Photo by Bob Dreizler, Sacramento
WATER PICTURE
—May Swenson
In the pond in the park
all things are doubled:
Long buildings hang and
wriggle gently. Chimneys
are bent legs bouncing
on clouds below. A flag
wags like a fishhook
down there in the sky.
The arched stone bridge
is an eye, with underlid
in the water. In its lens
dip crinkled heads with hats
that don't fall off. Dogs go by,
barking on their backs.
A baby, taken to feed the
ducks, dangles upside-down,
a pink balloon for a buoy.
Treetops deploy a haze of
cherry bloom for roots,
where birds coast belly-up
in the glass bowl of a hill;
from its bottom a bunch
of peanut-munching children
is suspended by their
sneakers, waveringly.
A swan, with twin necks
forming the figure three,
steers between two dimpled
towers doubled. Fondly
hissing, she kisses herself,
and all the scene is troubled:
water-windows splinter,
tree-limbs tangle, the bridge
folds like a fan.
___________________
Congrats to local poets Allegra Silberstein, Stephen Sadler, Elsie Whitlow Feliz, Don Feliz, Jennie Jiang, Jennifer Jenkins, Katy Brown, Danyen Powell, Carol Frith and Norma Kohout for their wins in the Berkeley Poet’s Luncheon contest last Saturday!
This week in NorCal poetry:
•••Monday (3/23), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Troy Jollimore and Brandon Cesmat at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic after.
•••Weds. (3/25), 6-7 PM: Upstairs Poetry Reading at The Upstairs Art Gallery, 420 Main St (2nd floor), Placerville. It's a poetry open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. No charge.
•••Weds. (3/25), 8-11 PM: Mahogany Urban Poetry Series (inside Queen Sheba restaurant), 1704 Broadway, Sac. $5 cover. Spoken word and poetry; features and open mic. Info: 916-455-8410or malikspeaks@aol.com/.
•••Thurs. (3/26), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sac. Featuring Mary Mackey, Carlos Acala, and Molly Fisk, with open mic before and after. Free.
•••Friday (3/27), 8:15 PM: A poetry reading entitled Nature of Poetry, located at the Garden Terrace space at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. This program follows the regular DNC Interpretive Services program of Ansel Adams: A Film from 7-8 PM across the courtyard in the Cliff Room. Local poets Joy Downs, Tim Lopez and James Downs will join guest poet Molly Weller of Portland, Oregon in an evening of poetry about the nature of nature and of human relationships. Info: e-mail James Downs (jamespeakdowns@yahoo.com).
•••Friday (3/27), 8-10:30 PM: Poetry Jam at Sacramento’s new and hot Spoken Word venue, THE UPPER LEVEL LOUNGE (Located inside of Fitness Systems Heathclub, by Cal State Skating Rink). Open mic, too. $5; 26 Massie Ct., Sacramento (exit Mack Rd. East to Stockton Blvd, left on Massie). Info: 916-208-POET (T-Mo).
•••Sat. (3/28), 10 AM: Writers of the New Sun/Escritores del Nuevo Sol have a new meeting date: the 3rd Saturday of each month. Coming dates are: March 28, April 18, May 16, June 20. The 10 AM potluck meetings are at La Raza Galeria Posada, 1024 22nd St., midtown Sacramento. Call ahead to confirm: 916-456-5323. Members of all skill levels support each other via readings, exercises, critiques and information, writing in English, Spanish, or both. To request information, call 916-456-5323.
_________________
AMBROSIAN CIRCUS
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
I was five, I went with my mommy
and daddy to see the Ringling Bros.
and Barnum and Bailey Circus
at the Memorial Auditorium.
It was a big dusty building, but the lights
were all lit inside. This must be something!
I saw the high-wire walkers, the trapeze
people in leotards and hose doing
what I did on the swing set, but so high,
they wanted to scrape the vault
ceiling, and then, every time they went
whee! let go the bar and tumble-flew in air alone,
how could they not fall? Would God
catch them, if their other trapeze-person didn’t?
Why was there no net under the tightrope?
And what about the powdered white-donut tigers,
the orange-juice tigers in the cage? I didn’t hear
the whip crack (in air? on skin? on sawdust?) just
how I wanted it, and after one tiger’s jumped
a hoop, how many times more can you see it
the same fun way? What kind of big deal was it
just to see the tigers, lions, elephants, hop up
and sit on stools? We beasts did as much
every day at school. Now I attend intellectual
circus, the kind where you get swag
just for paying and showing up, if swag
means a small canvas tote bag with
an overlarge dishwasher-unsafe water bottle
in it. We crunch crackerjack mouthfuls
of awe and shoptalk, gape at PowerPoint
shows of teaching acumen (some of the
presenters know not to just mouth
the exact words up onscreen); we sift and
shift morsels of reader-response theory,
how much available brain-space for comprehension
when we dump huge demands in vocabulary acquisition
on the innocent wet gray cranium sponge;
we observe what happens to the hundred-ring
circus (breakout sessions! workshops!
keynote speakers!) when the big top turns
top-heavy with panel discussion, turtling
over in discords as the mental canvas
reveals big sags and patches. Everybody’s
a ringmaster, a caucus-race winner, all
must have a paragraph. Now the clowns, clowns,
clowns, all of them frightful, some of them
dressed like doctors, with stethoscopes
that squirt articulate perfume. And “lastly,
through a hogshead of real fire”: some by-god
poetry! Yes, this one last conference, we got
genuine poets and novelists who’ve been
war-seared/scarred and can really fling at us
the live coals, one a civilian poet-nurse who met
the literally operatic Sister Ambrose, the Flying
Nun whose helicopter trips airlifted Amerasian
orphans in multichild scoops right out of razed
villages and into Veronica’s-napkin peace
within Saigon convent-white walls, to
bel canto lullabies from Sister Ambrose herself.
We felt the great Anne Waldman rally us,
booming out generous portions of her post-Beat
epic Manatee/Humanity, uttering speeded-up
wisdom flights into investigative poetics,
playing an archival tape of Allen Ginsberg
singing prettily a peace ballad. None other than her
musician son (yes) Ambrose backing her with
elegant-looped guitar fills and deft light percussions.
Oh yes, education filtered through a circus trope
has its uses: not to jump frightened youths
through college hoops, but to help them bust
the tough resistant canvas of the tent!
Anywhere you come across the name Ambrose
twice at a conference—that’s at least a start.
__________________
—May Swenson
In the pond in the park
all things are doubled:
Long buildings hang and
wriggle gently. Chimneys
are bent legs bouncing
on clouds below. A flag
wags like a fishhook
down there in the sky.
The arched stone bridge
is an eye, with underlid
in the water. In its lens
dip crinkled heads with hats
that don't fall off. Dogs go by,
barking on their backs.
A baby, taken to feed the
ducks, dangles upside-down,
a pink balloon for a buoy.
Treetops deploy a haze of
cherry bloom for roots,
where birds coast belly-up
in the glass bowl of a hill;
from its bottom a bunch
of peanut-munching children
is suspended by their
sneakers, waveringly.
A swan, with twin necks
forming the figure three,
steers between two dimpled
towers doubled. Fondly
hissing, she kisses herself,
and all the scene is troubled:
water-windows splinter,
tree-limbs tangle, the bridge
folds like a fan.
___________________
Congrats to local poets Allegra Silberstein, Stephen Sadler, Elsie Whitlow Feliz, Don Feliz, Jennie Jiang, Jennifer Jenkins, Katy Brown, Danyen Powell, Carol Frith and Norma Kohout for their wins in the Berkeley Poet’s Luncheon contest last Saturday!
This week in NorCal poetry:
•••Monday (3/23), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Troy Jollimore and Brandon Cesmat at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic after.
•••Weds. (3/25), 6-7 PM: Upstairs Poetry Reading at The Upstairs Art Gallery, 420 Main St (2nd floor), Placerville. It's a poetry open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. No charge.
•••Weds. (3/25), 8-11 PM: Mahogany Urban Poetry Series (inside Queen Sheba restaurant), 1704 Broadway, Sac. $5 cover. Spoken word and poetry; features and open mic. Info: 916-455-8410or malikspeaks@aol.com/.
•••Thurs. (3/26), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sac. Featuring Mary Mackey, Carlos Acala, and Molly Fisk, with open mic before and after. Free.
•••Friday (3/27), 8:15 PM: A poetry reading entitled Nature of Poetry, located at the Garden Terrace space at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. This program follows the regular DNC Interpretive Services program of Ansel Adams: A Film from 7-8 PM across the courtyard in the Cliff Room. Local poets Joy Downs, Tim Lopez and James Downs will join guest poet Molly Weller of Portland, Oregon in an evening of poetry about the nature of nature and of human relationships. Info: e-mail James Downs (jamespeakdowns@yahoo.com).
•••Friday (3/27), 8-10:30 PM: Poetry Jam at Sacramento’s new and hot Spoken Word venue, THE UPPER LEVEL LOUNGE (Located inside of Fitness Systems Heathclub, by Cal State Skating Rink). Open mic, too. $5; 26 Massie Ct., Sacramento (exit Mack Rd. East to Stockton Blvd, left on Massie). Info: 916-208-POET (T-Mo).
•••Sat. (3/28), 10 AM: Writers of the New Sun/Escritores del Nuevo Sol have a new meeting date: the 3rd Saturday of each month. Coming dates are: March 28, April 18, May 16, June 20. The 10 AM potluck meetings are at La Raza Galeria Posada, 1024 22nd St., midtown Sacramento. Call ahead to confirm: 916-456-5323. Members of all skill levels support each other via readings, exercises, critiques and information, writing in English, Spanish, or both. To request information, call 916-456-5323.
_________________
AMBROSIAN CIRCUS
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
I was five, I went with my mommy
and daddy to see the Ringling Bros.
and Barnum and Bailey Circus
at the Memorial Auditorium.
It was a big dusty building, but the lights
were all lit inside. This must be something!
I saw the high-wire walkers, the trapeze
people in leotards and hose doing
what I did on the swing set, but so high,
they wanted to scrape the vault
ceiling, and then, every time they went
whee! let go the bar and tumble-flew in air alone,
how could they not fall? Would God
catch them, if their other trapeze-person didn’t?
Why was there no net under the tightrope?
And what about the powdered white-donut tigers,
the orange-juice tigers in the cage? I didn’t hear
the whip crack (in air? on skin? on sawdust?) just
how I wanted it, and after one tiger’s jumped
a hoop, how many times more can you see it
the same fun way? What kind of big deal was it
just to see the tigers, lions, elephants, hop up
and sit on stools? We beasts did as much
every day at school. Now I attend intellectual
circus, the kind where you get swag
just for paying and showing up, if swag
means a small canvas tote bag with
an overlarge dishwasher-unsafe water bottle
in it. We crunch crackerjack mouthfuls
of awe and shoptalk, gape at PowerPoint
shows of teaching acumen (some of the
presenters know not to just mouth
the exact words up onscreen); we sift and
shift morsels of reader-response theory,
how much available brain-space for comprehension
when we dump huge demands in vocabulary acquisition
on the innocent wet gray cranium sponge;
we observe what happens to the hundred-ring
circus (breakout sessions! workshops!
keynote speakers!) when the big top turns
top-heavy with panel discussion, turtling
over in discords as the mental canvas
reveals big sags and patches. Everybody’s
a ringmaster, a caucus-race winner, all
must have a paragraph. Now the clowns, clowns,
clowns, all of them frightful, some of them
dressed like doctors, with stethoscopes
that squirt articulate perfume. And “lastly,
through a hogshead of real fire”: some by-god
poetry! Yes, this one last conference, we got
genuine poets and novelists who’ve been
war-seared/scarred and can really fling at us
the live coals, one a civilian poet-nurse who met
the literally operatic Sister Ambrose, the Flying
Nun whose helicopter trips airlifted Amerasian
orphans in multichild scoops right out of razed
villages and into Veronica’s-napkin peace
within Saigon convent-white walls, to
bel canto lullabies from Sister Ambrose herself.
We felt the great Anne Waldman rally us,
booming out generous portions of her post-Beat
epic Manatee/Humanity, uttering speeded-up
wisdom flights into investigative poetics,
playing an archival tape of Allen Ginsberg
singing prettily a peace ballad. None other than her
musician son (yes) Ambrose backing her with
elegant-looped guitar fills and deft light percussions.
Oh yes, education filtered through a circus trope
has its uses: not to jump frightened youths
through college hoops, but to help them bust
the tough resistant canvas of the tent!
Anywhere you come across the name Ambrose
twice at a conference—that’s at least a start.
__________________
Lay me down
In the clear flowing water
Restoreth my soul
—Ronald Edwin Lane, Weimar
_________________In the clear flowing water
Restoreth my soul
—Ronald Edwin Lane, Weimar
Today's LittleNip:
Poetry is a puppet-show, where riders of skyrockets and divers of sea fathoms gossip about the sixth sense and the fourth dimension.
—Carl Sandburg
_________________
—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 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.......!
_________________
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.