Friday, April 28, 2023

Colors of the Listening Air

 
—Poetry and Photos by Taylor Graham, 
Placerville, CA
—And then scroll down to Form Fiddlers’ Friday,
with poetry by Nolcha Fox and Stephen Kingsnorth
 
 
 
OLD 49er TOWN

On boardwalk &
chipseal sidewalk
no one’s walking
no crow’s talking
there’s only me
and thru traffic.

Gold
Rush town. The sign says
Cash 4 Gold. No horse-drawn
wagons—an 18-wheeler
and super-mover in search of
gold?

Town creek’s a jungle—
berry bramble and willow
standing water-guard.
Birdsong?
House Sparrow
at home.
Field’s a green palette
with one yellow-bursting tree,
one poppy (golden). 
 
 
 

 
 
ARBORISTS LACK WINGS

Those men
practice climbing
ropes & trees at fairground,
while overhead a mating dance—
two crows. 
 
 
 
 


SUN-STRUCK PLUMAGE

Tree Swallow posted
sentry on his nesting box
moves not a feather—
iridescent green blinded
my lens, I missed a good shot. 
 
 
 

 
 
WHAT IS THE ZIPCODE?

A forested place on the fringe of zipcodes, between
burn scar and growing green
I chose for my Earth Day walk
to see
healing, rebirth, hope for our planet. 
 
 
 

 
 
LOOKING UP, LOOKING DOWN

The news is SpaceX, while I’m out walking
old burn-scars here on Earth. Caldor Fire,
these ridges barren as Mars. But
look, where flames swept thru, baby
pines—more than I can count.
See this one, sunlit
haloed against
charred log. There’s
life on
Earth. 
 
 
 

 
 
THE NEXT ASSIGNMENT

We have our choices,
how to interpret the task—imagine!

Spin a globe and see where it stops—
step into that place, that space; and end its wars.

Walk until you feel the impatience of Earth
under your feet—wait for the geyser, the quake,
the volcano, or just the sprouting plant.

Hold your arms out until you feel
the structure of wings, each feather an arrow
never finishing its flight to where? Maybe the stars.
 
 
 
 

 
Today’s LittleNip:

GEOLOGIC FINGERPRINT
—Taylor Graham

New
For Sale sign
on a grassy field

its native rock
raising
fists
to sky.

_______________________

Our thanks to Taylor Graham for her poems and photos today, celebrating life in the spring in the Sierra foothills, including lots of wildflowers. This is a great year for wildflowers up here, and Hwy 50 is awash with lupine, mustard—and especially poppies! Our state flower is everywhere this year, it seems like!

Week-before-last, TG sent us a composite form made from a Koori, a Ganta and a Shoa, but since we didn’t come up with a name for such a thing, TG is calling it a 3-style (“Old 49er Town”). Other forms she has used today include a Word-Can Poem (“The Next Assignment”); a Septolet (“Geologic Fingerprint”); a Cinquain (“Arborists Lack Wings”); a Zip Ode (“What Is the Zipcode?”); a Reverse Etheree (“Looking Up, Looking Down”); and a Tanka (“Sun-Struck Plumage”).

What’s that? A Zip Ode? In my ignorance, I thought it was a typo. But it’s a form, and info about it may be found at https://milkcartonpress.com/?p=347#:~:text=What%20follows%20is%20a%20brief%20overview%20of%20the,of%20words%20in%20each%20line%20of%20the%20poem AND/OR https://www.wlrn.org/write-an-ode-to-your-zip-code/. The land of forms is many-varied indeed!

In addition to lots of other NorCal happenings tomorrow, there will be a special Laureate Trail event at 4pm at the Placerville Library to honor Lara Gularte’s term as El Dorado County Poet Laureate. For more info about El Dorado County poetry events, past and future, go to Western Slope El Dorado poetry on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry or see Lara Gularte’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/382234029968077/. Poetry is Gold in El Dorado County!

But don’t forget to check out all the other readings that are happening tomorrow—windings-up for National Poetry Month. Click on Medusa's UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS (http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html) for details about these and other future poetry events in the NorCal area—and keep an eye on this link and on the Kitchen for happenings that might pop up during the week.

And 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.)

 
 * * *
 
 
Last Week’s Ekphrastic Photo
 

We had responses to last week’s Ekphrastic photo from Nolcha Fox and Stephen Kingsnorth:



THE FUTURE
—Nolcha Fox, Buffalo, WY


One day we’ll live
on distant globes,
We’ll leave our world behind.
Perhaps by then
we’ll learn to treasure
where we live and why.
Then poor old Earth
will have a chance
to come back to herself.
And in the night
we’ll point to her
a distant planet, blue and green.
We’ll tell our kids,
that’s where we left because
the land and sky were bad.
They’ll ask “Is it still
dangerous? Will we
go back someday?”

* * *

ODYSSEY TO INHOUSE SPACE
—Stephen Kingsnorth, Coedpoeth, Wrexham, Wales

We’re given space—the dress alone,
this pointing wonder of a child
and family—set, two plus clone,
with palm spread awe, here, mother styled.
But we can’t see the marvel faced—
not over-shoulder rays, behind—
or eyes, the best of mirrors graced,
though for the visors, light would blind.

A storyboard, but oversold—
whose comic strip make common sense?
So why should pop-art take such hold,
a vector family, why intense?
All caused clipart, stock for choice,
in case one image suits that task,
a picture to enhance the voice,
words too fogged till pix unmask.

Bitmap, ClickArt staged their part as
Desktop publishing first allowed
the inhouse story, razzmatazz—
so come to terms which sing out loud.
To explore range across this trade,
‘Your Threesome! Welcome! Full Spectrum!’;
what project needs this visual aid?
New advert, planetarium?

* * *

And here’s an Ars Poetica from Stephen Kingsnorth about following the rules:
 
 
 
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy 
of Joe Nolan, Stockton, CA

 
SUBMISSIVE
—Stephen Kingsnorth

As if a hound rolled on its back,
hang dangling paws and well-sheathed claws,
I am become in older age
submissive, daily, guideline prone.
I count my lines, and number page,
declare no simultaneous,
my bio, disembodied third,
while cover verse with courtesy.

The kennels specialise in breeds—
some mongrel, others pedigree—
a brochure scan leads boarding plans,
where allocate the mutt in mind.
Sometimes the tale is wagging dog,
my measured walkies out of step,
so I reshape the extant form,
create, remove the stanza space.

I’ve lolling tongue, appealing eyes—
those adverts, rescue charities—
but nothing moves except the words,
my esoteric up to scratch?
Yet daily clatter to the bowl,
strain at the leash as if on heat,
and off the lead turn to and fro,
duo trope, turn twice, returned.

_____________________

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 these challenges, and send it/them to kathykieth@hotmail.com! (No deadline.) Time to seize the day:

•••Carpe Diem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/carpe-diem

•••AND/OR the Zip Ode:

•••Zip Ode: https://www.wlrn.org/write-an-ode-to-your-zip-code AND/OR
https://milkcartonpress.com/?p=347#:~:text=What%20follows%20is%20a%20brief%20overview%20of%20the,of%20words%20in%20each%20line%20of%20the%20poem

•••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 “Infuriated ”.

____________________

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

•••Ars Poetica: www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ars-poetica
•••Carpe Diem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/carpe-diem
•••Cinquain: poets.org/glossary/cinquain AND/OR www.poewar.com/poetry-in-forms-series-cinquain/. See www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/adelaide-crapsey for info about its inventor, Adelaide Crapsey.
•••Ekphrastic Poem: notesofoak.com/discover-literature/ekphrastic-poetry   
•••Etheree: www.thepoetsgarret.com/2008Challenge/form22.html  
•••Ganta: https://medium.com/@Internationalpoetrynewsletter/modern-ganta-poems-and-how-to-write-ganta-poems-a6b08b655078
•••Koori: https://medium.com/@Internationalpoetrynewsletter/modern-cbe315b33fb7
•••Septolet: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/septolet.html
•••Shoa: https://medium.com/@Internationalpoetrynewsletter/modern-shoa-poems-and-how-to-write-shoa-poems-afc5c57d3af9
•••Tanka: poets.org/glossary/tanka
•••3-Style: a combination of a Koori, a Ganta, and a Shoa (Taylor Graham)
•••Word-Can Poem: putting random words on slips of paper into a can, then drawing out a few and making a poem out of them
•••Zip Ode: https://milkcartonpress.com/?p=347#:~:text=What%20follows%20is%20a%20brief%20overview%20of%20the,of%20words%20in%20each%20line%20of%20the%20poem AND/OR https://www.wlrn.org/write-an-ode-to-your-zip-code


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!
 
 Make what you can of today's
photo, and send your poetic results to

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

* * *

—Illustration 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.

For more about National Poetry Month,
including ways to celebrate, see
https://poets.org/national-poetry-month.

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.
 
Don’t let poetry forms 
stump you!