had led her to. They had to break her
before she would lie down in her coffin.
___________________
—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: News from Rattlesnake Press
New in February: The Snake had a massive celebration on February 13 with the release of To Berlin With Love from Elsie Whitlow Feliz and Don Feliz, a new broadside from Carlena Wike (Going The Distance), and a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Sam and Kathy Kieth (Sex—For Animals...). All of these publications are now at The Book Collector and on rattlesnakepress.com.
Coming in March: Rattlesnake Press will be releasing a chapbook from Ann Privateer (Attracted to Light), a littlesnake broadside from Jeanine Stevens (Eclipse), Conversations Vol. 2 of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, and a brand-new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#17). Join us to celebrate all of this at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on March 12 at 7:30 PM.
