Photo by Laura LeHew, Eugene, ORFOLLOWING THE RHYMES OF SHAO-PAO
HUANG'S POEM ON BEING MOVED WHILE
VISITING THE FARMERS
—Yang Shih-chi (1365-1444)
There is a drought, the farmers have a hard time finding food:
what terrible suffering in this district!
They comb the fields for pieces of stubble:
they might as well steam sand for rice!
Now the tax collectors are putting on the pressure,
and the autumn harvest seems more distant than ever.
What are we officials doing about it?
Eating meat, growing old in the capital!
(translated by Jonathan Chaves)
___________________
HUANG'S POEM ON BEING MOVED WHILE
VISITING THE FARMERS
—Yang Shih-chi (1365-1444)
There is a drought, the farmers have a hard time finding food:
what terrible suffering in this district!
They comb the fields for pieces of stubble:
they might as well steam sand for rice!
Now the tax collectors are putting on the pressure,
and the autumn harvest seems more distant than ever.
What are we officials doing about it?
Eating meat, growing old in the capital!
(translated by Jonathan Chaves)
___________________
Welcome to Tax Day! Thanks to Laura LeHew for something pretty to look at while we contemplate parting with our money, and to the poets who responded to our Seed of the Week (see the ice-heart-fire photo on yesterday's post and the mixed feelings represented in it). Judging from the above poem and today's LittleNip, there's not much new in how people feel about taxation.......
LOTS going on in local poetry for April; stay tuned! And don't forget that today is the deadline for Poetry Unplugged's journal, WTF! (see below for details) and for the SPC High School Poetry Contest (see Monday's post for details.)
Calendar additions for this week:
•••Tomorrow night at 8 PM (Thurs., 4/16), Poetry Unplugged @ Luna’s Cafe presents a reading and musical performance by Chris Fairman. The Sacramento-based singer/songwriter poet, and audio collagist will thrill with both spoken/written works and songs. Chris has a new CD, 85, 87. Nevada City area poet Marilyn Souza will also read her work with some selections from her new book, Finding The Ultimate Treasure. Open mike precedes and follows, all ages, Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, free. Info: 916/441-3931.
•••Thursday (4/16), 7:30 pm: The Nevada County Poetry Series will be celebrating National Poetry Month with two of Northern California's most dynamic poets: Mario Ellis Hill and B.L. Kennedy. Hill invites you in and shares the soft touch of love and the Hip-hop vibrancy of a young man chasing life. Kennedy is in your face with a street-wise reality that has been lived—hard. Together they are life's bookends, filling the shelves with everything that need to be heard...
Mario Ellis Hill is a poet, songwriter, musician, spoken word and poetry slam artist. He is currently a co-host of the award winning Poetry Unplugged open mic series at Luna's Cafe in Sacramento. He performs with Foshang and the Jalapeno Chocolates, a poetry and music ensemble, and is featured in their anthology, The Jive, and on the group's CD, The Jive's In The Jug. He is a vocalist with the "ethno-pop" dance band, The Free Association, and adds his touch to their latest CD, Fitty History. Mario is the artistic director of the Mario Ellis Hill Poetry Machine, which has performed spoken word, music, and dance throughout California and beyond. Mario's work has been featured in the poetry anthologies La Luna, The Sacramento Anthology: One Hundred Poems, Paleontology, Crossroads and the Nevada County Poetry Series of 2001 anthology. He also appears on the musical works of jazz musician John Tchicai (Love Is Touching) and Mark Oi (Please Use Headphones). Mario remains committed to the arts, is a sought after talent and a memorable performance artist—a must see!
B.L. Kennedy has served the Sacramento literary communities by spearheading many poetry reading, fundraisers and major poetry events. Some of these events include the now-famous World's longest Outdoor Poetry Marathon (1986, 1996, and 2006); the annual October in the Railroad Earth—an Annual Tribute to Jack Kerouac (1980-2004); and the establishment of a special collection of books and collectibles from Sacramento writers at the UCD Shields Library. In 2005, Kennedy and Linda Thorell received a grant from the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission to establish the Archives Group, dedicated to preserving the history of Sacramento's poetry scene on videotape. The product of this collaboration is the documentary film, I Began to Speak. Kennedy's reviews, interviews, poems and artwork regularly appear in Rattlesnake Review (rattlesnakepress.com) and on Medusa’s Kitchen (medusaskitchen.blogspot.com); he is a long-term staff writer for Rattlesnake Press. Kennedy continues to co-host Poetry Unplugged at Luna's in Sacramento. He is the "unofficial Poet Laureate of Sacramento" and has published over 25 books of his poetry and art.
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 Van Gogh Theater at the Center for the Arts, enter at 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Info: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384.
•••Sat. (4/18), 7-9 PM: The Black Men Expressing Tour for one night only at Underground Books, 2814 35th St. (off 35th and Broadway) in Oak Park, Sacramento. $3 general admission. Terry Moore, along with "Neketia Brown", will be co-hosting. The creator of BME, Terry Moore, states: Ladies, we heard you have grown tired of the club-dude machismo. That's why we've put together an event with some sensitive-guy melancholy type gentlemen. Get ready for your ears to be intellectually and poetically massaged ladies. At the same time, these gentlemen are going to keep it real about some of their challenges with Black love. You asked for it, you deserve it, you got it. BME has been classified as Northern California's most popular relationship, parenting, and cultural social happenings discussion. Info: (916) 208-POET.
•••Sunday (4/19), 6-8 PM: Frank Andrick hosts his Pomo Literati radio program on KUSF-San Francisco 90.3 FM (worldwide at www.live365.com/stations/kusf). This week features Sacramento Poetry Center President Bob Stanley, along with Kathy Kieth and numerous other goodies. Check it out!
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SINCE HE LEFT
—Taylor Graham, Placerville
Your daughter’s drawing on the kitchen floor.
She’s drawing little girls with hearts
on the outside of their dresses.
Why does it look like every heart’s an empty
outline framed in black? One spurts flames
in little wings. Another drips blue tears, or ice.
When did you discover how cruel
a child’s crayons can be?
_________________
PASSING SAND
—Chrys Mollett, Angel's Camp
Obstacles
Skewed intentions
A dim light
Barely enough to call hope
through the clutter of days.
But prayers and progress widen
a toenail of moon at a time.
Then slim down to full darkness again.
I allow the spider to stay—
Measuring out strands of silken self to bundle her prey.
And to string up a quivering hammock
A precarious home in her watchful corner.
My life is a watched pot.
Stirred with a wooden spoon
And probed poorly with an old stick.
At one bleak hour it's hard to tell
which way the Will will go.
I fall
I choose poorly many times.
And often enough I choose well—
The way lit with some distinction of promise.
And a higher light brightens the strands of my work, teaches the feet to go.
I lay plank by plank across the desert
Boulders crushed by aeons into sand.
I waken this bright morning
and tilt the hourglass again.
_________________
FREEDOM
—Mitz Sackman, Murphys
The armored heart
Beats strongly within
The body’s cave of ice
Stunted feelings
Sitting on a can
Of unresolved remnants
Life’s bygones
The armored heart
Beats strongly within
The fire of confrontation
Begins to melt
Stunted feelings
Opening to life from fear
The ice heart slowly softens
The passionate heart
Beats strongly within
Knowing its flame
Experiencing fully
The nature of life
Living with freedom
The heart embraces life
_________________
HIS LOVE FOR THE BELOVED COMPARED WITH
THE GUARDED STYLE OF EXPRESSION WE SEE
IN MORE FAMOUS SONNETS
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
The greatest writer in the sonnet form
left gaps we cannot guess through as to when
he wrote, what gender was his north-star norm
of lover, and of what rank a denizen.
His pages—the book pressed open-faced until
a rigid spine goes limp, perhaps from fear
of revelations—do at last stand still,
words tightly ciphered lightly in the clear:
but we haven’t penetrated them, not yet.
So may these reticent lines contain our love
holdfast in the intricate unforgetting net,
let slip like glimmers of wrist between sleeve and glove.
So, midnight, extinguish the rivergleam’s faint hint:
still silverless currents reveal where egrets glint.
_________________
Today's LittleNip:
ON KILLING A TAX COLLECTOR
—Murragh O'Daly (c. 1250)
Why do they stare
And expect me to act penitent?
I but clouted the slave
On a bad deed sent.
(translated from the Gaelic by Richard O'Connell)
_________________
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:
Rattlesnake Review: The latest Snake (RR21) is now available (free) 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, and please—only one submission per issue.
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 APRIL: A SpiralChap of poetry and photos from Laverne Frith (Celebrations: Images and Texts); a (free!) 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. Now available from the authors, or The Book Collector, or (soon) rattlesnakepress.com/.
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.