Exhaling A Lifetime

Snowy Plovers

WHEN PLOVERS COMPLAIN
—David C. Anderson, Lincoln

When my body rouses at the slightest
and I fear you will not return, and our lives
shrivel from the world's trumpeting,
I go in silence, to rest where your spirit speaks,
where plovers' complaints precede the dawn,
in a cove where waves continuously crest and crush.
I come into the resonance of that music
unmediated by voice or strings. And I know
around me a cantus firmus not bound to earth.

__________________

EVERGREEN SWAY
—Davis C. Anderson

Sprinkles of cones fall around me
from tops of the pines.
I hear the squirrels, inhale a dry scent
that fills my head and throat.
It changes time and distance
until I am walking the forest
of grandmother's Sweden
to the open door of her house.

__________________

Thanks to David Anderson for the poems today, and to dawn di bartolo, who will be part of the African-American reading at Sacramento Poetry Center tonight:

•••Monday (2/16), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents African-American Poetry Night with Terry Moore, Khiry Malik Moore, Indigo Moor, Mario Ellis Hill, Dawn Di Bartolo, V. S. Chochezi and others. That’s at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Non-alcoholic refreshments available. Free; donations accepted. [See last Friday’s post for bios.]


Also this week in NorCal poetry:

•••Thursday (2/19), 8 PM: The Snake posse takes a road trip to Luna’s Café (1414 16th St., Sacramento) for the premiere of Rattlesnake Press's new, free Poetry Unplugged quarterly, WTF, edited by frank andrick. (For those of you just tuning in, Poetry Unplugged is the long-running reading series at Luna's Cafe.) Free!

•••Thursday (2/19), 7:30 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series presents Ed Buryn and Brad Buchanan. Ed Buryn is a longtime professional photographer and two-time winner of the Nikon International Photo Contest. His photographs have appeared in hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers. His major photography books are: Two Births, a photo essay of home childbirth that helped legitimize the lay midwifery movement; and Mission Creek San Francisco, an ecological portrait of an urban houseboat community. Ed’s other books include Vagabonding in Europe and Vagabonding in the USA; both became classic guidebooks of the counterculture of the 1970’s and '80’s. Ed’s William Blake Tarot of the Creative Imagination is praised as one of the most complete guides to Tarot in print today. Ed is a true philosopher, poet, vagabond, photographer, a conduit of life energy and a friend and lover to many.

Brad Buchanan is Associate Professor of English at California State University Sacramento, where he teaches British and world literature as well as creative writing. His poetry, scholarly essays, and other writings have appeared in periodicals such as Canadian Literature, Fulcrum, Twentieth-Century Literature, The Wisconsin Review, The Journal of Modern Literature and the Sacramento News & Review. His first book of poetry, The Miracle Shirker, was published in 2005 by Poet's Corner Press, and his book-length study of the fiction of British author, Hanif Kureishi, was published in 2007 by Palgrave Macmillan Press. He is a board member at the Sacramento Poetry Center, edits SPC's biannual journal, Tule Review, runs an annual high school poetry contest for SPC, and is co-founder of Roan Press, a small publishing operation.

Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included. The show will be in Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Info: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384.

•••Friday (2/20), 7 PM: Poetry at Raven's Tale presents Shawn Pittard and Bob Eakins. Rattlechapper Shawn Pittard is a regular columnist for Rattlesnake Review and The Great American Pin-Up, as well as the author of These Rivers from Rattlesnake Press, which has also done littlesnake broadsides of both his and Bob Eakins' poetry. A short poetry open-mic follows (signup before the featured readers). Raven's Tale bookstore is located at 352 Main St., Placerville. Free!

•••Friday (2/20), 7:30 PM: The Other Voice, sponsored by the UU Church of Davis, presents Charles Halsted and Miles Miniaci, who will be accompanied by musicians. They will be reading their poems in the sanctuary of the church located at 27074 Patwin Road in Davis. Free! Open Mike and refreshments follow, so bring along a poem to share. Charles Halsted is a faculty physician at the UC Davis School of Medicine. During his decades of patient care, teaching and medical research, he wrote many original scientific articles. As part of a recent transition toward retirement, he has studied poetry in workshops led by Hannah Stein and Julia Levine and already has publications in Poetry Now and The Yolo Crow.

Miles Miniaci received his BA from San Francisco State and an MFA from the University of Southern California. His poetry and fiction have appeared in American River Literary Review, Catchphrase Collection, Harpoon and other periodicals. His most recent work is a poetry collection, Maps and Legends, published by Polymer Grove Press. He has made his living at various times as an actor, a high school and college instructor, and an arts administrator. He considers himself an incredibly fortunate person.

__________________

to the Father
(after Marilyn Nelson: “Mama’s Promise”)
—dawn di bartolo, citrus heights

i imagine that my death would be
an empty room with white walls,
a few red roses, petaled path
to the cliff of oblivion. i would
leap, eyes open, into wide-reaching blue
like a summer sky. no gray tears,
i’d be wearing yellow, and finally
would breathe, exhale a lifetime,
stroking for all my sorrows
toward refreshing absolution.

__________________

bad, bad habits
—dawn di bartolo

he always smoked
until the cherry dropped;

not that i care
to remember him
in flame,

but the same thing
nearly happened to me

one night, when i was
distracted by the burn.

having so long
rested upon his lips,

he easily sprang to mind
~ and i quickly snubbed it out.

__________________

the knee incident
—dawn di bartolo

at a night-club in the humid recesses
of Texas, once, when i was young,
i had a whiskey-slurred debate
indulgent of the spinning lights
and loud shake-your-ass beats.

one side of me said,
“caution! you’ve only
seen this done, on t.v.,
no less, you are not
a doctor!” the other said,

“if you don’t at least try
to help her, the night
will be shot, and you’ll spend
the next six hours
in emergency.”
well, i tried…
tried to realign her
dislocated knee
with my desired
freaky-sweaty fate …and

spent six hours
in emergency ~ possibly
because i tried; after all,
i’m not a doctor.

i was so simple then ~
young, hot and barely clothed;
the world hinged, that night, on
another amber drink from the guy
with the wicked green eyes;

donna
retained…
sustained complexity ~
permanent damage;

i’ll always wonder
if she wonders…
and hates me for it.

__________________

Today's LittleNip:

My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.

—William Golding

__________________

—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

Rattlesnake Review: The latest issue (RR20) is currently available at The Book Collector, or send me four bux and I'll mail you one. Deadline for RR21 was Sunday, Feb. 15; the issue will appear in mid-March. Next deadline is May 15 for RR22: 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. Meanwhile, the snakes of Medusa are always hungry; let us know if your submission is for the Review or for Medusa, or for either one.

Also available (free): littlesnake broadside #46: Snake Secrets: Getting Your Poetry Published in Rattlesnake Press (and lots of other places, besides!): A compendium of ideas for brushing up on your submissions process so as to make editors everywhere more happy, thereby increasing the likelihood of getting your poetry published. Pick up a copy at The Book Collector or write to me and I'll send you one. Free!

New for February: Now available! A new rattlechap from Sacramento's Poet Laureate, Julia Connor (Oar); a free littlesnake broadside from Josh Fernandez (In The End, It’s A Worthless Machine); and the premiere of our new Rattlesnake Reprints, featuring The Dimensions of the Morning by D.R. Wagner, which was first published by Black Rabbit Press in 1969. Available from the poets or at The Book Collector (1008 24th St., Sacramento) or (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/.

And on February 19, the premiere of our new, free Poetry Unplugged quarterly, WTF, edited by frank andrick, will be celebrated at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, 8 PM. (For those of you just tuning in, Poetry Unplugged is the long-running reading series at Luna's Cafe.)

Coming in March: On Wednesday, March 11, Rattlesnake Press will be releasing a new chapbook from Norma Kohout (All Aboard); a littlesnake broadside from Patricia Hickerson (At Grail Castle Hotel); and a new issue of Rattlesnake Review (the Snake turns 21)! Join us at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.


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, or any other day!): 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.