A Weekend Bouquet

Sat/Sun (4/21-22): Sacramento Orchid Society presents its 60th Annual Orchid Show at
Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 6151 H St., Sacramento.
Saturday, 10-5; Sunday, 10-4. Info: www.sacramentoorchids.org or 916-489-3263.

ALONE
—Celia Thaxter

The lilies clustered fair and tall;
I stood outside the garden wall;
I saw her light robe glimmering through
The fragrant evening's dusk and dew.

She stopped above the lilies pale;
Up the clear east the moon did sail;
I saw her bend her lovely head
O'er her rich roses blushing red.

Her slender hand the flowers caressed,
Her touch the unconscious blossoms blessed;
The rose against her perfumed palm
Leaned its soft cheek in blissful calm.

I would have given my soul to be
That rose she touched so tenderly!
I stood alone, outside the gate,
And knew that life was desolate.

_____________________

Drive-by give-away! Send me a poem about flowers (or a photograph or artpiece) by midnight tonight and receive a poetry present. Let's celebrate Earth Day (Sunday) with flowers—so beautiful, so fleeting, like this give-away...


This weekend:

What a huge bouquet of poetry events our area has this weekend! I'm not going to recap every detail of all the readings; see Monday's post for that, or e-mail me. In sum, though:

Tonight (Friday): The Sacramento Poetry Center Writers' Conference begins with a reading tonight; Tim Bellows appears at East-West Bookstore in Sacramento; Tom Goff and Nora Laila Staklis read at Our House Framing & Gallery in El Dorado Hills; Robert Hass and Brenda Hillman read at Copperfield's Books in Santa Rosa; Literature Alive! presents Listening to the Wild, a celebration of Earth Day in Grass Valley [see yesterday's post for details about that one].

Tomorrow (Sat.): Jane Blue reads at McClatchy Library in Sac.; SPC Writers' Conference continues; A Day in April is celebrated at Cache Creek Nature Preserve; Manzanita writers celebrate with a Historical Reading in San Andreas; hardpan contributors read at the Mistlin Gallery in Modesto; Underground Books in Sacramento features He Spit Fire, Random Abiladeze and Indigo Moor. Or, if those aren't enough choices for Saturday, you could attend the "Poetic License" meeting of poets that takes place at Books 'n Bears in El Dorado, 6211-A Main St., 3 PM.

Sunday: The Four Horsemen of the Incredibly Improbable Explanation read for Poets Corner Press in Stockton; Nevada County Poetry Society holds an open mic at Booktown Books and Tomes in Grass Valley.

____________________

Speaking of Jane Blue, she sent us two tips yesterday. One is about Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, a wonderful poet from the center of our state who passed away last week. Jane found her obituary in the Fresno Bee; look it up at http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/42667.html

Jane also reminds us that out-of-print books are best purchased at abebooks.com She says: You will get your book from the independent bookseller themselves, and you won't have to pay Amazon a middleman fee. Don't forget that Jane will be reading at the McClatchy Library at 2 PM tomorrow (22nd St., between U and V), with harp music and refreshments!

_____________________

NOVEMBER NIGHT
—Adelaide Crapsey

Listen...
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees
And fall.


NIGHT WINDS
—Adelaide Crapsey

The old
Old winds that blew
When chaos was, what do
They tell the clattered tree that I
Should weep?


THE WARNING
—Adelaide Crapsey

Just now,
Out of the strange
Still dusk... as strange, as still...
A white moth flew... Why am I grown
So cold?

__________________

One more thing: In Medusa's comment box (which you can read by clicking on the "1 comment" at this bottom of yesterday's post), Darcy Minter of the Western Wildlife Center (I was talking about it and cowboy poetry yesterday) wrote to say Come on up to Elko, Girlfriend! Thanks, Darcy! Medusa is always tickled to make new poetry connections; we see them as a link to all of us poets, NorCal and otherwise. Maybe we should organize a field trip next year.

Today we have female poets; I'll end with a couple of cowgirl poems from Graining the Mare:

RELAPSE
—Audrey Hankins

AA books and Coors cans—
Fresh starts, forgotten vows.
Everything of yours
Wears the "hard-use" brand
Earmarked by neglect.

Through prisms of tears
Somber shadows and fears
I watch you mount
That same old bronc
And know he'll kill you yet.

___________________

AFTER THE FUNERAL
—Doris Bircham

my aunt and I are drinking coffee
with him in his kitchen
it has been five days
since the jaws of life opened
his daughter's new car

he's been working more hours
than usual in his shop
I can see the line
where his welder's cap
creases his brow sadness
hides in the shadows under his eyes

I can cry, he says, not just at night
but any hour of the morning
or afternoon sometimes
there's no way I can stop

it's not until we're driving home
that my aunt says,
men have come a long way
it's okay now for them to cry
and I say, maybe we're the ones
who've travelled enough distance
to let them

______________________

—Medusa (who does her own share of wrangling...)

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)


SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Journals: Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; next deadline is May 15. The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) has gone into the mail; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets 10 (for kids 0-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.

Books/broadsides: April’s releases are SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept, and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker. Both are now available at The Book Collector. SpiralChaps are $8; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com for ordering information.

Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy is also available (free) at The Book Collector (or contact Kathy Kieth). #1 is Ann Menebroker.

Also: Check out the Rattlechaps Chapbook Series page on the rattlesnakepress.com website! We've started generating separate pages for each rattlechapper/spiralchapper; scroll down through the list of books we've published and click on the names that are in red. That should lead you to a separate page for each of them, including photos, bios, poems, contact info—and more to come, once we get them all up and running. Sweet!

Just Buckaroo

GO AND JUST BUCKAROO
—Len Flick

They say with barbed wire came the fall of the West,
I ain't denyin' it's true.
'Cuz there's few places left, in this once empty West,
you can go and just buckaroo.

But you follow a fence and you'll find gate or hole,
and there you can wander on through.
But the days are gone, when you took horse and tack,
and could go and just buckaroo.

For the East runs this land, and they don't understand
about cows or our points of view.
They don't even care if they're playin' square,
or care 'bout some lost buckaroo.

But throw the gate wide, 'cuz I'm still full of pride,
and I'll fight 'em till my life is through.
And out in the West, when they lay me to rest,
I'll go and just buckaroo.

_____________________

Thanks to Taylor and Hatch Graham for reminding me that this is Cowboy Poetry Week! Check out cowboypoetry.com, or go to westernfolklifecenter.org for the goings-on in Elko, NV, which include the museum there and the annual Gathering that takes place in late January. Someday I'll get the courage to go Up the Hill that snowy time of year and see the huge festival of cowboy poets, take part in their humor, their rollicking rhythms, rock-solid storytelling, and brassy attitude. It may not be the kind of poetry you're used to, but it's a vital part of our heritage and our current community, as well. I know several "traditional" writers who also participate in gatherings, have a whole 'nother life as cowboy/girl poets.

While you're exploring, check out cowGIRL poetry, such as the classic Graining the Mare: The Poetry of Ranch Women by Teresa Jordan, editor and photographer, 1994, Gibbs Smith Publisher, Layton, Utah. This book is out of print, but there may be copies available through Amazon and the book may be available from the Western Folklife Center. Modern cowboy poetry has expanded 'way past its traditional rhythms into beautiful, free-verse explorations of what it is for both men and women to live the hard, adventurous life of ranching. Check it out.


A packed weekend in Grass Valley:

•••Tonight (Thursday, 4/19), 7:30 PM: the Nevada County Poetry Series presents Poets Joyce Jenkins, Richard Silberg and Daryl Chinn. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included. The show will be in Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley, CA. For more information call (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384.

•••Tonight and tomorrow (Thursday & Friday, April 19-20): Center for the Arts, Literature Alive!, Tahoe National Forest, and the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools present Inspirations from the Forest [see today's photo for their inspiration], celebrating our beautiful forests and open spaces through the arts. Thursday (4/19) will feature a Reception & Art Show free from 5-7 PM at the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley, 314 West Main St., Grass Valley, and on Friday an Award Ceremony at 6 PM Friday (4/20); and then at 7 PM, Literature Alive! presents Listening to the Wild, its 13th annual Earth Day event, a celebration of nature in poetry and prose, music and dance. This year's event will include dance and choral performances by local students. Writer Kim Culbertson will MC. The Movement Alliance Dance Company will present a spoken word/song/dance piece. Poets and writers honoring the wild include Karla Arens, Kate Dwyer, Charles Entrekin, Gail Entrekin, Patricia Miller, Scott Young and the Inkwell Poets from Bear River and Nevada Union High Schools. $12 for adults, $8 for 17 & under. Art Show continues 4/10 through 5/7, Tue-Sat, Noon-5pm. Presented by: The Center for the Arts In cooperation with Nevada County Superintendent of Schools, Literature Alive! and the Tahoe National Forest. Sponsored by: California Community Forestry Foundation and Tahoe NF Employees.

Heck—go up and spend the weekend! Thursday, go to the reception then to the reading, go to the event Friday, hang out in the woods on Saturday, then Sunday:

••Every Sunday in April, 1-3 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series is celebrating National Poetry Month by holding its annual April open-mic readings at Booktown Books & Tomes. Free at Booktown Books and Tomes, 107 Bank Street (corner of South Auburn) in Grass Valley. For more info, call: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 272-4655.


Plenty to do down here as well, though:

•••Tonight, 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe (1414 16th St., Sac.) features Rattlechapper/SpiralChapper/Reviewer-in-Residence/Interviewer-in-Residence B.L. Kennedy. Info: 916-441-3931 or www.lunascafe.com. Open mic before/after.

_____________________

A 2:00 A.M. CALL
—Rod Nelson

A 2:00 A.M. call is no fun at all
For a rancher who needs his rest.
"To heck with that thing—just let it ring."
Bud wouldn't leave his warm nest.

"But, Bud," Liz cried, "maybe somone has died."
Her voice, though uncertain, was warning.
"Well, Liz," Bud said, "if anyone's dead,
They'll still be dead in the morning!"

_____________________

THE TWO THINGS IN LIFE THAT I REALLY LOVE
—Gary McMahan

There's two things in life
That I really love:
That's women and horses,
This I'm sure of.
So when I die,
Please tan my hide
And tool me into
A saddle so fine.
And give me to a cowgirl
Who likes to ride,
So in the hereafter
I may rest
Between the two things
That I love best.

____________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)


SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Journals: Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; next deadline is May 15. The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) goes out today; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets 10 (for kids 0-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.

Books/broadsides: April’s releases are SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept, and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker. Both are now available at The Book Collector. SpiralChaps are $8; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com for ordering information.

Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy is also available (free) at The Book Collector (or contact Kathy Kieth). #1 is Ann Menebroker.

Also: Check out the Rattlechaps Chapbook Series page on the rattlesnakepress.com website! We've started generating separate pages for each rattlechapper/spiralchapper; scroll down through the list of books we've published and click on the names that are in red. That should lead you to a separate page for each of them, including photos, bios, poems, contact info—and more to come, once we get them all up and running. Sweet!

Teriyaki Rattlesnake, Indeed!

Friends at Seal Rock
Tom Goff and Nora Laila Staklis

UNDER YOU
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

Full moon, full golden moon,
you will not stay for your drenching
in horizon smog, but rise
like Agamemnon, dominus
empty of blood.

You surmount Mount Diablo’s
panic-inflicting summit.
You float without drift
in the river’s creased sheet,
a mirror for Eugene O’Neill,
hazel white to complement
his blue, his green. Our dogs

howl twice their noise under
you. Under you, we lie down for sleep
—but no: moonfloods of sweat,
distress, conscious nightmare.

If asked about our lives,
or anyone’s, you tighten your scroll
a quarter turn darker. Insisted at
by the waves you govern, you enigma
your lips, insinuate the odd crater
into light.

__________________

VOICES OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS SPEAKING ABOUT THE SADDAM FEDAYEEN
(a found poem transcribed from a cnn.com video clip on March 28, 2003)
—Nora Laila Staklis, Carmichael

Sgt. Paul Wheatley
U.S. Army 7th Cavalry
“It’s unreal.
It’s unimaginable.
You are constantly almost paranoid or
You ARE paranoid about
Every turn or every building
Or every person,
And it’s a little nerve racking at times.”

Lance Cpl. Joshua Menard
2nd Batallion 8th Marines
“We were surprised.
We were told
When we were going through Nasariya
That we should see little or no
Resistance.
It was a whole different ball game.
They weren’t rolling over like we thought they would.”

Sgt. Charles Horgan
U.S. Army 30th Infantry Regiment
“I thought
O my God
I am going to die.
I thought no,
I am going to lose my legs,
Gonna hit the truck.”

(published in Poets Against War (online) and The River Speaks from Poet’s Corner Press)

__________________

Thanks, Tom and Nora! Tom Goff and Nora Laila Staklis will be reading this Friday (4/20) at 7 PM in El Dorado Hills at Our House Gallery and Framing. Our House is located at 4510 Post St. in El Dorado Hills Town Center; from Sacramento, take the Latrobe exit south (right) off Hwy. 50 and then turn left into the shopping center. There is no charge; an open mic follows.


Congrats!

Rattlechapper (Skin Stretched Around the Hollow) Steve Williams writes from Portland: We are announcing some great news. Our web site, wildpoetryforum.com has just been named in Writer's Digest as one of the best 101 websites for writers. In fact, our site was only 1 of 4 shown in the poetry category. Writer's Digest hasn't updated their web site yet, but the list is in the June issue on the newstand... we are very happy!!!


Speaking of Happy Endings:

Saturday, April 28, 9 AM-4 PM/$65. We'll write to a 'happy ending': consider the meanings and reverberations of happiness, and discuss the structure and potential for stories, short and long. For all levels. Enjoy a lunch-break walk in the woods behind the studio. Contact Donna Hanelin at donna@creativewritingclasses.us


More about the Historic Reading this Sat. in San Andreas:

Monika Rose, Manzanita Editor, writes: You are invited to a fantastic literary reading April 21 up at the Calaveras County Historic Museum in and Courthouse in San Andreas (30 Main Street) from 2-5 PM. Come dressed in historic fashion if you like. Bring an excerpt of your favorite historic writer's work to share and/or bring your own work to read. Or just come to listen. It will be a wonderful melding of past and present literature and folklore. There will be an open mic for the public. If you would like to sign up as a participant, please e-mail me (mrosemanza@jps.net) and let me know ASAP. This is a nonprofit fundraiser to benefit the literary arts in the Mother Lode and Sierra region. Contact Phone: 209-754-0577. Museum phone: 209-754-4658. Arts Council gallery: 209-754-1774
COST: $8.00 suggested donation for adults, $4.00 children under 12. Includes Museum fee.

Writers Unlimited and Calaveras County Historical Society will present the re-enactment of the Sentencing of Black Bart in the Calaveras County Historic Courthouse, located in the historic museum, featuring Glenn Wasson as Black Bart (aka Charles Bolton, the notorious poetic highwayman and robber of stages in the Mother Lode), and Ted Laskin as the judge who brought Bolton to justice. People might have missed this event the first time around, as it occurred in the latter 1800s, but this rare opportunity to see it again is offered Saturday, April 21, at 2:00 P.M.

In addition, famous and not so famous literary figures will come back to life briefly. Black Bart (Glenn Wasson), Bret Harte (Ted Laskin), Mark Twain (Ed Cline), Ambrose Bierce (Dave Self), and John Muir (Daniel Williams) will showcase excerpts from their famous, or infamous, works. Juanita (first woman hanged in the West) aka Jackie Richmond, will be there to share her woes. Emily Dickinson’s (Sherry Snyder) presence is rumored, if promoters can get her out of her room and onto a train. Other minor figures may also appear, including the Lady Theresa Avonmore (Monika Rose) who adored John Muir and wrote a romance novel featuring Muir as the hero. And it is highly likely there might be some indiscreet courtroom scene reminiscent of the 1850s, so bring a hat to hold onto—although hats may have to be removed when the judge is present, but boots should definitely stay on.

Manzanita writers from Northern California featured in volume 5, released in the Fall, will be there to read some of their work, as will invited guests and writers in the region.

The public and participants are encouraged to dress in historic garb from the 1800s to turn-of-the-century clothing, or Calaveras Western and/or rural or dressy cultural clothing to celebrate our historic rustic past and rich California history. There will be an open Mic for public reading. Audience members are invited and will be prodded and even encouraged to come up and read a historic story of the Mother Lode, recite a poem (original or a favorite poet's), or to tell a humorous or wildly suspenseful story of modern-day Mother Lode life. The public is invited to bring a crazy adventure story of the area and share it with the audience. (No indecent stories, as children may be present.) Public figures are invited to share their wild experiences (modern or historic) to add to the rollicking climate (there will be cameras and videotaping).

The public is invited to visit the historic museum (it opens at 10 AM) before the reading to renew an appreciation for the rich historic past of the area. The $8.00 suggested donation for the event includes the Calaveras County Museum entrance fee, which is discounted for this event ($2.50). Delectable refreshments will be provided for audience imbibing, including unusual empanada-like objects, elk sticks, and many delicious pastoral and bucolic treats (Teriyaki rattlesnake will not be featured, unfortunately, due to unpopular demand [well, Medusa is certainly glad to hear that!]). Beverages will not be enhanced as children will be present, but expected libations should satisfy thirsty patrons.


Universal Table:

Universal Table is calling for submissions on the themes of “Illness and Grace” and “Terror and Transformation”. Stories, poems, personal essays for two anthologies; deadline is May 1. Stories/essays to 5,000 words; poems 1-5 pages. Payment in copies. Submit electronically as Word or RTF attachments to: wisingup@universaltable.org. Submissions also featured on website:
www.universaltable.org

__________________

tonight
—charles bukowski

"your poems about the girls will still be around
50 years from now when the girls are gone,"
my editor phones me.

dear editor:
the girls appear to be gone
already.
I know what you mean

but give me one truly alive woman
tonight
walking across the floor toward me

and you can have all the poems

the good ones
the bad ones
or any that I might write
after this one.

I know what you mean.

do you know what I mean?

_________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)


SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Journals: Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; next deadline is May 15. The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) will be out this week; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets 10 (for kids 0-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.

Books/broadsides: April’s releases are SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept, and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker. Both are now available at The Book Collector. SpiralChaps are $8; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com for ordering information.

Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy is also available (free) at The Book Collector (or contact Kathy Kieth). #1 is Ann Menebroker.

Also: check out the Rattlechaps Chapbook Series page on the rattlesnakepress.com website! We've started generating separate pages for each rattlechapper/spiralchapper; scroll down through the list of books we've published and click on the names that are in red. That should lead you to a separate page for each of them, including photos, bios, poems, contact info—and more to come, once we get them all up and running. Sweet!

Sand

Tom Myers

SONNETS OF THE SEA
—Tom Myers, Modesto

a young boy
bends forward
shaved head bowed
smooth brown face
eyes closed
folded hands rest
on crossed legs
short-sleeved robe
tucked underneath

bathed in light
a sea shell lies
before him
his breath slows
drops off
a feather falling
he bends closer
and listens
listens to
sonnets of the sea
ebb and flow of tides
songs of salt, sand
and silence

_________________

Thanks, Tom! Tom Myers is one of the many fine poets who live in Modesto. He has taught elementary school for 31 years, and four to six weeks each year in his classes are devoted to appreciation and writing of poetry. Many of his third-grade students have been published in Snakelets, the Rattlesnake Press journal of poetry from kids 0-12 years old [next deadline is May 1!]. Tom belongs to a Modesto writing group that meets monthly, and his poems have been published in Modesto Poets Corner, Rattlesnake Review, Quercus Review and hardpan. He loves the outdoors—camping, hiking, and wildlife viewing, and he says early morning walks with his dog are a favorite activity. Tom also enjoys cooking AND eating. He is married, with three daughters.

Modesto produces at least two fine poetry journals: Song of the San Joaquin, and hardpan. This Saturday (4/21), from 4-5 PM, The Central California Art Association and the Mistlin Art Gallery will hold a poetry reading at the Gallery, 1015 J St., Downtown Modesto. This reading will be a celebration of the third edition of hardpan, a journal of poetry that is published in Modesto by Lost Cow Press. Editors (and rattlechappers) debee loyd & Karen Baker will be introducing contributors to read their work from this uniquely regional poetry journal. The public is welcome; a modest donation to the gallery will be accepted. Info: Gordon Preston at 209-523-8916.

__________________

Cache Creek Workshop:

Ray Gourirand, Writer-in-Residence at Cache Creek Nature Preserve writes: SUSTAINABILITY AND INSPIRATION at Cache Creek Nature Preserve: I find myself thinking increasingly about what it means for an artist to teach in the long term, and what might be gained by connecting one’s solo practice directly to group exchange at the genesis of creative work. What I want to know is how inspiration can be lived (and shared) more sustainably. We’ll use this workshop to figure some of it out by way of organic discussions and exercises that derive from the creative practice of participants. While we’ll center this as a writing workshop (there will be readings and exercises, though that may not be all there will be), it’ll be open to anyone who practices a creative art, and responses to the workshop can take any creative form. The details of the workshop will depend on the real inspirations of participants, which means that we might end up focusing on anything else as much as we focus on sustainability as a concept. This workshop will run for twelve weeks beginning May 3rd, from 10 AM – noon, at Cache Creek Nature Preserve in northwest Woodland, and is offered free to the public thanks to the support of CCNP and the Teichert Foundation. To register, email me directly with your name, email address, and phone number (if you need directions, just ask when you email me to register).

And don't forget the Cache Creek celebration this weekend: A Day in April, 12-3 PM: a creative retreat at Cache Creek Nature Preserve, open to everyone in honor of Earth Day. See yesterday's post for details.


Some prizes dangling out in front of us:

•••Nimrod/Harden Awards Competition deadline is April 30. Enter the Nimrod/Hardman Awards competition for two annual awards given by Nimrod International Journal. The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry offer first prizes of $2,000 and second prizes of $1,000, along with publication of the winning stories and poems, and a trip to Tulsa to receive the awards and take part in our annual writing workshop. Past winners include Sue Monk Kidd, Kate Small, Diane Glancy, Steve Lautermilch, Ellen Bass, Thomas Gough, Ruth Schwartz, and Sarah Flygare. Past judges for the Awards include Marvin Bell, Mark Doty, Janette Turner Hospital, Stanley Kunitz, W. S. Merwin, Pattiann Rogers, William Stafford, Ron Carlson, Edward Hirsch, and John Edgar Wideman. Contact us if you have any questions, or visit our website— www.utulsa.edu/nimrod —to learn more about Nimrod.

•••15th Annual Writer’s Digest Int’l Self-Published Book Awards deadline is May 1. Win $3,000 in cash, gain national exposure for your book, and catch the attention of prospective editors and publishers. Writer's Digest is searching for the best self-published books of the past few years. Whether you're a professional writer, part-time freelancer, or a self-starting student, here's your chance to enter the only competition exclusively for self-published books. Categories include:

* Mainstream/Literary Fiction
* Genre Fiction
* Nonfiction
* Inspirational (Spiritual, New Age)
* Life Stories (Biographies, Autobiographies, Family Histories, Memoirs)
* Children's Picture books
* Middle-Grade/Young Adult books
* Reference Books (Directories, Encyclopedias, Guide Books)
* Poetry

•••Call for Submissions: The Virginia Brendemuehl Poetry Prize: Deadline is July 31. $1,000.00 plus publication. Send 1-3 unpublished poems, SASE, and $10.00 entry fee to Virginia Brendemuehl Prize, Rock & Sling, P.O. Box 30865, Spokane, WA 99223. Finalists will also be published; notification September 1. No simultaneous submissions, please. Details at www.rockandsling.org. Info:

Laurie Klein, Consulting Editor
Rock & Sling: A Journal of Literature, Art and Faith
P. O. Box 30865
Spokane, WA 99223
www.rockandsling.org
editors@rockandsling.org

•••Soul-Making Literary Competition, deadline November 30. Cash prize awards [though I don’t see how much…] for:

Creative Non-fiction Prize (up to 3000 words)
Kate Braverman Short Story Prize (up to 5000 words)
Young Adult Poetry Prize Writers grades 9-12 (3 poems, 1 poem per page)
Flash Fiction Prize (three stories, up to 500 words)
Joanna Catherine Scott Novel Excerpt Prize (send 1st 20 pages. Include 1 page synopsis of your novel in progress, not yet published)
Prose Poem Prize (3 prose poems per entry)
Linda Joy Myers Memoir Prize (up to 3000 words)
Tara L. Masih Intercultural Essay Prize (up to 6000 words)
Janice Farrell Poetry Prize (3 poems per entry, 1 poem per page)
Rosalie Fleming Humor Prize (any form, 2500 words or less)

All entries must be typed, titled and category must be indicated on mss. No tear sheets. All prose works must be double-spaced, including page numbers, and paper-clipped. Do not put your name on mss; instead, enclose one 3x5 card typed, labeled or clearly printed with your name, address, phone, fax, e-mail. Entries will not be accepted by e-mail. No mss. will be returned. Please included SASE if you wish to receive contest results. Readings will take place at: Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, Civic Center.

Mail entries to : The Webhallow House, 1544 Sweetwood Drive, Broadmoor Vlg. CA, 94015-2029
Questions: PenNobHill@aol.com
For more details: www.soulmakingcontest.us

__________________

RECEPTION
—Tom Myers

he rests on tired sofa
saggy brown Naugahyde
covers worn bony springs
Jay Leno show moans on
fuzzy lack and white TV
he glances out window
cars splash slushy snow
headlights disappear
into gray wool, his
gaze crawls back to
Doritos commercial
words words...

he stands up, shuts off TV
walks into dingy kitchen
hum of the refrigerator
drones on and on
he opens icebox door
dim 25-watt bulb flickers
then flutters bright
bare racks stare back
he grabs last beer, gazes
out at falling snow
white shower curtain
seals off city
smothers night

_________________

AFTERMATH
—Tom Myers

the desert storm
rushes through the arroyo
raging water pushes
rush, sticks, and leaves
high on the banks
deposits swirled silt
wispy chiffon scarf

I imagine Aunt Eloise
yellow scarf frames
white powdered face
and smeared red lipstick
from sloppy kisses
sitting in a drunken stupor
words slurred sand
slipping away

later, shallow footprints
line the ditch
elongated pads
think delicate fingers
raccoon's calling card
fleeting
fading

_________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)


SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Journals: Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; next deadline is May 15. The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) will be out this week; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets 10 (for kids 0-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.

Books/broadsides: April’s releases are SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept, and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker. Both are now available at The Book Collector. SpiralChaps are $8; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com for ordering information.

Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy is also available (free) at The Book Collector (or contact Kathy Kieth). #1 is Ann Menebroker.

Also: check out the Rattlechaps Chapbook Series page on the rattlesnakepress.com website! We've started generating separate pages for each rattlechapper/spiralchapper; scroll down through the list of books we've published and click on the names that are in red. That should lead you to a separate page for each of them, including photos, bios, poems, contact info—and more to come, once we get them all up and running. Sweet!

Hog Wild

BLUENESS
—D.H. Lawrence

Out of the darkness, fretted sometimes in its sleeping,
Jets of sparks in fountains of blue come leaping
To sight, revealing a secret, numberless secrets keeping.

Sometimes the darkness trapped within a wheel
Runs into speed like a dream, the blue of the steel
Showing the rocking darkness now a-reel.

And out of the invisible, streams of bright blue drops
Rain from the showery heavens, and bright blue crops
Of flowers surge from below to their ladder-tops.

And all the manifold blue, amazing eyes,
The rainbow arching over in the skies,
New sparks of wonder opening in surprise:

All these pure things come foam and spray of the sea
Of Darkness abundant, which shaken mysteriously
Breaks into dazzle of living, as dolphins leap from the sea
Of midnight and shake it to fire, till the flame of the shadow we see.

___________________

A week that’s hog wild with poetry:

The kids at the top of this page are glutton-izing themselves on NorCal poetry this week, especially next weekend:

•••Monday (4/16), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents its 2007 High School Contest winners. Tonight’s reading will be in “The Space” on R Street just east of 25th St. in Sacramento. It’s in the same complex, but around the corner from HQ for the Arts. Next Monday (4/23) features Peter Grandbois.

•••Also Monday (4/16), 7 PM: California Poet Laureate Al Young will visit Nevada City as part of his "Top to Bottom" tour of the Golden State. The visit corresponds with National Poetry and National Library month in April, and the tour is focused on California's rural areas. Like all culture, poetry travels where people often can't or don't, said Young. The object of this tour is not so much to bring poetry to California's artistically vibrant communities but, rather, to bring out inspire and cheer the poetic impulse, which is human. Young will be reading his work, along with local poets Bill Gainer and Gail Entrekin, at the Madelyn Helling Library, 980 Helling Way (just outside downtown Nevada City). Admission is free. For more information, please call (530) 265-7050. Funding for these local poets is provided by the California Office of Poets and Writers, a national service organization. Young's selection of poetry will be derived from past and current works: Heaven; The Sound of Dreams Remembered; and Coastal Nights and Inland Afternoons. He will also be reading from brand-new works, including some poetry from his new book, Something About the Blues, which will be released in October 2007.

•••Thursday (4/19), 7:30 PM: the Nevada County Poetry Series presents Poets Joyce Jenkins, Richard Silberg and Daryl Chinn. Bill Gainer says, Editor, publisher, teacher, writer, poet and more—there is nothing left out when Joyce Jenkins, Richard Silberg and Daryl Chinn enter the building. They are major, long-time contributors to the West Coast literary scene. It is a very special gift to have them bring their talents to our stage. These are the shoulders the aspiring need to lean against. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included. The show will be in Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley, CA. For more information call (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384.

•••Also Thursday (4/19), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe (1414 16th St., Sac.) features Rattlechapper/SpiralChapper/Reviewer-in-Residence/Interviewer-in-Residence B.L. Kennedy. Info: 916-441-3931 or www.lunascafe.com. Open mic before/after.

•••Friday (4/20) and Saturday (4/21): SPC Writers’ Conference 2007. All events take place at 1719 25th St. in Sacramento. There will be a reading and reception Friday night, April 20th beginning at 7 PM, featuring Heather Hutcheson, Andy Jones, Danny Romero, & Brad Henderson. Saturday, April 21, from 8:30 AM to 4 PM will be a series of workshops with Andy Jones, Brad Henderson, Gail Entrekin, Camille Norton, Heather Hutcheson, Tim Kahl, Sac City Ethnic Theatre Workshop, Danny Romero, and Angela Dee Alforque, and the day will close with a reading and celebration. See your April Poetry Now for more details. The fees are $25 for SPC members and $35 for non-members. Make checks payable to SPC and mail to SPC Writers’ Conference, 1719 25th St., Sacramento, CA 95814. An entry form is printed in your April Poetry Now.

•••Also Friday (4/20), 7 PM: Our House Poetry Reading features Tom Goff and Nora Laila Staklis. An open mic follows. Our House Gallery & Framing is located at 4510 Post St. in El Dorado Hills Town Center; from Sacramento, take the Latrobe exit south (right) and then turn left into the shopping center. There is no charge.

•••Also Friday (4/20), 7-9 PM: East-West Bookstore presents "Catching Rumi’s Vision: Secrets of Transforming Your Life", featuring Tim Bellows, MFA, poet and college teacher, photographer and writer. Tim offers this workshop to open your heart to love, your actual pathway Home. Small-group discussion—video excerpts—key words from the Persian’s poetry for your actual practice, plus excerpts from Tim’s published writings. (Free book of Tim’s photographs & poems included—in gratitude.) East-West Bookstore is located near the intersection of Howe Avenue and Fair Oaks in Sacramento. $15. Info:
http://www.eastwestbooks.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp?s=storeevents&eventId=341326

•••Also Friday (4/20) in Santa Rosa, 7 PM: The WordTemple Poetry Series presents Robert Hass and Brenda Hillman at Copperfield’s Books in Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa. Robert Hass, Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997, is the author of many books of poetry including Field Guide, Praise, Human Wishes and Sun Under Wood. He is also the author of Twentieth Century Pleasures, essays on poetry, and the editor of Selected Poems: 1954-1986 by Thomas Transtromer; The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa; and Poet's Choice: Poems for Everyday Life. He is the founder of River of Words, an organization that promotes environmental and arts education. Hass is a professor of English at UC Berkeley. Brenda Hillman has published seven collections of poetry, including Pieces of Air in the Epic, Cascadia, Bright Existence, and Loose Sugar, among others. She edited an edition of Emily Dickinson's poetry for Shambhala Publications and, with Patricia Dienstfrey, co-edited The Grand Permission: New Writings on Poetics and Motherhood. Hillman's numerous awards include the 2005 William Carlos Williams Prize for Poetry and Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She in on the faculty of St. Mary's College in Moraga and is a member of the permanent faculty of Napa Valley Writers' Conference and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Copperfield's Books will be providing refreshments for this special event. Come early, grab and seat and enjoy! The bookstore will be reserving seats for "ticket holders;" people who have purchased books by Hass and/or Hillman can receive tickets at the Copperfield's counter. However, all WordTemple events are free.

•••Also Saturday (4/21), 2 PM: Jane Blue reads at the McClatchy Library, 22nd St. in Sacramento between U and V Sts. Free.

•••Also Saturday (4/21), 12-3 PM: A Day in April: a creative retreat at Cache Creek Nature Preserve, open to everyone in honor of Earth Day. All writers, visual artists, photographers, musicians, dancers, yogis, hikers, families, and other enthused parties of all ages are welcomed to a remarkable nature preserve that is home to abundant wildlife and beautiful vistas. Artists in all veins can enjoy time and space to develop new work, wanderers can enjoy nature trails, and all can expect interesting conversations, beautiful sights, and new connections. Bring whatever you need to enjoy your retreat: a yoga mat, a camera, musical instruments, notebooks, field guides, your friends and family, or just your awareness: the day is yours to enjoy your own celebration of creativity. This event is being hosted by the CCNP Writer-in-Residence program (Ray Gourirand). Directions: CCNP is located in northwest Woodland, CA. Take Highway 16 west for 3.4 miles from the intersection of Main Street and Road 98 in Woodland. Bear right onto Road 22 when 16 splits, pass the cemetery on your right, and make the first right onto Road 94B (near the Yolo Country Fliers Club). One mile later, turn left on Road 20. The Preserve is 0.4 miles down on the left, directly across from the Woodland Stallion Station. Signs will direct you. View a map at www.cacheconserv.org, or call (530) 661-1070 with questions. Carpool if you can!

•••Also Saturday (4/21), 2-5 PM: Historical reading at Historic Courthouse and Museum of Calaveras County in San Andreas. Come dressed as your favorite literary figure of the 1800s...to turn of the century. Read a piece from the writer's work and then read your own. $8 entrance fee includes museum fee, refreshments, art opening, and reading. Nonprofit event. Proceeds assist writers and artist future events and publications. [More about this event later in the week.]

•••Also Saturday (4/21), 4-5 PM: The Central California Art Association and the Mistlin Art Gallery announces a poetry reading at the Gallery, 1015 J St., Downtown Modesto. The reading will be a celebration of the third edition of hardpan, a journal of poetry that is published locally by Lost Cow Press. Editors (and rattlechappers) debee loyd & Karen Baker will be introducing contributors to read their work from this uniquely regional poetry journal. The public is welcome; a modest donation to the gallery will be accepted. Info: Gordon Preston at 209-523-8916.

•••Saturday (4/21), 7-9 PM: Underground Poetry Series features open mic. $3. Underground Books, 2814 35th St. (35th & Broadway), Sacramento. Info: www.terrymoore.info

•••Every Sunday in April, 1-3 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series is celebrating National Poetry Month by holding its annual April open-mic readings at Booktown Books & Tomes. Bill Gainer says, This year we again had the opportunity to partner with Booktown to be part the largest literary celebration in the world and we jumped on it! What better place to showcase National Poetry Month than the community's largest independent, co-operative bookstore? It is a great location and a great venue. The place is alive with poetry! Everyone is invited to bring a friend and a poem and be part of the largest annual literary celebration in the world! Booktown is a fun, safe and often enchanting place to spend a Sunday afternoon in April. Free at Booktown Books and Tomes, 107 Bank Street (corner of South Auburn) in Grass Valley. For more info, call: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 272-4655. Then, when you get back from that:

•••Sunday (4/22), 7 PM: Poets Corner presents The Four Horsemen of the Entirely Improbable Explanation (Pacific Professors & one Former Dean of Students Gil Schedler, Doug Tedards, Bill Barr and S. Clement Anderson), followed by open mic at Barnes & Noble, Stockton Weberstown Mall at the corner of March Lane and Pacific Avenue, Stockton. Info: poetscornerpress.com

Is that enough poetry for you? Maybe you just want to clear your head after all those words, so why not go to the Orchid Show?

•••Sat/Sun (4/21-22): Sacramento Orchid Society presents its 60th Annual Orchid Show at Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 6151 H St., Sacramento (across from CSUS). [I know, I know, it’s not poetry per se, but if you’ve never been to an orchid show, check it out and give yourself a treat of smells and sights and textures. Surely you will be inspired to more great poetry!] Saturday, 10-5; Sunday, 10-4. I’m sure there must be an admission price, but it’s not listed in the release. Info: www.sacramentoorchids.org or 916-489-3263.

___________________

In between poetry events this week, be sure to stop in a La Raza Galeria Posada (1022-1024 22nd St., Sacramento) to see the display of some of the 400 postcards generated by Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor’s postcard project. See also the Saturday, April 14 issue of The Sacramento Bee, Metro section, for a detailed article about Julia and the project.

It’s not that we’re not grateful for poetry publicity such as Julia’s article, but where is The Bee posting all the local poetry events now? There used to be listings in Friday and Sunday Ticket sections, but now we’re lucky to get one event in there. Something needs to be done about this. Don’t they know that this is one of the most vibrant poetry communities in the nation?

__________________

NONENTITY
—D.H. Lawrence

The stars that open and shut
Fall on my shallow breast
Like stars on a pool.

The soft wind, blowing cool,
Laps little crest after crest
Of ripples across my breast.

And dark grass under my feet
Seems to dabble in me
Like grass in a brook.

Oh, and it is sweet
To be all these things, not to be
Any more myself.

For look,
I am weary of myself!

__________________

HISTORY
—D.H. Lawrence

The listless beauty of the hour
When snow fell on the apple-trees
And the wood-ash gathered in the fire
And we faced our first miseries.

Then the sweeping sunshine of noon
When the mountains like chariot cars
Were ranked to blue battle—and you and I
Counted our scars.

And then in a strange, grey hour
We lay mouth to mouth, with your face
Under mine like a star on the lake,
And I covered the earth, and all space.

The silent, drifting hours
Of morn after morn
And night drifting up to the night
Yet no pathway worn.

Your life, and mine, my love
Passing on and on, the hate
Fusing closer and closer with love
Till at length they mate.

__________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)


SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Journals: Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; next deadline is May 15. The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) will be out this week; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets 10 (for kids 0-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.

Books/broadsides: April’s release is SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept, and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker. Both are now available at The Book Collector. SpiralChaps are $8; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com for ordering information.

Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy is also available (free) at The Book Collector (or contact Kathy Kieth). #1 is Ann Menebroker.

Also: check out the Rattlechaps Chapbook Series page on the rattlesnakepress.com website! We've started generating separate pages for each rattlechapper/spiralchapper; scroll down through the list of books we've published and click on the names that are in red. That should lead you to a separate page for each of them, including photos, bios, poems, contact info—and more to come, once we get them all up and running. Sweet!

Our Bravery in the Face of It

Photo by Jane Blue

THE NEST
—Jane Blue, Sacramento

Every missive from my sister is a weather report.
But how are you, really?

The sky is busy catching the sun's rays
on its castled clouds, hiding and revealing the sun.

Lichen-encrusted limbs on the sidewalk,
a nest cast out of a tree, half done or half undone.

What am I? Half done or half undone?

Ash-blond grasses streaked with a little gray
are wound into the walls of a basket, or a chignon.

It seems a robin's nest, or an attempt at one,
with just a twig at the bottom where there should be mud.

The robin, liking water, shores up a tight little ship.
We all have a good bit of mud

woven into our lives, to remind us
of what we've weathered. Did the nest cushion

two or three little robin's-egg-blue ovals last year,
or was it just a failure in the stormy spring?

She thinks sometimes that her life is a failure.
No life is a failure, it is life. Think of your bravery

in the face of it. Eye-blue forget-me-nots
look up from the lawns. Yellow oxalis—a weed

covers empty lots like sunshine. We are weeds,
my dear, like turf daisies and dandelions

and the pale lavender stars of wild onions just beginning.


(from Turf Daisies and Dandelions, Rattlesnake Press 2006)

_______________________

Thanks, Jane! Jane Blue will be reading next Saturday, April 21 at 2 PM at the McClatchy Library on 22nd Street in Sacramento (between U and V Sts.). For more about Jane and her poetry, go to rattlesnakepress.com and find her new page in the Rattlechaps section.

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)


SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Journals: Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; next deadline is May 15. The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) will be out the week of April 16; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets #10 (for kids 0-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.

Books/broadsides: April’s releases are SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept, and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker. Both are now available at The Book Collector. SpiralChaps are $8; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com for ordering information. Coming in May: Playing Favorites by Ron Tranquilla; littlesnake broadside by Julie Valin; Rattlesnake Interview Series #2 by B.L. Kennedy: Malik.

Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy is now available (free) at The Book Collector (or contact Kathy Kieth). #1 is Ann Menebroker.

Also: check out the Rattlechaps Chapbook Series page on the rattlesnakepress.com website! We've started generating separate pages for each rattlechapper/spiralchapper; scroll down through the list of books we've published and click on the names that are in red. That should lead you to a separate page for each of them, including photos, bios, poems, contact info—and more to come, once we get them all up and running. Sweet!

Luck, Blind & Otherwise

JUROR NUMBER FIVE

indulges us with fortune cookies,
small luxury from the Panda Express
where he beams down on guests
when he isn’t sitting here with us
listening to a fragment
of the world’s misfortune, some-
body’s run-out luck testified
and cross-examined, minced
yet finer on redirect.

Does our fellow juror bow, ever so
slightly, as he holds out this fortune
cookie wrapped in cellophane,
which I accept? Thin wafer pinched
together at the seams, baked
till golden. Is there truth inside?
I ask. He only shrugs. A fortune
cookie, sweet and fragile as
good luck.

—Taylor Graham, Somerset

_______________________

Thanks, TG! Taylor Graham, Steph Schaefer and James Lee Jobe caught the one-day giveaway offer in the middle of yesterday's post and sent me poems about luck, in honor of Friday the 13th. Thanks to all three of you; poetry presents will be winging your way. I've decided to start doing these little one-day, "drive-by" giveaways, so keep yer peepers peeled.

And be sure to check The Sacramento Bee Metro section today for a huge article on Julia Connor and her Poet Laureate postcard project.


This weekend:

•••Saturday: CSU Sacramento Festival of the Arts continues through Saturday, featuring plays, art, music and more. 6000 J St., Sacramento. Info: 916-278-4323.

•••Sunday (4/15), 7-8 PM: California Poet Laureate Al Young reads in CSU, Chico in the Performing Arts Center, Room 134. A reception in his honor will be held after the reading. The AS Bookstore will offer books for sale at this event. The reading is free and open to the public. Earlier that day, at 3:30 PM, he will appear at Lyon Books in Chico.

•••Every Sunday in April, 1-3 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series is celebrating National Poetry Month by holding its annual April open-mic readings at Booktown Books & Tomes. Bill Gainer says, This year we again had the opportunity to partner with Booktown to be part the largest literary celebration in the world and we jumped on it! What better place to showcase National Poetry Month than the community's largest independent, co-operative bookstore? It is a great location and a great venue. The place is alive with poetry! Everyone is invited to bring a friend and a poem and be part of the largest annual literary celebration in the world! Booktown is a fun, safe and often enchanting place to spend a Sunday afternoon in April. Free at Booktown Books and Tomes, 107 Bank Street (corner of South Auburn) in Grass Valley. For more info, call: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 272-4655.


Rappin' with Wordsworth:

Mary Zeppa sent around an e-address that is, to say the least, interesting. Check it out: http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2054284,00.html

_______________________

TRUSTING TO BLIND LUCK
—Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos

you hear about
the wrecks the rapes the wrath the waste
you wake with the uneasy feeling
you might have been there

there's the bitter taste of bile on your tongue
and the only thing to fix it
is the burn of raw whiskey going down

each time
the black curtain drops sooner and longer

________________________

TOUR GUIDE
—James Lee Jobe, Davis

"If I were your tour guide I sure wouldn't bring you this way,"
said the man wearing the dirty badge marked INFORMATION.
"Nothing happens here. The wind eats the very skin from our bones,
we breathe winter breaths on the cold windows and write messages
in the wet fog. The brittle glass doesn't remember what we write."
"What about pretty girls, fun, stuff like that?" He doesn't answer
for a long time, finishes his fat cigarette first; it's brown and smells
of the 1970s. Time passes. Finally, as southbound geese pass
overhead, he offers, "No girls, no fun, no such luck. A decent tour guide
wouldn't even bring you this way." "Where, then?" "Baltimore, maybe.
Yeah, or Wilmington. Might be fun there." Years later,
I knew for sure that Wilmington wasn't any fun either.

_______________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)


SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Journals: Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; next deadline is May 15. The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) will be out the week of April 16; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets #10 (for kids 0-12) is available; next deadline is May 1.

Books/broadsides: April’s releases are SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept, and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker. Both are now available at The Book Collector. SpiralChaps are $8; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com for ordering information. Coming in May: Playing Favorites by Ron Tranquilla; littlesnake broadside by Julie Valin; Rattlesnake Interview Series #2 by B.L. Kennedy: Malik.

Something new: Rattlesnake Interview Series with B.L. Kennedy is now available (free) at The Book Collector (or contact Kathy Kieth). #1 is Ann Menebroker.

Also: check out the Rattlechaps Chapbook Series page on the rattlesnakepress.com website! We've started generating separate pages for each rattlechapper/spiralchapper; scroll down through the list of books we've published and click on the names that are in red. That should lead you to a separate page for each of them, including photos, bios, poems, contact info—and more to come, once we get them all up and running. Sweet!