Dreaming of Corfu

SUMMER IN CORFU
—Lawrence Durrell

At last the serious days of summer,
When from the red forge dancing,
The blacksmith sunshine hammers
New beaks for the flesh,
From the black mint
Steel for new flint.

State me no theme for misery. The season
Like a woman lies open, is folding,
Secret, growth upon growth. The black fig
Desire is torn again from the belly of reason
Our summer is gravid at last, is big.

All you, who know desire in these seas,
Have souls or equipment for loneliness, loneliness,
Lean now like fruitage. The Hesperides
Open. This is the limbo, the doldrum.
Seal down the eye of your cyclops,
Silence Time's drum.

___________________

Time for Squaw:

•••Friday (7/18), 7:30 PM: This year marks the 18th annual benefit Squaw Valley poetry reading in San Francisco with nationally admired, award-winning poets, including Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Hass, Lucille Clifton, Sharon Olds, C.D. Wright and Dean Young. All proceeds benefit the Poetry Workshop Scholarship Fund which enables talented writers to attend the week-long Squaw Valley poetry writing workshop. The 39th Annual Community of Writers will convene again this July & August with workshops in Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction & Screenwriting. Poets and writers meet each day in workshops, as well as attend presentations on the writing craft. Most of these afternoon and evening events are open to the public.

The San Francisco benefit (July 18) will be held at the First Unitarian Universalist Center of San Francisco, 1187 Franklin St. at Geary. Books by the poets will be available for purchase before and after the reading, and the poets will be available to sign books after the reading. Advance tickets are available for purchase from Brown Paper Tickets. If they do not sell out in advance of the reading, there will be tickets available at the door. Learn more about these events at www.squawvalleywriters.org/.

A second benefit, featuring the same poets, will be held on Thursday, July 24 at 8:15 PM at Squaw Valley, Olympic Village Lodge, 1901 Chamonix Place (off the SV Main Road near the Olympic Village Inn). $15/$5 student suggested donation.


Coming up at SPC:

•••Friday (7/18), 7:30 PM: A special Friday reading for Sacramento Poetry Center Poetry Contest Winners. Winners include Susan Wolbarst, Sally Wood and Mary Herrema Giudice; HMs include Sally Wood, H. Allen Blair, Merle Martin, Cynthia Linville, Marilyn Wallner, Nancy Wahl, Joyce Odam, Red Sliderr, Renee Marie, Susan Wolbarst, Lisa A. Jones, and Ray Hadley. HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento.

•••Monday (7/21), 7:30 PM: The Sacramento Poetry Center is pleased to present a poetry reading by Yang Her as a benefit for My Sister's House. Some of the women from My Sister's House will also read, sharing their stories as victims and survivors. Refreshments will be served. HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento.

Yang Her will read from and sell copies of her new book, Paint Life With Colors of The World, filled with poems based on life, love, death, and domestic violence. Proceeds from the reading and book sales will be donated to My Sister's House, a program that helps victims and survivors of domestic violence. MSH is a non-profit organization and its program, called Women to Work, is to help survivors of domestic violence to get back on their feet, to find the courage to move on with perseverance. MSH also has a 6-bed shelter for mothers and children escaping domestic violence and needs to maintain a monthly food budget. Please visit their website at http://www.my-sisters-house.org/.


This week's Drive-By: A Micro-Review by B.L. Kennedy:

The Portable Beat Reader
Edited by Ann Charters
Hardcover / Trade-paper
647pp

Okay, those of you readers who are addicted to that mythological school of artists, poets & writers that we call the “Beat Generation” either know of and love this anthology or simply dismiss it. But no matter what group you side with, the one thing you have to admit is that The Portable Beat Reader is a damn good helping of Kerouac and company—one of the best you will ever find. Here we have an anthology that is not only broken down by groups (i.e. Kerouac and friends) as well as geographical settings, but also includes members who have continued upon or altered the vision of the original Beats to include new voices in the literature such as Anne Waldman and Ed Sanders. Edited by Ann Charters, The Portable Beat Reader is, in my opinion, a beautiful introduction to a generation that was not.

__________________

ASPIRATIONS
—Brandon Williams, Placerville

As a child, I had no aspirations.
“What do you want to be?”
someone asked me once.
I shrugged, answered
“Spud Webb.”
I saw that old highlight,
him winning the dunk contest
in ’95, saw it again yesterday
and thought about child-me,
idolizing a five-foot-five guard
on the worst team in the NBA.
Basketball was all I knew;
when I stopped growing
at five-foot-eight, I needed
another career, something to get
my name in the papers.
If someone asked me today,
asked me that same question,
I’d probably say rich, famous,
or respected. But the child-me
is more honest. I want to be
Donald Trump, Tom Cruise,
or William Shakespeare.

I’d settle for Faulkner, though.

___________________

Thanks, Brandon! Brandon Williams is sending his work to the Snake for the first time; welcome! Watch for more from him in the up-coming Rattlesnake Review #19, due out in mid-September. Deadline is August 15—don't forget (even if you are floating along in summer doldrums...).

Marie Ross sent us her response to the Seed of the Week: a poem that never actually names its subject. Thanks, Marie!

CLANG
—Marie J. Ross, Stockton

Handrails a shiny gold in the sun,
wood polished like glass,
components flattened for muscle
and bone, summer clothing and
sandals.
Breezes are brief sounds of air whisking
strands of brown, black, blond and salt-
and-pepper tresses.
High up azure folds with mini-fluffs
of delicate lace over foam of boundless
lifts below.
Climbing silver steel to the apex, the clanging
box curves, clicks lazy songs over rough bumpy
cobblestone and cement.
As neon flicks like picture frames, engulfing the
core of the city, clang still distinguished as icon,
sound and transporter of dwellers.

___________________

WATER MUSIC
—Lawrence Durrell

Wrap your sulky beauty up,
From sea-fever, from winterfall
Out of the swing of the
Swing of the sea.

Keep safe from noonfall,
Starlight and smokefall where
Waves roll, waves toll but feel
None of our roving fever.

From dayfever and nightsadness
Keep, bless, hold: from cold
Wrap your sulky beauty into sleep
Out of the swing of the
Swing of sea.

___________________

Today's LittleNip:

They can be like a sun, words.

They can do for the heart
what light can
for a field.

—St. John of the Cross

__________________

—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's Up With Rattlesnake Press

The Snake will be snoozing through July and August, leaving Medusa to carry on alone. Then on September 10, we shall burst back onto the scene with Ten Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell; #2 in Katy Brown's series of blank journals (Musings Two: Vices, Virtues and Obsessions); plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review (deadline is August 15). Meanwhile, look in on Medusa every day, and, for heaven's sake, keep sending stuff! The snakes of Medusa are always hungry...


Medusa's Weekly Menu:

(Contributors are welcome to cook up something 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 (sometimes): 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 future issues of 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 ravenous poetic souls.

And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________


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.