Photo by Katy Brown, Davis
LOST AND FOUND
—charles mariano
today
while hunting receipts
for the taxman
kept stumbling across
old pages
poems
scribbled on the fly,
on scraps of paper
filled spaces
lost, buried
forgotten
it seems
i’ve become
an endless parade
of unfinished poems
fragments, pauses
piles of dead trees
i typed
the pages neatly
to the finish,
lay the stack
beside me
for final review
then write…
“unfortunately today
during a rain storm
and angry bitterness
of flying, fleeting
money,
a terrible crash
a fiery ending,
no survivors”
__________________
Down the Drain:
Our Seed of the Week is Down the Drain; make of it what you will. Send poems/art/photo about it to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline on SOWs.
But do heed the deadlines listed over on the Bulletin Board under Bob Stanley's photo! I've posted the May 15 Dancing Poetry Contest deadline, too; go to their wonderful website for lots of photos of this colorful annual event that takes place in September each year in San Francisco. (If you're wondering why Laverne Frith's picture is on the top there, it's because he's won their Grand Prize twice.)
Judy Halebsky reads on Friday, April 2:
•••Friday (4/2), 7:30pm: Judy Halebsky will read at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Judy trained in Performance Studies at UC Davis and is a member of Sacramento Poetry Center's Tuesday night workshop. Since 2007 she has been in Tokyo studying Japanese literature on a MEXT fellowship. Her book, Sky=Empty, was chosen by Marvin Bell as the winner of the 2009 New Issues Poetry Prize.
R25 launches fundraising:
R25 (a group of Artists and Arts and Cultural Organizations sharing an active complex at 25th and R Streets in Midtown Sacramento which includes Matrix Arts/California Stage/Alliance Française/The Sacramento Poetry Center/The Threepenny Stage/The Wilkerson Theater/Actor’s Workshop of Sacramento/On Stage Kids’ Acting Workshop/River City Whitewater and over a dozen independent art studios) is launching fundraising for a new building project; the fundraising will include three parts:
1. Fundraising Drive: April, 2010
2. Community Beautification Day: May 15, 2010
3. R25 Art and Cultural Festival: Art, Music, and Poetry in the Courtyard, June 5-6
If you’ve attended events at R25 in 2010, you know that a lot of improvements have been made: a new bathroom, a new roof and rain gutter, new exterior lighting, insulation, carpet, seating, and ongoing maintenance improve safety and appearance of our busy center. For us—artists and non-profits—to best serve the community, we need to do more, and we need your help! So we have joined together for this beautification project, in order to raise funds, so we can get this important job done! Construction will include:
•••Build an all-new fence along 25th Street to improve visibility, improve neighborhood
•••Lighting along fence will improve safety for hundreds of evening events
•••Signage and Mural along 25th and R Streets will identify the center as an arts and culture space
•••Resurface Parking Lot, both for safety and to make the space usable for outdoor events
•••Awning on North side of building will make interiors more temperate and reduce energy use
•••Landscaping will also improve the parking lot area for events and pedestrian use
•••New flooring in hallways and high-traffic interior areas
Our goal is to raise $5000, and we have already lined up some major donors to support the program:
•••Alliance Française has agreed to match donations up to $2,500
•••Home Depot has agreed to provide R25 with much of the product needed to build the fence
•••D. Powell Construction has agreed to provide free labor for fence construction
Please enclose a check to the R25 organization of your choice and indicate “R25 Fund Drive” on the check. We will mail you a receipt for your tax-deductible donation. (We need help from local businesses and organizations as well.) If you have any suggestions for fundraising opportunities, please let us know!
__________________
WRITE OF SPRING
—charles mariano
i open my notes
to this latest season
slightly aroused
the pages,
undressed
awakened
blossoming, inviting
tangled sleepily
every spring
this madness
feverish desires
lustful thoughts
i open
unfold you
run my hand
across your vast
delicate
whiteness
then ease in
gently
tenderly
to a slow
steady rhythm
you,
only you
hopelessly
deliriously
passionately
and forever,
until
next spring
__________________
—charles mariano
today
while hunting receipts
for the taxman
kept stumbling across
old pages
poems
scribbled on the fly,
on scraps of paper
filled spaces
lost, buried
forgotten
it seems
i’ve become
an endless parade
of unfinished poems
fragments, pauses
piles of dead trees
i typed
the pages neatly
to the finish,
lay the stack
beside me
for final review
then write…
“unfortunately today
during a rain storm
and angry bitterness
of flying, fleeting
money,
a terrible crash
a fiery ending,
no survivors”
__________________
Down the Drain:
Our Seed of the Week is Down the Drain; make of it what you will. Send poems/art/photo about it to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline on SOWs.
But do heed the deadlines listed over on the Bulletin Board under Bob Stanley's photo! I've posted the May 15 Dancing Poetry Contest deadline, too; go to their wonderful website for lots of photos of this colorful annual event that takes place in September each year in San Francisco. (If you're wondering why Laverne Frith's picture is on the top there, it's because he's won their Grand Prize twice.)
Judy Halebsky reads on Friday, April 2:
•••Friday (4/2), 7:30pm: Judy Halebsky will read at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Judy trained in Performance Studies at UC Davis and is a member of Sacramento Poetry Center's Tuesday night workshop. Since 2007 she has been in Tokyo studying Japanese literature on a MEXT fellowship. Her book, Sky=Empty, was chosen by Marvin Bell as the winner of the 2009 New Issues Poetry Prize.
R25 launches fundraising:
R25 (a group of Artists and Arts and Cultural Organizations sharing an active complex at 25th and R Streets in Midtown Sacramento which includes Matrix Arts/California Stage/Alliance Française/The Sacramento Poetry Center/The Threepenny Stage/The Wilkerson Theater/Actor’s Workshop of Sacramento/On Stage Kids’ Acting Workshop/River City Whitewater and over a dozen independent art studios) is launching fundraising for a new building project; the fundraising will include three parts:
1. Fundraising Drive: April, 2010
2. Community Beautification Day: May 15, 2010
3. R25 Art and Cultural Festival: Art, Music, and Poetry in the Courtyard, June 5-6
If you’ve attended events at R25 in 2010, you know that a lot of improvements have been made: a new bathroom, a new roof and rain gutter, new exterior lighting, insulation, carpet, seating, and ongoing maintenance improve safety and appearance of our busy center. For us—artists and non-profits—to best serve the community, we need to do more, and we need your help! So we have joined together for this beautification project, in order to raise funds, so we can get this important job done! Construction will include:
•••Build an all-new fence along 25th Street to improve visibility, improve neighborhood
•••Lighting along fence will improve safety for hundreds of evening events
•••Signage and Mural along 25th and R Streets will identify the center as an arts and culture space
•••Resurface Parking Lot, both for safety and to make the space usable for outdoor events
•••Awning on North side of building will make interiors more temperate and reduce energy use
•••Landscaping will also improve the parking lot area for events and pedestrian use
•••New flooring in hallways and high-traffic interior areas
Our goal is to raise $5000, and we have already lined up some major donors to support the program:
•••Alliance Française has agreed to match donations up to $2,500
•••Home Depot has agreed to provide R25 with much of the product needed to build the fence
•••D. Powell Construction has agreed to provide free labor for fence construction
Please enclose a check to the R25 organization of your choice and indicate “R25 Fund Drive” on the check. We will mail you a receipt for your tax-deductible donation. (We need help from local businesses and organizations as well.) If you have any suggestions for fundraising opportunities, please let us know!
__________________
WRITE OF SPRING
—charles mariano
i open my notes
to this latest season
slightly aroused
the pages,
undressed
awakened
blossoming, inviting
tangled sleepily
every spring
this madness
feverish desires
lustful thoughts
i open
unfold you
run my hand
across your vast
delicate
whiteness
then ease in
gently
tenderly
to a slow
steady rhythm
you,
only you
hopelessly
deliriously
passionately
and forever,
until
next spring
__________________
MEMORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD GARDEN
—Janet Pantoja, Woodinville, WA
a fuzzy black and
orange caterpillar
lumping along
a shiny salamander
lounging in my
dog's water dish
intensely fragrant
pale pink flowers
on the daphne shrub
full-blown
camellias on a
tall-as-the-house bush
moths flitting around
brightly colored
lantana clusters . . .
Me
popping Mom's
vibrant budding
fuschsia ballerinas!
____________________
EVER-GREEN WREATH
—Janet Pantoja
A less-than-aromatic wreath still hangs
by my front door, diminished in hue
long past the holidays. An enormous
red bow with bright poinsettias once
adorned its lush evergreen when pine scent
wafted into my nostrils as I passed by.
Now pink silk flowers replace holiday
décor with a faux-fresh springtime look.
Plumed fashion designers, dissatisfied with my style,
added a final touch—a sprawling untidy mass
of loosely woven grass with four tiny pale-blue eggs.
The wreath is for the birds.
—Janet Pantoja, Woodinville, WA
a fuzzy black and
orange caterpillar
lumping along
a shiny salamander
lounging in my
dog's water dish
intensely fragrant
pale pink flowers
on the daphne shrub
full-blown
camellias on a
tall-as-the-house bush
moths flitting around
brightly colored
lantana clusters . . .
Me
popping Mom's
vibrant budding
fuschsia ballerinas!
____________________
EVER-GREEN WREATH
—Janet Pantoja
A less-than-aromatic wreath still hangs
by my front door, diminished in hue
long past the holidays. An enormous
red bow with bright poinsettias once
adorned its lush evergreen when pine scent
wafted into my nostrils as I passed by.
Now pink silk flowers replace holiday
décor with a faux-fresh springtime look.
Plumed fashion designers, dissatisfied with my style,
added a final touch—a sprawling untidy mass
of loosely woven grass with four tiny pale-blue eggs.
The wreath is for the birds.
Photo by Janet Pantoja
There is no cure for birth or death except to try and enjoy the interval.
—George Santayana
__________________
—Medusa