AMERICAN CLASSIC
—Louis Simpson
It's a classic American scene—
a car stopped off the road
and a man trying to repair it.
The woman who stays in the car
in the classic American scene
stares back at the freeway traffic.
They look surprised, and ashamed
to be so helpless...
let down in the middle of the road!
To think that their car would do this!
They look like mountain people
whose son has gone against the law.
But every night they set out food
and the robber goes skulking back to the trees.
That's how it is with the car...
it's theirs, they're stuck with it.
Now they know what it's like to sit
and see the world go whizzing by.
In the fume of carbon monoxide and dust
they are not such Americans
as they thought they were.
The feeling of being left out
through no fault of your own, is common.
That's why I say, an American classic.
____________________
This weekend in NorCal poetry:
•••Tonight (Friday, 3/21), 7-8 PM: Poetry in the Hills at the Event Center at Raley's in Placerville, 166 Placerville Dr. (take the Forni exit off Hwy 50 and go north; Raley’s is about a mile down the road). Call 530-902-4591 for info. Featured readers are James Lee Jobe and Taylor Graham. An open mike follows. There is no charge. Taylor Graham is a volunteer search-and-rescue dog handler in the Sierra Nevada, and also helps her husband (a retired wildlife biologist) with his field projects. Her poems have appeared in International Poetry Review, The Iowa Review, The New York Quarterly, Poetry International, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere, including the anthology, California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Heyday Books, 2004). Her latest book, The Downstairs Dance Floor (Texas Review Press, 2006), was awarded the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize. She has two chapbooks from Rattlesnake Press and currently serves as a columnist for Rattlesnake Review. James Lee Jobe has been published in Manzanita, Tule Review, Pearl, and many other periodicals. His poems are also included in The Sacramento Anthology: One Hundred Poems; Jewel of the Valley: A California Anthology; and How to be This Man: The Walter Pavlich Memorial Anthology. From 1994-1999, Jobe was the editor and publisher of One Dog Press, a poetry monthly. He also edited the quarterly, Clan of the Dog. Jobe has four chapbooks published; the most recent is What God Said When She Finally Answered (Rattlesnake Press).
•••Also tonight (3/21), 7:30 PM: Los Escritores Del Nuevo Sol presents An Evening of Poetry: Bilinguish & Y Preguntas, a reading by Jim Michael and Zheyla Henriksen. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1024 22nd St., Sacramento. $5 or as you can afford. Info: 916-446-5133 or www.larazagaleriaposada.org.
•••Monday (3/24), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Zaid Shlah and Brad Buchanan (A Night to Touch Your Inner Canadian) at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. A native Calgarian, Zaid Shlah now resides in Walnut Creek, CA. He obtained his BA in English from the University of Calgary and his MA in English from San Francisco State University, where he received the Distinguished Graduate award from San Francisco State University's Creative Writing department. His poetry has appeared in literary journals and anthologies both in Canada and the U.S. In particular, selections from the long poem, "Taqsim", have appeared on CBC Radio's Alberta Anthology. "Asking Iraq to Comply" appeared in the anthology, Canadian Writers Against the War: The Common Sky, 2003. And "Songs of Departure" and "Asking Iraq to Comply" are forthcoming in the anthology, Arab American and Diaspora Literature (Interlink Publishing, 2005). His first full-length book of poetry is Taqsim (Frontenac 2005). Brad Buchanan is originally from Canada and has had his poems published in many of the most widely-read Canadian literary journals, including Grain, Canadian Literature, The Antigonish Review, Descant, The Fiddlehead and Event. He has a Ph.D. from Stanford University and teaches at California State University, Sacramento. His first book is The Miracle Shirker from Poets Corner Press. He is married and has a young daughter, Nora, who has no idea yet that she is a Maple Leafs fan.
__________________
FILLING STATION
—Elizabeth Bishop
Oh, but it is dirty!
—this little filling station,
oil-soaked, oil-permeated
to a distrubing, over-all
black translucency.
Be careful with that match!
Father wears a dirty,
oil-soaked monkey suit
that cuts him under the arms,
and several quick and saucy
and greasy sons assist him
(it's a family filling station),
all quite thoroughly dirty.
Do they live in the station?
It has a cement porch
behind the pumps, and on it
a set of crushed and grease-
impregnated wickerwork;
on the wicker sofa
a dirty dog, quite comfy.
Some comic books provide
the only note of color—
of certain color. They lie
upon a big dim doily
draping a taboret
(part of the set), beside
a big hirsute begonia.
Why the extraneous plant?
Why the taboret?
Why, oh why, the doily?
(Embroidered in daisy stitch
with marguerites, I think,
and heavy with gray crochet.)
Somebody embroidered the doily.
Somebody waters the plant,
or oils it, maybe. Somebody
arranges the rows of cans
so that they softly say:
Esso—so—so—so
to high-strung automobiles.
Somebody loves us all.
___________________
I KNOW A MAN
—Robert Creeley
As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking,—John, I
sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what
can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,
drive, he sd, for
christ's sake, look
out where yr going.
___________________
—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
The brand-new Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Contributor copies and subscriptions will go into the mail this week and next. And if you aren't any of those but would like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.
Also New in March: Attracted to Light, a chapbook by Ann Privateer; Eclipse, a free littlesnake broadside by Jeanine Stevens; and Conversations Volume Two of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.
Coming in April: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing the Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading at 7:30 PM. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS: Photos and Prompts For Capturing Creative Thought. Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!