Gingko biloba
THE SUBSIDY
—William Bronk
Well, I don't know; that crazy dog,
puppy-boy, inexpressibly
overjoyed—many mornings I wake
like that, loving the light, the new day.
I know not to. Suppose I had the power,
what would I do? It isn't that things are wrong
—though they are—but that there isn't a way,
any conceivable way, to set them right.
The hopelessness. Anything's defeat
is always its own terms which seem they should win
as often they do. How else should we see their defeat?
These are the only terms we think of,
hopeless terms. Our life, such as it is,
is elsewhere. Welcome morning. Give me joy.
___________________
EVALUATION
—William Bronk
"Life affirming," he says, as though life
waited for our approval. Life lives
our life; if it seems whimsical
it's because we assume a purpose, as much as to say
it has one, or one we know about.
Sometimes, it lets us go our way, bored
with us, contemptuous. Other times,
it's as though it watched and made us adversary
and, laughing, seized us, took its ultimate
revenges, as though our mistake were intentional.
It wants a death and waits on the street for it
and follows it home and kills it in the corridor there.
Or talks sweet and, over drinks in a bar,
maybe, speaks of need and loneliness
which moves it in where it stays for fifty years
or twenty or tries another place, (same stuff)
where it dies at last in agony and squalor
or (irony) in comfort, quietly
—what we call "the good death". What do we know?
Life doesn't ask us its values.
___________________
This weekend in NorCal poetry:
•••Sat. (3/14), 2 PM: Citrus Heights Area Poets presents columnist Ken Umbach and authors Sue Clark and Lisa Augustine (who are also poets), sharing their writing experiences and talking about other authors who have published books of poetry, followed by readings by local poets. CHAP meets at Barnes & Noble in Citrus Heights (left front corner of the store). •••Sun. (3/15), 7 PM: Douglas Blazek reads at Time Tested Books, 1114 21st Street. $5 donation requested. timetestedbooks.net/.
•••Saturday (3/14), 6-9 PM: Art on Stockton Blvd. at Master Barber & Beauty Shop pays tribute to Women History Month with Milton Bowens and Terry Moore. 3504 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento. Refreshments; free. Info: 916-457-8708.
•••Monday (3/16), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents McKinley Park Poetry Gaggle at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St. (at R), Sacramento. Open mic after. Info: http://www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org/. Here are the members of the Gaggle:
Robin Aurelius: Love Boat entertainer with Mary McGrath, tongue in cheek, crack-up humor, hoarder but has every imaginable tool as a great neighbor, cleans everyone’s street gutter, will clean yours and pick your oranges.
Mary McGrath: Storyteller, most interesting gig and audience was a family concert with the Sacramento Symphony (one of the last they performed, draw your own conclusion). Bird watcher, just discovered four heron nests within sight of big buildings downtown, would like a wild garden full of resident singing birds.
Bill Davis: Born up a Kentucky holler, international justice systems reformer: Kosovo, Palestine (not going so well), Argentina, Georgia (a little trouble with the Russians), ex Peace Corps Chile.
Connee Davis: Quiet seer/poet of details missed by most, retired speech therapist, world traveler, also of Chile Peace Corps fame.
Andy Anderson: Thousands of irreverent poems, a few should pass muster, life devoted to Indian health care, Europe-phile, loves the bike trail, also Peace Corps Chile, teases and lies with ease.
Mary Antoine: Used to drive race cars, now racing attorney/RN specialist in health law, real redhead raising a real teenager.
Debra DeBondt: At last, an ex-Peace Corps volunteer from another country, Kenya, just out of range of coastal bandits, dedicated to learning how to teach skills to illiterates like most of us in the Poetry Gaggle.
On Monday, March 23, SPC will present Troy Jollimore and Brandon Cesmat.
___________________
THE WANTS OF LIFE
—William Bronk
What does life want of, say, the roach,
the scouring rush, the horseshoe crab, those
our contemporaries which long preceded us?
I have a ginkgo tree in the yard, still there,
immobile. What does life want of us?
The ginkgo tree genetically the same
how long? No men then. Millions of years.
Hundreds of millions. Its static phrase again,
again, again. What's wanted ever of us?
We don't know. Life is aside from us,
though we are lived: such doubtful presences,
so slight in ourselves, we lend a hand in our own
destruction, alive more then than other times,
glorying in the hustle and stir of things.
It's this to be alive! It uses us
without our knowing what it means to do.
Nothing tells us; nothing asks. We aren't
even servants there but furniture of the house,
food to be eaten, fuel, materials
of life. Or pictures watching from the walls.
___________________
WEATHERS WE LIVE IN
—William Bronk
One makes a poem as little as one makes
the weather. One goes to the window and looks out
and sees it there, outside. Read!
We go out into it if we dare.
Some weathers are harsher than we can bear
and this is what they say to us: go back
in the house! We hear that, sometimes,
and go back in and move the furniture
or put another sweater on and go
back out prepared or, sweaterless,
go anyway and speak bleak to the bleak
if bleak seems called-for from us then.
There are always weathers if we go outside
—even the days we aren't aware of them.
I love the gentle days, the summertimes,
their mumbled messages, asking the ear
to bare itself to hear them better.
Yet,
___________________other poems clothe me again
in their clarities when I stand in them
as in a weather. I try the way they look.
in their clarities when I stand in them
as in a weather. I try the way they look.
Today's LittleNip:
The morning door is open to the outer world:
the pleasure of edges, clear shapes and names.
Its air is the sharp pain of your separateness.
—William Bronk
___________________
—Medusa (be careful out there: it's ANOTHER Friday the 13th!)
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.......!
_________________
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.
