Reaching the Crow's Nest

Doing things the hard way.
Photo courtesy of Katy Brown, Davis

AFTER TU FU ("THEY SAY YOU'RE
STAYING IN A MOUNTAIN TEMPLE")

—Marvin Bell

In the damp evenings of summertime,
I cannot trust my words to reach you.
They drink up every nuance shamelessly.
They are more ravenous than my mouth calling.

In the crusty air of wintertime,
I cannot trust my words to go to you.
They see too well the leafless trees.
They know too well the outcome of love.

In the steady dying of autumn time,
there I know that my words will touch you.
Fall is the shadow season, when we meet
on the other side of the clouds.

___________________

This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (9/15), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Jim Nolt. HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. Open mic to follow. [See last Friday's post for bio.]

•••Wednesday (9/17), 9 PM: Poetry Night at Bistro 33 presents Crawdad Nelson. Poetry Night at Bistro 33 takes place on the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 226 F Street in Davis. An open mic follows the feature. All Poetry Night events are free and open to the public. The hosts of Poetry Night are Brad Henderson and Andy Jones.

•••Weds. (9/17), 1 PM: Raconteur and radio personality Garrison Keillor will appear at the Crest Theater, 1013 K St., Sacramento. Tickets are $30 and are on sale through Tickets.com or 800-225-2277, or in person at the Crest box office. Also on sale are subscriptions for the six-lecture 2008 California Lecture Series, which are $162 at 916-737-1300 or californialectures.org/. This year’s speakers include Julia Glass (Oct. 23); John Updike (Nov. 11); Daniel Handler (Feb. 5); Richard Price (Mar. 12); Jim Lehrer (Apr. 2) and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove (May 13). Single tickets, which are $27, will go on sale Sept. 29. The lecture series, also held at the Crest, starts at 7:30 PM. Info: 916-737-1300 or californialectures.org/.

•••Thurs. (9/18) through Sunday (9/21): Surprise Valley Writers’ Conference in Cedarville, sponsored by the Modoc Forum. Workshops and presentations. I don’t know if they have any space left, but for details call 530-279-2099. See also www.modocforum.org/.

•••Thurs. (9/18), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Open mic before and after featured readers.

•••Friday (9/19), 7:30 PM: An Evening of Baroque Poetry: Annual All-Spanish reading based on the poems of the Mexican nun, Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1-24 22nd St., Sacramento. Presented by Escritores del Nuevo Sol / Writers of the New Sun. Donation: $5, or as you can afford.

This annual all-Spanish poetry reading will highlight the words of ‘the Mexican phoenix.’ Considered by many as an early feminist, and known to be outspoken, Sor Juana lived in the 17th Century. Her wit, talent and brilliance created a stir, while her thirst for knowledge and her consummate skill made her one of Mexico’s best writers of all time. She had both supporters and critics but, in the end, was forced to abandon the pen and dedicate her life to religion. Attendees are invited to read your own favorite Spanish-language poem during the open mic to follow the main presentation.

Writers of the New Sun / Escritores del Nuevo Sol is a community of writers who write and appreciate the literature and traditions of the Spanish language community, among others. A description of the group is found on the website: http://escritoresdelnuevosol.com/ This annual reading is always held in conjunction with the September 16 celebration of Mexican Independence. Info: 916-456-5323.

•••Friday (9/19), 7:30 PM: The Other Voice presents James Lee Jobe at The Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, 27074 Patwin Road, Davis. Allegra Silberstein will host. There will be an open reading following the featured reader. This is a free event. Info: 530-750-3514.

James Lee Jobe has been published in Manzanita, Tule Review, Pearl and many other periodicals. His poems are also included in The Sacramento Anthology: 100 Poems; Jewel of the Valley: A California Anthology; and How To Be This Man: The Walter Pavlich Memorial Anthology. From 1994-1999, Jobe was the editor and publisher of One Dog Press, a poetry monthly. He also edited the quarterly Clan of the Dog. Jobe has had four chapbooks published, the most recent being What God Said When She Finally Answered Me from Rattlesnake Press. Jobe keeps a poetry blog at jamesleejobe.livejournal.com. He lives in Davis with his wife and children.

•••Friday (9/19), 7 PM: Poetry at Raven's Tale Bookstore, 352 Main St., Placerville. Featured readers are Indigo Moor and Quinton Duval. A short poetry open-mic follows (signup before the featured readers). There is no charge.

•••Saturday (9/20), 4-6 PM: Autumn edition of the Women's Writing Salon; men are welcome to join the audience, too. Coffee Town, 134 S. Auburn St., Grass Valley. Entrance is free, food and beverages are available at the cafe. Readers include Doreen Domb, Grace Fae, Grace Tea, Robin Zimmerman, Chris Irving, Betsy Graziani Fasbinder. Info: bgf2u@sbcglobal.net or Patricia Miller, dovepat@oro.net/.

•••Saturday (9/20), 7-9 PM: Underground Books poetry series presents Claudia Epperson and The Forgotton One at 2814 35th St. (off 35th & Broadway), Sacramento. $3.00. Info: (916) 208-POET.

__________________

AN OLD TREMBLING
—Marvin Bell

Often one wonders what the snake does all day in its pit
to so successfully keep away hands
and be left alone like a solitary zipper
encircling some space from which it has squeezed out all the light
it would seem,
as if no creature could so love the dark during the day.
And everyone knows about the kiss of the snake.
And everyone knows about the eyes of the snake.
In its mouth is the blue light of old milk.
On its tongue is a map of red rivers.
It knows your body, your own body, like its own.
It begins with your foot, lurking in a boot,
and ends in the venomous sweat of the heart
if you bother it. But whoever leaves alone
whatever in nature wishes not to be disturbed,
he or she will seem like a god,
so unlike a human being,
even to a snake.

___________________

THE BODY BREAKING
—Marvin Bell

I have been wiping the clear lens
on the right-hand side
of a cheap pair of reading glasses
and it still has a spot somewhere near the middle
of my right eye.
It is like looking through an opal.
Somewhere there is a world or running rivers
where the light has passed through jewels
onto the rapids of the water
breaking down rock.
I have had a glimpse of it,
an interruption, and optical splinter,
or a bump in the road
unseen except that the wagon shook
and half the world
suddenly opened around a crown of light.
One eye at a time is all of how the bird sees me,
and he can fly!
So what if it's not the glasses,
and maybe it's not an opal.
Still the light has to go through something.
And there's nothing perfect here
that I know of.

__________________

TALL SHIPS
—Marvin Bell

The one who reaches the crow's-nest
has to go by way of a boot full of water,
wearing a long rope burn and blue tattoos,
and drinking a bucketful of salt,
and always with an eye big enough to let in a star.

The one who reaches the crow's-nest has to go
by the path of most resistance,
leaving the deck behind with childhood wishes
and climbing from the wide life of floors
to the narrow end of the telescope filled by a moon.

The one who reaches the crow's-nest absolutely
must want to, rehearsing in dreams
the layout of cat's cradles and spider webs,
forgetting all ordinances and averages,
apathetic to the widening embrace of the planets.

The one who reaches the crow's-nest,
the one who tops the mast and the crow's-nest,
has to go up by way of the two hands of a pulley,
by following the fists of the clock to noon,
and by turning his face to the blind dial of the cosmos.

___________________

NEAR THE PICKET FENCE
—Marie J. Ross, Stockton

Gor, Papa’s dog:
green lawn playground
for folly, within the picket
fence.
Space where green spread
like silk on blankets, ball rolling
and space where his dog lapped
water from makeshift bowl set
on the ground, where
summer hammock tipped, Gor
leaping so frisky onto Papa’s lap.
Neighborhood children would jump
the wire fence and pick the ripened
cherries, spit the pits as they stumbled
and ran away; Papa grinning, Gor, his
growl lingering.
Seasons the wages of time;
arthritic paws, heavy panting, lack of interest.
The plot: a bed dug reverently near the picket fence,
solid, silent, overgrown, remembered. Always there.
Always there.

___________________

Thanks, Marie, for your response to last week's Seed of the Week: Dogs.


Today's LittleNip:

Poetry is a section of river-fog and moving boat-lights, delivered between bridges and whistles, so one says, "Oh!" and another, "How?"

—Carl Sandburg

__________________

—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.......!

_________________

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.