FIELD NOTES — THREE A.M.
—Carlene Wike, Elk Grove
Some Rumpelstiltskin dream
has urged me out of bed
to spin darkness into words.
Held only by my own cold arms
I shiver under stars—
wait for night to speak.
In this quiet chill,
silence whispers—
grass grows restless,
trees rustle without wind.
I share an uneasy solitude
with unseen creatures.
Some thoughts are lost in sunlight—
this sense of passing through;
that resurrection is a carbon thing.
When night becomes a fever in me
my soul will abandon these footsteps—
feather the quivering grass
sweep over barrow and swale
hawking life.
___________________
Thanks, Carlena! Join us this coming Weds., February 13, for the release of Carlena Wike's littlesnake broadside from Rattlesnake Press, Going the Distance, at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM.
•••Monday (2/11), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Allice Anderson and Patrick Grizzell at Time Tested Books, 1114 21st St., Sacramento [note temporary location]. Open mic will follow. Alice Anderson's first collection of poetry, Human Nature, won the Elmer Holmes Bobst Prize for Literature from NYU and the Great Lakes Colleges Association's Best First Book Prize. She holds An MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. Her poems appear widely in journals such as New York Quarterly and New Letters and are included in the anthologies, On the Verge: Poets and Artists in America, and American Poetry: The Next Generation. Her noted poem, "The Split" (included in almost twenty anthologies to date), will be included in the 20th Anniversary Edition of The Courage To Heal. She lives and writes in Sacramento, California, having returned home after escaping the deep-water bayou hell of post-Katrina Gulf Coast Mississippi. (See more at myspace.com/herkind.)
Patrick Grizzell's books include Dark Music, Chicken Months (about which Robert Bly wrote: "... the poems have a sweet spontaneity and tenderness."), and, with painter Jimi Suzuki, a chapbook of sumi paintings and poetry entitled Minotaure Into Night. He has a new book in manuscript entitled Writing In Place. He is a founding member and previous director of the Sacramento Poetry Center. He has been published in numerous literary presses and anthologies in the U.S., Italy, Japan, and the U.K. He performs poetry and music solo and with his band, Junkyard Burlesque. He has performed with, among others, Allen Ginsberg, Leon Redbone, Robert Creeley and Anne Waldman. John Lee Hooker once said that he "sound pretty good" on the dobro. (See more at: myspace.com/patrickgrizzell). Pat will present a few of his songs on Monday night in addition to his poetry.
__________________
COCOON
—Carlena Wike
I am spinning silken thoughts
around my homespun days
and I have quit old pleasures
to cast an iinward gaze
across old larval duty
beyong the empty hour—
and now I would give up the leaf
to emulate the flower.
__________________
WORDSTORM
—Carlena Wike
At first, a drizzle of words
then a steady patter
and finally a downpour—
a rush of gutteral phrases
as images gather, run off,
flood plain speech.
Heavy with metaphor
lines begin to seep
through cracks
in the roof of my soul.
I rush for paper—
sop up the poems
puddled in my head.
___________________
—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).