Antioch, CA
1
Tables of Content
Tables of Content
These words do not fit
In a house made of bottles
She touched my shoulder
With sleep in her hand
* * *
2
Palimpsest
Shall I tell you a story of once or twice upon a time?
An excuse to burn things for beauty?
The children shout.
I hear lullabies.
* * *
3
A High Sulking Fog
Limned upon a marbled page
Many footed lines feast
The foolscap's rough tooth
It galls the oaks to think it
4
So Tell Me But Tell Me So
So Tell Me But Tell Me So
Possessed of a tin ear
and a pornographic memory
I tried to unwrap a dream
I tried to unwrap a dream
but the word got out
* * *
5
listen to the morning open her new eyes
every single star in this sad sky
got tangled up in the trees last night
tripping down ill lit streets
on the tiptoes of my tongue
* * *
6
A Raucous Chorus
sings solfège
behind the cafetorium
and I hear no end of voices
7
Her Thousand Tongues
her thousand tongues beg me to come away
so I close my eyes and walk through walls
that we didn’t know were waiting
* * *
8
This is the tomb of the woodpecker that
was Zeus!
A landscape from a
long-forgotten dream
whispers to the wheeling dark
There is a rabbit on the moon
whispers to the wheeling dark
There is a rabbit on the moon
And an old man with a lantern
* * *
9
My elbows on the checkered oilcloth
remembering my first Orange Julius
a little moiré star that pointed to an adjacent
numerical scale
a song I didn’t know I had forgotten
the taste of my last words
Enraptured
10
All These Houses We Thought Were Dreaming
a thousand times and then one more
street lamp dandelions in the fog
my thoughts wandered off the bus
a stop too soon
* * *
11
Shadow Puppets
She dances ‘til her hair’s aflame
dreams a smile as she dies
cosseted by ghosts
* * *
12
I shaped a golem and brought him to life
I shaped a golem and brought him to life
many blustery years ago
He never had an easy time of it
A little-known fact left a bad taste in his mouth
High Chaparral
13
My Well-Tempered Radio
Look through my eyes
Bassoons and didgeridoos
I thought I knew the name of every thing
* * *
14
Talking Through My Hat
I didn’t see
these noisy roses
throw out the nines
a sixpence song to
hoard a windfall of shadow
* * *
15
from the green room of your dream
leaf-laden heads bent in prayer
to a big blue bag of precious nothings
listen to my flowers sing
__________________
Today’s LittleNip:
If the portraits of our absent friends are pleasant to us, which renew our memory of them and relieve our regret for their absence by a false and empty consolation, how much more pleasant are letters [and poems] which bring us the written characters of the absent friend.
―Héloïse d'Argenteuil, The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse
__________________
Joy in the Kitchen today as Prodigal Poet Robert Lee Haycock returns from who-knows-what journeys. This SnakePal first visited us in 2013 and was a regular contributor of poems and photos. But then… well… people drift away. But now he’s back, with new poems, and I have paired them with some of the first photos of his that were posted ‘way back when. Today we have numbers 1-15 of his “31 Days”, and tomorrow we’ll have numbers 16-31. Thanks, Robert Lee!
__________________
—Medusa
Contra Loma
—Photo by Robert Lee Haycock
—Photo by Robert Lee Haycock
For future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
during the week.
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.
Find previous four-or-so posts by scrolling down
under today; or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column; or find previous poets
by typing the name of the poet or poem
into the little beige box at the top
left-hand side of today’s post; or go to
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom of
the blue column at the right
to find the date you want.
Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
send poetry and/or photos and artwork
to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
during the week.
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.
Find previous four-or-so posts by scrolling down
under today; or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column; or find previous poets
by typing the name of the poet or poem
into the little beige box at the top
left-hand side of today’s post; or go to
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom of
the blue column at the right
to find the date you want.
Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
send poetry and/or photos and artwork
to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
