Dancing and Dust

Blackbird Keeping an Eye on You...

—Photos by Katy Brown, Davis, CA

RATHER NOT
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA

First the monotone of two left feet in
a rental tuxedo, meandering onto a
shiny, hard wood, dance floor

duple and triple meter call out from
the printed score, light years distant
from muscle groups in the legs

the dreaded wall mirror refuses to be
calm and reflective, choosing instead
to send raging waves of discontent

maybe someone will call a bicycle to
comfort this misplaced soul with a nice,
even, level, symmetrical, ride home

the next time an agent of the royal court
comes calling, they can just wait in line
behind blue skies and white clouds


(CS paired up the SOW and Joyce Odam’s 

recent reference to “monotone” for this 
poem.)

___________________

LIKE A CRUTCH
—Caschwa

Still have a pair of crutches I used
a long time ago, wooden struts with
holes drilled for inserting machine
screws and securing with wing nuts
to adjust the length to your height.
Those crutches hide in the closet,
still set just as I had left them.

Seems like some peoples’ memory
works like those crutches, and once
they experience an image, or event,
or some dialog, it stays there hiding
in their closet just waiting to be
recalled at a later date.

Not so with my memory. Déjà vu is
the best I can do, wondering if I had
ever encountered that notion before,
often having to resort to starting
back at square one.

Sure looks familiar,
maybe I’d seen it before,
maybe on TV.

 Quicksand Meadow

PARTY POLITICS
—Caschwa

The main reason I don’t invite Citizens United to
my birthday parties, even though the Supreme
Court has held that they are “people”, is that their
dominant political influence has acted to effectively
siphon off my discretionary funds

denying money to workers who sorely need it so that
more funds are available to honor the woeful cries of
investors whose needs have already been met many
times over

If only a few
words could highlight what is wrong
and fix it also.

__________________

DUST BEWARE!
—Caschwa

Our present pathetic excuse for a POTUS
has created a monumental vacuum in terms
of leadership in plotting a good path to take
to successfully address our most challenging
issues. The quest to go green, for example,
has put core supporters at odds with each
other to articulate
1) our most pressing needs,
2) feasible funding sources
3) a realistic course and timeline to follow, and
4) legislation necessary to get favorable results

We need to impose
liquidated damages
on laws that don’t work 

FEEL IT
—Caschwa

A president without poetry is like a grand piano
without strings. From our founding fathers to
today’s assortment of living presidents, ten have
written poetry: Washington, Jefferson, Madison,
J.Q. Adams, Tyler, Lincoln, Grant, Harding, Carter,
and Obama.

On the whole, these poet presidents demonstrated
high regard for reaching out to people, which is the
core of poetic work. They showed the warmth of
sympathetic vibrations with the heartbeat of everyday
people, rather than the fire of war chants fueled by
raw emotion.

The next election,
will we vote for another
poet who feels it?

GUMSHOE CLUES
—Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA

Gumshoes
Draw up
Hidden clues

We fear
Might one day
Show

Subliminal,
Omitted news
We’d rather
Have ignored,

Presenting
Strange anomalies,
Unfortunate,
And more,

If we had our
Druthers,
We’d shove them
Under rugs
Or out our
Back-doors!

__________________

A MIGHTY TIGHT KNOT
—Joseph Nolan

A mighty knot
Of tightness made
Defied the hand
And needed blade
To cut it all
Asunder.

Such a wonder!
How tightly
We might tie
A knot!

 The Robins Are Back!

THE AMBIVALENCE OF THE DEAD
—Joseph Nolan

Are the dead
As ambivalent
As the living?
Or have they lost
The need to roast
The living
For their foibles
Since they
Gave up the ghost
Of needing to be
Proper, in line
With a proper line,
And ghosts don’t
Need to work
Overtime?

_________________

OUR BLISS, NOT LESS THAN
OUR EXISTENCE
—Joseph Nolan

It’s useless
To be alive,
To be angry,
To try to find
The meaning of
Existence.

We all grow tired
We all work jobs
We all serve bosses.

We try to
Save our wins
And lose
Our losses.

We range
And feed.
In our private
Moments
We lick
Our painful wounds
And bleed.

We have
No need,
More than this:
To seek
Our bliss,
As though
We were
Not less
Than our
Existence.

________________

Today’s LittleNip:

DUST
—Joseph Nolan

Dust
Only lets light through
If it must;
Otherwise,
In blocking light
It trusts—
Into a gray and hazy
Fuzz.

_____________________

A big, almost-springtime thank-you to today’s contributors! Photographer/poet Katy Brown will be co-leading (with Taylor Graham) a workshop this Sunday at the Wakamatsu Farm in Placerville, starting at 10am: “Capturing Wakamatsu: A Poetry Workshop: Observing Spring at Wakamatsu Farm”. Contact Julie@ARConservancy.org to sign up and for carpool info.

Speaking of Spring, Sunday, April 14, is the deadline for the 10th annual “Art Where Wild Things Are” contest in Sacramento for nature-themed works in all visual art media: paintings, drawings, sculpture, fiber art and photography, hosted by Sacramento Fine Arts Center. Works will be judged and then the winners will be exhibited from May 14-June 2 at the Center. After that, all accepted works, winners or not, will be taken to the June 8 Spring Gala and Auction benefit at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael for sale. Go to www.sacfinearts.org and click the “Show Entry” link for info and to enter online.

Poetry in our area this week begins tonight at Sac. Poetry Center with Scott Edward Anderson and Alice Pettway, plus open mic, 7:30pm. SPC workshops this week include Tuesday Night Workshop for critiquing of poems at the Hart Center (27th and J Sts.) on Tuesday, 7:30-9pm (call Danyen Powell at 530-681-0026 for info); and MarieWriters Generative Writing Workshop at SPC for writing poems, facilitated this week by Christin O’Cuddehy, 6-8pm.

Thursday will be busy, starting at noon with Third Thursdays at the Central Library (Sacramento Room); then Ladies of the Knight in Yuba City at Justin’s Kitchen, starting at 6:30pm; Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Cafe and Juice Bar in Sacramento, with features and open mic starting at 8pm; and Don Schofield (plus open mic) at Poetry in Davis, John Natsoulas Gallery, also at 8pm.

Saturday at 10am at SPC, Writers on the Air presents The Celtic Hour w/Mary MaGrath, Bob Stanley, Carol Lynn Grellas, Brigid O’Malley, Nick LeForce, harpist Alex ives, plus open mic. Saturday afternoon in Placerville, Poetic License meets at the Placerville Sr. Center lobby, 2pm. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about these and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.

Can’t get enough of President Trump? Books abound, even poetry books, including:

•••The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump by Rbt. Sears: www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Poetry-Donald-Trump-Canons/dp/1786892278/ref=asc_df_1786892278/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312089030079&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10471306352717190300&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032472&hvtargid=pla-415511088626&psc=1
•••Bigly: Donald Trump in Verse (Make Poetry Great Again) by Rob Long, Ed.: www.amazon.com/Bigly-Donald-Trump-Rob-Long/dp/1621577309/ref=pd_sim_14_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1621577309&pd_rd_r=fb73228a-473b-11e9-969f-a1ee2b4b46aa&pd_rd_w=75wsA&pd_rd_wg=oya4S&pf_rd_p=90485860-83e9-4fd9-b838-b28a9b7fda30&pf_rd_r=DA632K78CWE53PR2ZTG1&psc=1&refRID=DA632K78CWE53PR2ZTG1

—Medusa (Celebrate Poetry!

 —Anonymous Photo

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.