Noble Fantasies

How many cats does it take to
stand off two golden retrievers?
Photo courtesy of Katy Brown, Davis

ON THE EDGE
—Cleo Fellers Kocol, Roseville

Wearing jeans and a clean face,
I enter. I’d expected the gallery to be
full, the smartly dressed gathered for
the photographer’s Windows on the World.

Black and white pictures shot through
dirty panes, broken panes, no panes.
I can hardly look at them; I know them
too well. I try to edge by the only couple

browsing. “Slick chic,” one says.
“Hardly summertime pretty the other
adds, eliciting my opinion. Are the
photos too imitative, too stark, too real?

Hand on chin, I consider and spout words
reaching back to another time. Ahead
I spot the table. Canapés, veggies, cheese,
crackers, shrimp and cheap wine. Filling

a plate I babble about focus and theme,
talk camera angles as if I owned a camera,
as if I hadn’t calculated how many
canapés constitute a full meal.


(Originally published in Blue Collar Review and in Cleo's littlesnake broadside, Connections)

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Thanks, Cleo! Cleo Fellers Kocol says: I began writing seriously in the late 1970's, my humor published by the Burlington County Times. From there my work has been published or presented in all the basic written forms. I began concentrating on poetry in 2001 after showing Carol Frith my few efforts, and she assured me it was poetry. Recently I do a monthly column for the Sacramento Bee, published in the Roseville section, and now the Arden/Arcade section of the Bee as well.

Cleo is too modest. She has won many awards, and has several publications of her work available as well. In 2006, Cleo published a littlesnake broadside for Rattlesnake Press entitled Connections. (Write and ask me, and I'll send you one for free.) This Sunday, Cleo will be reading in Lincoln (see the calendar below). She describes it as follows:

I will be sharing POEMS FROM ANTIQUITY at the Twelve Bridges Library, reading poems from ancient Egypt, China, etc. and gradually working up to the Mayans, showing that THEY COULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN TODAY. Then I will be sharing some of my own poetry that shares similar themes as the ancient poems—mainly historical, political, social, and love themes.

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This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight, Friday (9/12), 7-9 PM: Second Friday Poetry Reading at The Vox (gallery & cafe), 19th & X Sts., Sacramento. Featuring Tim Kahl, Danyen Powell, Jordan Reynolds, Carol Louise Moon and Aaron Gerwer. Hosted by Cynthia Linville. Family-friendly; reading is free, or come for the coffee bar, open from 6-10 PM.

•••Saturday (9/13), 10-11:30 AM: 2nd and 4th Poetry Center Saturday Poetry Workshop, 10-11:30 AM at the South Natomas Community Center (next to the library), 2901 S. Truxel Rd., Sacramento. Bring 10 copies of your one-page poem for workshopping. Contact Frank Graham or Emmanuel Sigauke, facilitators. FREE!

•••Saturday (9/13), 2-4 PM: Culture Collection poetry series (which meets every second Sat.) presents the new BME (Black Men Expressing Tour), 6391 Riverside Blvd in Greenhaven (Sacramento). Free. Info: (916) 208-POET.

•••Saturday (9/13), 7:30 PM: Wordslingers 2008 will host Coleman Barks, the premier American translator of Rumi, at the Vets' Hall in Grass Valley. Tickets are available through the Center for the Arts, Briar Patch, & Yabobo. Info: Betsy Fasbinder, bgf2u@sbcglobal.net or Patricia Miller, dovepat@oro.net/.

•••Sunday (9/14), 3-5 PM: The Poets Club of Lincoln presents Cleo Fellers Kocol with “Poems from Antiquity: They Could Have Been Written Today” and an open mic at the new Twelve Bridges Library in Lincoln, in the Willow Room. After the feature, guest poets are welcome to read up to 3 poems. Sponsored by The Friends of the Lincoln Library.

•••Monday (9/15), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Jim Nolt, HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. Jim Nolt has written poetry since 1970, despite the impact of the training necessary to complete a graduate degree in engineering from Stanford. He has published one book of his material and is nearing the completion of his second book. Since there is little or no money in poetry, he makes his living as the “CSI Guy” doing forensic engineering.

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WHERE ARE YOU, FLOWER CHILD?
—Cleo Fellers Kocol

We drank that year,
high school fading into
Viet Nam, beer and
sex ushering in little dawns,
draft cards adding smoke
to foul air.

And from the litany of
lost equations, we
put our youth on a line
no one had crossed before.
And life tasted like a fresh
mold, a new shape.

But the shape bulged
in the wrong places.
The gates were pad-
locked, the end written
without our knowledge, our
input a noble fantasy—a post-
script in the present world.


(Originally published in Poetry Now)

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PARADISE REINTERPRETED
—Cleo Fellers Kocol

Once they danced for their
spirit’s sake, drums and chants
channeling bodies, channeling feet.

Now tourist dollars demand
Tiny Bubbles in the wine
and sex in each hip thrust.

January air heavy with unshed
rain, palm trees stir, and rush-
hour traffic roars as the sun

takes its daily dive into the sea.
Tiki-torch night has arrived.
Hawaiians sigh, but, in Waikiki,

visiting youth on the prowl rub
raw edges into rough hilarity
and shout in a mai-tai, sun-tan

glow. A homeless man, where
Kalakaua and Kuhio intersect,
hands out flyers advertising

island tours. Tomorrow’s two-
for-one sale of Polynesia is never
dampened by a sudden, warm rain.


(Originally published in Chaffin Journal)

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Today's LittleNip:

Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window.

—William Faulkner

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—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 next 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 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.