Kneeling On One's Epiphanies

—Public Domain Illustration Courtesy of Sue Crisp

WORRY
—Sue Crisp, Shingle Springs, CA

Worried?  Feeling a little insecure?
          Just a muddle on your mind
          about what, you're just not sure?
          Take it apart, look at it, see what you find.
          Is it a true worry,
          or just a niggling doubt?
          You'll feel better in a hurry,

          once you know what it's about.

Yep.  There they are.
Those things that make you worry,
circling in your head.
Time to take control in a hurry.
Prioritize those worries you dread,
give each their own space.
Give them your time one by one.
Give yourself some wiggle room, just in case
you come up a little short when you’re done.
Now, you can take the worry wart look off your face,
you’ve just proved what a worry-free star you are.

Is this you?

 

Worries bouncing around in your head.

Don’t know what to do,
your mind fills with dread.
Worry can only get you so far.
Take the high road,
show worry how tough you are. 

 —Public Domain Illustration Courtesy of Sue Crisp 

 

  

ADRIFT 

—Sue Crisp                                                                                                                                                  

I’m just a young babe set adrift among the reeds.
Given this water home for another’s needs.
The water soothes me with its gentle rock and sway.
Perfect for napping, some would say.
Slowly I drift along, soothed by the marsh birds' song.
I’ll have a new home, by rescue.  I know not where.
A home with warmth and loving care.  Perhaps it will be you.

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of 

Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA

POND
—Michael Brownstein, Jefferson City, MO

When my son digs the pond for his garden,
earth and grass and small branches stain his skin.
The rains come with thunder and brilliance,
the pond fills with water, twig and turtle.
Frogs avoid it, but snakes come to drink,
and the Queen of Deer leaves its track in the torn grass.
The pond is a great success and water lettuce take root.
Many days he watches an egg become
whole and living and dead. He remembers
many things and keeps neatly printed journals.

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

ENDS
(after an Aztec myth)
—Michael Brownstein

They gave me five wives for a year
and asked me to walk to the stone knife.
I did this willingly, not like the tales of history,
but because I had to.
I was god,
the closest one to the sun,
the owner of the heart that grows larger.
Without me the sun will stop in the sky.
I alone walk the steps.
I alone meet the knife.
I alone give my heart to the sun.

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

BUTTON-PUSHERS
—Joseph Nolan

We have slaughtered all the button-pushers,
All those trained to push buttons.
All their fingers were amputated
In tiny pieces,
Slowly, and by accretion,
Until only their knuckles remained;

After that, we went for their brains,
Dripping acid onto each part of their brains
That dealt with the command to push,
The ability to hear the command,
The ability to respond to the command,
To activate a finger to push a button.

We should be safe now,
At least for awhile,
Until they learn
To do it with their toes.

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

NOSTALGIA AND UNREST
—Joseph Nolan

I wonder where
The rhythms have gone
That echo in our memories
Of loves that lasted long,
Long, and filled with longing,
Or only for awhile,
But somehow filled
Our needs, so well,
That we could only

                         -------Smile!-------

                                   ------All day long!------

I wonder why we
All want castles, now,
With drawbridges and moats
With water filled with crocodiles
That feed on billy-goats,
Tied to pegs
With shaky legs
Somewhere close to shore,
And guns that point from parapets
At people who shout threats?

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

 

REFUGE IN RASPUTIN
—Joseph Nolan

There might
Come a point
When you might
Wish to take
Refuge in Rasputin,

When your faith is shaken,
When bleeding will not stop
Without his intercession,
Going deep into prayer,
Summoning
The angels of healing.

And who’s to say it is wrong?
Knowing not,
Be they those
Of dark
Or light?
Yet they’re strong!

Strong enough to stop
The endless bleeding
Of an innocent son
And somehow
Give him blessing!
Though an Empire be undone
A mother
Would bend
To save her son.

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

 

LABOR DAY
—Joseph Nolan

I sing a sad song
For the Archangel’s Parade
The one they do on Labor Day
Where worlds are burned and made,

When the Parish priests
Say Mass upon the glade,
As Indian Summer
Hovers over-horizon,
Waiting to kiss summer good-bye.

And it brings a tear to my eye
To think of the tears and sweat
That went to just keep things going
And no dreams are realized, yet.

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

 

SUNDAES AFTER CHURCH
—Joseph Nolan

Did you ever get a sundae
On the way home from church?

Something to make it special
So you wouldn’t want to lurch

Away
From going to church on Sunday?

Special was as special is,
With whipped cream and cherry on top.
A maraschino cherry!
So you didn’t have to wonder
What the meaning of “special”
Was or still is.

 

TWO POEMS FROM DUGOUT ANTHOLOGY
—Michael Ceraolo, S. Euclid, OH

           Bob Caruthers

I understand so-called two-way players
are becoming the rage in today's game,
showing everything old is new again
They weren't uncommon when I was playing,
and I was the best of the then
and I think the best ever
I was never in the best of health
even during my playing days,
and I came to a sad end
at a relatively young age
I have been largely forgotten,
but perhaps the “new” two-way players
will at last bring me the renown I deserve

* * *

           Martin Dihigo

I played all nine positions during my career,
not for an inning each in one game as a publicity stunt,
but to help my team win
The argument over who was the greatest such player
is complicated by differing amounts of statistics,
so I've come up with a few questions that might help:
did any of your teammates or opponents ever call you such?
did you have one or more nicknames that might describe you as such?
did one of your nation's best poets ever write a poem about you?
There are one or two others, but those are the big ones

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

 

DREAMT ATTEMPT
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA

I was visited by a thought
that seemed to be just right
but when I tried to retrieve it
the thought was out of sight

maybe it’s in that same spot
where I left my phone or keys
my aging brain no longer allows
kneeling on my epiphanies

I tried to recreate the scene
where that great thought appeared
it was like I’d never been
in any place so weird

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

HEATHER REPORT
—Caschwa 
 
smoky skies
get in your eyes
everyone dyes
their hair heather

traffic on interstate
lights and horns all too late
commuters stuck in a great
field of heather

athletes perform in arenas
wearing uniform bandanas
fans at home with their nanas
rolling in heather

all that stuff in the news
aimed to amaze and confuse
nothing real, it’s all a ruse
just look away at the heather 

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

 

 THURSDAY
—Caschwa

the most useful thing I ever learned
attending Santa Monica City College
was their method of using the letter “R”
on class calendars to denote Thursday

and then after transferring to the university
and graduating, getting a car, an apartment,
becoming a husband, becoming a father,
becoming a substitute teacher,

it was a sunny Thursday afternoon, and
I was looking forward to attending rehearsal
of the community jazz band that evening,
I, my wife, and baby child were sitting in our
’66 Mustang, stopped in traffic, seat belts and
baby seat secured, when we were violently
rear-ended by a motorist who had fallen
asleep at the wheel

my punctured lip eventually healed and I
was able to resume playing the trombone,
my wife’s injured neck remains to this day,
because intervention could leave her in worse
shape, and our son is now grown, a college
grad, avid driver

and Thursdays, oh yes, have never been
quite the same 

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

MORE LIKELY
—Caschwa

to conjugate verbs
than cultivate herbs

decline every noun
than go out on the town

sit on one’s derrière
than do real work anywhere

harbor suspicions
than remediate omissions

blather and curse
than share dreams in verse

watch in despair
than fix and repair

panic and emote
than register and vote

insult those in slavery
than perform acts of bravery 

 

 

 ADRIFT IN FUDGE
—Caschwa

an eddy of chopped nuts
swirls atop the chocolate
brownie defying even the

most ardent chewer to
interrupt the pattern by
taking a bite or two

but look again, now a
morsel is suddenly missing
from the spinning image

busily at work teasing
taste buds and bringing
back fond memories 

 —Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

Today’s LittleNip:

DEEP INSIDE
—Caschwa

'Neath the cover of Aesop’s Fables
lies a wolf in sheep’s clothing
relying that we will judge it wrongly
thus enabling its scathing

betrayal of our good faith trust
in what we believe we see,
a carnival house of mirrors
making fools of you and me

______________________

Welcome back to another tapestry that is Monday in the Kitchen—a variety of voices and styles, all weaving stories and sounds and pictures to start our week off right. Thanks to today's contributors!

Here in our area, Sac. Poetry Center uses Zoom for weekly readings and workshops. For more info, go to www.sacramentopoetrycenter.com/. Area online poetry events this week include:

•••Mon. 7:15pm: SPC Monday Night Socially Distant Verse online, this week an Open Mic. Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/7638733462?pwd=YVltWXFFa2Rid2pZQ3pWaVordmZ5UT09/.  (Meeting ID: 763 873 3462 ("P O E T R E E I N C”); password: spcsdv2020.

•••SPC Tuesday night workshop hosted by Danyen Powell. Bring a poem for critique. Contact mostoycoff@gmail.com for availability and Zoom info.

•••Wed., 1-2:30pm: Pandemic//Planet//Protests: Poetry of Place, 8-week free Zoom writing workshop let by Wren Tuatha continues (8/19-10/07); for more info, go to mexicoroad@consensus.net/. Sponsored by SPC.

•••Wed., 6pm: MarieWriters workshop (prompts) hosted by Nick LeForce at zoom.us/j/671443996/.

•••Fri., 4pm: Writing from the Inside Out 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:

•••All week (Sept. 14-20), 8pmEDT: The 2020 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival, hosted by The Emily Dickinson Museum. Info/tix: www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/tell-it-slant-poetry-festival/.

•••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

 
When Medusa gets up late. . .
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

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.

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Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!