—Anonymous Photos
WINTER’S SOLSTICE CLEARING
—Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA
The years
Lay like pearls in a line
Stretching back in time.
I remember each one,
But not that well.
Where each one ended
Is hard to tell.
Difficult to say
How each one
Slipped itself away,
Disappearing.
Its view
Blocked by the new—
Newness reappearing
Through
The fog of
Winter’s solstice
Clearing.
__________________
THE CARAVAN’S ASSAY
—Joseph Nolan
All the time,
From time to time,
I think of things
That matter,
Like what is what
And which is which
And how to flip a switch
Into the sublime.
I think of these things
As being mine.
Oh, beyond
The caravan’s assay,
Out in the desert,
Day to day,
We move along
Assiduously,
Shunning all complaining
Since we must do the same
Next day, and always.
OOLONG TEA
—Joseph Nolan
We have diamonds in our pockets
That sparkle and shine
When we rub off the dust
Over Sumatran coffee
Oolong tea
Or wine.
Do you Oolong for me,
From time to time?
I know I do,
For thee!
It’s good to hear you whistle
When you feel pleased;
Pleasure’s a necessity
That puts us at ease.
______________________
TIME TO MARRY
—Joseph Nolan
Why wait
For gray
Hairs to sprout
From your
Lovely head?
Seasons are passing.
With grief,
You cleft
The shade
Of daylight’s seam,
Preferring duller light
Of gray moon-beam.
What will it mean—
These idle years
Still alone
And childless,
With time
That weighs like stones
Too heavy carried?
It’s time now—
Time for you to marry.
DELICIOUS WINS
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
Little children plucked out,
minds and bodies together,
from the fabulous sights and
marvelous, fresh aromas of
the candy store
to be set down on a dusty
schoolroom floor listening to
the eldest elder remaining on
Earth, obsessed with orders
to obey deadly demands of
discipline or else!!!
There was, of course, talk of
revoking their “privileges”
dumbly delivered to the deaf
ears of an audience not yet
learned enough to even be
able to count quite that many
syllables on their fingers
but then again, how could we
expect a Curriculum Committee
Council composed of calcified
creatures of the purest pablum
to really know what is best for
our children?
__________________
GOBSMACKED
—Caschwa
gob·smacked
/ˈɡäbˌsmakt/
adjective
Denoting that whole, crazy convolution of events
which enabled hostile foreign agents and moles
to raise the status of mister Trump and mister Pence
as viable contenders for top White House roles
We took it from there, it was all downhill
Second Amendment, Confederate flags
erasing our fine unity until we wonder still:
are all of our Old Glories now no more than rags?
ONE MORE DIMENSION
—Caschwa
From sea to shining sea
state DMV offices issue
eye tests to measure the
visual acuity of drivers.
These tests are comprised
of random sequences of
letters in different sizes,
printed out on a flat format.
Many have no problem
correctly identifying letters
presented in this basically
two-dimensional display
so you pass that test and
think your eyes are great,
then once on the road you
encounter just one more
dimension and it throws
all that complacency away:
sure, you can read license
plates fine as long as they
are directly ahead of you,
but glare from the sun hits
that raised chrome lettering
used to name the make or
model of vehicles, and it
looks like a prism throwing
rays of light in all directions,
obscuring any logical sense,
especially if the letters are
put in cursive or some other
fancy font, looking great in
the showroom, not outside.
_____________________
THAT SETTLES IT
—Caschwa
Oh how I dread doing that task!
So many key points to juggle,
clearly beyond my humble limits.
I’ll just wait a bit longer to allow
my ignorance to grow, let karma
take full command and hopefully
deny me from ever attempting to
do that task again. That’s fine.
Well done, time to relax…..
_____________________
Today’s LittleNip(s):
USE WHAT WORKS
—Caschwa
Artistic
license
wins
anything
you
stake
* * *
ONE-HORSE TOWN
—Caschwa
If Mad Magazine got into the Kitchen…
On Thursday at Poetry in Dungarees, Bad Blood and Stutter Still will read at the dining room table, 8pm, plus open bar. And don’t leave town, on Friday, there will be a reading by the UnCollectedDebt Dept. “second-year” take-it-up-one-notch students, 7pm, at the UnCivilDebate “Bare the Hate” (living room sofa). Be sure not to miss the “Mildly Exciting Remote Grab Event!” (MERGE!)
_____________________
Thanks to our fine poets today! Carl (Caschwa) has gone all acrostic on us for the first LittleNip. And I’ve succumbed to the wonder of sweets (our SOW: The Candy Store) for these seductive photos.
Tonight at Sac. Poetry Center, Nick LeForce and James Lee Jobe will read at 7:30pm (plus open mic), 25th & R Sts., Sac. 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, 6-8pm, on Wednesday in Heart Tree Studios, 25th & R Sts., Sac. (across the hall from Women’s Wisdom Art room), facilitated by Ann Michaels.
Also on Wednesday, the El Dorado County Poet Laureate Trail poetry series presents EDC Poet Laureate Suzanne Roberts plus Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas, plus open mic, El Dorado Hills Library on Silva Valley Pkwy in El Dorado Hills, 5:30pm. Thursday at 11:30am, the Wellspring Women’s Writing Group (beginners welcome!) meets at the Wellspring Women’s Center on 4th Ave. in Sacramento. Also on Thursday, the long-running Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Cafe and Juice Bar meets on 16th Street in Sacramento, with featured poets and plenty of open mic, 8pm.
It’s a busy weekend in our area, poetry-reading-wise, starting on Friday night at Sac. Poetry Center with Soundscapes and Poetry from Vienna, beginning at 7:30pm, with Thomas Antonic and Michael Fischer, plus open mic. Then on Sunday, Davis Arts Center Poetry Series features Patrick Grizzell, plus open mic, 2pm. Or you can head up the hill to Diamond Springs for Poetry of the Sierra Foothills with Deborah Shaw Hickerson and Allegra Silberstein plus open mic, 1pm.
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.
—Medusa, celebrating poetry this week as every week…
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.
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
