Candy Canes
Photo by D.R. Wagner
PAWNED
—dawn di bartolo, citrus heights
the old guitar
of fine-glossed aspiration
rests out of tune
with life’s many worries
against the white-
washed walls.
faced with daycare for
the latch-key child
afraid of his own shadow,
the mother, with
salt in her eyes,
touches tenderly
to inevitability,
says her goodbyes:
the choice
is without question.
things change,
she tells herself,
and time will allow
for dream.
the glass doors are
cold and uninviting,
the name of the pawnshop
chipping away
in degrees of desperation,
quick fixes sticky
on the door handle,
yet she grips it tightly
to steady herself.
songs she’s never sung
blow thru her hair
in new and acoustic breezes.
inside, the agitated few
echo her indecisive melody,
and she pushes thru
to barter with the
bearded man behind the counter.
forty bucks,
he says with detachment.
so little, dreams are worth.
tonight, she’ll sing
the children lullabies
in the key of G, unaccompanied.
she’ll sing them truth:
that dreams aren’t always the
songs we sing, but
love is beautiful music.
_________________
This week in NorCal poetry:
•••Monday (3/30), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Sacramento City College !X Ethnic Theatre at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St. (at R), Sacramento. Original poetry/monologues/scenes/music/dance by The Sacramento City College Ethnic Theatre Workshop, which integrates various forms of art (playwriting, poetry, music, dance, visual art) with race, ethnic and gender studies. It is led by Angela-Dee Alforque.
Coming next week to SPC:
•••Mon. (4/6), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents poets laureate from Sacramento (and elsewhere in California) reading from Sometimes in the Open, SPC Press's first release. Featured readers are: Dennis Schmitz, Julia Connor, Terry Ehret, Sam Pierstorff, Kevin Patrick Sullivan, Carolyn Wing Greenlee. Sometimes in the Open is an anthology of 65 poets laureate from around California. The reading will take place at California Stage, 2509 R St., Sacramento. Info: 916-979-9706.
NOTE: SPC's website has recently undergone a wonderful refurb, thanks to Richard Hansen of The Book Collector fame. Click on the Sacramento Poetry Center link to the right of this column and check it out!
•••Weds. (4/1), 9 PM: Poetry Night at Bistro 33 in Davis celebrates its first Poetry Night of National Poetry Month with a performance by Drew Dellinger: spoken word poet, teacher, writer, activist and founder of Poets for Global Justice. Drew has spoken at hundreds of events in many countries, performing poetry and keynoting on justice, ecology, cosmology, activism, democracy and compassion and sharing podiums and stages with luminaries such as Alice Walker, Cornel West, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Danny Glover, Ani DiFranco, Eve Ensler, Chuck D, Paul Hawken, Van Jones and many others. His work has appeared on radio, in films, books, anthologies, and in magazines, from The New York Times magazine to YES! magazine. His collection of poems, love letter to the milky way—now in its third printing—has sold thousands of copies in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia.
From 2006-2007 Dellinger was Associate Professor and Director of the Program in Social Ecology at John F. Kennedy University. He has taught at colleges, graduate schools and learning centers, including Prescott College, Naropa University-Oakland, Esalen Institute, and Sophia Center. Dellinger has studied cosmology and ecological thought with Thomas Berry since 1990 and is finishing his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is currently writing his dissertation on Martin Luther King Jr. and the connections between cosmology, ecology and social justice. Dellinger lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. (www.drewdellinger.org/)
Poetry Night at Bistro 33 occurs every first and third Wednesday of the month at 226 F Street in Davis. Andy Jones is the host and Brad Henderson the executive producer of Poetry Night. After brief preludes, the featured poet begins reading about ten minutes after 9 PM. The open mic begins at 10 PM. Come early to reserve a table or to add your name to the open mic list. Poetry Night events are free and open to the public.
•••Thurs. (4/2), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Features, with open mic before and after. Free.
•••Friday (4/3) and Sat. (4/4): Sacramento Poetry Center Writers Conference at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St. (at R), Sacramento. FREE FREE FREE! Friday night (7:30-9 PM) features William O’Daly, Libby Kovacs and Susan Kelly-DeWitt. Saturday features coffee and muffins at 9 AM, followed by workshops from 10-12 and 1-3; panel discussion til 4, and then a reading by Camille Dungy, Matthew Zapruder, Camille Norton. For more details, including presenter bios, or to pre-register for specific workshops, go to www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org [click on the new link at the right of this column and check out the spiffy new site!] and click on the blue box.
•••Sat. (4/4), 8 AM-5 PM: Every writer, high school age and older, is welcome to the first San Joaquin Writers' Workshop at Delta College in Danner Hall (and adjacent rooms), 5151 Pacific Av., Stockton. This inaugural year, the focus is poetry. The cost for the day, including lunch, is $15. REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS APRIL 1. More info or register at www.sanjoaquinwritersworkshop.org or send a check to Writers’ Guild, San Joaquin Delta College, 5151 Pacific Av., Stoctkon, CA 95207. (Please put "San Joaquin Writers’ Workshop" in the memo line.)
Some deadlines this week, too!
•••Get your money in TODAY (March 30) for the early rate on the May 1-3 Gold Rush Writers Retreat, founded by Antoinette May. The reasonable rate, $135.00, if paid by March 30, includes a full weekend of workshops, two dinners, and a brunch—all at the historic Leger Hotel in Mokelumne Hill. Al Young, California Poet Laureate, jazz musician, and fiction writer, will be leading a workshop Saturday and reading at the Friday poetry night which follows the picnic supper at Antoinette's lovely Victorian home. There's something for everyone, including a great flash fiction workshop with Sally Ashton. There is a laptop technology class with Tom Johnson which will open worlds for you in researching for your books or articles. Lucy Sanna, Indigo Moor, Kevin Arnold, Helen Bonner, Donna Peck, and Antoinette May will all hold workshops and talks. Info: http://www.goldrushwriters.com/ or http://www.goldrushwriters.com/registration_2009.html/.
•••Deadline for the Tiger's Eye Annual Poetry Contest has been changed from Feb. 28 to March 31! Send 3 of your finest, short bio, SASE, and $10 to Tiger's Eye 2009 Contest, P.O. Box 2935, Eugene, OR 97402. Judge will be Thomas D. Patterson. First prize is $500, 2nd is $100, 3rd is $50. Click to the link on the right for more info.
•••Deadline is tomorrow (Tuesday, March 31), for the Sacramento Poetry Center's First Annual Poetry Book Contest. The winning poetry book manuscript (48-70 pages) will be published by the SPC Press, and the winner will also receive the Cathy Washington Prize of $1000 and 50 free copies of the book. SPC will also consider publishing additional manuscripts. For more info, plus submission guidelines, see the current issue of Poetry Now or go to www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org/.
_________________
Her quick eyes
and animated mouth
unsettle me.
So, of course,
her lifted breasts, full lips—
soft fruits of desire.
But why should a
single wisp of hair,
stroked beneath her
navel like
some unforgettable
line of poetry,
reduce me to such
anguish?
—Bhartribari
__________________
On makeshift
bedding in the cucumber
garden, the hilltribe
girl clings to
her exhausted lover.
Limbs still chafing
with pleasure, dissolving
against him she
now and again with
one bare foot
jostles a shell necklace
that hangs from a
vine on the fence—
rattling it
through the night,
scaring the jackals off.
—Vidya
_________________
Now that the rainy
season is on us,
restless wild mountain tribe couples
no longer descend
the paths to make love here.
The bamboo thickets
flanking these hillside
creeks have grown quiet.
Along the banks, fresh
shoots are emerging,
tips clad in soft bark,
black as the skin
on a kid-goat's ear.
—Anonymous
_________________
A snatch of dream,
a juggler's contrivance—
making love to her
lasts a flickering instant,
then disillusion.
A hundred times
I tell myself this
but still can't forget
those antelope eyes.
—Dharmakirti
(These poems were translated from the Sanskrit by Andrew Schelling in Dropping the Bow: Poems from Ancient India, Broken Moon Press, 1991.)
_________________
Today's LittleNip:
Poetry is the art of using words charged to their greatest intensity.
—Dana Gioia
_________________
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:
Rattlesnake Review: The latest Snake (RR21) is now available at The Book Collector, 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!
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 Texts), 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.
