Harem Master
Photo by Jane Blue, Sacramento
Crackling leaves under foot
Wood burning in the air
Goblins dancing with pillowcases full
and Turkeys dreading dinner
Fall comes and Fall goes
Red and yellow, orange and gold
Like the smoke from our breath in morning
and the hint of Winter chills our nose.
—R.P. Blotzer, Broken Arrow, OK
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Thanks, Ruby Blotzer, for responding to our Seed of the Week—all the way from Oklahoma! Thanks to Jane Blue, too, for the timely turkey photos.
The rest of you: don't be shy! Send me Fall poems that you wrote yourself and I'll send you—free—Pat Grizzell's new rattlechap, Thirteen Poems. This SOW has a deadline, though: midnight (emailed or postmarked) Friday, Sept. 26. Email to me at kathykieth@hotmail.com or snail 'em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.
More Fall poems, including one from Tom Goff and a couple from Taylor Graham:
JUST YET FALL NOT QUITE
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
Shall we say it isn’t yet fall
yet, just yet? Maybe one twist
in the stem shy of fall? Maybe
we can agree only
that these leaves, still
green in their sockets (think
lightbulbs Uncle Fester’s breath
hasn’t quite wheezed out of glow),
have just a bruised, ooze-banana aspect;
blunted, the laurel’s edge-teeth,
a touch stodgy the aspen’s shiver,
a bit more morose the maple in its
Canadian quiver, not yet unbitter
the sap. Dog-eared, mothbitten,
heat-foxed, dust-stained leaves.
Conjure an image: the box you’ve just
raked, all of stray green ones, heaped up
at Goodwill or Salvation Army.
A bit picked-over, isn’t it? I’ve
seen just such fragments of summer
and spring, leaf-curl already set in,
even in Whitman and Dickinson,
in the bins, in the bins,
in the barrels and bins
at Beers.
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LIVE-OAK LEAVINGS
—Taylor Graham, Placerville
On the lawn
eight wild turkeys peck acorns,
leaving downdrift leaves—this fall
of pale brown moth wings.
__________________
LINES OF CHANGE
—Taylor Graham
Overnight the wind sharpened.
Dark grayed to dawn—thin-limned,
a piece of chalk
drawing the eastern hill.
Your cat, who cruised the half-
moon midnight, is quite
gone, like the birds
and late-summer flowers
whose nectar smacked of hemlock
on the lips of fall.
Your cat, Persephone.
Again and again the wind
learns new words for loss.
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Today's LittleNip:
POEM
—A.R. Ammons
In a high wind the
leaves don't
fall but fly
straight out of the
tree like birds
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Turkeys on 8th Avenue
Photo by Jane Blue
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:
Now available at The Book Collector in Sacramento, and (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/: Thirteen Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell; #2 in Katy Brown's series of blank journals (Musings2: Vices, Virtues and Obsessions); a free littlesnake broadside (Wind Physics) from Jordan Reynolds; plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review (also free!). Contributor and subscription copies of RR19 will be going into the mail this week. Next deadline for submissions is November 15.
Coming in October: October’s release at The Book Collector on Weds., Oct. 8, will feature a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). That's at the Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s.
Then, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, Rattlesnake Press will release two SpiralChaps to honor and celebrate Luna’s Café, including a new collection of art and poetry from B.L. Kennedy (Luna’s House of Words) and an anthology of Luna’s poets, artists and photographs (La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café) edited by Frank Andrick. Come travel with our Away Team as we leave the Home of the Snake for a brief road trip/time travel to Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento to celebrate Art Luna and the 13 years of Luna's long-running poetry series. Who knows what auspicious adventures await us there?
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 and in-between! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!
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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.