Cantankery

 

—Poetry and Photos by Taylor Graham,  

Placerville, CA

—And then scroll down for 

Form Fiddlers’ Friday!!

 

 

 

RAIN’S BAD LIGHT FOR BIRDING

That contrary bird is back—
shifty of name, gray-camouflaged today—
blaze-gay in sun-shellac.

 

 

 

 

HEN-PECKERY
   inspired by Andrea Kowch’s “Pecking Order”

Is she cantankerous or just eggy?
So much pressurized have-to in her face,
trying to keep order amidst heaps
of eggs and hens among the porcelain
on shelves never meant to be a hen-house.
At least, in her kitchen she needn’t
deal with rodents carrying off just-laid eggs.
Home economics agonize her head,
her face a mesh of cogs and gears. If this
were a fairytale, where’s the glass slipper?

 

 

 

 

 

DAY INTO NIGHT

Sparrow, nuthatch, hermit thrush
unseen, but singing last light from the sky.
Bats fly, the shadows rush.

 

 

 

 


WHAT TO SAY
   inspired by an Andrea Kowch painting

Crows can be cantankerous.
Two ladies at table can tankerous
be as well while eating crow.
Its gorge bloody red still squawking.
Two live ones flapping wrath
out the window. A field of dead
grass, last of the crops
stewed. How can two ladies
carry on conversation,
carry the bits of bloody
to their mouths?

 

 

 

 

 

NOT CRANKY

Stutter-then-start. Yesterday,
my little old Honda quit. Need a new
battery? Trickle-charge all night; overnight
it froze. Is the old car fit for black ice
on winding 2-lanes? But she’s a trooper.
Cancel appointment, or give it a try?
Wait till dawn. Then bundle up and consult
the old lady. She said, too early, too dark,
too cold. Not cranky, just
not cranking. I said Come on baby, let’s go!
She did. At the shop, mechanic
said the old Honda still had her original
battery—16 years 5 months of driving.
He thinks it might be a record.
Have to expect some bumps on the
road in a good long marriage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

COLORS OF FALL

As leaves relinquish
their green, we watch roadside trees
ignite bursts of flame.

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s LittleNip:

CANTANKER

—Taylor Graham

He told me to turn
out the lights. How can I turn
off the Monday sun?

_____________________

Our thanks to Taylor Graham for today’s musings on birds and autumn leaves and our recent Seed of the Week: Cantankerous. Cantanker: a new word? The Urban Dictionary defines it as “to fulfill the qualities of being a cantankerous whore.” Well, okay. No reason to bring someone’s morals into it…

Forms that TG has used today include the Senryu (“Cantaker”); two Ekphrastic poems (“What to Say” and “Hen-Peckery”, which is also Normative Syllabics); two Welsh Englyn Byr Cwcas, last week’s Triple-F Challenge—betcha can’t write just one (“Day into Night” and “Rain's Bad Light for Birding”); and a Haiku (“Colors of Fall”).

Tomorrow (Saturday 11/19), there will be an Open Farm Day at Wakamatsu Farm in Placerville, with poetry, holiday crafts, journaling, and a naturalist-led hike. For more info about and photos of El Dorado County poetry events, go to Western Slope El Dorado poetry on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry/. Poetry is Gold in El Dorado County!

And if you happen to be in Fresno tomorrow between 5-8pm, check out the Forestiere Underground Gardens Fall Festival, a celebration of the autumn season with poetry, music, art, dance, and food with a focus on the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories of Native people. Forestiere is a network of underground spaces/gardens created over the course of 40 years (starting in 1906) by Italian immigrant Baldessare Forestiere using only hand tools. Tickets $15 at UndergroundGardens.com/.

Now it’s time for . . .


Form Fiddlers' Friday! 

 

It’s time for more contributions from Form Fiddlers, in addition to those sent to us by Taylor Graham. Each Friday, there will be poems posted here from our readers using forms—either ones which were sent to 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 challenges. Whaddaya got to lose… If you send ‘em, I’ll post ‘em! (See Medusa’s Form Finder at the end of this post for resources and for links to poetry terms used in today’s post.)

There’s also a newly dusted-off page at the top of Medusa’s Kitchen called, “FORMS! OMG!!!” which expresses some of my (take ‘em or leave 'em) opinions about the use of forms in poetry writing, as well as listing some more resources to help you navigate through Form Quicksand. Got any more resources to add to our list? Send them to kathykieth@hotmail.com for the benefit of all man/woman/poetkind!

 

 

 

Last Week’s Ekphrastic Challenge

 

Nolcha Fox and Stephen Kingsnorth tackled last week’s Ekphrastic photo:


RIVER ROCKS
—Nolcha Fox, Buffalo, WY

so lovely, reflecting
prismed sun on
tranquil stream,
to lure unwary
fishermen to trip,
perhaps to drown.

Nature is a comic,
although her humor’s dark.
The predator becomes
the prey, turned
into nibble bits
for fish.

* * *

RAINBOWLAND FOR PWCA HAND
—Stephen Kingsnorth, Coedpoeth, Wrexham, Wales

Here’s solid rocks, a stone-faced sight,
with fluid, water, filling cracks,
so tones are softened, liquid light,
as stolid moves in pebble wave.
Filtered sunshine, media site,
in balanced style from still to flow,
while other in flight, some unmoved,
base bedrock, covered silken sheet.
Is this the playground, river sprite,
a kelpie wandered, ocean strand,
on inland quest, found errant knight,
but sallows caught, willo’-the-wisp?
Perhaps she’s bound by angler’s wight,
how Sycorax dealt Ariel,
but seeps, root marsh, to reach moonlight,
as shimmer beams turn streaming dawn.
So weeping, down from Salix height,
tears stir bourn to pebbledash beck,
meniscus wavers, surface bite,
for rainbow rises, trout for fly.
The fisher king, below, on land,
though fairy fire, Welsh pwca hand.

*pwca=Welsh goblin

* * *

Claire Baker has sent us a lovely Tanka:

 

 

 

REFLECTIVE IN BENICIA
—Claire J. Baker, Pinole, CA

Shore reeds frame full moon
which reflects tiny silver
wings over inlet:
polling places renewed pride,
democracy still buoyant.

* * *

Caschwa (Carl Schwartz) sent us a List Poem, musing on finding more accurate titles for various professions:

 

 

  

IF ATTORNEY-AT-LAW, THEN
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA

Actuary-at-risk
Arbitrator-at-peace
Estimator-at-or-about
Extremist-at-most
Fundamentalist-at-least
Gambler-at-odds
Journalist-at-times
Prostitute-at-work
Protestor-at-it
Rooster-at-dawn
Runner-up-at-a-loss
Soldier-at-attention

* * *

I’ve noticed that some other forms are popping up here and there in the Kitchen. Steven Smith sent an almost-Limerick which was posted yesterday. I say “almost” because it needed a couple more syllables in the second line, which I have supplied:

 

Running on pain, caffeine, and weed
[plenty of] loss, and want, and need
past the winking abyss
and the terror of this
and the stain of the blood in the bleed

—Smith

And a newcomer to the Kitchen, Josh Crummer, will be posted tomorrow. Watch for his Ghazal and his Shakespearean Sonnet!

* * *

Finally, here’s an Ars Poetica from Stephen Kingsnorth about the communal joys of poetry (“…you may see what I’ve not found…”:

 

 

 

TRESPASSERS WELCOME
—Stephen Kingsnorth

As so long, longer, Covid’s stretch
as isolation, feared remix,
with febrile mind yet matchstick limbs;
TV repeats spread channel wide,
small crumbs of comfort, guppy tide—
it’s word play, metrics, heart through mind,
that, taken time is given back.

They raise me, early clock, from dark,
record what will be lost by light,
no Porlock call to blame, myself,
for cursor, screen, my laudanum.
A lighter spirit, barley malt,
rough edges later trimmed, sheared, pinked—
that meta, morph which dreams arouse.
Replacing drift transposing thoughts,
associations running wild,
all seven ages into one,
a stream from couch, encoded page.

I know my track’s not labelled well—
why would you share space where I float,
when followed paths were not the same—
but synapse storage overloads;
you stumble route I jungle hacked.
Yet if some ping alerts crossed ways,
your known, or unexplored divined,
turf, common ground is recognised,
so be it: that’s not my demand.
I claim no right to empathy.
But you may see what I’ve not found;
you may be guide through undergrowth.

___________________

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!

___________________


TRIPLE-F CHALLENGES! 

 

See what you can make of this week’s poetry forms, and send them to kathykieth@hotmail.com! (No deadline.) Roll up your sleeves and give the Kyrielle Sonnet a shot:

•••Kyrielle Sonnet: http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/kyriellesonnet.html

AND/OR tackle the trickiest of the Welsh forms, the Rhupunt:

•••Rhupunt: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/rhupunt-poetic-form   

AND/OR try a Sedoka, which is really just a double Katuata—except for writing the two stanzas from different perspectives:

•••Sedoka: http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/sedoka.html

•••See also the bottom of this post for another challenge, this one an Ekphrastic Photo.

•••And don’t forget each Tuesday’s Seed of the Week! This week it’s “Cantankerous”. 


____________________

MEDUSA’S FORM FINDER: Links to poetry terms mentioned today:

•••Ars Poetica: www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ars-poetica
•••Ekphrastic Poem: notesofoak.com/discover-literature/ekphrastic-poetry 
•••Englyn Byr Cwca: www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/englyn-byr-cwca-poetic-forms
•••Ghazal: poets.org/glossary/ghazal AND/OR poetryschool.com/theblog/whats-a-ghaza AND/OR www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ghazal AND/OR
www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/ghazal.html  
•••Haiku: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/haiku/haiku.html
•••Katauta: www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/katauta-poetic-form
•••Kyrielle: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/kyrielle.html
•••Kyrielle Sonnet: http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/kyriellesonnet.htm
•••Limerick: poets.org/glossary/limerick
•••List Poem: clpe.org.uk/poetryline/poeticforms/list-poem
•••Normative Syllabics: hellopoetry.com/collection/108/normative-syllabic-free-verse AND/OR lewisturco.typepad.com/poetics/normative-syllabic-verse
•••Rhupunt: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/rhupunt-poetic-form
•••Sedoka: http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/sedoka.html
•••Senryu: www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-senryu-poems#quiz-0
•••Tanka: poets.org/glossary/tanka


For more about meter, see:

•••www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-iambic-pentameter-definition-literature
•••www.pandorapost.com/2021/05/examples-of-iambic-pentameter-tetrameter-and-trimeter-in-poetry.html 
•••nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/iambic-pentameter
•••www.thoughtco.com/introducing-iambic-pentameter-2985082
•••www.nfi.edu/iambic-pentameter

____________________


—Medusa

 

 

 

 Today's Ekphrastic Challenge!
 
See what you can make of the above
photo, and send your poetic results to

kathykieth@hotmail.com/. (No deadline.)

***

—Photo Courtesy of Public Domain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 
For upcoming poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
in the links at the top of this page.

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