MY MOM'S TWO ORANGE TABBY LITTERMATES
—Michelle Kunert, Sacramento
On cold days we roll up together
like a yin and yang
who look much like Pooh and Tigger
Now the weather is warm again
we'll be contented sleeping apart
exchanging our glares between naps
Thanks, Michelle!
This year's Esalen workshop:
•••December 7-12: Writing and Knowing, the 5th Annual Poetry Workshop with Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux, and Joseph Millar at Esalen, Big Sur, CA. Ellen Bass writes: This year our workshop will be held in December, rather than late summer, because of scheduling snafus. We hope you can join us. There is a world inside each of us that we know better than anything else, and a world outside of us that calls for our attention. Our subject matter is always right with us. The trick is to find out what we know, challenge what we know, own what we know, and then give it away in language. We will write poems, share our writing, and hear what our work touches in others. We'll also read model poems by contemporary poets and discuss aspects of the craft.
But mainly this will be a writing retreat—time to explore and create in a supportive community. Though the focus is on poetry, prose writers who want to enrich their language will find it a fertile environment. The focus of this workshop is on generating new poems. Dorianne, Joe and I will each give a short talk on craft to help us extend our skills. Although the emphasis is on poetry, this workshop is open to prose writers too. If you've been to Esalen before, you already know it's one of the most magnificent places on the planet. If you haven't, don't postpone it. It's breathtakingly beautiful and deeply nourishing. We'll be having our group meetings in the Big House overlooking the Pacific. We'll also be breaking into smaller groups for individual attention. Participants will have an oportunity to work with all three teachers.
Esalen fees cover tuition, food and lodging and vary according to accommodations, ranging from $475 to $1060. The least expensive rate is for sleeping bag space which can be very comfortable, but it's limited, so you need to sign up for it early. Some work-scholarship assistance is available, as well as small prepayment discounts and senior discounts. All arrangements and registration must be made directly with Esalen. If you have questions about the workshop itself, please email Ellen (ellen@ellenbass.com/, www.ellenbass.com/) or call her at 831-426-8006. Please register directly with Esalen at 831-667-3005 or visit www.esalen.org/.
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THE APRIL LOVERS
—Virginia Hamilton Adair
Green is happening.
Through the sweet expectant chill
Of a northern spring
We have gone without will,
Without fear, without reason,
Trusting to the power
Of a fickle season,
Of a passionate hour,
To mature, to sustain
Till the plan uncovers
In the sun and rain.
Early lovers
Never question much
What is quietly beating
Through the music and the touch
And the mouths meeting.
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MUSICAL MOMENT
—Virginia Hamilton Adair
Always the caravan of sound made us halt
to admire the swinging and the swift go-by
of beasts with enormous hooves and heads
beating the earth or reared against the sky.
Do not reread, I mean glance ahead to see
what has become of the colossal forms:
everything happened at the instant of passing:
the hoof-beat, the whinny, the bells on the harness,
the creak of the wheels, the monkey's fandango
in double time over the elephant's back.
When the marching was over and we were free to go on
there was never before us a dungfall or a track
on the road-sands of any kind:
only the motion of footprints being made
crossing and recrossing in the trampled mind.
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AN HOUR TO DANCE
—Virginia Hamilton Adair
For a while we whirled
over the meadows of music
our sadness put away in purses
stuffed into old shoes or shawls
the children we never were
from cellars and closets
attics and faded snapshots
came out to leap for love
on the edge of an ocean of tears
like a royal flotilla
Alice's menagerie swam by
no tale is endless
the rabbit opened his watch
muttering late, late
time to grow
old
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CUTTING THE CAKE
—Virginia Hamilton Adair
Gowned and veiled for tribal ritual
in a maze of tulle and satin
with her eyes rimmed round in cat fur
and the stylish men about her
kissing kin and carefree suitors
long she looked unseeing past him
to her picture in the papers
print and photoflash embalming
the demise of the familiar
and he trembled as her fingers
took the dagger laid before them
for the ceremonial cutting
of the mounting tiers of sweetness
crowned with manikin and maiden
and her chop was so triumphant
that the groomlike little figure
from his lover at the apex
toppled over in the frosting
where a flower girl retrieved him
sucked him dry and bit his head off.
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Today's LittleNip:
I fall in love with any girl who smells like library paste.
—from "Peanuts" by Charles Schultz
___________________
—Medusa
Here's Medusa's new weekly menu of features. Contributors are welcome to submit to any and all of these!
Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar
Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to me at kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.
Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing. Favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorites.
Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy
Friday: NorCal poetry calendar for the weekend
Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily food for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration—yet another way to feed our ever-hungry poetic souls.
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SnakeWatch: News from Rattlesnake Press
New in April: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn's SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown's blank (well, not really) journal of photos and prompts, MUSINGS (For Capturing Creative Thought). All of these are now available at The Book Collector and will soon be available through rattlesnakepress.com.
Coming in May: Join us on May 12 for the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval; a littlesnake broadside by Stephani Schaefer; and Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy. That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM.
Also in May: Deadline for Issue #18 of Rattlesnake Review is May 15. Free copies of Issue #17 are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one.
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). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.