Goodbye to Summer
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA
THE QUEEN OF ANGELS ON ALL SAINTS DAY
—Cynthia Linville, Lincoln, CA
She surfs the clouds, knees bent
head centered over body.
White veil streaming
blue robes flapping,
she’s pumping for speed.
Eyes forward
in an open stance,
she wears a crown of sunrays.
Seraphim and cherubim
float in her wake,
with a casual hand, she dispenses grace—
scattering radiance
over land and sea.
—Cynthia Linville, Lincoln, CA
She surfs the clouds, knees bent
head centered over body.
White veil streaming
blue robes flapping,
she’s pumping for speed.
Eyes forward
in an open stance,
she wears a crown of sunrays.
Seraphim and cherubim
float in her wake,
with a casual hand, she dispenses grace—
scattering radiance
over land and sea.
THE ENDING TIMES
—Michael H. Brownstein, Jefferson City, MO
When black-striped deer vanished,
we sat in circles off key and chanted.
Scorpion arrived to give us a message,
but we were lost in the silence of loss.
The sun rode its way across the sky,
day grew longer, hotter, sweat bleached
from our skin, the rains did not come.
We knew only black-striped deer was gone.
That became everything. We learned to pray
and harvest grubs from the soil and bark.
SEASONS
—Michael H. Brownstein
And soon the forest reds
froze beneath layers of snow.
But days do grow longer:
Reds dissolve into masks
of green, black seams
of thaw, earth repurposes
itself, the dead give root
to the living, songbirds sing.
MY LEFT-OVER WORDS
—Sammie Robertson, Placerville, CA
I wrote a book about life.
I wrote a book about love.
I hated to edit my book.
I put all the left-over words in a bowl.
I loved all of these words.
I hurt when I had to throw them out.
I don’t want them to die in vain.
Let me shower you clean with a pronoun.
Let me heal your wounds with an adjective.
Let me build you a house with a noun.
The frame will be a verb.
The doors and windows will be adverbs.
The roof will be a conjunction.
The hearth will be an interjection.
You can furnish the house with love, day and night, and also with prepositions.
You can say hi! And, you can share your new house with your love.
Because I just have to use all of these words!
EMBARRASSED APOSTROPHE
—Joseph Nolan
Scandalous catastrophe,
Dangling apostrophe,
From sky-side,
Hanging down,
In between,
To lend a meaning,
Of possession,
To what might
Near, surround.
Embarrassed,
As a comma,
Raised Uptown!
—Joseph Nolan
Scandalous catastrophe,
Dangling apostrophe,
From sky-side,
Hanging down,
In between,
To lend a meaning,
Of possession,
To what might
Near, surround.
Embarrassed,
As a comma,
Raised Uptown!
DANCING OUR WEARY-DANCE
—Joseph Nolan
We’ll dance our weary-dance
Another tune,
As long as music’s playing,
As long as there is May
And June
And Springtime’s
Not deprived us
Of another Summer,
When water’s warm
And we dive in
For another swim.
Gatherings,
Under bright awnings!
To shade us
From the summer sun,
Our rituals—
Our picnics and joining
For smiles and laughs,
For beer and watermelon.
PORTRAIT OF A BUMBLEBEE
—Joseph Nolan
I wanted to paint
A silent portrait
Of a bumblebee,
Composed of only
Shape and color
Where buzzing
Wouldn’t be,
But the colors
Were lost
Upon a flower
And looked like
A honeybee,
When a passing
Shower
Made wet
The flower,
Demanding that
Buzzing bee!
RECIPROCAL INHERITANCE
—Joseph Nolan
Everything depends
On reciprocal inheritance:
Who gets what
When which dies first?
Love or hunger
Want or thirst,
No need to wonder
Which must burst.
Only the living
Can truly die cursed.
EVERYTHING IS SNARKY
—Joseph Nolan
Everything is snarky!
It comes in different brands.
Some comes with
Obvious labels
And some from foreign lands.
They ask us to give favors
To the ones we like the least
And when we are offended,
To try to restrain our beast.
But we’ve had enough
Of off-the-cuff
Insults and offense,
And we’re all getting ready
To put up a big fence.
LONELY LIVES, UNMANNED
—Joseph Nolan
We,
Who never
Fell, together,
Kept a
Separate veil,
About how
We’d never,
Fail to write
A tale,
Of hazards
And lizards
And turtles
And spans
And bridges
Across rivers,
And lonely lives
Unmanned.
BRANDED FOR LIFE
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
needs no introduction…
pathological liar
parenthetical statesman
he inherited lots of money,
his fortune was to squander it
if you want your business to fail,
put his sure hands at the helm
what he lacks in experience and skills
he makes up for with hubris and ego
comment from his good buddy in Russia:
“where did I put that remote?”
THE FIGHT FOR LIFE (Sandwiched by Sevens)
—Caschwa
revolutionary war
much sacrifice, blood and gore
gave all our sons guns
to even the score
their PPE was
a rifle, no more
fight ain’t the same now
can’t stop a novel virus
with all the guns you buy us
—Caschwa
revolutionary war
much sacrifice, blood and gore
gave all our sons guns
to even the score
their PPE was
a rifle, no more
fight ain’t the same now
can’t stop a novel virus
with all the guns you buy us
THINGS ARE BAD (Sandwiched by Sevens)
—Caschwa
we know things are really bad
very little triggers sad
serious subjects
everyone is mad
comedians, too
can’t fake that they’re glad
what are we to do?
fun stuff that will warm our hearts
music, painting, other arts
***
knowing more than generals
spending time at urinals
rotating their crops
in loose overalls
top secret matters
for those bathroom stalls
like they’re voting booths
not very many choices
careful to mute their voices
***
they say don’t water at night
damp leaves will rot and be blight
fungus develops
they get in a fight
there is no winner
riots and war might
spread through the garden
wait till the sunshine and heat
can dry off plants that you eat
FEARS, FIRES, AND FALSEHOODS (Triolet)
—Caschwa
yes, we are registered to vote
our ballots will arrive by mail
the media explodes with emote
yes, we are registered to vote
one of the choices is an old goat
fears, fires, and falsehoods: wind for his sails
yes, we are registered to vote
our ballots will arrive by mail
ONE SET OF CHORES (Triolet)
—Caschwa
Summer is drawing to a close
one set of chores for another
finally fixed those leaks in the hose
Summer is drawing to a close
Autumn comes with new problems to pose
rake or blower, which would I druther?
Summer is drawing to a close
one set of chores for another
_______________________
Today’s LittleNip:
NOCTURNE
—Cynthia Linville
In the viscous dark that
surrounds her bed,
she rakes her fingers
through pale hours,
leaving trails of
chalky dust.
_______________________
Thank you and good morning to today’s fine weavers of poetry tales! Mondays are a rock 'n roll anthology of subjects and styles—an open mic, as it were. Today Cynthia Linville sends us a poem about the Virgin Mary, whose birthday was last week (or for All Saints Day coming up Nov. 1); Caschwa (Carl Schwartz) has been fiddling with forms, including one he made up called the “Sandwiched by Sevens”; Michael Brownstein sends us poems from the woods (tomorrow is the Autumn Equinox, and autumn poems are starting to arrive in the Kitchen); and Sammie Robertson and Joseph Nolan have been playing with punctuation. (Thanks, also, to Joseph for his other poems and for eye-catching photos he has plucked from public domain for us.)
Carl Schwartz also sent us some thoughts about Ruth Bader Ginsberg, which I am posting in order to honor her passing last Friday. Carl says, “One of my female ancestors married a foreigner during the active term of the Expatriation Act and had to petition for Repatriation. I bring this up after the passing of Justice Ginsberg, in appreciation of her efforts to reframe attitudes that had, even in law, assigned women to subservient status to men.” Here is what Carl sent us from
www.familytreemagazine.com/premium/unusual-records-naturalization-petitions:
The Case Study of Adele “Delia” Koskis
Adele “Delia” Koskis was born in September 1897 in Brooklyn. She married Matthew Starkus in June 1916 in Brooklyn. Matthew had arrived in the US in 1909. He worked as a tailor and laborer. The couple had two children, Adele and Joseph, and continued to reside in Brooklyn.
Repatriation
Adele naturalized (or more accurately, repatriated) as a U. S. citizen 14 August 1934 at the U. S. District Court in Brooklyn. No, you didn’t misread that. Adele lost her U. S. citizenship by marrying an alien man between 2 March 1907 and 22 September 1922. During this timeframe, under the Expatriation Act of 1907, “…any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband.” Because Adele married Matthew, an alien, in June 1916, she was stripped of her citizenship—even though she’d never stepped foot out of the country.
Unfortunately, Matthew died young in October 1940. It doesn’t appear that he ever became a citizen. No U. S. records yet found for Matthew suggest his exact place of origin in the Russian Empire.
* * *
Thank you, Carl, for helping us remember the good works of this extraordinary woman, Ruth Bader Ginsberg—a hero who stood up for what she believed. For more about Repatriation, see www.familytreemagazine.com/premium/unusual-records-naturalization-petitions/.
Readings online in other areas are wide-ranging opportunities that you might keep an eye on, such as Ellen Bass and others on Monday, and Mark Doty on Tuesday. Keep watching the blue column below the green one at the right of this cream-colored one. Got that?
Here in our area, Sac. Poetry Center uses Zoom for weekly readings and workshops. For more info, go to www.sacramentopoetrycenter.com/. SPC online poetry events this week include:
•••Mon., 7:15pm: SPC Monday Night Socially Distant Verse online, featuring readings from California Poetry. Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/7638733462/. Meeting ID: 763 873 3462 ("P O E T R E E I N C”); password: spcsdv2020
•••Tues., 7:15pm: SPC Socially Distant Verse: Coast to Coast online, featuring Maria Nazos, Dianna McKinnon Henning, Tommy Mendez. Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/7638733462/. Meeting ID: 763 873 3462 ("P O E T R E E I N C”); password: spcsdv2020
•••Tues., 7:15pm: SPC Tuesday night workshop hosted by Danyen Powell. Bring a poem for critique. Contact mostoycoff@gmail.com for availability and Zoom info.
•••Wed., 6pm: MarieWriters workshop (prompts) hosted by Frank Graham: zoom.us/j/671443996
•••Thurs., 7:30pm: Literary Lecture Series: Poetry Craft Talk with MistyRose. Registration required prior to attending your first session of Literary Lecture Series: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYldOCrrTIsGd3zdcXdxMayV4fVqsEXFc8Y/. Zoom ID: 828 3933 9639
•••Fri., 4pm: Writing from the Inside Out (prompts) workshop led by Nick LeForce. Reg. in advance at zoom.us/meeting/register/upwkde-opjkpnyQECAVBKolY4hKCdl61uA/. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. (If you have registered before, use the same link.)
* * *
Also this week:
•••Fri., 7:30pm: Video poetry reading on Facebook by Davis Poet Laureate James Lee Jobe at james-lee-jobe.blogspot.com/ or youtube.com/jamesleejobe/.
For more about El Dorado County poetry events, check Western Slope El Dorado poetry on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry/.
______________________
—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.
Would you like to be a SnakePal?
All you have to do is send poetry 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—
for poetry, of course!
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
Would you like to be a SnakePal?
All you have to do is send poetry 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—
for poetry, of course!
