This Pactolian Season

 

—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Sue Crisp

PACTOLIAN: Golden, Lavish
—Sue Crisp, Shingle Springs, CA

streaks of gilded clouds
pactolian setting sun
fiery seascape glow 

 

 

 

wings on thermal air
pactolian sunlit skies
cast sea glow below

 

winging homeward bound
pactolian sun streaked clouds
guild the quiet sea

 

 

 

 

pactolian skies
geese rise in v formation
autumn gives its call

 

 

 

 

painted evening sky
pactolian artist hues
flight in colored waves

 

 

 

 —Public Domain Photos Courtesy of Sue Crisp

 

_______________________________

 

 

 

 

—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA

 

 

A HYBRID POEM
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA

(with so much going on, and me being
a single-tasker, it is easy to lose focus)


it starts out driven by some poetic form
that seems to suit the purpose, but at
any point it may get switched over by
political commentary, or

I hear a freight train horn, repeatedly
and urgent, and up pops the scenario
of someone stuck on the tracks, or

I feel the vibrations of a helicopter
hovering overhead and the mind goes
wild presupposing the reason for their
being right there right then, or

my Chihuahua does something cute,
so of course that needs to be memorialized
in poetry before the thought fades away, or

emergency vehicle sirens dominate
the landscape, is my house subject to
an approaching fire, fleeing felon? or

dogs bark, cats hiss, chickens and squirrels
make their nagging sounds, breaking news,
climate change, telephone…

 

 

 

—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

 

 

ODE TO OPEN CARRY
—Caschwa

the stores sell guns and capes for kids to buy
and strut around all day like comic book
super-power heroes who often fly
with bulging muscles everywhere you look

but lo, there are life-saving angels, too
who boldly open carry stethoscopes,
license to heal, malpractice insurance

their childhood capes and guns once shiny new
replaced by scientific dreams and hopes,
life, heartbeat, vitals strong, get up and dance! 

 

 

 

Brains: Human on Left, Dolphin on Right

—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

 

 

 

DISTORTION
—Caschwa

(response to “Why mis-perceive
such matters” from “Confusion”, by
Joyce Odam, Medusa’s Kitchen,
September 29, 2020) 

 

The very funny Garry Shandling
did a skit on his show where he
was operating a vacuum cleaner,
and as he went back and forth
across our TV screens the image
and the audio broke up into just
incomprehensible garbage, as if
someone in our own household
was operating a vacuum cleaner
on the same circuit as our TV

tricking our perceptions is certainly
not a lost art, as we see the ad
campaigns for the nation’s highest
office attempt to steer viewers to
fully accept and believe whatever
some carefully crafted televised ad
most strongly suggests, leaving
everyone bewildered in the struggle
to distinguish true offers of proof
from offers of poo

 

 

 

—Public Domain Photo

 

OUR WEDDING DAY
—Joseph Nolan

We could have a wedding
With flowers,
With bridesmaids
And whispering leaves
That flutter on white trellises,
Under arching trees,

And celebrate,
With toasts of champagne,
Our guests, all dancing free,
And when our
Wedding Day
Was done,
We could be
Just you and me!

 

 

 

—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

 

 

DON’T SCREAM TOO LOUD ON THE SHORE!
—Joseph Nolan

Barbarous is the windfall
That falls on windy shore,
Of peasants and of merchants,
Who drag-down,
More and more,

And anyone,
Who might make a claim,
To make
A whisper,
Roar,

Had better
Have a letter,
From a gendarme
On the shore!

 

 

 

—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

 

 

MOKSHA
—Joseph Nolan

He who owns his own life
Will own, also, his death,
Dying by each finger,
With each and every breath.

Spinning in a whirlpool,
That drags his body down
As he mourns: he was a fool,
As he circles ‘round.

He who owns not
His own life,
Nor anything he sees,
Blends into the scenery,
Easy as you please!

 

 

 

—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

 

TO THOSE THE LIGHT HAS LET GO
—Joseph Nolan

The message was clear,
But misunderstood.
It began with “Dear”
But it did no good.

It lost its lines;
The reader was blind.
Next time, don’t fail:
Send it in Braille.

Some folks
Just know things by feel.
The sound of a voice
In darkness, is real,
And says so much
More than you know,
To someone
The light has let go.

 

___________________

 

Today’s LittleNip:

LOVE AND KINDNESS
—Joseph Nolan

Love and kindness
Rained into the ocean, and,
Carried by its currents,
Circled around the world.

Currents hardly ever cross
Borders between oceans,
But sensing no offense,
And feeling that
To keep them out
Would bring on
Quite a loss,
They let them drift across,
All around the world.

____________________

Good Monday morning, poets, as we slip into the pactolian season—a new word for me which was presented to us today by Sue Crisp. See above. She and Carl Schwartz (Caschwa) and Joseph Nolan have brought us an invigorating display to start this first week in October. May your yard go all pactolian on you in its finest seasonal fashion!

 

The City of Davis is proud to announce that the term of Poet Laureate James Lee Jobe has been extended another year. Congratulations, James! Check out Medusa's Kitchen on Saturdays for his fine poetry.

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:

•••Tonight at 7:15pm, Sac. Poetry Center’s Monday Night Socially Distant Verse presents Jokenword (Keliz Barksdale) and Sixfootah (LaTasha Turner) on Zoom at us04web.zoom.us/j/7638733462/. Meeting ID: 763 873 3462. Password: spcsdv2020. Hosted by CharRon.

•••SPC Tuesday night workshop, 7:30pm, hosted by Danyen Powell. Bring a poem for critique. Contact mostoycoff@gmail.com for availability and Zoom info.

•••Wed., 1pm: Pandemic//Planet//Protest: Poetry of Place workshop continues with Wren Tuatha. To register: Email Wren at mexicoroad@consensus.net/.

•••Wed., 6pm: MarieWriters workshop (prompts) will NOT BE MEETING this week.

•••Thurs., 7:30pm: Literary Lecture Series presents Frank Dixon Graham: Ezra Glaser on Richard Klugar’s “Simple Justice” and Social Justice Writing Leading to Brown v. Board of Education. Registration required prior to attending your first session of Literary Lecture Series at us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYldOCrrTIsGd3zdcXdxMayV4fVqsEXFc8Y/. Zoom ID: 828 3933 9639.

•••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:

•••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

 

 

 

—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.

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
All you have to do is send poetry and/or
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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!