Gangly-Birds and Blood-Suns

—Poetry and Poems by Taylor Graham, Placerville, CA
—And scroll down for Form Fiddlers’ Friday!
 

 

TOO CLOSE

Creak-screak or coiny-jingle shopping carts
on asphalt, all of us in a rush to mask/unmask.
Squirt/rub hands, car-key in lock. Bananas
avocado beans up-loaded, ready for homeward - -
Awk!
Awk!
What’s the awful noise? my little car
breaking apart?
Awk!
There! Balanced on cart-corral corner-post
beak wide open—
Crow in close-up profile watching me
side-eyed. Thirsty in this heat?
Dog-dish of water
solemnly slowly set it down.
No-thanks Crow flies away.
Awk!
slide-rasping across strings of air. 

SUBSISTENCE WEAVE

After “Post Industrial Work Basket, 2018”
by Monique Sonoquie

She stems from lines of basket weavers—
four Native American tribes plus Irish—joined
together in a woman of Now. Their art,
a space of woven tule, hazel, willow that bends
to need; her basket, created for survival,
to preserve a culture and the land that dwindles
and changes with climate and human doings.
Look at the weaving of this piece, a cornucopia
of electrical cable and metal spacers.
Whatever could it hold?
not a grain of earth, nor water, nor air.
A basket holds but can’t contain: its maker’s
invention, hope and wishes,
resourcefulness, imaginings, and dreams. 

BEDROCK MORTAR

They say a village once was here
where now a foot & bike path’s planned.
And still the verdict is unclear—
whose heritage is it, whose land?

We’ve histories by grant and blood—
of money, and hands soiled with mud.
Shall we dig up a proof of bones
to tell the testament of stones? 

GRACE

You call the heron Gangly-bird
on stilts stock-still. And now in flight
with heavy wing-strokes. No sound’s heard.
You call the heron gangly-bird;
I wish you’d find a kinder word.
It’s flown already out of sight.
You call the heron gangly, bird
on stilts stock-still—now gone in flight. 

A SCOOP OF ROCKY ROAD

That time—last-minute apologies to our
featured reader from a distant more cultured city,
where the bookstore wouldn’t be locked up tight,
having forgotten about a poetry reading
scheduled months ago—
poetry finds itself so often homeless.
That evening we slunk into the ice cream parlor,
far-back corner with extra chairs; asked
in our sweetest vanilla voice: might we meet
for just an hour, and of course
we’d all have ice cream. 

PANDEMIC FIRESTORM

We’re sandwiched within our walls
no matter how wildwood calls—
landscape chokes on smoke,
sun’s a hot-pink crown
of blaze-corona.
Wildfire coming down
the distant hills? Shut
tight the windows, stay inside.
Breathe twice-used air; hide, abide. 

Today’s LittleNip:

SMOKE SUN RISING
—Taylor Graham

As if
a stockwire fence
could keep the blood-sun—pale
in its ring of flame—from lighting
right here.

_____________________

Our thanks to Taylor Graham today for her smooth poetry, punctuated with her fine photos! She has sent us two Ekphrastics (“A Scoop of Rocky Road” & “Subsistence Weave”); a Rispetto (“Bedrock Mortar”); a Triolet (“Grace”); a Cinquain (“Smoke Sun Rising”) and a try at Carl [Schwartz’s] Sandwiched by Sevens (“Pandemic Firestorm”).

This Sun. (8/30), from 10am-12pm, Taylor and Katy Brown will facilitate a Capturing Wakamatsu outdoor poetry workshop at Wakamatsu Farm (outdoors) in Placerville. Please contact Julie@ARConservancy.org or call 530-621-1224 to sign up and to get the carpool meeting location (Placerville). Suggested donation: $5/members, $10/non-members. Social distancing & masks encouraged. Info: www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry (scroll down).

For more info about the basket in the above photo, go to artsandcultureeldorado.org/connected-contemporary-works-by-native-american-and-indigenous-artists-may-23-through-sunday-july-7/.

And now it’s time for Form Fiddlers’ Friday!

______________________

FORM FIDDLERS’ FRIDAY! 

It’s time for more contributions from Form Fiddlers! Each Friday for awhile, there will be poems posted here from some of our readers using forms—either ones which were mentioned on Medusa during the previous week, or whatever else floats through the Kitchen and the perpetually stoned mind of Medusa. If these instructions are vague, it's because they're meant to be. Just fiddle around with some forms and get them posted in the Kitchen, by golly! (See Medusa’s Form Finder at the end of this post for links to definitions of the forms used this week.)

Taylor Graham sent us several juicy form poems; see above and give ‘em a try, including the new “Sandwiched by Sevens” form which was introduced by Carl Schwartz in last week’s Fiddlers (8/21/20).

Today Carol Louise Moon has sent us a smooth, sad Octo: 


DEFEATED LOVERS
—Carol Louise Moon, Placerville, CA
 
We are lonely and separate,
each in a shelter of cocoon
just above what love would accept.
We, evening’s defeated lovers,

dark love of night that hovers
just above. What love would accept
each in a shelter of cocoon. . . ?
We are lonely and separate.

Caschwa (Carl Schwartz) has sent us a Didactic poem, reminding us of some pitfalls in life. He has rhymed the last two lines of each stanza, taking an interesting risk with “impervious” and “virus”—but hey, if it works…

THE GREATEST THREAT
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
 
me giving advice?
don’t get me started
your ears are not ready
your rock is not steady

taking precautions
out in the street
a vest of the brightest nylon
to a drunk, you are a pylon

resting most casually
in bathtub quite warm
sleep sinks head
then you’re dead

visiting your grave
to mark your statistics
due to acting impervious
to a pandemic virus

electing authority
that cares not if you die
your survivors can’t change that
by wearing your hat 

 —Public Domain Illustration

Here is a signs-of-the-times Pantoum from Carl:


NO RHYME OR REASON
—Caschwa

maybe I need a nice, comfortable mask?
so I can sneak into stores without
having to worry about breathing
of all things

so I can sneak into stores without
revising my entire calendar
of all things
just shop, pay, exit, go home

revising my entire calendar
that would be such a pain
just shop, pay, exit, go home
and other matters of normalcy

that would be such a pain
having to worry about breathing
and other matters of normalcy
maybe I need a nice, comfortable mask? 

 —Public Domain Illustration 

of Current Frustrations

And here is Carl again, re-visiting the Clogyrnach:


DEFECTIVE DE FACTO
—Caschwa

we see such a thing every day
weighty document on display
proper frame and seal
but is it for real?
reach and feel
past the say

____________________________

So there you have it—another Form Fiddlers’ Friday! Here are links to the forms we visited today:


MEDUSA’S FORM FINDER: Links to poetry forms mentioned today:
 
•••Boketto: poeticbloomings2.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/inform-poets-boketto
•••Cinquain: poets.org/glossary/cinquain OR www.poewar.com/poetry-in-forms-series-cinquain
•••Clogyrnach: www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/clogyrnach-poetic-form
•••Didactic: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/didactic.html
•••Ekphrastic: notesofoak.com/discover-literature/ekphrastic-poetry
•••Octo: poetscollective.org/poetryforms/octo
•••Pantoum: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/pantoum.html
•••Rispetto: www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/poetic-forms-rispetto
•••Sandwiched by Sevens: 7,7,5,5,5,5,5,7,7, rhyme scheme aaxaxaxbb (Carl Schwartz)
•••Triolet: www.writersdigest.com/personal-updates/triolet-an-easy-way-to-write-8-lines-of-poetry

* * *

Many thanks to our SnakePals for their brave fiddling! Would you like to be a SnakePal? All you have to do is send poetry—forms or not—and/or photos and artwork to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post work from all over the world, including that which was previously-published. Just remember: the snakes of Medusa are always hungry!

______________________

—Medusa

 
 

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.