HIGH WIRE
—Taylor Graham, Placerville
Mlle La La at the Cirque Fernando, Degas
The lady’s hanging by her teeth from a line
suspended from a golden, vaulted
ceiling wide as
the mouth of a little girl
seated somewhere far below,
out of the picture,
whose family brought her to the circus
to see the clowns, the elephants
that are no more than fairytale
in her farm-town
of plough horses and peasants
and dull little boys.
Does her mother know the girl
is already lost—dreaming of the big old
oak, the highest place she knows,
a tree she’s only dared
climb to its lower branches
until now, this moment when,
by proxy, she rises
on a line suspended from the sky?
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Thanks, TG and Kevin Jones (see Today's LittleNip below) for the circus poems in response to our Seed of the Week: Joining the Circus. And watch for a new littlesnake broadside from Taylor Graham to be released at the Fifth Snake Birthday Bash on April 8.
Calendar additions for this week:
•••Tonight (Weds., 3/18), 9 PM: In honor of Rob Roy’s upcoming departure to Korea, Bistro 33 in Davis (226 F St.) invites you to join them for an evening of friendly, farewell roasts, as well as original poetry and music from Rob Roy himself. Free refreshments (wine and lemonade) will be provided to those who come early to claim a seat. (No cover charge—free event. Open mic at 10 PM.) As a poet, musician, politically active community member, and ordained minister, Rob Roy has contributed much to the local color of Davis. His involvement with the local music scene (through promotion, booking, and his radio show on KDVS), his creation of the now-disassembled Write Club (an organization meant to nourish the creativity of writers interested in performing their pieces), and his consistent participation in student and community events are some of the various ways in which Rob Roy has advocated for the arts. In addition, Rob Roy has stayed active in local political and social affairs by advocating for the Green Party and for Choice Voting, by serving the Associated Students of UC Davis as a Senator, and by running twice for a seat on the Davis City Council. Please join us in celebrating and ridiculing this great Davisite at the Rob Roy Roast.
This event will be hosted by Brad Henderson, known to some as the neo-cowboy poet & blues-rock drummer, Beau Hamel. Andy Jones is in Japan and will return in time for the reading by Drew Dellinger (http://www.drewdellinger.org/) on April 1 at Bistro 33. Please mark that date on your calendar.
P.S. To see friends who may be attending this event, please visit the Facebook site for the Rob Roy Roast: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=56159526403&ref=ts/.
•••Thursday (3/19), 7:30 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series presents poets Josh Fernandez and Belle Star. Josh Fernandez lives with his two cats and his girlfriend, Crystal, in Midtown Sacramento, where he takes up very little space and is virtually nonexistent. He works at the Sacramento News & Review as an associate arts editor where he writes about music, poetry, arts and culture. His poems have appeared in Pax Americana, Seele, Poetry Now, Sussurus, and other small journals. A new broadside is available from Rattlesnake Press, entitled In the End it's a Worthless Machine. Fernandez grew up in Boston, Mass., but moved to California with his family at the age of 12. His writing mostly reflects his experiences living with a schizophrenic father and fighting his own mental illness and struggles with addiction. “Run, Josh, Run”, an autobiographical essay about Fernandez's life of drug abuse and recovery through marathon running, was picked up nationally and can be read at www.newsreview.com/sacramento/.
Belle Star was born and raised on the San Juan Ridge. On one side of her world she is a Haute (Hot) Trash fashion designer, model, artist, writer, singer, dancer and performer. On another side she is the owner of The Ridge Stop Café, where she is the chief cook, dishwasher, bartender and the person who takes out the trash. On yet another side she is a friend, lover, wife-to-be, daughter, sister, plant-loving organic advocate, religious recycler and a 28-year-old tree climbing, barefoot child whose world is a place of passion that is wound with the belief that together we can make it better...
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.
Check out Persimmon Tree:
The Spring ’09 issue of Persimmon Tree is now online at http://www.persimmontree.org/, including pieces by poets such as Gail Entrekin, Marion Menna, Susan Robbins, and Lygia Ballantyne. Gena Raps’ fascinating interview of Scottish-American composer Thea Musgrave is also in this issue—you’ll be able to hear some of her music online—plus images of Judy Chicago’s glass sculptures of hands, her latest work.
In honor of its second birthday, Persimmon Tree has changed its name to Persimmon Tree: An Online Magazine of the Arts by Women Over Sixty. This new title expresses the intent to include a greater variety of creative expression in the future. Contact them at editor@persimmontree.org/.
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THE DESTROYER LIFE
—William Bronk
I know there are things: crystals, fossils, basalts,
certain metals, that seem as though they last
eternally and I know it is not so.
But we think of them so. I think also of logs
in the woods, tree-trunks, their bark whole
still and, inside, soft as suede, their strength,
their hard solidity wasted, years away.
I saw on the back porch a mold on a squash,
tiny magnificences yesterday
and, today, mold and squash together slime.
These poems that, once, I thought might be
support and comfort to me, come bad times,
are now an emptiness. I need to know
that all their strength is only as a strength
fills them, some strong life, and my
strong life is down as living things
show life so, do drive down.
And I hasten it: my impatiences
bristle why it takes so long, open the veins
of feeling, pulse let go, let go, let go.
__________________
RULE BOOK
—William Bronk
Friends of mine know what to expect of love
and are disappointed when it doesn't work out that way:
they assume that inequalities mean
there is something wrong with one or the other, they blame
themselves sometimes for this and whether there is more
bitterness in blaming themselves or more
in blaming the other would be a hard thing
to decide. Their despairs and hatreds are coarse.
In the same way, when love peters out
or, slyly, the loved one makes the move
to someone else, like players protesting a call,
they sense the wrong of it: "The rules say..."
Because they know the rules. They know how love
is supposed to be. They haven't cheated. They play
the way they should or with only such minor faults
as everyone gets away with. They was robbed!
However, I poor fool, have never known
the rules. Or reading, fail to understand
how the rules could work. I stumble around the field.
My friends are kind, sometimes, and help me out.
__________________
THE LIVES OF POETS
—William Bronk
(for Henry Weinfield)
After almost a lifetime, we realize
that Shakespeare never had a life. Oh,
he married and had a child, apparently,
and there were friends who loved him, friends he loved.
What came of it? Drake sailed around the world,
a world that was newer then and not the one
we came to know. Essex and Raleigh had
careers at court where Elizabeth met Spain;
and ships that challenged her are wrecks
beneath the waters of her islands—lie there still.
I used to think that Shakespeare didn't exist,
that all his works were part of Original
Creation if such could be said to be. There are those,
now, who say he was someone else: well,
he was someone, whether else or not, and we don't
know who he was but it doesn't matter at all.
We don't have to believe in him the way
we are asked sometimes to believe Drake's drums,
in the story, can be heard at crucial times. We know
that, wonder of wonders, Miranda is still alive.
__________________
Today's LittleNip:
SMALL SAD CIRCUS*
—Kevin Jones, Fair Oaks
So hard to find
Even under
The full moon
(*title is from a line by Wm. Wantling)
_________________
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:
Rattlesnake Review: The new Snake (RR21) is out! The issue is now available at The Book Collector, and contributor and subscription copies will go into the mail this week and next—or send me four bux and I'll mail you one. 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 MARCH: Rattlesnake Press is proud to present 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)!
COMING IN APRIL: Wednesday, April 8 will be our FIFTH ANNUAL BIRTHDAY PARTY/BUFFET at The Book Collector, featuring a SpiralChap of poetry and photos from Laverne Frith (Celebrations: Images and Text), a littlesnake broadside from Taylor Graham (Edge of Wildwood), and Musings3: An English Affair, a new blank journal of photos and writing prompts from Katy Brown. That’s at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM.
And April 15 is the deadline for the second issue of WTF, the free quarterly journal from Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe that is edited by frank andrick. Submission guidelines are the same as for the Snake, but send your poems, photos, smallish art or prose pieces (500 words or less) to fandrickfabpub@hotmail.com (attachments preferred) or, if you’re snailing, to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. And be forewarned: this publication is for adults only, so you must be over 18 years of age to submit. Copies of the first issue are at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one.
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.......!
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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.