Sky Dragons

AT SUNSET
—Margaret Ellis Hill, Wilton

I watch
a sky dragon
crawl across the twilight
twisting his head from side to side
keeping

an eye
above a world
that waits for the coming
clouds that follow his fiery breath
See him

change hues
from pink to orange
then purple and crimson
feet stretching as he slides a path
farther

along
the blue evening
where he tries to disguise
himself between the slanted hills
and sleep

(Previously published in Amaze Journal, Feb 2006)

____________________

Upstairs Poetry!

The Hidden Passage poetry readings have moved to The Upstairs Art Gallery, 420 Main St (2nd floor), Placerville; same time, 6-7 PM, on the 4th Wednesday of the month. The first Upstairs reading will be this Wednesday, Oct. 24th. It's an open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. No charge.

___________________

This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight (Monday, 10/22), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Phoebe Wayne and Francisco Reinking at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Light food and beverages will be available, plus open mic. Phoebe Wayne received an MA in creative writing from UC Davis. She currently lives and writes in San Rafael, California. Some of her poems appear in West Wind Review, Gumball Poetry, and Greenbelt Review. She is working on a manuscript that might still be titled Into Scale, and enjoys experimenting with poetry and visual media. Francisco Reinking was born in Mexico City and raised in Santa Monica. In 2005 he graduated with an MA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from UC Davis. He currently lives and works in Berkeley. He is the winner of the Barratt-Brown Memorial Prize for critical writing, and his work has appeared in Greenbelt Review, West Wind Review, and Zyzzyva. He has worked as a masonry worker, laborer, archivist, and photographer for the National Park Service. Next week at SPC (10/29), Frank Graham hosts a Halloween reading with the Ghastly Ghouls of SPC's Tuesday Night Workshop.

•••Today (Monday, 10/22), 11 AM: Mark Doty will be speaking at Stanford University in Palo Alto at a colloquium in the Terrace Rm. of Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg. 460). Then, tomorrow (Tuesday, 10/23), 8 PM, he will be reading in Cubberley Auditorium on the campus.

•••Weds. (10/24), 6 PM: "Upstairs" reading in Placerville (see above).

•••Thursday (10/25), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Free. Open mic before and after.

•••Thursday (10/25), 7:30 PM: On the Creek Lecture Series at CSU Chico presents Brenda Hillman & Forrest Gander at Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall/PAC 132. This Performance is free, but a ticket is required for admission. Tickets are available at the University Box Office. Hillman will be speaking with poet, essayist, and translator Forrest Gander in this free On The Creek Lecture presentation. Brenda Hillman is known for her seven volumes of poetry and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Forrest Gander, author of more than a dozen books, including collaborations with notable artists and photographers, loves to find "new discoveries of language" and is the owner of, as he puts it, "an unflinchingly curious mind." Info: http://www.csuchico.edu/upe/performance/artists/HillmanGander.html

•••Friday (Oct. 26), 7:30 pm: Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead. Escritores del Nuevo Sol/Writers of the New Sun offer poetry and music for this annual Mexican-originated celebration. Brought to the US by the Chicano movement, this has become a meaningful time of remembrance for people of many backgrounds to honor with joy those who have passed from their earthly life. One of a week’s full of related activities coordinated by La Raza Galeria Posada. $5 or free-will donation as you can afford. 1024 22nd St., Midtown Sacramento. Info: Graciela Ramirez (916-456-5323) or website: www.escritoresdelnuevosol.com/

•••Saturday (10/27), 7-9 PM: Michael Andrews & Wealth Bridge Financial Network present "The Show" poetry series, featuring International Slam Champion and world-renowned poet Talaam Acey from Baltimore (www.talaamacey.com), as well as house band LSB and house vocalist Chris Bush. This event will be held at the Guild Theater, across the street from the Wo’Se Community Center, 2828 35th St., off 35th and Broadway. $5. All ages are welcome and the open mic list will be open, so come get on stage! Info: Terry Moore at 916-208-POET.

•••Saturday (10/27), 7:30 PM: Chaos, Anarchy, and Lucid Unreason: Unheimlich Theater: Antonin Artaud & His Dopplegangers at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Gilberto Rodriguez is the man who has reintroduced the concept of Doppelganger into the life of Sacramento. Along with Rob Lozano, they give flesh to Antonin Artaud and His Dopplegangers. Maybe you'll laugh, perhaps you will cry and hopefully you will leave forever haunted by the unholy Doppelgangers of the Poetic Muses. Sheri Adee, a master of atmospheres and soundscapes via Tibetan bowls, gongs, and multi-cuiti percussion instruments, will be adding her unique interpretations of merging musics to the evening's performance as Unheimlich Theater re-emerges from the Bardo state at The Book Collector to inseminate a new myth of Chaos, Anarchy, and Lucid Unreason.

_____________________

Also in Chico this weekend:

Kathleen Partland of Chico writes: Are you afraid of your own literary possibility? Traumatized by writing at an early age? Are you a reluctant writer with potential potential? Now is the time to act! Take charge of your pen and paper and join us for an intensive workshop with a panel of local published poets and fiction writers. Sessions to be held on the next two Saturdays: Oct. 27 and Nov. 3, at the 1078 Gallery, 820 Broadway, Chico, 11 AM-1 PM, $12.50. Info: Heather Altfeld, (530) 321-2476 or halexandria10@gmail.com or Kmcpartland@csuchico.edu/.

And while you're in Chico this month (there seems to be lots going on there!), be sure to go downtown and enjoy the Window Art Project. In conjunction with the city-wide, month-long Artoberfest, artists display their work in business-place windows. Skyway Poets (Patricia Wellingham-Jones, Joy Harold Helsing, Sally Allen McNall, Audrey C. Small, Renee Goularte, Lara Gularte, Stephani Schaefer, Gloria Conly, Zora Maksente and Ann Doro) have the 'Poetry Window' at the Chamber of Commerce, 300 W. Salem St. across from the parking garage, where poems are posted for the public to read.

____________________

WATCHING THE CLOUDS
—Margaret Ellis Hill

Preceded by white capes and feathers,
a queen, robed in pink tulle, sits
on her throne, carried across the sky
by invisible wind-men.

Her entourage follows:
a fluffy poodle, a cat with a curled tail,
a rabbit with tall ears, a dragon,
whose smoky puffs dot the sky.

Large dishes of strawberry ice cream
and raspberry sherbet like banners
of pink and gold float on either side.

A large box of yellow doubloons,
with pearl-like beads scattered in between
are carried on gray pillows as if
they are gifts to a distant king.

When I focus on Her Majesty again
I find the parade curves right over
distant hills, her escort a bit misshapen
and gathering closely as a storm.

_____________________

THE WILD GEESE
—Margaret Ellis Hill

Every fall, I love to listen to the calls
of wild geese high in the sky.

The gray Vees are heading home again,
winging south toward their winter sanctuary.

I’ve watched flocks land in nearby fields
to forage for leftovers and rest, and then

seen them rise, circle until the last
stragglers become part of victory signs.

As the wedges form and reform as they fly,
I hear their trumpeting change volume,

become absorbed by distance and time
before I realize I’m left behind.

____________________

Thanks, Peggy! Margaret Ellis Hill was inspired by yesterday's Medusa photo.

—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.) For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).

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

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Consider the Radiance

THE CITY LIMITS
—A.R. Ammons

When you consider the radiance, that it does not withhold
itself but pours its abundance without selection into every
nook and cranny not overhung or hidden; when you consider

that birds' bones make no awful noise against the light but
lie low in the light as in a high testimony; when you consider
the radiance, that it will look into the guiltiest

swervings of the weaving heart and bear itself upon them,
not flinching into disguise or darkening; when you consider
the abundance of such resource as illuminates the glow-blue

bodies and gold-skeined wings of flies swarming the dumped
guts of a natural slaughter or the coil of shit and in no
way winces from its storms of generosity; when you consider

that air or vacuum, snow or shale, squid or wolf, rose or lichen,
each is accepted into as much light as it will take, then
the heart moves roomier, the man stands and looks about, the

leaf does not increase itself above the grass, and the dark
work of the deepest cells is of a tune with May bushes
and fear lit by the breath of such calmly turns to praise.

______________________

—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.) For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).

The Wild Beast's Lair

The Three Ages of Woman
Painting by Gustav Klimt, 1905

LIFETIME
—Wayne Robinson

 And those other lifetimes . . .   So many, each
encircling a girl, woman, lady.  Each a time I cheated
death, cheated loneliness, embraced another soul.   A
separate memory of a separate time, special time,
special love, a lifetime lived within that time frame.
Who do you love?  I see the tears wiped clean maybe,
though not away.  Who’s lifetime are you in now?  Your
embrace is warm on my skin,  I am cheating old age
again, holding a fresh chance.  I know you are not
young, but you make ME feel that way.  A spring
sunshine after these long winter rains.  We are
animals, lusty in the bedroom, then guide dogs on the
sidewalk, sharing our happiness by helping others less
fortunate in life, and love.  We enter this lifetime,
smiling and attentive, who knows how it will end?  Or
when?  Maybe death will finally catch up to me, or
you’ll feel cheated by my magnetic pull on your soul
when I kiss your pink lips.  Dump me like sour milk in
the sink.  Another lifetime embedded for a memory.
When I lie helpless in the    
old-age-smelly-noisy-sickening-hospital, I hope I have
the memory.  The memory of all the lifetimes, the
memory of . . . you.

____________________

BODY
—Sasha Moorsom

What was so quiet a companion,
My dumb friend,
Now cries out, groans,
Swells up with noxious fluid
Clamouring for attention.
Did I neglect you,
Taking for granted
The ease with which you walked, breathed,
Ran for a bus?
We that were one, are two.
I bow before you.

____________________

ADVICE TO THE OLD (INCLUDING MYSELF)
—Kay Boyle

Do not speak of yourself (for God's sake) even when asked.
Do not dwell on other times as different from the time
Whose air we breathe; or recall books with broken spines
Whose titles died with the old dreams. Do not resort to
An alphabet of gnarled pain, but speak of the lark's wing
Unbroken, still fluent as the tongue. Call out the names of stars
Until their metal clangs in the enormous dark. Yodel your way
Through fields where the dew weeps, but not you, not you.
Have no communion with despair; and, at the end,
Take the old fury in your empty arms, sever its veins,
And bear it fiercely, fiercely to the wild beast's lair.

_____________________

RESIGNATION
—Chou Ho (b. 821 A.D.)

The willows
Bow their branches
Until the long leaves
Brush the earth.

Come back with me
And let us drink together
Down by the river bank.

When we met,
We gazed at each other
And saw
That our hair was white.

But what of it?
Why worry?
No man on this earth
Can remain forever young.

____________________

—Medusa

Like the Odour of Myrrh

TAIL SPIN
—David Humphreys, Stockton

Rolling up and over, uplifted weightless to
dive out of formation to a sudden flak hit
shrapnel ripped gaping wound, swung round
and round down plummeting to earth in a fire
ball flower inferno. Only later, as you walk away
in one piece from the Matinee Cinema, do you
remember that it may have been that specific set
of actions needed to effect an aerial recovery,
somehow miraculously occurring as you see it
through a vertigo haze of hindsight that has
returned you to the movie theater of your mind’s
eye numb as a dreamless manikin at the same time
vicariously lit up by a shot of adrenalin as you also
remember the only time you ever had trouble flying
was from a snow-covered runway in Rifle hit by
claustrophobia in a small two engine cockpit that
became a dry cotton mouth and flushed hot face of,
it must have been the beer, armchair gripping fear
so much different from when the 707 reversed its
engines and you spun off the runway at LAX surprised
but too young to know better, not really scared a year
before Kennedy was shot in Dallas and you learned
about death for first time. So, who ever thought it was
ok for your particular Icarus to take off in the fog
on that Canary Islands runway? Are you serious?

_____________________

Thanks, David, for the wonderful poem and pic! Poets and Death: like the mongoose and the cobra, we can't seem to leave it alone. Pick up any book of poetry and there it is, staring back at you from half the pages. Or is it death we're talking about....?

from THE SHIP OF DEATH
—D.H. Lawrence

5

Build then the ship of death, for you must take
the longest journey, to oblivion.

And die the death, the long and painful death
that lies between the old self and the new.

Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised,
already our souls are oozing through the exit
of the cruel bruise.

Already the dark endless ocean of the end
is washing in through the breeches of our wounds,
already the flood is upon us.

O build your ship of death, your little ark
and furnish it with food, with little cakes, and wine
for the dark flight down oblivion.

_____________________

EGYPTIAN POEM
—Anonymous

Death is before me to-day,
Like the recovery of a sick man,
Like going forth into a garden after sickness;
Death is before me to-day,
Like the odour of myrrh,
Like sitting under the sail on a windy day;

Death is before me to-day,
Like the odour of lotus flowers,
Like sitting on the shore of drunkenness;
Death is before me to-day,
Like the course of the freshet,
Like the return of a man from the war-galley to his house,
When he has spent years in captivity.

____________________

This weekend in NorCal:

•••Tonight (Friday, 10/19), 7 PM: Our House poetry reading in El Dorado Hills: Featured readers are Chris Olander and Kathryn Smith. An open mike follows. Our House Gallery & Framing is located at 4510 Post St. in El Dorado Hills Town Center. Free.

•••Saturday (10/20), 8 PM: 3rd Eye Collective presents: AI Live is back! Sol Collective Gallery in Sacramento, 2010 Del Paso Boulevard. Doors open and Open Mic/Freestyle Battle sign-ups start @ 7:07 PM. This month features Freex, Akronems, Justin Scales and N2Deep! All ages! $10 at the door. Info: www.myspace.com/3rdeyecollective or www.youtube.com/3rdeyecollective. Conocida, 3rd Eye Collective Business Manager, 925.565.3579, conocida3ec@yahoo.com or www.artisticinsomnia.com

•••Saturday (10/20), 7-9 PM: B.L. Kennedy, Lori Jean Robinson, Random Abiladeze and Taifa Jamari read at the Underground Poetry Series, Underground Books, 2814 35th St., (35th & Broadway), Sacramento. $3. Info: 916-737-3333. [See the Ticket section of today's Sacramento Bee for a picture of B.L. Kennedy.]

•••Sunday (10/21—not Saturday, like we erroneously posted yesterday) at the Sacramento Central Library (818 I St.): 150th Anniversary Party begins at 11 AM with the Opening Ceremony and Sacramento Taiko Dan. Festivities continue until 4 PM with music, book-signings, family entertainment (including puppet show at 3 PM), and various events at Cesar Chavez Park (9th & I), including book sale, food booths, free Velocab and Choo Choo Express rides, Damento Juggling club, goldpanning and more. Info and schedule: 916-264-2920 or saclibrary.org.


Coming next Monday:

•••Monday (10/22), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Phoebe Wayne and Francisco Reinking, 1719 25th Street. Light food and beverages will be available, plus open mic. Phoebe Wayne received an MA in creative writing from UC Davis. She currently lives and writes in San Rafael, California. Some of her poems appear in West Wind Review, Gumball Poetry, and Greenbelt Review. She is working on a manuscript that might still be titled Into Scale, and enjoys experimenting with poetry and visual media. Francisco Reinking was born in Mexico City and raised in Santa Monica. In 2005 he graduated with an MA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from UC Davis. He currently lives and works in Berkeley. He is the winner of the Barratt-Brown Memorial Prize for critical writing, and his work has appeared in Greenbelt Review, West Wind Review, and Zyzzyva. He has worked as a masonry worker, laborer, archivist, and photographer for the National Park Service.

•••Monday (10/22), 11 AM: Mark Doty will be speaking at Stanford University in Palo Alto at a colloquium in the Terrace Rm. of Margaret Jacks Hall (Bldg. 460). Then, on Tuesday (10/23), 8 PM, he will be reading in Cubberley Auditorium.


Wanna workshop? Wanna get outta town?

Two workshop possibilities with well-known people:

•••Kim Addonizio holds eight-session ones in the Bay Area, $375. Supportive groups, weekly critiques and writing ideas. Kim is a National Book Award Finalist, Guggenheim/NEA recipient, author of four books of poetry, as well as co-author of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Info: http://www.kimaddonizio.com; contact kimaddonizio@comcast.net

•••Jane Hirshfield will be teaching the poetry section of a workshop in Guatemala (Lake Atitlan) from Feb. 9-17, 2008. Full description available at: http://www.joycemaynard.com/writing-workshops/lake-atitlan.shtml/. Besides poetry, the workshop will include Memoir (Joyce Maynard) and Fiction (Robert Bausch).

____________________

One of our rattlechappers and a frequent contributor to Rattlesnake Review, Patricia Wellingham-Jones, is currently featured on PoetryMagazine.com. Go to www.poetrymagazine.com/current_poetry/index.html and click on her name on the right-hand side. Cool!

Let's let Emmy-D have the last word on Death. Which poem to choose? She had so many about It:

712

Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.

We slowly drove—He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility—

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess—in the Ring—
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—
We passed the Setting Sun—

Or rather—He passes Us—
The Dews drew quivering and chill—
For only Gossamer, my Gown—
My Tippet—only Tulle—

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground—
The Roof was scarcely visible—
The Cornice—in the Ground—

Since then—'tis Centuries—and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity—

—Emily Dickinson

_____________________

883

The Poets light but Lamps—
Themselves—go out—
The Wicks they stimulate—
If vital Light

Inhere as do the Suns—
Each Age a Lens
Disseminating their
Circumference—

—Emily Dickinson

_____________________

—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.) For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).

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

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Watermelon Blood

ICE CREAM
—Ronny Someck

"When I'm big," you say,
"I want to be an ice cream lady and a poet."
Here are scoops of ice cream that will slip through your fingers,
yellower than lemon, an orange grove in flame
and red sqeezed from watermelon blood. This is
where poetry lives. So why do you need words.

____________________

THE SIGN OF THE BITE
—Ronny Someck

In the morning after the great chaos concert the faces emptied
like beer bottles.
Who turned to look saw that between the women's lips an apple
shuddered
and in the apple—the sign of the bite.
And love? Love was threaded like elastic in underwear:
what holds it up is
what exerts the pressure.

_____________________

Sac Library Birthday Party Sunday:

•••Sunday (10/21) at the Sacramento Central Library (818 I St.): 150th Anniversary Party begins at 11 AM with the Opening Ceremony and Sacramento Taiko Dan. Festivities continue until 4 PM with music, book-signings, family entertainment (including puppet show at 3 PM), and various events at Cesar Chavez Park (9th & I), including book sale, food booths, free Velocab and Choo Choo Express rides, Damento Juggling club, goldpanning and more. Info and schedule: 916-264-2920 or saclibrary.org.

_____________________

Yesterday's pic:

Katy Brown's magnificent photograph of berries was posted late on Medusa yesterday due to Blogspot technical difficulties; be sure to scroll down a bit and take a look at it today. In addition to her SnakeRings SpiralChap, The Quality of Light, Katy serves as Snake Eyes for Rattlesnake Review, sending us her column which explores the connections between poetry and the visual. You can read more about Katy on the March 24, 2007 Medusa post, and of course her wonderful photographs of England and the U.S. are scattered throughout the days of Medusa and Rattlesnake Review.

This month, Katy is putting together a collection which will be part of our new Lola's HandyStuff series: A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring Katy's poetry and photography for each of the twelve months. This calendar will also be packed with poets' birthdays, and will be released at the November 14 rattle-read at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, just in time for Christmas and the new year. A bargain at $5; $6 with postage. Watch for it!

____________________

A SHORT HISTORY OF VODKA
—Ronny Someck

I don't remember the name of the bar, at the end
Of the Metal Workers' Hall of Culture in Chiliabinsk.
I remember only the girl who every fifteen minutes
Came from behind the counter to collect the glasses into
A red plastic bowl.
She skipped from table to table, her high shoes
Clicking out the smell of heaps of loot,
A fur hat spread war snow on her forehead
And fumes of alcohol blurred her face furled like a white flag.
There is, said the man beside me, no woman who isn't beautiful
There is too little vodka.

_____________________

BLUES FOR ELLIOT SHARP
—Ronny Someck

His guitar has a severed neck.
He plays like someone sweeping plucked feathers
from the slaughterhouse floor. The feathers long for the body as
the flower in the pot licks, till it withers, the ground water
that flowed in its leaves.
Music is never the last wish
uttered through the victim's clenched lips
anticipating the chords from the rifle barrels.
It is the escape route through the rusty heart
of barbed wire fences.

(Today's poetry was translated from the Hebrew by Vivian Eden.)

____________________

—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.) For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).

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

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Their Speech Was Scarlet

It's the berries!
Photo by Katy Brown, Davis

RUNAWAY COLORS
—Carl Sandburg

The smoke of these landscapes has gone God knows where.
The sun touches them off with shot gold of an evening,
with a mother's grey eyes singing to her children.
The blue smudge on a haystack a mile off is gone. God know where.
The yellow dust of a sheet over Emil Hawkinson's cornfield,
The ribbons of red picked at by the high-flying hard-crying crows,
These too are in the pits of the west God knows where.

_____________________

LACKAWANNA TWILIGHT
—Carl Sandburg

Twilight and little mountain
towns along the Lehigh, sundown
and grey lavender flush.

Miners with dinner buckets and
headlamps, state constabulary on
horses, guns in holsters, Scranton,
Wilkesbarre, the Lackawanna Trail.

Twilight and the blessed armistice
of late afternoon and early evening.

Twilight and the sport sheets, movies,
chain programs, magazines, comics,
revival meetings.
Twilight and headlights on the new
hard roads, boy friend and girl friend,
dreams, romance, bread, wages, babies,
homes.

____________________

Calendar additions for this week:

•••Tonight, Wednesday (10/17), 9-10 PM: Poetry Night at Bistro 33 has moved to a new day and time, the first and third Wednesdays of the month from 9-10, beginning tonight with a reading by a Davis favorite, Eve West Bessier. Co-hosted by University Writing Program faculty "Dr. Andy" Jones and Brad Henderson, who look forward to seeing friends, friends of poetry, and lovers of great entertainment in the banquet room of Bistro 33 (downtown Davis, 226 F Street). The show starts at 9 PM and is FREE. After the featured poet, plan to stay until 10:30 PM for the energetic open-mic featuring novice poets and songwriters from around the greater Davis/Sacramento area. Many poets are currently scheduled to appear at Bistro 33 this fall, including James Ragan and Sandra Gilbert. Info: Bistro 33 at (530) 756-4556.

Eve West Bessier holds a B.A. in English from San Francisco State University and a Master of Education from the University of California, Davis, where she has worked as a researcher since 1990. She is an Area Coordinator and teacher with California Poets in the Schools, a jazz vocalist, vocal coach and certified life coach. She received the 2000 Kathryn Hohlwein Award and took First Place for Poetry in the 2000 California Focus on Writers Contest. Her publications include: The North American Review, Kalliope, Lyric, Manzanita, Seeker, The Sacramento Anthology: One Hundred Poems, and Heart Flip. She has two chapbooks, Roots Music and Splash published by dPress. Her poem, “Zoo You, Boogaloo”, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2003. For more on Eve West Bessier, see http://www.evewestbessier.com/

•••Tomorrow, Thursday (10/18), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Jill Stockinger, John Bell, and Bill Pieper at the Carmichael Public Library, Marconi Avenue, Carmichael. Jill Stockinger, librarian in the Sacramento Public Library System, has been writing poetry since she was 12 years old. She received her BA with Honors in English Literature from U. Wisconsin-Madison and then her Master's in Library Science from U. Wisconsin Graduate Library School in 1984. She has helped edit four small poetry magazines, the last one being NFG out of Canada which died with Issue 5, volume 2 in August 2004. She has been published in a few small magazines but not lately. John Bell returned to Sacramento after many decades away. Long after wowing the Center Joint School District by winning its spelling bee as a fifth grader (in a year he would rather not disclose), he graduated from the University of New Mexico with a BA in Spanish language and literature and from Wichita State University with an MFA in creative writing. After years of suffering the humidity of Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas, he accepted a post at American River College, where he teaches composition and creative writing. He lives in the city of Sacramento with an elderly tomcat named Butch. Long-time Nevada City and Sacramento resident Bill Pieper is author of the novels Belonging (2006), Gomez (2005) and the award-winning Fool Me Once (2003), as well as the novella collection, So Trust Me (2000). In September 2006 he was named Best Local Book Author in the Sacramento News & Review's annual Best of Sacramento issue. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Bill studied creative writing at Sacramento State University and was a founding member of the writers' group, Wednesday Muse. and the publishing co-op, Pacific Slope Press. He is also a frequent speaker at literary events. In recent years these have included the Sacramento State Summer Writers' Conference, lectures at the College of San Mateo, Listening to the Wild (sponsored by Nevada County Literature Alive), the Sacramento Library Foundation's Authors on the Move dinner, and the Focus on Writers Conference sponsored by Friends of the Sacramento Public Library. In addition, he has discussed his books and writing on Sacramento's Channel 18 TV and many times on radio, including KVMR in Nevada City, KXJZ in Sacramento, as well as on KQED, KPFA and KUSF in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bill's varied interests in art, music, bicycling, fencing, cooking, fly fishing, photography, tennis, California history, and Buddhism not only inform his work but make him an engaging interview guest. For further information, please see his website at http:// stores.ebay.com/bpbooks. It is updated regularly with news, reviews and announcements of his future reading and media events. Of late, Snake fans will recognize him in Conversations, the new interview anthology out from Rattlesnake Press.

•••Saturday (10/20), 8 PM: 3rd Eye Collective presents: AI Live is back! Sol Collective Gallery in Sacramento, 2010 Del Paso Boulevard. Doors open and Open Mic/Freestyle Battle sign-ups start @ 7:07 PM. This month features Freex, Akronems, Justin Scales and N2Deep! All ages! $10 at the door. Info: www.myspace.com/3rdeyecollective or www.youtube.com/3rdeyecollective. Conocida, 3rd Eye Collective Business Manager, 925.565.3579, conocida3ec@yahoo.com or www.artisticinsomnia.com

_____________________

TWO FISH
—Carl Sandburg

when the two fish spoke
their speech was scarlet

they met in a bowl
of molten gold air

they swung in an arch
of seven rainbow sheens

they swam in a grotto
one of a thousand grottoes

they shook their fins
in a green feather dust

____________________

SPEECH
—Carl Sandburg

There was
what we call "words,"
a lot of language,
syllables,
each syllable made of air.

Then were was
s i l e n c e,
no talk at all,
no more syllables
shaped by living tongues
out of wandering air.

Thus all tongues
slowly talk themselves
into s i l e n c e.

_____________________

—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.) For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).

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

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the art and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.

Tubular!

Neon Party
Graphics Arts Piece by Donald Anderson

Tubular Wave (pondering...)
—Donald Anderson, Farmington

Touching sand
wet, clumping, rolling,
into sculpture of sea serpent.
Scaled texture mingling with the ocean's
life-breath;
surging ripples splashing
in and down and out—
sifting itself through sand!
depositing ground seashells:
it's one last act of the moon,
the rush that has brought together
two lovers:
ocean and continent.
Too late for Eve,
the serpent has hid underground.
Sifting.
Dissolving into time.
Like dust of interstellar clouds,
washing on new shores.
"Do not ask it!"
Where do we go when...

______________________

Thanks, Donald!


Seemo of T-Mo:

B.L. Kennedy interviewed Terry Moore in one of the recent issues of Rattlesnake Review, and the piece is repeated in the new interview anthology, Conversations, too. Terry sponsors two reading venues in Sacramento, plus his TV show, which airs tonight. For more info, see www.mybmsf.com/terrymoore/.

•••The Moore Time for Poetry TV series is on cablecast the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays @ 9 PM on Ch. 17, Comcast Cable. (Occasionally, the program is in the 8:30pm or 9:30 PM timeslot on Saturdays.) Check tvguide.com for updates. (Aired on Comcast, SureWest and Strategic Frontier). If the football game runs over, the show will air at 9:30 PM. Tonight features "Destiny church youth ministry poetry workshop night"—if you read the interview, you already know what that is.

Now Terry's show is on the Internet, too! You can ALWAYS visit this website, www.accesssacramento.org, and click on the BIG "Watch Channel 17" button to watch our program! This goes for friends in France, or family in Chicago. Hosted by Terry Moore & daughter Tyra Moore.

•••Saturday (10/20), 7-9 PM: B.L. Kennedy, Lori Jean Robinson, Random Abiladeze and Taifa Jamari read at the Underground Poetry Series, Underground Books, 2814 35th St., (35th & Broadway), Sacramento. $3. Info: 916-737-3333.

•••Terry also writes: We're looking to recognize six Awesome Single Mothers at "The Show" poetry series in Sacramento on Saturday, October 27. The chosen mothers will be allowed into the event at no charge and given a certificate. Then they will be treated to an awesome spoken word performance by one of the best poets in the world, Mr. Talaam Acey, plus other acts. All you have to do is nominate them (or yourself) and give us the necessary contact information so we may contact them in case they are chosen. Please write a very brief statement on why they are so awesome. We'll do the rest!!! Send to email: tpoet3000@aol.com/.

Please also nominate Awesome Single Fathers at the same time. We'll do the same for the fathers on Saturday, November 24, when neo-soul artist Kevin Sandbloom comes to "The Show." Show host Terry Moore, co-host Kathleen Johnson and sponsor Michael Andrews.


Singing With the Whale:

Lisa Espenmiller writes: This email is a call for poetry submissions, an invitation to submit poetry to be considered for the premiere issue of the smart, new, literary, online poetry journal, Singing with the Whale. As a way to be of service to Poetry & Beauty, I have created Singing with the Whale. I am seeking smart, well-crafted poems for the premiere issue, scheduled for February, 2008. Please visit the Submission Guidelines page of www.singingwiththewhale.com for information on how to submit your poems for consideration. I look forward to reading your work.


Time for another stroll down Poet's Lane:

Cynthia Bryant sends us an update about her extensive poetry and information service called "Poet's Lane" at www.poetslane.com/. Send any of the following to PoetsLane@comcast.net for posting:

•••New page on Poet’s Lane called "Write Up". Have a new book out, published a poem or an article, won a contest? Send your good news!

•••"Poems from Headlines": she provides a headline and you send your poem for that headline. Current one: “GENERAL BETRAYS US”.

•••Poet’s Lane is looking for Themed Poetry for October: Tribute to American Indians, Rainy Days & Talking to the Dead. (Pick one or many to write about, and check out the new poems).

•••If you need to rant in a poem about the injustices of life, send a poem for "Off Your Chest", the mental health poetry page.

•••"Question for Telling"! Currently, “What poem was the first one that you would have given anything to have written it?”

•••“What the Hell” is for your war poems.

•••"Picture-Prompted Poetry": Poet’s Lane has a NEW picture to write a poem about, or write to one of the other pictures still up on that page. Be sure and let Cynthia know which picture the poem is written about.

•••Poetry/Book Festivals: send your pertinent information and Cynthia will put it on the Events page of www.poetslane.com/. Check out what is listed and coming up this year.

•••Annual Contests page; if you have one coming up, please send the information.

•••Put your face and name up with other rising poets and writers on “In the Know”.

•••If you have a writers/poets journal, an organization, or a venue for publishing or presenting to the public poets or writers, then add your information to Links. Please state what page it is for, and you will be added.

•••If you have something you would like to say about Poet’s Lane or the programs therein, please send your comments (complaints or praise) and Cynthia will answer you and possibly print them on the Comments page.

•••Please remember when sending anything to Poet’s Lane to include the page that you are sending it for, especially when sending poetry. Add your name, any previous publishing information and your website/and or email.

•••Sign up for The Literary List and Cynthia will e-mail you several times daily with (mostly) Bay Area readings, plus more general contests and submission opportunities, and you can get your events advertised on the List, too.

_______________________

Halloween is coming

with little darlings coming to the door chanting "trick or treat"
when they mean "hand us something Mom warns will rot our teeth"
But I guess I can laugh at children's costumes as long as they follow the rules:
No grabbing at me because only I hand out the candy
For this is not to be begging, but acting as guests of a host
But do they also know what is really scarier than any Halloween ghost story?
Yes kids get warned on the news about not eating unwrapped food
been warned for years about what could be tainted with metal or glass
They forget there are usually convicted sex offenders in the neighborhood
and it’s on my mind while kids hunt for prizes from strangers' doors
to pray they don't answer a "nice man" when he asks their names and where they live

—Michelle Kunert, Sacramento

______________________

Thanks, Michelle. Unsettling!

—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.) For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com).

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

Journals: The latest issue of Rattlesnake Review (#15) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Next deadline is November 15. The two journals for youngsters, Snakelets and Vyper, are on hiatus; no deadlines this Fall.

New in October: Rattlesnake Press celebrated Sacramento Poetry Month on Wednesday, October 10 with the release of Spiral, a rattlechap by Kate Wells; Autumn on My Mind, a free littlesnake broadside by Mary Field; and #5 in the free Rattlesnake Interview Series by B.L. Kennedy, this one featuring Sacramento Poet Laureate Julia Connor. Also released that night was Conversations, Volume One of the Rattlesnake Interview Anthology Series (a collection of B.L.'s conversations with eleven Sacramento poets), as well as a free broadside tribute to poet/publisher Ben L. Hiatt, commissioned by Rattlesnake Press and designed by Richard Hansen from poetry by B.L. Kennedy and artwork by Patrick Grizzell. All of these are available at The Book Collector, 100 24th St., Sacramento, or from rattlesnakepress.com, or write to kathykieth@hotmail.com/.

Coming in November: The Snake is proud to announce the release of Among Neighbors, a rattlechap from Taylor Graham; Home is Where You Hang Your Wings, a littlesnake broadside from frank andrick; and A Poet's Book of Days, a perpetual calendar featuring the art and photography of Katy Brown. Come celebrate the release of all of these on Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.