PRAYING MANTIS
—Jane Blue, Sacramento
The arboretum, a rose garden, swarms
with the hatched tiny green mantises,
bellicose; a conundrum,
her tearing the head from her lover like that:
the mating hilarious, “boisterously merry,”
with such abandon—
they never get beyond “a” and “b”—
he seems to enjoy it more without his head.
His brain is in his thorax,
so he wanders aimlessly afterwards,
small and befuddled.
Sometimes she devours all of him
except the wings. She grows larger
and larger, brought to me
afterwards, lucid,
veiny and taupe, fixing her bug-eyes on me
from inside the mayonnaise jar.
He has entered her totally.
Isn’t that what you want, all of you?
As for her, with her haughty gaze
and enormous abdomen
She’s been released
into the zinnias, which she loves,
and snatches butterflies from the air.
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Jane Blue says, Okay, I'll get in the fray. Thanks, Jane, for joining into our Seed of the Week: Sex! Send me a poem about any of the many facets of sex (kathykieth@hotmail.com) and I'll send you a copy of my chapbook, Sex—For Animals. No deadline. And thanks to Allegra Silberstein for jumping in, too:
THE QUANTUM OF MY EX
—Allegra Silberstein, Davis
You would not
in his measure say
he was quixotic.
By his rather quick flight
from the body of matrimony
he might be accounted
as a Pegasus
though I didn’t die for him—
but I must add
that portion of his anatomy
south of belly, north of thigh
the lack thereof
I sometimes sigh.
__________________
This weekend in NorCal poetry:
•••Friday (7/25), 7:30 PM: Open Mic Nights are back July 25, August 27, and September 24, 7:30 PM at the Valhalla Grand Hall in Tahoe, just north of Camp Richardson on Hiway 89. Travel Hiway 50 to the "y" then take 50 north about 5 miles. The second edition of writings from the Lake Tahoe Writing Club is out, by the way. It's been renamed The Edge, and it’s very attractive: 73 pp, perfect-bound with colored photographs. They are now accepting submissions for the next edition. Go to TahoeWritingClub.com or info@LakeTahoeWritingClub.com/.
•••Sat. (7/26), 7-9 PM. "The Show" Poetry Series for Spoken Word & Music features Brigit Truex, Sean King and 3rd place Sac Idol vocalist Jessica Teddington. All artists (poets, singers, comedians, musicians, etc.) are welcome to sign-up at the door to perform on the open mic. Any youth 18 years of age and under will be admitted free of charge; $5.00 admission for folks over the age of 18. Wo'se Community Center (Off 35th & Broadway), 2863 35th St., Sacramento. Contact: T-Mo (916)208-POET. Free beverages and snacks provided by Crystal’s Creations.
•••Sunday (7/27), 11 AM-1 PM: El Camino Poets meet to workshop poems. All poets are welcome to bring ten copies of your one-page poem for critique. Hart Sr. Center, 27th & J Sts., Sacramento.
•••Monday (7/28), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Susan Palwick and Ellen Klages for a night of Science Fiction and Fantasy at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic afterward. Susan Palwick began her career by publishing "The Woman Who Saved the World" for Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1985. She currently teaches as an associate professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno. Palwick's work has received multiple awards, including the Rhysling Award (in 1985) for her poem, "The Neighbor's Wife". She won the Crawford Award for best first novel with Flying in Place in 1993, and The Alex Award in 2005 for her second novel, The Necessary Beggar. Her third novel, Shelter, was published by Tor in 2007. Another book, The Fate of Mice (a collection of short stories), has also been published by Tachyon Publications. Susan Palwick is a practicing Episcopalian and a licensed lay preacher. She also administrates a blog called "Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good" [http://improbableoptimisms.blogspot.com/].
Ellen Klages is a science fiction writer who lives in San Francisco. Her novelette, Basement Magic, won the 2005 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. She had previously been nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards. Her first (non-genre) novel, The Green Glass Sea, was published by Viking Children's Books in 2006. It won the 2007 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Portable Childhoods, a collection of her short fiction, was published by Tachyon Publications this April. A sequel to The Green Glass Sea will be published in Fall 2008. She has also written four books of hands-on science activities for children (with Pat Murphy, et al.) for the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco. When she's not writing fiction, she sells old toys and magazines on eBay, and collects lead civilians.
Coming Monday, August 4 at SPC: Mary Mackey and Brad Henderson.
Kay Ryan interview:
Hear the KQED interview of our new U.S. Poet Laureate, Kay Ryan, at http://www.kqed.org/programs/radio/forum/.
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This is Tom Goff's response to Tuesday's LittleNip that included the snails. Thanks, Tom!
THE SNAIL IS YOU
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
If your life’s lived in a cavern, still, that cavern
is calcium, of your essence the pure, clear spiral,
as instrumental to you as are the lyral
strings in the song of the poet. You’re no slattern,
and this is no hovel. Easily crushed it may be,
but it’s what you inhabit, you of the one
smooth mucusy cucumber shape, a kittenous ribbon
supplying your mouth with satin teeth. No slavey,
no navvy, you have equivalents for our organs;
you eat, shoots, and leaf, concocting a scraped escape,
sheer slo-mo èlan in slime and a trailing cape,
your ground-bound hopalong trapped by no brogan.
With eyes, fingers, noses on stalks you probe towards stars,
then retract, for the merest jests of wounds are scars.
__________________
Today's LittleNip:
The cute laugh that first drew him to her became in time a splinter in his brain.
—Stephen Dobyns
__________________
—Medusa
P.S. Be sure to check the "Outward Bound" page of Thursday's Sacramento Bee's Metro section for the winners of the "tri-ku" contest we mentioned last week.
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.