Big Nasties

THE BIG NASTURTIUMS
—Robert Beverly Hale

All of a sudden the big nasturtiums
Rose in the night from the ocean's bed,
Rested a while in the light of the morning,
Turning the sand dunes tiger red.

They covered the statue of Abraham Lincoln,
They climbed to the top of our church's spire.
"Grandpa! Grandpa! Come to the window!
Come to the window! Our world's on fire!"

Big nasturtiums in the High Sierras,
Big nasturtiums in the lands below;
Our trains are late and our planes have fallen,
And out in the ocean the whistles blow.

Over the fields and over the forests,
Over the living and over the dead—
"I never expected the big nasturtiums
To come in my lifetime!" Grandpa said.

_____________________

And you'll never find a finer poem about Big Nasties, I bet! No nasturtium poems in the new Rattlesnake Review, though—but that's just about the ONLY thing it doesn't have. Final count: 74 pages of poetry, artwork, photos, articles, plus the usual cryptogram, Sam Kieth art and other tasty ophidian fare... Bring your pack animals to carry the weight and come see us Weds. night at The Book Collector to pick up your copy!


This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight (Monday, 6/18), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Luke Breit and José Montoya at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. [See last Saturday's post for bios of these fine poets.] Next Monday's SPC reading (6/25) will feature Modesto's editors of the journal, Hardpan, including rattlechappers debee loyd and Karen Baker.

•••Wednesday (6/20), 7:30 PM: Rattlesnake Press is proud to present a new chapbook by Sacramento Poet Tom Miner, entitled North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a brand-new littlesnake broadside from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, entitled Cominciare Adagio, and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one a conversation with Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Not to mention the hefty Rattlesnake Review #14! Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

•••Also Wed. (6/20), 7 PM: Writers of the New Sun / Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol presents Rosa Martha Villarreal introducing The Stillness of Love & Exile (Tertulia Press), her contemporary novel of a spirited Mexican woman’s escape from entrapment in a loveless and abusive marriage. The author, a local teacher and writer, follows Lilia’s escape from a wrathful Mexican drug lord to a rural Mexican town where a series of events that started in Medieval Spain come to fruition, leading Lilia to her final journey of love and magic. Rose is the co-founder of Tertulia Press, an online magazine dedicated to the tradition of independent, non-ideological discourse through art and written word. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022-1024 22nd St., Midtown Sacramento, 916-446-5133. Rosa will answer questions about her writing and publication process. Her novel is available for sale. No charge for this event. You may contact her at: (916) 543-9364 or (916) 367-1167. For more information about Los Escritores call Graciela Ramirez at 916- 456-5323; website is http://escritoresdelnuevosol.com/

•••Thursday (6/21), 7:30 PM, Poetry Unplugged presents another Six Ft. Swells Book Release Party at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, wherein Six Ft. Swells Press presents the release of the third chapbook in their Cheap Shots Poetry Series: Cocktails & Confessions: A Collection of Poetry Inspired by Lust and Libations. Free. Special guests include Ann Menebroker, Matt Amott, Todd Cirillo, Luke Warm Water, Gene Bloom, Barbara Noble and, bringing up the/her rear, Kathy Kieth—plus others too numerous to mention! Info: (530) 271-0662.

THIS JUST IN: Todd Cirillo informs me that B.L. Kennedy has been inadvertently left off earlier publicity for the 6FSwells release party, and that he will definitely be reading. Todd says: "Todd Cirillo would not read if BL Kennedy was unavailable to read; it is important to observe mastery of the poet on stage."

•••Also Thursday (6/21), 7:30 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series presents Terry Moore and Theresa McCourt at the Off Center Stage, (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street), at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Terry Moore is the "Sounds of Soul" Black Music Awards' 2005 Best Male Spoken Word Performer and 2001 Poet of the Year and in 2002 was nominated for its Entertainer of the Year Award. He has worked with The Temptations, CeCe Winans, Lalah Hathaway, Maya Angelou and many others. Terry is the author of 15 poetry books and 7 spoken word CDs. He has appeared on the world-famous Showtime at the Apollo, been nominated by the Los Angeles Black Music Awards for its "2004 Best Spoken Word Performer" and is a Twelve-time Slam Champion. He is a founder and member of spoken word group Born 2B Poets and a member of the 2003 and 2004 Sacramento National Slam Team. Check him out at http://www.terrymoore.info/. Theresa McCourt is a transplant from Manchester, England. She has a B.A. in English Literature and Drama from Birmingham, England, and an M.A. in English Literature from CSU Sacramento. She worked for the California Legislature for five years and ran her own business, Capital Wordplay, for the next eleven. While in business, she taught writing and wrote freelance articles for national and local magazines and newspapers, including an eight-year run as a biweekly columnist for The Sacramento Bee. April 27 of this year, she was selected to participate in the 2007 Artist Residency Institute, funded by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. In January 2007, she won a first place in the Maggi H. Meyer Memorial Contest, and in Fall 2006, a first in the Ina Coolbrith contest. Credits include mamazine.com, Poetry Now, The Sacramento News and Review, Rattlesnake Review, Song of the San Joaquin, Toyon, and Night and Day. To read a sample of her work, go to http://www.poetsonline.org. Click on archives, then on Marginalia/Billy Collins (September 2006). For more information about the reading, call (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384. $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open mic included. For map: http://offcenterstage.org/

•••Saturday (6/23), 7:30 PM: The Book Collector presents Unheimlich Theater: Antonin Artaud and his dopplegangers. Unheimlich Theater re-emerges from the Bardo state to inseminate a new myth of Chaos, Anarchy, and Lucid Unreason. Unheimlich is here not to raise consciousness, but to release the tide of the Uncanny, to break out the underside of Pandora's hoary box and release the likes of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Poe, Hoffmann, Holderline, Michaux, and especially Antonin Artaud order to undermine a society that has allowed psychology & technology to be on a first-name basis with the creation of its imperious culture. We invite you to the first performance of Antonin Artaud and His Dopplegangers. That’s at The Book collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento (between J and K Sts.). Info: 916-442-9295 or www.poems-for-all.com.

•••Sunday (6/24), Open mic at 6, program at 7 PM: Borders Books in Stockton (10776 Trinity Parkway, just off Eight Mile Road) presents Marie Ross. [See the new Snake14 for a sample of Marie’s poetry.]

_____________________

A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT
—J.R. Pope

O what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!
But when we've practiced quite a while
How vastly we improve our style!

____________________

SONNET FOUND IN A DESERTED MADHOUSE
—Anonymous

Oh that my soul a marrow-bone might seize!
For the old egg of my desire is broken,
Spilled is the pearly white and spilled the yolk, and
As the mild Melancholy contents grease
My path, the shorn lamb baas like bumblebees.
Time's trashy purse is as a taken token
Or like a thrilling recitation, spoken
By mournful mouths filled full of mirth and cheese.

And yet, why should I clasp the earthful urn?
Or find the frittered fig that felt the fast?
Or choose to chase the cheese around the churn?
Or swallow any pill from out the past?
Ah no, Love, not while your hot kisses burn
Like a potato riding on the blast.

____________________

THE SHORTEST POEM IN THE WORLD
—Eli Seigel

I
Why?

____________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review13 is available at The Book Collector; RR14 will be out June 20. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is now available at The Book Collector; next deadline is 10/1.

Books/broadsides: May's releases are Grass Valley Poet Ron Tranquilla’s Playing Favorites: Selected Poems, 1971-2006, plus a littlesnake broadside by Julie Valin (Still Life With Sun) and a Rattlesnake Interview Broadside (#2) featuring Khiry Malik Moore and B.L. Kennedy. All are now available at The Book Collector. Rattlechaps are $5; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com or rattlesnakepress.com for ordering information.

Next rattle-read: Rattlesnake Press will present Sacramento Poet Tom Miner at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, June 20 from 7:30-9 PM to celebrate the release of his new chapbook, North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a new littlesnake broadside (Cominciare Adagio) from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, plus #3 in the Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. More info: kathykieth@hotmail.com/ NOTE: For June, and for June only, our monthly Rattlesnake reading will be on the THIRD Weds. instead of the second one. And there will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August.

Gifts

The Buttes
Photo by Rhony Bhopla

THE INFLUENCE OF COLORS ON THE SOUL
—Rhony Bhopla, Sacramento

Blisters of yellow roses
pressed against
the window

A pink photo album
containing images of
my father

A blue god
chiming a surprise anthem
of memories

The dull gray morning paper
against the chestnut settee

An unfolded mustard-yellow
blanket
—left caressing the arms
of a chair

Green grass behind
smiling faces
of tomorrow.

______________________

THE GIFT
—Li-Young Lee

To pull the metal splinter from my palm
my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he'd removed
the iron sliver I thought I'd die from.

I can't remember the tale,
but hear his voice still, a well
of dark water, a prayer.
And I recall his hands,
two measures of tenderness
he laid against my face,
the flames of discipline
he raised aove my head.

Had you entered that afternoon
you would have thought you saw a man
planting something in a boy's palm,
a silver tear, a tiny flame.
Had you followed that boy
you would have arrived here,
where I bend over my wife's right hand.

Look how I shave her thumbnail down
so carefully she feels no pain.
Watch as I lift the splinter out.
I was seven when my father
took my hand like this,
and I did not hold that shard
between my fingers and think,
Metal that will bury me,
christen it Little Assassin,
Ore Going Deep for My Heart.
And I did not lift up my wound and cry,
Death visited here!
I did what a child does
when he's given something to keep.
I kissed my father.

______________________

—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.)

Austere and Lonely Offices

David Humphreys

MY SON'S BIRTHDAY
—David Humphreys, Stockton

Remembering such a time of pride and joy.
Look at him, now tall and fine, taking you
straight back in a bright lightning to your

own wedding day waltz with your new bride;
one two three, one two three, swung round
and round. A traffic torrent rushes, sizzles

in the rain-soaked street outside. Rosin on cello
bow, reed in oiled woodwind, the world whirls
in galaxy tempest. The world sighs in sifting sand,

whispers a nuzzling fur of comfort and affirmation.
Courage bristles a scimitar thorn. Ash billows.
Thunder rumbles kettle drums and cymbals crash.

And if he is suddenly taken away as he might so easily
be by some hit-and-run or soldier’s finishing truth of
honor, I will fold up these imaginary wings and become

my next dark shadow, tunnel-digger mole of retribution.
I will rain rage upon mine enemies. Beware.

_______________________

Thanks, David! David Humphreys will be releasing his new littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio, this coming Wednesday, June 20 at The Book Collector at 7:30 PM. Come hear him and all the other luminaries who will be joining us that night, besides picking up the free poet-phernalia which will be available. See yesterday's post for more details.

David's broadside about his father who passed away is particularly germaine to today's deadline for the latest Medusa giveaway: Send me poems about dads, wry, sentimental, disgusted, or otherwise, and I'll send you a rattlechap of your choosing. Send poems, photos and whatever seems relevant—or not—to kathykieth@hotmail.com by midnight on Saturday, June 16 (that's tonight!) or snail 'em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Don't forget: Medusa accepts previously-published poems and photos; just be sure to credit them.


Calendar additions:

•••Sunday (6/17), 2 PM: Jason's Cafe in Booktown Books in Grass Valley features Kirsten Casey, Judy Crowe, Betsy Fasbinder, Valerie Kack, Marina Sanford and Jaime Young. Info: gailentrekin@hotmail.com

•••Monday (6/18), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Luke Breit and José Montoya at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Luke Breit is the author of Words the Air Speaks [1978] by Wilderness Poetry Press; Messages: New & Selected Poets [1987] by QED Press; Unintended Lessons [1998] by QED Press, and the novel, The Tumultuous Times of Jesus Christ in the 21st Century. He has more than three decades of experience as a consultant to winning campaigns and legislative solution. Luke is also the Chair of the Environmental Caucus of the California Democratic Party. [http://www.environmentalcaucus.org/]. He is also currently a Reverend, performing marriages in the Sacramento region. José Montoya is one of the most influential Chicano bilingual poets. He is a founding member of the Royal Chicano Air Force, an artists' group that is internationally-recognized for its mural and poster work. He has published many well-known poems in anthologies and magazines. He served as Sacramento’s Poet Laureate from 2003 to 2004.


Or run away with the pirates:

Tall ships, live music, historic pirate characters, nautical-inspired crafts, kids' entertainment, games, costume contests, treasure hunts, sword-fighting and ship-to-shore cannon battles will be taking place in Vallejo this weekend at Vallejo Waterfront Park, 289 Mare Island Way, Vallejo. Free! Saturday 10 AM-dusk, Sunday 10 AM-6 PM. Info: 866-921-9277.


Speaking of pirates:

Next Thursday (6/21), 7:30 PM, Poetry Unplugged presents another Six Ft. Swells Press Book Release Party at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, wherein Six Ft. Swells Press presents the release of the third chapbook in their Cheap Shots Poetry Series: Cocktails & Confessions: A Collection of Poetry Inspired by Lust and Libations. Free. Special guests include Ann Menebroker, Matt Amott, Todd Cirillo, Luke Warm Water, Gene Bloom, Barbara Noble and, bringing up the/her rear, Kathy Kieth—plus others too numerous to mention! Info: (530) 271-0662.

_____________________

TWO POEMS AND A REFLECTION**
—Anyssa Neumann, Germany

I. "HE SPEAKS IN YOUR VOICE, AMERICAN"

I understand
my father
more
after reading DeLillo's account
of Bobby Thomson's 1951 homer
than I ever did
living in the same house
for 18 years

How could I have been
so blind?

II. "AND THERE'S A SHINE IN HIS EYE THAT'S HALFWAY HOPEFUL"

At my age,
23,
my father had already survived
the bug-infested
snake-swarmed
lonely
damp
dangerous
jungles
of Vietnam

What right have I
to give up?

(*The titles, combined, are the first sentence of DeLillo's novel,
Underworld.)

**In the cool pallid summer dusk,
I saw my dad weep over his dad
and realized that someday
I'll be the one in the twilight,
weeping

____________________

Thanks, Anyssa! Anyssa Neumann also reminds us of this wonderful Dad poem by Robert Hayden, who is, like ex-Sacramentan-now-so-far-away Anyssa, not-so-local:

THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS
—Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?

______________________

Finally, my apologies to Tom Miner, who I captioned under his picture yesterday as Tim Miner. My 7 AM eyes ain't what they used to be. Serves me right for using 9-pt. fonts...

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review13 is available at The Book Collector; RR14 will be out June 20. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is now available at The Book Collector; next deadline is 10/1.

Books/broadsides: May's releases are Grass Valley Poet Ron Tranquilla’s Playing Favorites: Selected Poems, 1971-2006, plus a littlesnake broadside by Julie Valin (Still Life With Sun) and a Rattlesnake Interview Broadside (#2) featuring Khiry Malik Moore and B.L. Kennedy. All are now available at The Book Collector. Rattlechaps are $5; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com or rattlesnakepress.com for ordering information.

Next rattle-read: Rattlesnake Press will present Sacramento Poet Tom Miner at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, June 20 from 7:30-9 PM to celebrate the release of his new chapbook, North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a new littlesnake broadside (Cominciare Adagio) from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, plus #3 in the Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. More info: kathykieth@hotmail.com/ NOTE: For June, and for June only, our monthly Rattlesnake reading will be on the THIRD Weds. instead of the second one. And there will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August.

Snake-Zilla & the Dad-a-Thon

Tom Miner, Sacramento

ALONE IN THE MOUNTAINS
(for Michael Pease)
—Tom Miner, Sacramento

Sun loiters behind sugar pines,
tossing feathery stripes on the cabin
as one last grasshopper flits from the gravel
dragging its raspy whisper of winter
through the crisp air of dusk.

Inside, on the kitchen counter,
four narrow trout I landed
this morning from the bone-cold
Feather River lie ready for the grill.
A ragged stack of newly split oak
nestles beside the wood stove.

On the deck, nursing my first amber ale,
I tease splinters from my fingers
while overhead fat wasps pulse
against the shingles, drawn
by the pools of warmth
that linger under the eaves.

To the east, the moon pokes
its forehead over the crest of Bear Mountain,
a single cloud sweeping the darkening sky.

______________________

Thanks, Tom! Rattlesnake Press is proud to present a new chapbook by Sacramento Poet Tom Miner, entitled North of Everything. Tom will be featured at a reading at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, this coming Wednesday, June 20, at 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. Also featured that night will be a brand-new littlesnake broadside from Stocton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, entitled Cominciare Adagio, and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one a conversation with Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Not to mention, Rattlesnake Review #14! (Did I mention it was 72 pages long.....?!?)

Feed the Tiger!

Don't forget that Tiger's Eye: A Journal of Poetry is having a blog contest, and the deadline is June 30. This one is for formal poetry only. Send your sestinas, sonnets, villanelles, haibun, haiku—you choose the form, but no free verse. There will be three winners, each receiving the latest copy of Tiger's Eye. Send 3 poems e-mail only to: tigerseyetracks@yahoo.com/ The first place winner will also receive a surprise! Visit http://tigerseyepoet.blogspot.com/ for a sample of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry.


This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight (Fri., 6/15), 7:30 pm: Writers of the New Sun/Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol presents Araceli Collazo. The multi-talented Araceli has performed in Northern California, in Texas and in Mexico. Through words and music, in both Spanish and English, her performance is intensely riveting, yet touched by humor and vulnerability, and accessible to all. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022-1024 22nd Street, Midtown Sacramento, 916-446-5133 or call Graciela Ramirez, 916-456-5323. Los Escritores’ website is http://escritoresdelnuevosol.com/. Cost: $5 or as you can afford.

•••Also tonight, 7 PM: Our House Gallery and Framing presents "Visions and Views"—poetry, drama, musical improvisation with spoken word, featuring poets Susan and Joseph Finkleman, who will be joined by Sharon McCorkell on percussion and Francesca Reitano on flute. An open mic follows. There is no charge. Our House is located at 4510 Post St. in El Dorado Hills Town Center; from Sacramento, take the Latrobe exit south for a block and then turn left into the shopping center. The gallery is on the northern end. The Finklemans are the authors of SpiralChap #6, Poems in Two Voices, from Rattlesnake Press. Read more about them on their website: www.visionsandviews.com

•••Also tonight, 6:30 PM, 1078 Gallery in Chico: Ramekon O'Arwisters will read from his manuscript, In My Truth: Sugar on my Tail, a compilation of poems and autobiography about living in Kernersville, North Carolina in the 1960’s. Recent poems from the collection addressing a range of taboo topics will be included in the reading. O'Arwisters, a San Francisco artist, creates altered women's handbags that are stand-ins for racial, sexual, and political prejudice. His writing was featured in "The Hard Edge of Existence: A Black Gay Sex (& Love) Show" directed by Cedric Brown and performed at the Thick House in San Francisco. His work was published in Paper-Thin/Soul Deep: A Collection of Personal Letters and Journal Entries of African American Men, published by Vantage Press, New York in 2002, the James White Review in 1998, and You’re a Star at MECCA: Highlights of the Open Mic Reading Series at A Different Light Bookstore in San Francisco in 1999. His public readings include the Black Coalition on AIDS (BCA), Audre and Langston Salon in 2006, and Intersection For The Arts 40th Anniversary Block Party in 2005, both sponsored by Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement (B/LGAM). This is a vital additiion to Chico’s gay pride events.

•••Saturday (6/16), 2 PM: Kim Culbertson will be reading in Grass Valley from her new teen novel, Songs for a Teenage Nomad, which will be released this month from Hip Pocket Press. The reading/book signing/party will be held at the Off Center Stage behind the Center for the Arts, Grass Valley, and is sponsored by Literature Alive! Tickets are $10 at local book stores (and at the door, if available) and the proceeds will be used to keep Inkwell, the Grass Valley high school poetry program, up and running.

•••Also Saturday (6/16), 7-9 PM: Underground Poetry Series presents Glen Stovall & The Stovall Singers and Black Men Expressing Love poem tour, plus open mic. Underground Books, 2814 35th St., Sacramento (35th & Broadway). Info: www.terrymoore.info

•••Also Saturday (6/16) from 11 AM to 6 PM, don't miss the Juneteenth Talent Show at Sacramento's 6th Annual "Juneteenth in the Shade." Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is an annual holiday in 14 of the United States. Celebrated on June 19, it commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas. This year, join the parade of exciting events taking place Saturday in William Land Park, located at 1401 Sutterville Road in Sacramento (across from Sacramento City College), including the Juneteenth Poetry Jam: Catch some of Northern California's BEST poets performing live Black History and inspirational pieces. This will be the biggest poetry jam explosion in years, if not ever, in Sacramento. Poets appear Saturday, 4-5 PM—ONE HOUR OF POWER!!!!! [See last Wednesday's post for more info.]


Dad-a-Thon Continues:

A big thank-you to those who have responded so far to Medusa's Dad Poem Giveaway. Send me poems about dads: wry, sentimental, disgusted, or otherwise, and I'll send you a rattlechap of your choosing. Send photos, too! Dad's Day is Sunday; let's give 'em a proper send-up. Send poems and whatever to kathykieth@hotmail.com by midnight on Saturday, June 16 (that's tomorrow!) or snail 'em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA. Don't forget: Medusa accepts previously-published poems and photos.

Here are some more Dad poems, this first one by Jane Blue. A conversation with Jane is featured in Rattlesnake Interview Series #3, which will premiere next Weds., June 20:


HOW I KNOW MY FATHER IN OBJECTS
—Jane Blue, Sacramento


1.

A paperweight on my desk, marbled stone
with veins of white running through gray

reminds me of my father, heavy egg, oh
how can I say the color: Blue-gray. Slate-gray.

In every document I’ve found of him, my father’s
eyes are a different color, gray or hazel or brown.

There must have been a time he was just a man
and not a stone egg to be cracked.

Turned and polished in a tumbler, to sit on my desk.
Balanced, as it wouldn’t be in nature.

As he never was, my cipher father, egg
of a father, imagined father.


2.

Among my mother’s things, I’ve found
my father’s spoon, his initials and the year of his birth.

Tucked in with it another spoon—
his mother’s, I guess, from the initials.

Each spoon with identical little dents in the bowl.
An Aladdin’s lamp floats, it seems, on a lily pad

elaborate in the handle, and other flowers, a silver
curtain pulled back from the monogram.

and rabbits, I think, and geese ...
it is so hard to see ... it is so hard to see.

(Previously published in Perihelion and The Persistence of Vision by Jane Blue, Poet's Corner Press, 2003)

_____________________

BOUQUET
—Patricia A. Pashby, Sacramento

as he enters
the hospital room
she can smell
the stale wine
hear the slurred greeting

she holds up
the wrinkled newborn
fifth baby
third in three years

when he leaves
she drops the flowers
on the sterile sheets
watered by her tears

______________________

ORION’S DAUGHTER
—Katy Brown, Davis

Against the claret sky,
in a branch of eucalyptus —
a torn scrap of mist —
lifted by the night wind.

This darkness sings with
crickets and mockingbirds.
Snapping dry leaves and twigs
release a medicinal scent.

I walk in shadows under a gibbous moon.
Betelgeuse winks between the branches:
the watchful star — marked
by my father, years ago,

on the shoulder of Orion.
I hold out my palm —
the weight of starlight
heavy as the years.

_____________________

Thanks, Jane, Pat and Katy!

Did I mention that RR14 (Snake-zilla) is 72 pages long? Bring your wheelbarrow to pick one up. Be sure to come to the reading next Weds. to get your copy (wheelbarrow or not) and find out:

•••What happened directly after Ewenice died;
•••Why Mary Mackey chose to study Russian;
•••What the heck is a Triversen Stanza;
•••What Josh Fernandez does when things get boring;
•••How Tom Goff and his wife courted the rash.

______________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; RR #14 will be out June 20. Next deadline, for RR #15, is August 15. VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets #10 (for kids 0-12) is now available at The Book Collector; next deadline is 10/1.

Books/broadsides: May's releases are Grass Valley Poet Ron Tranquilla’s Playing Favorites: Selected Poems, 1971-2006, plus a littlesnake broadside by Julie Valin (Still Life With Sun) and a Rattlesnake Interview Broadside (#2) featuring Khiry Malik Moore and B.L. Kennedy. All are now available at The Book Collector. Rattlechaps are $5; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com or rattlesnakepress.com for ordering information.

Next rattle-read: Rattlesnake Press will present Sacramento Poet Tom Miner at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, June 20 from 7:30-9 PM to celebrate the release of his new chapbook, North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a new littlesnake broadside (Cominciare Adagio) from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, plus #3 in the Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. More info: kathykieth@hotmail.com/ NOTE: For June, and for June only, our monthly Rattlesnake reading will be on the THIRD Weds. instead of the second one. And there will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August.

Knee-Deep & Other Body Parts

GHOST
—James Lee Jobe, Davis

My father's ghost has long arms
And a short memory. He reaches
From a dark place for the shards
Of glass I keep hidden in my heart.
And he never asks permission.

______________________


NOTICE MY SON, WILLIAM, HE MOVES
—James Lee Jobe, Davis

Notice my son, William, he moves
In realms of light. A golden balloon
About him, he knows many small joys,
Cricket catching, water spraying
At fountains, drawing octopuses
With big goofy grins, and arms
That wave hello; his pastimes.

William is five years old; his embrace
Is a lifeline, a parachute, needed rain
That saves the village. He runs wild
Across my crabgrass, toward
Adventures new and imagined, he is
Rapture! Each day is his first,
Night is his mystery and blanket.

And I am his father.

______________________

Thanks, James Lee Jobe, for the Dad poems! And thank you to those who have responded so far to the Dad Poem Giveaway: send me poems about dads: wry, sentimental, disgusted, or otherwise, and I'll send you a rattlechap of your choosing. Photos, too! Dad's Day is Sunday; let's give 'em a proper send-up. Send poems and whatever to kathykieth@hotmail.com by midnight on Saturday, June 16, or snail 'em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA.


Tonight:

•••Thursday (6/14), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Featured reader, plus open mic before and after.


72 pages!!

I'm telling people I'm knee-deep in Snakes these days—well, that isn't exactly the body part I've been using... This issue of Rattlesnake Review is coming out at a whopping 72 pages!!! Yikes! That's 30% bigger than ever before. It's full of poetry, photos, articles and reviews, including the continuation of B.L. Kennedy's interview of D.R. Wagner; a new interview of Mary Mackey (whose new novel, The Notorious Mrs. Winston, about a woman who fights as a soldier in the Civil War, has just been released); Margaret Ellis Hill's description of her in-person visit with Mary Oliver; plus our usual writers-in-residence and their wonderful columns. PLUS—we hit the Mother Lode! Manzanita's Monika Rose has sent us a description of what's happening in poetry in her area, along with poetry from many of its denizens in Amador, Calavaras and Tuolumne counties. And of course there will be scads and scads of wonderful poetry and photos from our friends new and old, near and far. Not to mention new artwork from Snakeman and Artist-in-Residence Sam Kieth. And, as always, it's all free.

When will all this Poetry Gold be available, you say? Next Wednesday, June 20 will be the unveiling! Come to the rattle-read that night at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacamenno, and pick up your free copy. Or subscribe (send $18 for a year's worth of RR, Snakelets, VYPER, and assorted broadsides, including the Rattlesnake Interview Series), or send me too bux and I'll mail you a copy when the issue comes out.

Also emerging next Wednesday will be a new rattlechap from Sacramento's Tom Miner (North of Everything), a littlesnake broadside from Stockton Publisher and Poet David Humphreys (Cominciare Adagio), and Rattlesnake Interview Series #3, wherein our new Interviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy, talks to Sacramento Poetry Icon Jane Blue. So many poetry riches—can you believe it???

(I'm still reeling over 72 pages!)

______________________

More Dad poems, these from Czeslaw Milosz:

FATHER IN THE LIBRARY
—Czeslaw Milosz

A high forehead, and above it touseled hair
On which a ray of sun falls from the window.
And so father wears a bright fluffy crown
When he spreads before him a huge book.

His gown is patterned like that of a wizard.
Softly, he murmurs his incantations.
Only he whom God instructs in magic
Will learn what wonders are hidden in this book.

_____________________

FATHER'S INCANTATIONS
—Czeslaw Milosz

O sweet master, with how much peace
Your serene wisdom fills the heart!
I love you, I am in your power
Even though I will never see your face.

Your ashes have long been scattered,
Your sins and follies no one remembers.
And for ages you will remain perfect
Like your book drawn by thought from nothingness.

You knew bitterness and you know doubt
But the memory of your faults has vanished.
And I know why I cherish you today:
Men are small but their words are great.

_____________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; RR #14 will be out June 20. Next deadline, for RR #15, is August 15. VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets #10 (for kids 0-12) is now available at The Book Collector; next deadline is 10/1.

Books/broadsides: May's releases are Grass Valley Poet Ron Tranquilla’s Playing Favorites: Selected Poems, 1971-2006, plus a littlesnake broadside by Julie Valin (Still Life With Sun) and a Rattlesnake Interview Broadside (#2) featuring Khiry Malik Moore and B.L. Kennedy. All are now available at The Book Collector. Rattlechaps are $5; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com or rattlesnakepress.com for ordering information.

Next rattle-read: Rattlesnake Press will present Sacramento Poet Tom Miner at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, June 20 from 7:30-9 PM to celebrate the release of his new chapbook, North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a new littlesnake broadside (Cominciare Adagio) from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, plus #3 in the Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. More info: kathykieth@hotmail.com/ NOTE: For June, and for June only, our monthly Rattlesnake reading will be on the THIRD Weds. instead of the second one. And there will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August.

Day One: Dad-a-Thon

Fernando Pessoa

Symbols? I’m sick of symbols...
Some people tell me that everything is symbols.
They’re telling me nothing.

What symbols? Dreams...
Let the sun be a symbol, fine...
Let the moon be a symbol, fine...
Let the earth be a symbol, fine...
But who notices the sun except when the rain stops
And it breaks through the clouds and points behind its back
To the blue of the sky?
And who notices the moon except to admire
Not it but the beautiful light it radiates?
And who notices the very earth we tread?
We say earth and think of fields, trees and hills,
Unwittingly diminishing it,
For the sea is also earth.

Okay, let all of this be symbols.
But what’s the symbol—not the sun, not the moon, not the earth—
In this premature sunset amidst the fading blue
With the sun caught in expiring tatters of clouds
And the moon already mystically present at the other end of the sky
As the last remnant of daylight
Gilds the head of the seamstress who hesitates at the corner
Where she used to linger (she lives nearby) with the boyfriend who left her?
Symbols? I don’t want symbols.
All I want—poor frail and forlorn creature!—
Is for the boyfriend to go back to the seamstress.

—Álvaro de Campos (Fernando Pessoa)
From: Poesia, published by Assírio & Alvim, Lisbon
Translation: 1998, Richard Zenith
From: Fernando Pessoa & Co. – Selected Poems
Publisher: Grove Press, New York, 1998

_____________________

Today Fernando Pessoa would've been 119 years old. And W.B. Yeats would've been 142:

THESE ARE THE CLOUDS
—William Butler Yeats

These are the clouds about the fallen sun,
The majesty that shuts his burning eye;
The weak lay hand on what the strong has done,
Till that be tumbled that was lifted high
And discord follow upon unison,
And all things at one common level lie.
And therefore, friend, if your great race were run
And these things came, so much the more thereby
Have you made greatness your companion,
Although it be for children that you sigh:
These are the clouds about the fallen sun,
The majesty that shuts his burning eye.

_____________________

Juneteenth!

On Saturday (6/16) from 11 AM to 6 PM, don't miss the Juneteenth Talent Show at Sacramento's 6th Annual "Juneteenth in the Shade." Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is an annual holiday in 14 of the United States. Celebrated on June 19, it commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas. This year, join the parade of exciting events taking place Saturday in William Land Park, located at 1401 Sutterville Road in Sacramento (across from Sacramento City College), including the Juneteenth Poetry Jam: Catch some of Northern California's BEST poets performing live Black History and inspirational pieces. This will be the biggest poetry jam explosion in years, if not ever, in Sacramento. Saturday, 4-5 PM—ONE HOUR OF POWER!!!!!

Performers include:
1. NerCity
2. Rodzilla
3. Rob Anthony
4. V.S. Chochezi
5. Marianna Sousa
6. Terry Moore
7. Yoke Breaker
8. Yardley Griffin Jr.
9. Supanova

And then on Sunday (6/17), it's Gospel Sunday with Tommie Goss of the 103.5 - thebomb's Gospel Express, from noon to 5 PM. Other activities include Juneteenth Golf Tournament and the Juneteenth Education Theater. This is a FREE event— bring the entire family, your lawn chairs and blankets, and enjoy the festivities. More info: http://www.discovergold.org/juneteenth/history.cfm

The State Library currently has a Juneteenth display, though rumor has it that it could be better-lit. (Couldn't we all?......)


Medusa wants Dad poems:

Thank you to those who have responded so far to the Dad Poem Giveaway: send me poems about dads: wry, sentimental, disgusted, or otherwise, and I'll send you a rattlechap of your choosing. Photos, too! Dad's Day is Sunday; let's give 'em a proper send-up. Send poems and whatever to kathykieth@hotmail.com by midnight on Saturday, June 16, or snail 'em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA. Here are a couple from Taylor Graham:

A FATHER’S EXAMPLE
(for Elihu Burritt, the Learned Blacksmith, 1810-1879)
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

In a pious family, it was your father who kept
the faith. Ploughshare laborer on rocky
Connecticut soil, earning pennies — he’d walk
two extra miles from market to offer an orange
to the elderly widow or the crippled man.

When he died, what father-example in your
eldest brother, Elijah the golden-haired?
He mapped the heavens. And then he led
two brothers and a sister into the wilderness
of Texas to make their fortune. Instead,

they died, all four, of fever. That left you, Elihu,
to take up your father’s vision and make it
yours: like him, a penniless dreamer, fighting
for brotherhood with voice and pen,
hammering the ploughshare from the sword.

____________________

MY FATHER, WALKING
—Taylor Graham

Short spare taciturn man,
he never let on
he spoke to trees and clouds
in passing; didn’t mention
there was anything ahead
worth seeing. Just
went striding along, not
explaining

so I had to try that much
harder to keep up,
didn't have time
to button my eyes or ears
shut. Finally
heard what it was
the clouds and trees were
asking.

_____________________

Thanks, TG! Judy Taylor Graham is one of our resident columnists here at Rattlesnake Review; watch for her column, "Making Fun of Poetry", and more of her wonderful poems in the next issue, which is hatching as we speak, and will be out sometime next week, with luck.

And one more, from Marie Riepenhoff-Talty:

THE BIG TRIP
—Marie Riepenhoff-Talty, Roseville

I was the only one who went with
daddy to the only store in town.
He needed some twine for his corn binder.
At four years of age, I felt so important—
When the store keeper said,

Harry, I didn’t know you had another girl.
When was she born?

I backed out of the door and
prayed to turn into a boy.

Ten years later, when I could
hook and throw forty pound hay bales
easily and place them exactly,
my father said I was as
good as any boy.

____________________

Thanks, Marie!

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; RR #14 will be out in mid-June. Next deadline, for RR #15, is August 15. VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets #10 (for kids 0-12) is now available at The Book Collector; next deadline is 10/1.

Books/broadsides: May's releases are Grass Valley Poet Ron Tranquilla’s Playing Favorites: Selected Poems, 1971-2006, plus a littlesnake broadside by Julie Valin (Still Life With Sun) and a Rattlesnake Interview Broadside (#2) featuring Khiry Malik Moore and B.L. Kennedy. All are now available at The Book Collector. Rattlechaps are $5; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com or rattlesnakepress.com for ordering information.

Next rattle-read: Rattlesnake Press will present Sacramento Poet Tom Miner at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, June 20 from 7:30-9 PM to celebrate the release of his new chapbook, North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a new littlesnake broadside (Cominciare Adagio) from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, plus #3 in the Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. More info: kathykieth@hotmail.com/ NOTE: For June, and for June only, our monthly Rattlesnake reading will be on the THIRD Weds. instead of the second one. And there will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August.

That Flimsy Veil, Romance

from THE PRINCESS
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:
The fire-fly wakes: waken thou with me.

Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost,
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars,
And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake:
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip
Into my bosom and be lost in me.

____________________

THE BRIDAL VEIL
—Alice Cary, 1820-1871

We're married, they say, and you think you have won me,—
Well, take this white veil from my head, and look on me;
Here's matter to vex you, and matter to grieve you,
Here's doubt to distrust you, and faith to believe you,—
I am all as you see, common earth, common dew;
Be wary, and mould me to roses, not rue!

Ah! shake out the filmy thing, fold after fold,
And see if you have me to keep and to hold,—
Look close on my heart—see the worst of its sinning,—
It is not yours to-day for the yesterday's winning—
The past is not mine—I am too proud to borrow—
You must grow to new heights if I love you to-morrow.

I have wings flattened down and hid under my veil:
They are subtle as light—you can never undo them,
And swift in their flight—you can never pursue them,
And spite of all clasping, and spite of all bands,
I can slip like a shadow, a dream, from your hands.

Nay, call me not cruel, and fear not to take me,
I am yours for my life-time, to be what you make me,—
To wear my white veil for a sign, or a cover,
As you shall be proven my lord, or my lover;
A cover for peace that is dead, or a token
Of bliss that can never be written or spoken.

_____________________

Copyright workshop Wednesday:

Calling all writers and artists: Find out about protecting your copyright (and trademark registration) at the Pence Gallery, 212 D Sts. in Davis tomorrow night (Weds., 2/13) from 6-8 PM. Workshop will be held by California Lawyers for the Arts. $20. Info: 916-442-6210.

Back to that ferocious tiger we call love:

WHERE DOES THIS TENDERNESS COME FROM?
—Marina Tsvetaeva

Where does this tenderness come from?
These are not the—first curls I
have stroked slowly—and lips I
have known are—darker than yours

as stars rise often and go out again
(where does this tenderness come from?)
so many eyes have risen and died out
in front of these eyes of mine.

and yet no such song have
I heard in the darkness of night before,
(where does this tenderness come from?):
here, on the ribs of the singer.

Where does this tenderness come from?
And what shall I do with it, young
sly singer, just passing by?
Your lashes are—longer than anyone's.

_____________________

Enough dallying on that flimsy veil, romance! Medusa is short on local poetry right now, so let's have a giveaway! Father's Day is coming up; send me a poem or six about dads: wry, sentimental, disgusted, or otherwise, and I'll send you a rattlechap of your choosing. Photos, too! Dad's Day is Sunday; let's give 'em a proper send-up. Send poems and whatever to kathykieth@hotmail.com by midnight on Saturday, June 16, or snail 'em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA. (Did you know a pollock is a fish?) Here—let's kick it off with a little Ed Smith:

THE LESSON
—Edward Lucie-Smith

'Your father's gone,' my bald headmaster said.
His shiny dome and brown tobacco jar
Splintered at once in tears. It wasn't grief.
I cried for knowledge which was bitterer
Than any grief. For there and then I knew
That grief has uses—that a father dead
Could bind the bully's fist a week or two;
And then I cried for shame, then for relief.

I was a month past ten when I learnt this:
I still remember how the noise was stilled
In school-assembly when my grief came in.
Some goldfish in a bowl quietly sculled
Around their shining prison on its shelf.
They were indifferent. All the other eyes
Were turned towards me. Somewhere in myself
Pride, like a goldfish, flashed a sudden fin.

_____________________

—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 (free publications): Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; RR #14 will be out in mid-June. Next deadline, for RR #15, is August 15. VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets #10 (for kids 0-12) is now available at The Book Collector; next deadline is 10/1.

Books/broadsides: May's releases are Grass Valley Poet Ron Tranquilla’s Playing Favorites: Selected Poems, 1971-2006, plus a littlesnake broadside by Julie Valin (Still Life With Sun) and a Rattlesnake Interview Broadside (#2) featuring Khiry Malik Moore and B.L. Kennedy. All are now available at The Book Collector. Rattlechaps are $5; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com or rattlesnakepress.com for ordering information.

Next rattle-read: Rattlesnake Press will present Sacramento Poet Tom Miner at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, June 20 from 7:30-9 PM to celebrate the release of his new chapbook, North of Everything. Also featured that night will be a new littlesnake broadside (Cominciare Adagio) from Stockton Poet/Publisher David Humphreys, plus #3 in the Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Jane Blue. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's. More info: kathykieth@hotmail.com/ NOTE: For June, and for June only, our monthly Rattlesnake reading will be on the THIRD Weds. instead of the second one. And there will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August.