Placerville, CA
—And then scroll down for
Form Fiddlers’ Friday, with poetry by
Nolcha Fox, Stephen Kingsnorth,
and Joyce Odam
ASSESSMENT
Let’s get out of home’s leftover warmth
of woodstove and winter comforters,
out of the house and onto the trail.
The morning’s brisk and wet
from downpour, a cleansing drench
washing the trail of wanderers.
My dog and I are all alone
with black oaks letting their leaves
go yellow before they fall.
Bigleaf maple’s wearing pale gold
against the dark of forest green
and the canyon’s silent deep.
A single stroke of sun
illuminates tree-of-heaven,
crimson in its autumn glory.
I was OK before we started
on this morning’s trail,
but I’m so much better now.
Let’s get out of home’s leftover warmth
of woodstove and winter comforters,
out of the house and onto the trail.
The morning’s brisk and wet
from downpour, a cleansing drench
washing the trail of wanderers.
My dog and I are all alone
with black oaks letting their leaves
go yellow before they fall.
Bigleaf maple’s wearing pale gold
against the dark of forest green
and the canyon’s silent deep.
A single stroke of sun
illuminates tree-of-heaven,
crimson in its autumn glory.
I was OK before we started
on this morning’s trail,
but I’m so much better now.
NEIGHBORHOOD
for Haley
Mowed trails disappear in wildland
here at our northern edge
and you show me signs that I can’t read,
left by unnamed creatures
and you name them: coyote, fox, bear—
neighbors since long before us.
AUTUMN GIVENS
In these November woods, is it shadow
I crave or the sudden low slant of sun
illuminating for only a blink
what’s hidden in the bramble, blackberries
long gone to summer, vines held together
with thorns? Towhee sings her song of shelter
among those thorns, song of seeds and acorns,
of making do with all that is given.
DISSOLVING SKIES
Our whispering equanimity
of evening eased in color of night
too beautiful, you said, to be real—
the moon, the stars, and a cooling breeze
abruptly gone. Clouds of a black sea
slashed by one tremendous flash of light,
zigzag hieroglyphics cold as steel
and wind’s chaotic gallop through trees.
Rain! Now might the old dry creek run free?
Lightning, and again—a second sight
as if dissolution breaks the seal.
Wind in our face, muddy to the knees—
what a fresh new world the skies reveal
at dawn—for hard work, a new heart’s-ease.
RAINBOW, THUNDER
The birds
flew away,
the clouds in herds
yellow gray
waiting to break free
in rainbow array
and I could see
vultures flown otherwards.
.M. Otis, Le Chien Étonnant
COQUETTE?
If my cat Latches and my dog Otis
(both neutered as young homeless lads)
spoke French, they might admit
to being coquette. They take assiduous
care of themselves, cleaning their
shiny black coats with diligent tongues.
But they speak neither French
nor English, and right now they busy
themselves with their morning toilette—
they’re about to appear in a poem!
___________________
Today’s LittleNip:
CLIMBING UNDER CLOUDED SKY
—Taylor Graham
How tiny the city looks
from these switchback crooks—
vista more real than in books.
____________________
Rain! The skies have opened up for us here in the Sierra foothills, and Taylor Graham has celebrated the occasion this week with her poetry. Our thanks to her, and our thanks for the rain, of course. Forms TG has used this week include a Rimas Dissolutas (“Dissolving Skies”); a Triversen (“Assessment”); a Sijo (“Neighborhood”); a Verselle (“Rainbow, Thunder”); some Blank Verse (“Autumn Givens”); and a Ukiah (“Climbing under Clouded Sky”). The Verselle and the Ukiah were last week’s Triple-F Challenges, and “Coquette” was our recent Seed of the Week.
In El Dorado County’s poetry events this week, Poets of the Sierra Foothills features Stephen Meadows in Camino this Sunday, 2pm. And El Dorado County’s regular workshops are listed on Medusa’s calendar if you scroll down on http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html). For more news about EDC poetry—past (photos!) and future—see Taylor Graham’s Western Slope El Dorado Poetry on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry. (She recently posted some fine poetry and photos from the recent Wakamatsu workshop.) Or see Lara Gularte’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/382234029968077/. And you can always click on Medusa's UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS (http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html). Poetry is Gold in El Dorado County!
Just a note: Deadline for poetry submissions to Song of the San Joaquin is Monday, Dec. 2. Send three poems and a short bio to Jim Shuman at song.poet@global.net/. Info/guidelines: https://www.chaparralpoets.org/SSJsubmissionGuide.html/.
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.)
Check out our recently-refurbed 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 and other ways of poetry. 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 Photo
Last week’s photo inspired Nolcha Fox and Stephen Kingsnorth. One thought it was a chinchilla, and the other thought (like I did) that it was a rabbit:
CHINNY-CHIN
—Nolcha Fox, Buffalo, WY
I hold my pet chinchilla.
She sleeps in my two hands.
I have to leave for somewhere
that won’t take any pets.
I could set her free and let
her burrow where she will.
Or she and I could run away.
My parents are too busy fighting.
They will never care.
* * *
PALM ONE DAY
—Stephen Kingsnorth, Coedpoeth, Wrexham, Wales
Is it for cute, vulnerable,
that such appeals—to some at least?
For opportunity to love
and not to be loved—quest assumed—
more powerful as human draw.
Not so if hungry, rabbit stew—
unless more meat on bone desired—
or those sadistic to inflict
some pain on weaker victim prey,
to maim the helpless, sickness kicks.
And not if vivisection caged,
or dog pack, red dressed food indeed,
though myxomatosis, postwar bar;
the baby rabbit, bunny termed,
endearment from our bedtime reads.
Would this be Bugs, Bunnicula,
a member down from Watership,
in Wonderland, that Alice White,
or Peter with his Flopsy crew,
from Uttley, my stock, Little Grey?
Set Parsley in the Potter mould,
then Roger in his screen debut,
see Harvey in imagined rôle.
or Br’er, tar-tangled, metaphor
for exploitation of the slave?
It’s in our hands, for good or ill
our treatment of these cottontails,
an Easter imprint, cultural;
laid palms may welcome entry time,
but that may turn as weak proceeds?
—Stephen Kingsnorth, Coedpoeth, Wrexham, Wales
Is it for cute, vulnerable,
that such appeals—to some at least?
For opportunity to love
and not to be loved—quest assumed—
more powerful as human draw.
Not so if hungry, rabbit stew—
unless more meat on bone desired—
or those sadistic to inflict
some pain on weaker victim prey,
to maim the helpless, sickness kicks.
And not if vivisection caged,
or dog pack, red dressed food indeed,
though myxomatosis, postwar bar;
the baby rabbit, bunny termed,
endearment from our bedtime reads.
Would this be Bugs, Bunnicula,
a member down from Watership,
in Wonderland, that Alice White,
or Peter with his Flopsy crew,
from Uttley, my stock, Little Grey?
Set Parsley in the Potter mould,
then Roger in his screen debut,
see Harvey in imagined rôle.
or Br’er, tar-tangled, metaphor
for exploitation of the slave?
It’s in our hands, for good or ill
our treatment of these cottontails,
an Easter imprint, cultural;
laid palms may welcome entry time,
but that may turn as weak proceeds?
* * *
Joyce Odam has sent us a Termelay (she doesn't count stars):
Joyce Odam has sent us a Termelay (she doesn't count stars):
ON RECKONING
—Joyce Odam, Sacramento, CA
The stars won't fall.
I knew that once.
I don't count stars.
The sky has nothing to refute.
My idle thoughts. My counted tears.
I don't count stars.
(prev. pub. in Medusa’s Kitchen, 11/20/20)
* * *
And here is an Ars Poetica from Stephen Kingsnorth, as he celebrates those handy synonyms in the poet’s toolbox:
PARALLELISM
—Stephen Kingsnorth
That a comprehensive range
may understand what is read, heard
then synonyms are the major weapon
in this comprehension armoury;
one locution, term, expression, word
may hit target.
The glossary grows, the lexicon enlarges,
the vocabulary expands, stretches, spreads
while mouth mould, muscle deployment
and tongue twist is of added aid.
The wordsmith might become
a worthy wordwright,
coining new mint,
tempting the intuitive,
stimulating by suggestive, siren seeds
the mind's readiness to resolve.
A festival of words.
____________________
Many thanks to today’s writers for their lively contributions! Wouldn’t you like to join them? 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 your results to kathykieth@hotmail.com/. (No deadline.) How about a Sept:
•••Sept: https://poetscollective.org/poetryforms/sept
•••AND/OR Rick’s 32:
•••Rick’s 32: https://poetscollective.org/poetryforms/ricks-32
•••See also the bottom of this post for another challenge, this one an Ekphrastic one.
•••And don’t forget each Tuesday’s Seed of the Week! This week it’s “Embryo”.
____________________
MEDUSA’S FORM FINDER: Links to poetry terms mentioned today:
•••Ars Poetica: www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ars-poetica
•••Blank Verse: literarydevices.net/blank-verse AND/OR www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-what-is-the-difference-between-blank-verse-and-free-verse#quiz-0
•••Ekphrastic Poem: notesofoak.com/discover-literature/ekphrastic-poetry
•••Rick’s 32: https://poetscollective.org/poetryforms/ricks-32
•••Rimas Dissolutas: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/rimas-dissolutas-poetic-form
•••Sept: https://poetscollective.org/poetryforms/sept
•••Sijo: www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/sijo-poetic-form
•••Termelay: poetscollective.org/poetryforms/termelay
•••Triversen: www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/triversen-poetic-form
•••Ukiah: https://poetscollective.org/poetryforms/ukiah
•••Verselle: https://poetscollective.org/poetryforms/varselle
___________________
—Medusa
Make what you can of today's
picture, and send your poetic results to
kathykieth@hotmail.com/. (No deadline.)
* * *
—Photo Courtesy of Public Domain
For info about 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.
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!
