GANDALF TREE
—David Humphreys, Stockton
On the north side street this morning
you heard the wind in its branches
before you saw the fir tree. The sound
was a river rushing in a spring flood torrent
of snowmelt runoff, the tree’s long branches
bobbing thick and green as a wizard in his
late-forties' prime before gray touches his
temple wisdom. Magic gleams everywhere,
flying fleet of cotton sailing white ships into
yesterday. Clear blue now, a flock of finches
rustle flutters like a zigzag motorcycle gang
thundering loud as summertime on its way.
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Thanks, David! and thanks to Kel Munger of Sacramento News & Review for her kind words about kk in the current issue of SN&R. Tonight (Saturday, 4/5, 7:30 PM) Kel will host Cornered: Five Years of Sacramento News & Review's Poet's Corner, featuring Joe Wenderoth and some of the Corner's most frequent contributors (including rattlechappers Bill Gainer and Ann Privateer and rattlechapper-next-fall/Red Fox Underground poet Moira Magneson) for a reading and celebration of Poet's Corner's fifth anniversary. All at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac. And check out Kel’s new SN&R blog, too, at http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/bibliolatry/Blogs.
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SPRING SOUP
—Kathy Kieth, Pollock Pines
Lilies-of-the-valley brush the cheeks of stone
Buddhas as white coral bells ring in a new season;
sharp-eyed daffodils bend to watch
a dedicated honeybee mine the muscari;
pastel fairy rings of wildflowers hem
vernal pools in rickrack;
a Mallard pair makes careful circles, then
skids in for a slick landing on the glassy pond;
calla lily goblets offer up cups of their own nectar
to make wine out of last night's rain;
ferny carrots ripe for pulling rub
shoulders in chocolate soil;
an orange tabby tiptoes along the grape arbor, covets
the tiny, quick hummingbird feeding below;
arching rosemary reaches up to cerulean skies
with long arms dressed in sleeves of mauve;
turkey toms fan showy tails in thanksgiving
for willing hens;
but darkness still brings frosty breath
and pinpricks on bare skin,
and bluebellies still sleep in burrows
we'll never find.
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SPRING
—Taylor Graham, Somerset
Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
—Carl Sandburg
Also this scepter of purple
sage blossoming through sprung springs
and a queen-
size mattress moldering beyond the dead-
end barricade,
with styrofoam immortal
as glass stars shattered by Sunday
target practice, scattered shells. And
redbud—how many shades
in a single petal,
none of them truly red—this morning’s
proof of spring beside a hoard
of flattened cans, tin
weathered brown as good earth.
No one lives here. So
whence this surprise of rose-
mary rooted at the edge
of rusty fridge, just now heavenly blue-
dust blooming with a hundred bees?
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Thanks, TG! Taylor Graham was inspired by yesterday's LittleNip Sandburg quote.
LittleNip for Today:
Check out the following website:
joebrainardspyjamas.blogspot.com/2007/12/odd-facts-poetry-quiz.html
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—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
The latest Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. If you'd like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is May 15 for #18, due out in mid-June.
Coming April 9: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing his Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading. 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 of photos and prompts for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS (For Capturing Creative Thought). Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!
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.