CUT THE GRASS
—A.R. Ammons
The wonderful workings of the world: wonderful,
wonderful: I'm surprised half the time:
ground up fine, I puff if a pebble stirs:
I'm nervous, my morality's intricate: if
a squash blossom dies, I feel withered as a stained
zucchini and blame my nature: and
when grassblades flop to the little red-ant
queens burring around trying to get aloft, I blame
my not keeping the grass short, stubble
firm: well, I learn a lot of useless stuff, meant
to be ignored: like when the sun sinking in the
west glares a plane invisible, I think how much
revelation concealment necessitates: and then I
think of the ocean, multiple to a blinding
oneness and realize that only total expression
expresses hiding: I'll have to say everything
to take on the roundness and withdrawal of the deep dark:
less than total is a bucketful of radiant toys.
__________________
CANTATRICE IMPROVISATORE
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
Billy the dog and I, our usual walk,
ambled a neighborhood thicket thick with birds
whose plumes are song: let’s call it Mockingbird Block.
Spring prodded one grey-white mocker’s music-surge,
whether in rage at intrusions to her nest,
or from the spontaneous overflow of forms,
war chants by which to hunt slick-wriggling worms,
like an Indian raga, sun’s-up-mode, for zest.
It struck me: she was flying and singing both;
she’d studied neither, yet fused somehow together
flight with flight—just how you register
artistry. Beauty involves you, you’re not loath
to leap, take up, and repeat: you spoke blank verse
and more blank verse, upon one viewing of
Ian McKellan’s Richard III. In love
with the verse-whiteout urge, tongue-force, lip-pulse,
you spoofed the foofy-metronomic actors,
much less a Shakespeare than a Noel Coward cast,
yet, even manslaughtering us both with man’s laughter,
blankety-blanked sheer presentness of the past.
Walt Whitman might have called you A cantatrice
improvisatore, warbling vast flexive arias:
notes orbic-American, beneath that Latvian
purple-red flag: A mockingbird-girl, -’s what he’d say.
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Andy Jones of Davis writes: If you've appreciated all the music, arts and public affairs programming provided by KDVS (90.3 FM), your local campus and community station, and home to "Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour," which broadcasts on Tuesdays from 5-6 PM, then I hope you will consider supporting the station this week. I invite you to pledge at any time before Monday at http://fundraiser.kdvs.org/ or 530-754-KDVS or 888-654-6294. Make sure to tell them the name of your favorite DJ. The premiums are always impressive, and often worth more than the tax-deductible pledge you make to earn one. To get a premium, a student is expected to pledge $25 or more, a community member $40 or more. $100 gets you a KDVS DJ and all his/her music at your party or function. You can check out all the remaining premiums at http://fundraiser.kdvs.org/. The goal for the entire week is $75,000. P.S. I hope you will always consider turning to my show and to KDVS when looking for ways to promote local arts and literary events.
•••Tonight (Thursday, 4/24), 8 PM. Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café (1414 16th St., Sacramento) presents Kathryn and Laura Hohlwein and frank andrick. Host B.L. Kennedy has put together a triple-play evening of poetry, prose and literature that promises to veer from the classic to the surreal and everything in between. This trio of writers collectively has 'done time' as poets, educators, publishers, hosts and international event creators and organizers. They have created events as varied as world tours of classic greek poetry, multi-media events involving film, slides, live and pre-recorded sound, and performance that is open-ended, honestly educational by its nature, and entertaining as well. Open mic before and after.
See B.L. Kennedy's upcoming Volume Three of Conversations, the Rattlesnake Interview Series, due out May 14, for interviews of Andy Jones and Kathryn Hohlwein, plus nine others. frank andrick was interviewed in Volume 1, available at The Book Collector or from rattlesnakepress.com/.
B.L.'s Drive-By: This week's Micro-review by B.L. Kennedy
THINGS I LEARNED AND TALK ABOUT
CD By Michelle Kunert
Michelle Kunert has finally gotten hip and released a spoken word CD of 25 tracks which gives her poems a life of their own. However, concerning the price or where to purchase this item, I am at somewhat of a loss to give the reader any further information. What I can say is that, for those of you out there who have experienced Kunert and her poetry, this is a welcome addition. Try to find her at one of the local reading series and grab yourself a copy.
OLIVES
—Michelle Kunert, Sacramento
Picking little black fruits
too bitter for the tongue
until a "curing" with brine water
in a dusty orchard in midday sun
shaking and raking branches
with leaves that scratch bare skin
throwing them upon a tarp below
in which upon they are sorted
to pick out the spoiled
or still with immature shades of green
How did I ever take for granted
the labor to put them into a jar
or pressed into oil to savor?
__________________
It's not too late to respond to our giveaway/Seed of the Week: The heart once broken... Send in your poems about broken hearts to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) by midnight this Friday (tomorrow, 4/25), and I'll mail you your choice of either Ann Menebroker's new chapbook, Small Crimes, or Katy Brown's new journal, Musings. Or some other rattlechap without which you'd be broken-hearted...
LOVE SONG
—A.R. Ammons
Like the hills under dusk you
fall away from the light:
you deepen: the green
light darkens
and you are nearly lost:
only so much light as
stars keep
manifests your face:
the total night in
myself raves
for the light along your lips.
__________________
Today's LittleNip:
How best to grow old?
How best to die?
—Virginia Woolf
___________________
—Medusa
Here's Medusa's 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 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. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.
Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar
Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables 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.
And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far. The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!
_________________
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 Wednesday, May 14 for the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval; a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, 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.