OBJECTIVES
—Markie Babbott, Ph.D., Northampton, MA
Perform a whole-body dissection of a vertebrate.
Identify the major anatomical features of the vertebrate body in a
dissected specimen.
Understand the relationship between structure and function in the
vertebrate body and
relate concepts covered in lecture to structures found in
your pig.
Understand mammalian fetal circulation from a mechanical,
physiological, and evolutionary perspective.
Apply knowledge and understanding acquired to problems in
human physiology.
Apply knowledge and understanding acquired to explain
organismal adaptive strategies.
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Thanks, Markie! Poems posted today are samples from this year's Poet's Corner Chapbook Contest. See also http://www.poetscornerpress.com/press2.html
SKETCH OF GIRL UNDER CANOPY WITH 8-BALL
—Dawn
My sources say so.
I meant will she die, not will she live.
Signs point to yes.
I mean not like old age, soon.
Reply hazy, try again.
Did Angie really do it with Ron?
Without a doubt.
Will she ever kiss me again?
Yes.
Are you sure?
Ask again later.
When will Dad die?
Outlook not so good.
Is it snowing outside right now?
Better not tell you now.
Is it snowing?
Very doubtful.
Who does she like better?
It is decidedly so.
Ok, this time for real, will she die?
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This week in NorCal poetry:
•••Tonight (Monday, 6/23), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center present James Lee Jobe and Gailmarie Pahmeier. [See last Friday's post for bios and a poem by James Lee.] Open mic after.
•••Wednesday (6/25), 6-7 PM: Upstairs Poetry Reading at the Upstairs Art Gallery, 420 Main St. (2nd floor), Placerville. It's a poetry open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. No charge. We hope to see you there!
•••Thursday (6/26), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento presents Mary Zeppa, Will Staple and Bob Stanley. Open mic before and after.
•••Saturday (6/28), 7-9 PM: The Show celebrates 8 years of poetry and music with poets RheaSunshine and Ebony Bones, plus jazz vocalist Lady Kitty Griffin. Wo'se Community Center, 2863 35th St., Sacramento. $5; free for first 15 people. Info: 916-208-7638.
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THE PICKERS
—Andrena Zawinski, Oakland CA
Stronger and stronger, the sunlight glues
The afternoon to its objects…
(from Against the American Grain, Charles Wright)
The pickers, backbent and dozens abreast, rise before the sun
past the blonde grasses, behind the concertina wire
running between Soledad and Salinas, move in squats,
toss artichokes from sun-pocked fields into pickup cabs,
calloused fingers pricked by the thorny thistles.
They pour seeds into rivulets of dry earth
that will burst into lettuce, chard, the great bouquets
of broccoli and cabbage along El Camino Real’s humpback hills
where foremen watch, arms folded across their dusty boredom
and the long light of days stretching inside another summer.
Bodies at work, long after limbs tire, long after chests heave
beneath bird-bone beads, abalone shells, scapulars dangling
from red strings, or even chains of gold glinting off the sun,
faces muffled in scarves and hoods, sweat scenting the air,
backbent and dozens abreast, birthing a history of earth.
And so they move, the pickers, silhouetted against the horizon,
westerly winds crossing groves and vineyards farther north,
farther south, they move, follow the crops, follow the seasons,
Steinbeck’s ghost among the harvest gypsies in the fields,
pen in one hand, pail in the other, working towards some end.
As sure as low clouds cool the day down, the bodies turn
toward evening, lay down the ache of the field in the stretch of legs,
slope of shoulders, move toward dreams of the unburned, pain-free,
unafraid, unspent paper in the pocket for some half-hold on a home
on the road, birds skittering tree branches at sunset,
pecking at the unpicked.
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PENELOPE’S SONG
—Jeanne Wagner, Kensington, CA
At first I was furtive, unraveling only at night,
and only by the light of a single oil lamp,
whose mauve shadows swooned over
the surface of the weave,
an affect I only later learned to make,
a secret between myself
and the shuttle’s slow deliberate slide
across the frame.
And who’s to know the shame I felt,
as if each new row I wove
were a promise I would break,
every ripping out a lie in reverse.
My sins, and they were sins,
were sins of erasure,
of abstaining from whole cloth,
and worse, sins of pleasure too:
the feel of a loosened strand,
juddering across the hem,
the way the weft raised itself up lewdly
like a lifted dressing gown.
Sometimes I think the loom looked better
bereft of thread.
The truth is, not long after he left,
the suitors became fewer,
came only to pass the time, to trade their
embellished tales of hardship and
renown, not to watch a women weave
unepic tapestry in the corner of a room.
The day Odysseus came home to Ithaca,
I swore I’d put away my task,
my journeyman’s loom, but save that
long crimped strand of thread, so
that when he finally took me to his bed,
I could dream of all those
nights of surreptitious longing.
Just as he would dream of the sea,
the soft tongues of the waves
licking the sides of the hull,
a rope looped tight around his chest,
the Sirens’ call.
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IN FIBONACCI’S SEQUENCE
—David Ellis, Arlington MA
each step combines the two before,
the way the world grows, as
children are the sum of parents:
a number sequence that will
never end, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…
Its numbers flower with petals:
in iris, then larkspur, delphinium spikes,
to marigold, astor, and rays of daisies.
Botany’s stanzas fill our gardens.
Its perfect ratio surrounds us,
Nature’s signature, things that grow
And bend and turn: earth’s pulse
is in the curve of elephant tusk,
horn of sheep, canary curl of claw,
and chambered nautilus.
Architecture takes the measure:
A Doric temple’s Golden Ratio
gives Richardson the perfect stones
of Trinity Church. The sequence,
in octaves of white and black, is touched
by Vivaldi into dance, tuned by Bach
into a sanctuary: our nave
the earth’s unending cantata,
the comfort of mathematics.
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ON THE BOOK
—Oz Koglin Hopkins, Portland OR
She’s got to beg
“doc” the drug store man
to put the baby’s medicine
on the book till pay day,
and she still owes
on the last time
The old white man will
take the prescription all right,
but she’ll have to dodge
his quick hand touching
her young breasts—
handling charge in the
colored part of town.
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Today's LittleNip:
To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write.
—Gertrude Stein
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—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's Up With Rattlesnake Press
New in June: Day Moon, a new chapbook by James DenBoer, and Mindfully Moon, a littlesnake broadside by Carol Louise Moon, as well as Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. All this PLUS a brand-new edition (#18) of Rattlesnake Review! Now available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/. (Snake contributors and subscribers will be receiving their copies in the mail this week. If you're not among either of these, and can't get down to The Book Collector to get your free copy, send me two bux and I'll mail you one: P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.)
The Snake will be snoozing through July and August, leaving Medusa to carry on alone. Then on September 10, we shall burst back onto the scene with Ten Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell, plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review. (Deadline is August 15.) Meanwhile, look in on Medusa every day, and, for heaven's sake, keep sending stuff! The snakes of Medusa are always hungry...
Medusa's Weekly Menu:
(Contributors are welcome to cook up something for any and all of these!)
Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar
Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.
Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing: favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorite tools.
Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in future issues of Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.
Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar
Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration—yet another way to feed our ravenous poetic souls.
And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!
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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.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. 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). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.
