Wendy, Griffin and Edith
THESE FINAL YEARS
—Wendy Patrice Williams
she became
what she could
never be
a fragile child
vulnerable
needing love, touch
kindness
soft words of praise
laughter
we gave her
as much as we could
because she asked
and we were blessed
with eyes to see
and hands and hearts
to give
we kissed her,
hugged her
and she let us
reached out for us,
kissed us back
together we made
one perfect persimmon
so ripe, fruit
unimaginably sweet
we three
—Wendy Patrice Williams
she became
what she could
never be
a fragile child
vulnerable
needing love, touch
kindness
soft words of praise
laughter
we gave her
as much as we could
because she asked
and we were blessed
with eyes to see
and hands and hearts
to give
we kissed her,
hugged her
and she let us
reached out for us,
kissed us back
together we made
one perfect persimmon
so ripe, fruit
unimaginably sweet
we three
OLD BIRDS
—Wendy Patrice Williams
When birds get old,
do they fly more slowly, drop
out of the sky with fatigue?
Do they stop altogether,
stay home in bad storms,
just fly for suet or seed?
Do old birds undulate
unable to flow
or jerk like a car
the engine still cold?
Do old birds get dementia
and forget they are birds
burrow like moles into holes,
lose short-term memory
become very flaky
about where the best berries grow?
Do old geese make wrong turns,
grow deaf to cronies' cries?
Go blind, fly into buildings,
snag on telephone wires?
I've seen deer misjudge
the width of a ditch,
stumble up the other side;
a cat misfigure the length of a leap
almost topple
then make itself right.
Perhaps old birds die suddenly
picked off if sick, freeze
if wet and winter's early.
No slow decline, no healing
a fractured spine
like that mother of mine
that old bird mother of mine.
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Thanks, Wendy! Wendy Patrice Williams is a member of the Red Fox Underground, poets of the Sierra foothills. Her poems appear in Rattlesnake Review, Poetry Depth Quarterly, The Acorn, and elsewhere. Her short stories are published in Shore Stories: An Anthology of the Jersey Shore and Whatever It Takes: Women on Women’s Sport. In 2008, Friends of Bayley House published Bayley House Bard, her chapbook of reflections on the historic Bayley House in Pilot Hill, California. Wendy is currently completing a memoir, The Autobiography of a Sea Creature, and teaches at the College of Alameda. She lives with her partner, Griffin, in Citrus Heights, along with two sheep, three ducks and one cat. Her mother passed away in 2007.
Join us at The Book Collector next Wednesday, November 12, to celebrate the release of Wendy's new collection of very poignant poems about her mother's last years, entitled Some New Forgetting. That's at 7:30, 1008 24th St., Sacramento.
Also released that night will be a littlesnake broadside from South Lake Tahoe Poet Ray Hadley (Children's Games); our 2009 calendar from Katy Brown (Beyond the Hill: A Poet’s Calendar) as well as Conversations, Vol. 4 of B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series. Be there!
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SN&R Blow-out this Saturday!
frank andrick invites us to join him from 6-10 PM tomorrow night (Saturday) at Sac News & Review’s Monthly Mosaic (held every Second Sat.) for a ‘way cool reading, performance, and art exhibition with free refreshments as SN&R helps us celebrate La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, Rattlesnake Press's Poetry Unplugged anthology, with an Art Exhibition and Open Mic Performance. Visual Artists include Alex Escalante, Art Luna, Barbara Noble, B.L. Kennedy, Esteban Villa, Wendy Rivera, Armando Cid / François Drouin. Music provided by Jackson Griffith, and Josh Fernandez presents Spontaneous Poems Performance Typewriter Work. Curated by frank andrick; info: 916-446-7322 or fandrickfabpub@hotmail.com/. Artwork will be on display until Dec. 12.
Copies of “La Luna” will be available for purchase and signing, with free goodies and programs also available at the Monthly Mosaic/RattleTable presented by SN&R and Rattlesnake Press. FREE for the art show and the reading and the Music and Literary Performances and the refreshments; $8 to purchase the La Luna anthology. Sacramento News & Review Building, 1015 20th. St., Sacramento (mid-town): big brick building, white columns; we are in the Lobby and commandeering the stairs. Come on in, eat cupcakes, check out art and voices!
Also this weekend in NorCal poetry:
•••Tonight (Friday, 11/7), 7 PM: Second Friday Poetry Reading at HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. This reading (usually held at the Vox, which is in the process of moving) features Bob Stanley (whose chapbook, Walt Whitman Orders a Cheeseburger, is forthcoming from Rattlesnake Press next spring); Rebecca Morrison (aka Eskimo Pie Girl, author of five chapbooks); prize-winning poet Jenny Jiang and Jeff Knorr (author of four collections). Hosted by Cynthia Linville. Free and family-friendly! [Warning: last Monday's Medusa post erroneously and foolishly said the reading was at 9 PM. T'ain't true; it's at SEVEN!]
•••Sat. (11/8), 10-11:30 AM: Sacramento Poetry Center 2nd and 4th Sat. workshop with Emmanuel Sigauke and Frank Dixon Graham. South Natomas Community Center (next door to S. Natomas Library), 2921 Truxel Rd., Sacramento. Bring ten copies of your one-page poem. Info: grahampoet@aol.com/.
•••Sat. (11/8), 2 PM: A reading of Vol. 5, #4 of Song of the San Joaquin Quarterly will be held in the downstairs theater of the McHenry Museum, 1402 “I” Street, Modesto, (209) 577-5366. Poets will read their own poems which were published in that issue. The reading is free and open to the public. Open mic to follow. Light refreshments will be served. Info: Cleo Griffith, PO Box 1161, Modesto, CA 95353-1161, cleor36@yahoo.com or (209) 543-1776.
•••Sunday (11/9), 3-5 PM: Lincoln poets present Brigit Truex 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; Open Mic is presented by The Poets Club of Lincoln.
•••Monday (11/10), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Edward Mycue and Nancy Keane, HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. Open mic after.
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PARADIGM FOR A PEAR
—Brigit Truex, Placerville
Whose song in blossom?
Each petal strikes a note.
Can you hear winds chime?
Turn your head, hear melodies,
faint bells echo in each bloom.
Walk through temple sounds
filling the white cloud orchard
while you trace your path.
Do birds carry prayers aloft
like incense rising?
Their hollow bones strike like gongs.
Rising moon, flushed as
ripe persimmons and as broad,
hushes nightingale,
his starry counterpoint trill.
Star-hung lantern quells all sound.
How is light and song
captured in fruit, then released
when it's sliced open?
The moon is a silver blade
dissecting shape and shadow.
Swollen bud-turned-pear,
it tastes of music beneath
skin of ripe spring moon.
___________________
MONUMENT
—Brigit Truex
Some stand alone on winded empty plain;
still others press their lenghts of starry stone
and settle deeper in their beds of loam
and peat, sun-flecked then washed again by rain,
the storm that cannot mask the piper's drone,
that solitary wail that carves grief
as pain is emptied, slow, in rock-relief.
Then slow, its place is filled. Green comfort known
by those remaining. Between the sky and moor
the ageless rock-bed cradles Moon at rest,
pouring silver and hope into the linnet's nest
before she lifts her ivoried face once more.
Soar, small green bird, you winged monument
that cannot be contained, your spirit
spent.
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Thanks, Brigit! Join the Lincoln Poets to hear Red Fox Underground poet and Celtic Woman Brigit Truex read her work on Sunday from 3-5 PM in the new Twelve Bridges Library in Lincoln, in the Willow Room [see announcement above].
__________________
Today's LittleNip:
What is the heart of this old monk like?
A gentle wind
Beneath the vast sky.
—Ryokan (translated by John Stevens)
__________________
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:
Next deadline for Rattlesnake Review is November 15!!! Send 3-5 poems, smallish art pieces and/or photos (no bio, no cover letter, no simultaneous submissions or previously-published poems) to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. E-mail attachments are preferred, but be sure to include all contact info, including snail address.
Also coming in November: On November 12, Rattlesnake Press will release a new rattlechap from Red Fox Underground Poet Wendy Patrice Williams (Some New Forgetting); a littlesnake broadside from South Lake Tahoe Poet Ray Hadley (Children's Games); our 2009 calendar from Katy Brown (Beyond the Hill: A Poet’s Calendar) as well as Conversations, Vol. 4 of B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series. That’s Weds., November 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.
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 SOWs; 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.