—Poetry and Photos by Taylor Graham, Placerville, CA
—And scroll down for FORM FIDDLERS’ FRIDAY!!
MOON HORSE
Wake from the darkest sleep.
Sweep of moonlight as deck clutter’s paled,
veiled in soft shine. Rise.
Eyes scan your land to the night-field
peeled to its core: white horse,
courser of old.
Hold no title, papers, ownership.
Slip through oak shadow. His head raises,
praises your dark for night wind’s sake.
Wake from the darkest sleep.
Sweep of moonlight as deck clutter’s paled,
veiled in soft shine. Rise.
Eyes scan your land to the night-field
peeled to its core: white horse,
courser of old.
Hold no title, papers, ownership.
Slip through oak shadow. His head raises,
praises your dark for night wind’s sake.
HIDING PLACES
with thanks to Jack Micheline
In my room is a black phoebe and a goldfinch.
My room is curtained with sunrays through oak.
There’s a fiddleneck jungle in my room
and a crazyquilt comforter of blue lupine stitched
with purple vetch, and margins of pink filaree.
An accipiter passes sometimes through my room—
it wouldn’t be a raptor if not always on hunt.
My room has no room for walls or ceiling
but pulses with tidings of the next full moon.
If you come to call, look for me in my room
where you’re sure to never find me.
with thanks to Jack Micheline
In my room is a black phoebe and a goldfinch.
My room is curtained with sunrays through oak.
There’s a fiddleneck jungle in my room
and a crazyquilt comforter of blue lupine stitched
with purple vetch, and margins of pink filaree.
An accipiter passes sometimes through my room—
it wouldn’t be a raptor if not always on hunt.
My room has no room for walls or ceiling
but pulses with tidings of the next full moon.
If you come to call, look for me in my room
where you’re sure to never find me.
MOON WALK
He said she never could sleep
when the moon was full. She felt it knocking
to come in, her head ached with moonlight.
He packed his earthly satchel
and was gone. Does she let the moon in,
let it sweep her away to tomorrow?
MOON QUEST
Turn out the lights.
In space between vertical
and horizontal
sip the dark and the quiet
till they fill the room, the house.
In this still between
thought and dream, tonight’s full moon
drifts it all away.
Turn out the lights.
In space between vertical
and horizontal
sip the dark and the quiet
till they fill the room, the house.
In this still between
thought and dream, tonight’s full moon
drifts it all away.
IF CLOUDS WERE WISHES
Lenticular clouds cloak the summit
like a drifted-snow comforter
over the disappointing,
disappearing snowpack
of this droughty year.
If those lens-clouds
were more than
wishes.
If.
Lenticular clouds cloak the summit
like a drifted-snow comforter
over the disappointing,
disappearing snowpack
of this droughty year.
If those lens-clouds
were more than
wishes.
If.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
While weed-eating you uncover what you never found before—a few asphalt shingles, evidence of building you didn’t know existed on land you’ve occupied so long. What? when? whose? Not far away, something dark with blue sheen hidden in tall grass in the path of your trimmer. Stop your machine, part the grasses—bluebird, not moving except for the eye. It should be hawking insects, or brooding its eggs nested in a tree. What do you do?
1) Wonder if bird and shingles are related.
2) Scoop up the bird, figure out what to do with it.
3) Forget the bird and investigate the shingles.
4) Decide nature will take its course with bird as with shingles.
Now, back to weed-eating.
While weed-eating you uncover what you never found before—a few asphalt shingles, evidence of building you didn’t know existed on land you’ve occupied so long. What? when? whose? Not far away, something dark with blue sheen hidden in tall grass in the path of your trimmer. Stop your machine, part the grasses—bluebird, not moving except for the eye. It should be hawking insects, or brooding its eggs nested in a tree. What do you do?
1) Wonder if bird and shingles are related.
2) Scoop up the bird, figure out what to do with it.
3) Forget the bird and investigate the shingles.
4) Decide nature will take its course with bird as with shingles.
Now, back to weed-eating.
Today’s LittleNip:
QUICK & DIRTY
—Taylor Graham
It’s weed-eating time.
I do it quick & dirty—
5 acres of growing green
still growing after mowing
then turning match-strike tinder-dry.
___________________
It’s Friday already, and we have Taylor Graham to thank for some fine tales about the full moon, our recent Seed of the Week. She has sent some of them to us in forms: a Link Rhyme (“Moon Horse”); a List Poem/Normative Syllabics (“Hiding Places”); a Boketto (“Moon Quest”); a Gogyohka, last week’s Fiddlers’ Challenge (“Quick & Dirty”): a Nonet (“If Clouds Were Wishes”); a Multiple Choice Quiz Poem (“Multiple Choice”). Each week, Taylor introduces us to poetry forms we haven’t seen before, and those of us in the Kitchen are very grateful for that! I’m not sure how to define a Multiple Choice Quiz Poem, though—other than the way Taylor has laid it out in her poem, which seems pretty forthright. Let me know if you have a link to the form.
Tonight, 7pm, the Sac. Poetry Alliance (www.sacramentopoetryalliance.com) presents Natasha Sajé and Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas online at csus.zoom.us/j/88414414335/. Host: Josh McKinney. Facebook info: www.facebook.com/events/3733922900066432?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22search_results%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22search%22%7D]%7D/.
Today is also National No Pants Day. Newspaper cartoonists of America will be drawing their strips’ characters without pants, encouraging the rest of us to donate pants and other clothing to thrift shops, making them accessible to those who have been hard-hit by the pandemic (see www.sunjournal.com/2021/05/06/comic-page-characters-to-strip-off-their-pants-for-a-cause/). Other No Pants Day info is available at nationaltoday.com/no-pants-day/. I will if you will…
Also today, at 2pm, Furious Flower Facebook Live presents Indigo Moor online, reading from back East. See Facebook: www.facebook.com/FuriousFlower/.
And now it’s time for…
QUICK & DIRTY
—Taylor Graham
It’s weed-eating time.
I do it quick & dirty—
5 acres of growing green
still growing after mowing
then turning match-strike tinder-dry.
___________________
It’s Friday already, and we have Taylor Graham to thank for some fine tales about the full moon, our recent Seed of the Week. She has sent some of them to us in forms: a Link Rhyme (“Moon Horse”); a List Poem/Normative Syllabics (“Hiding Places”); a Boketto (“Moon Quest”); a Gogyohka, last week’s Fiddlers’ Challenge (“Quick & Dirty”): a Nonet (“If Clouds Were Wishes”); a Multiple Choice Quiz Poem (“Multiple Choice”). Each week, Taylor introduces us to poetry forms we haven’t seen before, and those of us in the Kitchen are very grateful for that! I’m not sure how to define a Multiple Choice Quiz Poem, though—other than the way Taylor has laid it out in her poem, which seems pretty forthright. Let me know if you have a link to the form.
Tonight, 7pm, the Sac. Poetry Alliance (www.sacramentopoetryalliance.com) presents Natasha Sajé and Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas online at csus.zoom.us/j/88414414335/. Host: Josh McKinney. Facebook info: www.facebook.com/events/3733922900066432?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22search_results%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22search%22%7D]%7D/.
Today is also National No Pants Day. Newspaper cartoonists of America will be drawing their strips’ characters without pants, encouraging the rest of us to donate pants and other clothing to thrift shops, making them accessible to those who have been hard-hit by the pandemic (see www.sunjournal.com/2021/05/06/comic-page-characters-to-strip-off-their-pants-for-a-cause/). Other No Pants Day info is available at nationaltoday.com/no-pants-day/. I will if you will…
Also today, at 2pm, Furious Flower Facebook Live presents Indigo Moor online, reading from back East. See Facebook: www.facebook.com/FuriousFlower/.
And now it’s time for…
FORM FIDDLERS’ FRIDAY!
Last week’s Fiddlers’ Challenge was the Gogyohka. Taylor Graham sent us one (see above), and here is a quickie from Caschwa (Carl Bernard Schwartz):
GOGYOHKA
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
Gorgeous optics
Give your
Own head
Keen
Antennas
And then Carl sent us a Gogyohka chain:
PHRASER GUN
—Caschwa
go girl
gargoyle face
gallinaceous
galactic
giddyup!
***
phrase
the word
and amass the
ample
rendition
***
I see you
you can’t hide
hide in view
view of you
you’re it
***
amber
color girl
of the month
slow down
amber
***
who
done it
mystery
suspense movie
with surprise ending
PHRASER GUN
—Caschwa
go girl
gargoyle face
gallinaceous
galactic
giddyup!
***
phrase
the word
and amass the
ample
rendition
***
I see you
you can’t hide
hide in view
view of you
you’re it
***
amber
color girl
of the month
slow down
amber
***
who
done it
mystery
suspense movie
with surprise ending
Carl also sent a Boketto chain this week:
VIBRATIONS
—Caschwa
in walk the ticket holders
muting cell phones, clearing throats
whispering far too loudly
lights show the path
an usher guides them
house lights dim, announcement made
chatter fills the room, it will
never stop
behold a curved line showing
how long to sustain a note
occurring between bookends
of repeat signs
while the conductor
artfully waves the baton
behind the double bass, he’ll
never stop
sitting at the piano-
forte ready to pound all
the white and black keys at once
needing release
from routine practice
let vibrations, like rivers,
carve their own deep canyons and
never stop
VIBRATIONS
—Caschwa
in walk the ticket holders
muting cell phones, clearing throats
whispering far too loudly
lights show the path
an usher guides them
house lights dim, announcement made
chatter fills the room, it will
never stop
behold a curved line showing
how long to sustain a note
occurring between bookends
of repeat signs
while the conductor
artfully waves the baton
behind the double bass, he’ll
never stop
sitting at the piano-
forte ready to pound all
the white and black keys at once
needing release
from routine practice
let vibrations, like rivers,
carve their own deep canyons and
never stop
And here is his wee Acrostic:
LGBTQ
—Caschwa
Life can be picky, it only
Gives the honor of
Beauty and poise
To certain flowers with the
Quality to smile
____________________
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!
____________________
FIDDLERS’ CHALLENGE!
LGBTQ
—Caschwa
Life can be picky, it only
Gives the honor of
Beauty and poise
To certain flowers with the
Quality to smile
____________________
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!
____________________
FIDDLERS’ CHALLENGE!
Canzonet/Canzonetta/Canzonetta Prime: poetscollective.org/poetryforms/canzonetta
____________________
MEDUSA’S FORM FINDER: Links to poetry forms mentioned today:
•••Acrostic: literarydevices.net/acrostic
•••Boketto (“Listen to the Light”):
poeticbloomings2.wordpress.com2016/05/11/inform-poets-boketto
•••Canzonet, Canzonetta, Canzonetta Prime: poetscollective.org/poetryforms/canzonetta
•••Gogyohka: www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/gogyohka-poetic-form
•••Link Rhyme: word at the end of each line rhymes with word at the beginning of the next line
•••List Poem: clpe.org.uk/poetryline/poeticforms/list-poem
•••Nonet: www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/nonet-poems-poetic-form
•••Normative Syllabics: hellopoetry.com/collection/108/normative-syllabic-free-verse OR lewisturco.typepad.com/poetics/normative-syllabic-verse
__________________
—Medusa
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA
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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