WHAT WE’RE KEEPING,
WHAT WE LEFT BEHIND
—Taylor Graham, Somerset/Placerville
Three German Shepherds and two cats—
cougar sign at dawn, coyote howl—
Tlingit eagle totem, Alaska 1972—
Sandhill Cranes passing over—
Polaris pointing our north corner—
Leonids above the windmill field—
Rilke’s Duineser Elegien—
shelves of books I haven’t read in years—
Mozart’s Horn Concertos on your hard-drive—
my grandmother’s antique organ—
your father’s desertscape in oils—
cathedral pines before the door—
blue-and-tawny stoneware from Moke Hill—
twenty Thanksgivings of Blue Willow—
my mother’s Navajo blanket—
bedrock mortars and a midden stone—
the Harvest Moon reflected threefold in glass—
Wolf Moon stalking our west window—
old photos of us much younger—
all those long-gone years—
We’ll keep each other.
___________________
Thanks to Taylor Graham for responding to our Seed of the Week: What We Keep/What We Leave Behind. Donald Anderson also sent in a response:
JUST ANOTHER DAY
—Donald R. Anderson, Stockton
I still like the sushi restaurant
we would meet at when together;
we would meet at as friends sadly
contemplating getting back together or not.
Our passion knew limits,
though I denied it at the time.
The beauty in your face, your body,
all stays with me no matter what.
But it's not enough to overcome
the obstacles of a heart grown older,
in the way that angels have to give up
on the world of the living.
A new life now,
but still rings the echoes
of the good that existed.
The songs we shared in the car,
in my apartment,
in the places we went.
The sharing of experiences
that were rebellious of the world,
stretching the limits.
I still hear your footsteps,
and as the leaves turn red,
I still hear your voice
in Just Like Heaven.
Like a thousand generations before us,
love is known,
and we take souvenirs that remind us
despite the homesick feeling it brings.
Is it easier to forget?
Or is the inexplicable beauty of sadness deeper
than the oceans;
is this necessary,
necessary in defining us, who we are,
in making it through another day.
__________________
Donald reminds us to check out his http://rainflowers.org/, and that the anthology, Moon Mist Valley, is accepting submissions through December (guidelines on www.moonmistvalley.com).
In the mood for a workshop?
•••Tuesday nights, 7:30 PM (on-going): Sacramento Poetry Center sponsors a critiquing workshop at the Hart Center on 27th & J Sts. in Sacramento. Bring 15-20 copies of a poem you'd like to have workshopped. Free.
•••Room to Write: Bob Stanley leads a poetry writing workshop on Thursdays from 7-8:30 PM. This weekly group offers in-class writing exercises, group work, and individual feedback, providing a supportive forum for beginning poets as well as more advanced writers. Drop-ins are welcome at $30/session. To register, or for more info, call Bob at 916-240-1897 or email bobstanley@sbcglobal.net/.
•••Tuesday nights in Truckee, 6:30-8 PM, Teen Center on Donner Pass Rd. next to Kid Zone. You can sign up for a slight discount for four-week sessions ($68) through the Rec. Dept. of Truckee at the Community Center, 10046 Church St., Truckee, 530-582-7720 or you can pay $20 drop-in fee and just show up each Tuesday night. Either way, if you want to develop your writing and your writing practice, this workshop will make it happen. Write. Connect with a writing community, generate new material, play with language and meaning, explore craft and form, and develop a writing practice in a creative environment. Learn to workshop your pieces in a supportive group. Karen Terrey, poetry editor for the literary arts journal, Quay, holds an MFA in creative writing, attended the Squaw Valley Writer’s Poetry Conference, the Napa Valley Writer's Conference, and teaches creative writing at Sierra Nevada College. Publications in which her work can be found include Poet’s Espresso, Moonshine Ink, Off the Coast, Rattlesnake Review, Sierra Nevada Review, and forthcoming in Rhino and Word Riot. Info: www.karenaterrey.blogspot.com/. [Also check out Medusa's profile of Karen; go to May, 2008 in the archives column at the right of this and scroll down to May 22.]
•••December 7-12, 2008: Writing and Knowing: 5th Annual Poetry Workshop with Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux and Joseph Millar at Esalen, Big Sur, CA. Ellen Bass writes: We will write poems, share our writing, and hear what our work touches in others. We'll also read model poems by contemporary poets and discuss aspects of the craft. But mainly this will be a writing retreat—time to explore and create in a supportive community. Though the focus is on poetry, prose writers who want to enrich their language will find it a fertile environment. Please join us if:
*You've hit a plateau in your writing and want to break through to the next level.
*You're just beginning and want to get started with supportive teachers.
*You're an experienced writer and just want a chance to learn more from the best.
*You're in a dry spell, due to lack of inspiration or time.
*You love to write and want a gorgeous, inspiring retreat.
Esalen fees cover tuition, food and lodging and vary according to accommodations, ranging from $475 to $1060. The least expensive rate is for sleeping bag space which can be very comfortable, but it's limited, so you need to sign up for it early. Some work-scholarship assistance is available, as well as small prepayment discounts and senior discounts.
All arrangements and registration must be made directly with Esalen. If you have questions about the workshop itself, please email Ellen (ellen@ellenbass.com) or call her at 831-426-8006. (Also check out her website at www.ellenbass.com/.) Please register directly with Esalen at 831-667-3005 or visit www.esalen.org/.
_________________
INDIAN SUMMER AT LAND'S END
—Stanley Kunitz
The season stalls, unseasonably fair,
blue-fair, serene, a stack of golden discs,
each disc a day, and the addition slow.
I wish you were here with me to walk the flats,
toward dusk especially when the tide is out
and the bay turns opal, filled with rolling fire
that washes on the mouldering wreck offshore,
our mussel-vineyard, strung with bearded grapes.
Last night I reached for you and shaped you there
lying beside me as we drifted past
the farthest seamarks and the watchdog bells,
and round Long Point throbbing its frosty light,
until we streamed into the open sea.
What did I know of voyaging till now?
Meanwhile I tend my flock small golden puffs
impertinent as wrens, with snipped-off tails,
who bounce down from the trees. High overhead,
on the trackless roads, skywriting V and yet
another V, the southbound Canada express
hoots of horizons and distances...
___________________
NOTES FROM ANOTHER CITY
—Virginia Hamilton Adair
As you struck the keys
a force of visions and passions came forth.
I was seeing the hands of the composer
over the keyboard marking black notes on white paper.
All the while, beyond a window:
the autumn leaves were letting go,
saying good-bye to the parent tree,
the safe residence of the bough;
I could see their colors as the shaper of the sonata
saw them, winging into the water
that eddies under the stone bridge,
coloring the cobbles under the horse's hoofs,
half-heard, half-seen by the musician.
The living line under his pen marked the melody in his mind,
while its rhythm partook of the ghostly hoofbeats,
passing so long ago, so far distant.
The builder of that edifice of sounds heard it,
and the pianist of this morning
a hundred years beyond the builder's death
heard it, and I, listening as a ghost in that town
look up at the window
behind which the composer plays a bar,
watches the leaves falling and fallen,
puts their track on paper:
the white silence that will be reborn
forever at the touch of two hands.
___________________
Today's LittleNip
Writing is a form of talking to oneself. It is no exaggeration to say that I could not have survived as well without it. For ordinary talk, a walk will do. But talk that flings itself from a cliff to see if it can fly is another thing...
—Marvin Bell
__________________
—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 and next. 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.