Somewhere, Daffodils~

 

—Poetry and Photos by Taylor Graham,
Placerville, CA
—And then scroll down to
Form Fiddlers’ Friday, for poetry by

Stephen Kingsnorth, Nolcha Fox, 

Tejendra Sherchan, and Caschwa

—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of Medusa 

CORNU ASPERSUM   

So rudely deported from your
cool damp sheltered maze of alleys-
as-you-find-them, paths on mossy patches
of randomly heaped cordwood waiting
to be hauled to woodshed behind
the house, innocent snail—
I’m sorry I evicted you, not expecting
to find a snail among the firewood.
Cold-blooded creature, you’ll freeze
unsheltered in February, another storm
coming. Daffodils aren’t blooming
yet, just short green spears pushing up
through frost. Where shall I put you now?

 

 

 

 

FEBRUARY BLOOMS

You want yellow daffodils? I’ll give you
brittelstems in gold and bronze, in a bed
of emerald grass and crystal dew. No,
I think fungi don’t fit well in a vase.

 

 

 

 

 

BETWEEN STORMS   

The world is washed & scoured, it’s thundered,
lightning’d, everything’s bright this morning
for still more rain. Nature’s jubilant.
On bare oak branches, lichen opens
its pale green pores, and berry brambles
winter-dead are red as life-blood thorn’d.
Somewhere daffodils may be blooming,
the patient heron blue-gray as sky.

 

 

 

 
INSIDE THE GALLERY
After Portrait of South Fork by Fab Sowa

Where does water stop and sky begin?
This wash in imperceptible
gradations of gray into black—birds
in silhouette, how can they fly,
their songs so full of wet?
And the closer trees clinging
to their banks, farther ridges eroding
in mist, high points softening,
contours relenting
into hill and hollow in time
becoming waterway replacing this
present river filled up with sand
and soil. A picture in a gallery
not far from home, where today
our small seasonal creek
is emulating art, washing its banks
with a fearsome brush.

 

 

 

 

UPROOTED

So hard for an immigrant child—
this small sapling transplanted
from southland to its new home,
our hope for the future of oaks
in time of climate change.

Can it survive without its native
soil, its bed under comforters
of familial leaves merging
with earth, cozy as a patchwork
quilt passed down generations?

 

 

 

 

TRAINING DAY FOR OTIS   

You’d think him destitute of friends
and human contact—his countenance a droop-
face clown waiting for me to let him out
of the car. It’s been two whole weeks since
he saw our training partner. There
she is! He goes haywire, leaping, wrapping
his foreleg like a human arm around her,
not quite knocking her down.
She’s prepared for this, she knows him.
She’s set up a training problem, a tough one,
for him. She knows he’ll have her
exclaiming Bravo! when he solves it.

 

 

 

Today’s LittleNip:

OLD AS HER TYPEWRITER
—Taylor Graham

She sat at her old typewriter
urban verse composing—
singing of keys slighter,
her drowsy muse dozing.

_________________

Somewhere, daffodils are blooming—we’re all impatient for the season, and Taylor Graham has written about impatience today, including Otis’s impatience for training school. Our thanks to TG for fine poems and photos! Forms she has used include an Ekphrastic poem (“Inside the Gallery”); some Blank Verse (“February Blooms”); our Irish Decnad Mor challenge (“Old as her Typewriter”); some Normative Syllabics that are also Medusa's Ekphrastic challenge from last week (“Between Storms”); and a Word-Can Poem (“Training Day for Otis”).

In El Dorado County’s poetry events this week, Poets and Writers of the Sierra Foothills features the launch of a chapbook, The Way Back, by Mike Owens, presented by Bob Stanley in Camino on Sunday, 2pm. Plus, 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 these events and about EDC poetry—past (photos!) and future—see Taylor Graham’s Western Slope El Dorado Poetry on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry/.  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!  
 
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

Poets who sent responses to last week’s Ekphrastic photo included Stephen Kingsnorth, and Nolcha Fox:


MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE
—Stephen Kingsnorth, Coedpoeth, Wrexham, Wales

In atmosphere, pollutant free,
we like our lichen stuck by scree,
as much as lichen, stitchery,
attached as patches to that tree.
A life form draped as ragged swag,
promoting freebie, from thin air,
sustained by moisture all around,
with many species branching out.

Where water rests before it drains,
the grey-green granite itself glazed,
concavities with propagules,
but pinprick deep in fissures, pits.
No roots, leaves, flowers to make their mark,
though rock tripe ruffles, brown through green
have known to stretch a two foot spread,
with tattered thallus, scrap like suede.

Both fungus, alga, two in one,
but also partners, other plants,
these symbiotic valentines,
in marriage of convenience.
With rhizines, prickly holding on,
a coal black hairpiece, lichen style,
admire these guardians of our air,
barometer of purity.

* * *

Nolcha Fox was a bit confused by the photo, so she wrote about her new bras, instead—which is fine. There are no rules about Ekphrastic responses; they shall not be confined to an exact replication of the photo. (Later she said they were cross-your-heart-bras...)


DISAPPOINTING MY BRAS
—Nolcha Fox, Buffalo, WY

Welcome to your first wash, ladies.
Don’t expect the special treatment
you asked for on your tags.
Warm water wash went out in the 80s.
Unless you’re a towel. Which you aren’t.
It’s cold water, even in the winter freeze.
You can shiver like everyone else.
You can fray around the edges like me.
You’re no more special than the rest of us.
We’re all just trying to get by.

* * *

Here are some short poems from Newcomer Tejendra Sherchan of Kathmandu, Nepal. Watch for more from Tejendra in days to come:

 

 

Tailorbird

far below Venus
the waxing crescent moon
hopes to catch it fallen

* * *

winter morning
a tailorbird's hopping
takes away my illness

* * *
 
marigolds
so unfazed to outlive
the winter


* * *


Caschwa (Carl Schwartz) say he “borrowed just the syllable count from the Dechnad Mor, and broke all the other rules”:

 

 

 

 PROUDLY OLD SCHOOL
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA

my desktop holds a digital
Personal Computer
and close by I keep a set of
nice Paper Calendars

Found out by trial and error
that when I entered a
calendar notation on my
personal computer,

for example to preheat my
oven before cooking
a special meal, made me subject
to having Google send

a gang of telemarketers
to flood my digital
PC with ads for expensive
kitchen remodeling

instead, I make a notation
on paper calendar,
the whole communication stays
private between me and

the calendar, and I don’t need
to spend any money
on a subscription for programs
that will block out those ads

* * *

Carl was very productive this week. Here he has a Complaint Poem for us:

 

 

 
THEN AND NOW
—Caschwa

this is what streaming was, before
marketing agents assigned higher
salaries to ball players and other
entertainment workers than to our
first responders who save lives

“Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming . . .”

* * *

A List Poem:

 

 

 

THEY MADE A FEW CHANGES SINCE
MY LAST VOCABULARY TEST
—Caschwa

Aberrant
Bogus
Corrupt
Dirty
Eavesdrop
Forgery
Grift
Heist (forget about i before e, except after c)
Insurrection
Junk
KKK
Loaded (like a firearm, not a Pez dispenser)
Misconduct
Nuisance
Outlaw
Pry
Questionable
Rigged
Sham
Tyranny
Usury
Vendetta
Woke
X-rated
Yokel
Zealot

* * *

And a Monorhyme poem named Zita (Seeker):

 

 

 

 ZITA
—Caschwa

this poem seeks to:
cover your head in the rain
explore the scenery in Maine
drive you batty, totally insane
shelter your life from the pain
take you away to another plane
entitle you to use the HOV lane
hoist up your ego on a shaky crane
remove weight to leave room for gain
double-check correct spelling of feign
unlock your cage, but leave you on chain

____________________

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.) Here’s another Irish form, the Snam Suad:

•••Snam Suad: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/snam-suad-poetic-forms

•••AND/OR follow Caschwa’s lead with a Monorhyme:

•••Monorhyme: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/monorhyme.html

•••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 “Too Expensive”.

____________________

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

•••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
•••Complaint: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/complaint
•••Decnad Mor: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/dechnad-mor-poetic-forms
•••Ekphrastic Poem: notesofoak.com/discover-literature/ekphrastic-poetry
•••Haiku: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/haiku-or-hokku AND/OR www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/haiku/haiku.html
•••List Poem: clpe.org.uk/poetryline/poeticforms/list-poem
•••Monorhyme: www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/monorhyme.html
•••Normative Syllabics: hellopoetry.com/collection/108/normative-syllabic-free-verse AND/OR lewisturco.typepad.com/poetics/normative-syllabic-verse
•••Snam Suad: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/snam-suad-poetic-forms
•••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
 
__________________

—Medusa

 

 

 

  Today's Ekphrastic Challenge!
 
 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 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.

Poets’ bios appear on their first MK visit.
To find previous posts, type the name
of the poet (or poem) into the little
beige box at the top left-hand side
of this column. See also
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom
of the blue column on the right
side of this column to find
any date you want.

Miss a post?
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scrolling down under this daily one.
Or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column.
(Please excuse typos in older posts!
Blogspot has been through a lot of
incarnations in 20 years!)

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!