Photo by Carl Bernard Schwartz, SacramentoA SAVAGE MEAL
—William S. Gainer, Grass Valley
(for A. Menebroker)
After the bloodletting was done
Gainer was reduced to a pile of bone.
His assistant and editor both commented,
that though the meat was stringy—
it wasn’t tough enough...
___________________
Thanks, Bill, and thanks to our other artists for pix and poems, too—even a poem celebrating Chalk It Up! (sort of...), which is still going on today at 16th & P Sts. in Sacramento.
The Poetry Machine that is Northern California is revving up this week; Bill Gainer will be reading twice: Weds. at Red Night Poetry (with Trina Drotar and Sandy Thomas) and then Sun. at Bird and Beckett in SF with Annie Menebroker, A.D. Winans, and Art Beck. Also on Weds., SPC will present readers from the Sixteen Rivers Press anthology, The Place That Inhabits Us, in the Central Library. Tonight, though, SPC is featuring Tim Z. Hernandez and Maceo Montoya at Sac. Poetry Center (25th & R Sts.).
Margaret Bell announces that there will be no Citrus Heights Area Poets reading this month, but feel free to attend the Calif. Writers Club/Sacramento open mic on Friday at Barnes & Noble in Citrus Heights. Saturday, head up to Grass Valley for the Women’s Reading Salon, then swing by the Avid Reader in Davis to hear Louise Nayer, long-time teacher/friend of Pat Hickerson. On Sunday, Taylor Graham reads for the Poets Club of Lincoln. All good stuff! See the B-Board at the right or eskimopie.net for info on all of these and more!
Second Weds. is the usual Rattlesnake Press reading at The Book Collector, but we’re still on hiatus, for a lot of reasons—mostly due to my shiftlessness. Watch for further developments, especially once Richard Hansen gets back from Edinburgh (still scheduled for late Sept.; Mom is doing well and celebrated her birthday on Sept. 3. They’re going on a wee trip, even!).
Every so often, Ellen Bass sends out a list of calls for submissions from journals around the country. Here is her current list for you to sink your teeth into:
•••CALL FOR POETRY SUBMISSIONS: ECHOES #11 FOR FALL-WINTER 2010
Deadline: September 30, 2010
We are a small, hand-stitched publication and will consider poems of one page or less. Please submit up to three poems. No previously published work will be accepted. No simultaneous submissions. Entries should be submitted within the body of one email. No attachments, please.
Email all submissions to
Submissions Manager Carol Deprez
Echoeslit.submit@gmail.com
Subject line: Echoes Submission
Questions? Paula Anderson, Editor
andersonp3@earthlink.net
Subject line: Echoes
•••CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: 2011 PERUGIA PRESS PRIZE
Deadline: November 15, 2010
Prize $1000 and publication
Perugia Press announces its annual contest for a first or second unpublished poetry collection by a woman. Submit manuscripts with a $25 entry fee. Send an e-mail, SASE, or visit us online for complete guidelines. The 2010 winner, “Each Crumbling House,” by Melody S. Gee, is now available from our web site.
Perugia Press Prize
P.O. Box 60364
Florence, MA 01062
info@perugiapress.com
•••CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: ARKTOI BOOKS
Deadline: November, 2010.
Looking for Creative Nonfiction by Lesbian Authors
Arktoi Books, an imprint of Red Hen Press, specializing in the work of lesbian authors, is calling for book-length submissions of Creative Nonfiction: www.arktoi.com.
•••CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: THE ONE HUNDRED WORDS POETRY ANTHOLOGY
Deadline: December 1, 2010
Theme: The Sex Poem
Edited by Patricia Smith
How do we re-energize and reinvent the sex poem? We identify the 100 words that are the most blatant offenders, and we declare them off limits. That forces us to examine the act without the customary escape routes, those words that say "I don't know how to say this, so I'm saying this."
For a list of the forbidden words, please email 100Wrds@gmail.com. Submissions of any length or style will be accepted at the same address. Please, no more than three poems per submission. As of yet, no publisher has yet been wooed for this project, but the search is on.
•••CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: MAGNOLIA LITERARY JOURNAL
Magnolia publishes socially engaged literature by women. They are accepting works of fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry on topics of social and political significance. Full submission guidelines available online October 1st: www.hercircleezine.com/magnolia-journal
•••CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: HER CIRCLE EZINE, AN ONLINE JOURNAL, CELEBRATES WORK BY WOMEN THAT ADDRESSES SOCIAL ISSUES
Artists and writers featured in Her Circle (www.hercircleezine.com) use their work as a means of addressing identity, gender, ethnicity, politics, and statutes that surround and shape women's lives, challenging us to reevaluate and re-imagine the world in which we live. We accept book reviews, guest blog posts, and feature articles on topics related to women's literature and visual arts. While we prefer unpublished material, we will consider works that have already been published in print or online.
Submissions are accepted via email, with the content pasted or typed into the body of the message; please do not send attachments. Submissions may be sent to the following: Book reviews, books@hercircleezine.com
The Writer's Life blog (guest blog posts, short Q & A pieces): books@hercircleezine.com
UpClose interviews, Writing from the Margins, and special features: features@hercircleezine.com
•••CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: CAVE WALL, A JOURNAL OF POETRY AND ART
Deadline: September 30, 2010
They read unsolicited submissions and have included well-known poets.
For guidelines: Send SASE to:
Cave Wall Press LLC,
P.O. Box 29546
Greensboro, NC, 27429-9546 or visit www.cavewallpress.com
•••CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: POEMS ABOUT WINE VINEYARDS
(Imbibing and Production)
Deadline, November 1, 2010
Napa Valley or others
Please submit a maximum of three poems and a brief cover letter with contact information to www.juddshill.com/juddshill/page/poetry.jsp/. Selected poems will appear on the Judd’s Hill website and winner will receive a very big bottle of wine if it is legal in your state. No fee for entry.
•••CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: ROCK & SLING, A JOURNAL OF ART, LITERATURE AND FAITH FOR THEIR WINTER ISSUE 2010-2011
A literary journal committed to standards of excellence and the Christian faith is soliciting authors and artists for their upcoming issues. They will publish two print issues each year and a website (www.rockandsling.com) with expanded content for art, pod casts of readings, author profiles, interviews and more.
Whitworth University, 300 W. Hawthorne Rd., Spokane, WA 99251
Info: tcaraway@whitworth.edu
________________________
Workshops/Retreats:
•••FROM MEMORY TO MEMOIR, A WRITING RETREAT WITH LAURA DAVIS
December 3-5, 2010 with an optional one-day follow up in January
The retreat will provide you with a rejuvenating weekend in a gorgeous, restful setting. Learn how to take your life stories and craft them into memoir. We will examine what transforms a personal story into something that has value and meaning for others. Our time together will be in spent in actual work sessions where you will make progress in your writing using guided exercises that gradually lead you into the memoir writing process.
Info: www.lauradavis.net/Retreats/memory.html
•••WRITING FROM THE HARVEST TABLE, A MEMOIR WRITING WORKSHOP WITH ANDREA STEFFENS: Writing your life through food
November 10-16, 2010
Casa Carmelita, Tlaxcala, Mexico
www.ashlar.org
•••WRITING AS THE SHAMAN FLIES, WITH ANDREA STEFFENS:
A five-day training using writing as trauma resolution
February 16-21, 2011
Casa Carmelita, Tlaxcala, Mexico
Info: mailto:andrea@ashlar.org
www.ashlar.org
__________________
IT HURTS
—William S. Gainer
The problem is
the language
it doesn’t always work—
like
the not loving her…
You see,
see what I mean,
because I do,
I do love her
and when she’s not here
I can’t,
so I don’t
and it hurts
and the language
doesn’t help.
I do,
I do love her...
Tell her for me
please...
__________________
JUST A SMILE
—William S. Gainer
Her in the robe
he gave her
15 years ago,
a little worn,
but still warm,
him in his pajamas,
beard graying,
needing a shave,
42 years married,
sitting across
the breakfast table,
sipping coffee,
buttering toast,
just a smile
between them—
it’s enough…
___________________
THE EXPLANATION
—William S. Gainer
She irons his shirts
in the garage,
hangs them on a old curtain rod.
Likes to suggest what he wears.
He never argues,
not even when she gives him
the one
with cigarette burns.
He quit smoking
in ninety-two.
She never asks,
He never offers...
___________________
THE DISARMING OF GENGHIS KHAN
—William S. Gainer
The secret weapon was
the touch of her fingers
on the rim of his jaw,
pulling him close
and the kiss.
Even Genghis Khan
would have surrendered,
I did...
___________________
birthday girl
—charles mariano, sacramento
there are no gifts
good enough
to shower
or impress
although i’ll try
but i know
all you really want
is that
we’re together
sharing favorite things
a merlino’s freeze,
popcorn, a movie,
holding hands
drives
to anywhere
long as we’re together
everything’s right
i look across the table
at dinner
and see devotion
always devotion
these are the little things
our things
i know,
you cherish most
love
and time…together
__________________
TOXIC COUPLE
—Carl Bernard Schwartz
Samuel Poisner had two loves,
his dearest Eleanor who would
soon be his bride, and his family
chicken farm. Samuel’s father
bestowed on the couple 150 of his
best chickens, just to get them
started in good stead.
Samuel knew exactly what to do
and quickly got the business going
with those 150 hens producing a
bumper crop of eggs. He put up
a billboard at the roadside to
feature their product and their
country hospitality, hoping to
attract a fair share of passersby.
Business was fine the first few
days, but then tapered off until
some weeks later it came to a
virtual standstill. Samuel could
not believe it, it should have been
a sure thing.
He checked the billboard to make
sure no one had tampered with it,
and it still bore his message in
giant bold letters:
ENJOY SOME EGGS WITH
SAM & ELLA POISNER.
__________________
POETRY EVERYWHERE
—Carl Bernard Schwartz
Small children with crayons
but no coloring book
will put little pictures
everywhere one might look…
Graffiti imposing
on bare fences and walls
as the mail must go through,
it’s a duty that calls.
Likewise unsung poets
too poor to purchase pens,
will make up rhymes and odes
heard only by the hens
and by old goats who have
no savvy of fine verse.
At least it got published
for better or for worse.
___________________
Today's LittleNip:
BEFORE REDEMPTION
—William S. Gainer
Amnesty International
sent me
an ink pen.
I sent them
twenty dollars.
Somehow
I feel
forgiven...
__________________
—Medusa
Photo by Carl Bernard Schwartz