Spring (Der Fruhling)
—Painting by Franz Winterhalter
THE DREAM
—Marie J. Ross, Stockton
She feels energetic
pink toe shoes tied
with satin ribbons
around her ankles,
she breathes in the
dream.
Black hair bounces,
curly, shiny,
her face like image
of cameo, she a young
lady of the dance.
Practice, practice
on the ballet bar, up down,
point toes, first position,
second position, third, forth
and fifth, until blister cuts
and burns.
The dream,
leotard, tu tu, all illusions,
all costume fantasies,
until adagio, the lift, the master
of the whirl, the bend,
face brushed close, then the stride,
lights dim,
The applause, the applause,
curtain calls, oh the exhilaration!
The curtain lowers.
She breathes in the dream, her black
hair bouncing.
___________________
Thanks, Marie! Mother's Day inspired some poetry in Marie J. Ross, as well as in our new Historian-in-Residence, Tom Goff (see below). Watch for Tom's article about California's first Poet Laureate, Ina Coolbrith, in the up-coming issue of Rattlesnake Review, due out in mid-June. Deadline for submissions of poetry, photos, art, and what-have-you is this Thursday, May 15! Eeeeek! Time's a-wastin'!
FROM THE DARK END OF THE HALLWAY
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
The dark end of the hallway
gave on to my mother’s bedroom,
the room Mom at last had to be gently
brought to. There she’d be cajoled
to undress, persuaded into her nightgown,
coaxed to compose her restless hands
and wandering feet to sleep. She slept, or
was meant to, in the high, ebony-black Kentucky
bed brought so long ago over the Cumberland Gap,
the bed whose mattress began four
feet off the ground. This height dizzied her
like first planting feet on a gently canted plateau
atop a mountain, or the slow turn of a carousel
—beds are good for turning the slow dizzies in,
even for waltzing over and over the whole turnstile
world’s whirl—or perhaps her thoughts jumped
the great Cumberland Gap. At all events,
from the dark end of the hallway,
our bright-lit near end rendering the far dark
darker, blurrier, would come music, whistling
lips as if pressed upon the air: my mother,
whistling no particular tunes in no particular times,
but liquid, cherry-cheery. Was she reliving
the stick-thin tomboy she’d been
or the alternative girl she’d held
together like a time-release capsule,
let dissolve grain by grain these years,
only now accorded the last full fizz? Bartering
music for sleep, she’d lip-shape the notes
louder, louder, louder, the effervescence
filling the house, oxymoronic bonfire in the wet,
whistling not in the dark, but just whistling dark,
her whole musical soul bubbling
in ever more dizzy and lifting spirals
the waters of dissolve…
___________________
And speaking of Tom Goff (what a coincidence!), Tom sends us this week's Seed of the Week. He says:
Try to condense a famous poem into an epigram, usually but perhaps not necessarily one rhymed couplet. It takes a bit of brutality, willed obliviousness to the original's magnificent details. I was lucky enough to have the little rhyme just hit me while writing the second of these two submissions. (And Nora, my wife, was making a papaya smoothie...)
NERUDA'S “UNITED FRUIT CO.,” SUMMARIZED
—Tom Goff
Their bloody greed’s a proprietary story:
banana swine, on papaya territory.
__________________
Thanks, Tom!
Today's LittleNip:
Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?
~Friedrich Nietzsche
__________________
—Medusa
MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:
(Contributors are welcome to cook something up for 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 favorite tools.
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
Coming May 14: 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, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. 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.