Fall, One: Moon in a Raindrop

Robert Grossklaus

THE THINGS WE LEAVE BEHIND
—Robert Grossklaus, Roseville

The moon in a raindrop
disappearing.
A footprint takes its place.

___________

DREAM FOR FILM 1
—Robert Grossklaus

acrid soft still breathing
belied this morning's intention;
slept through forever,
woke up with a broken window
and celluloid in the distance.

_________________

OBLIQUE
—Robert Grossklaus

O the delicious balcony of opaque congruence!
This light that peeks from behind silvered glass.
A spray of ambient moonlight over pavement...

I awoke to find myself
caged in a bemused groan, laughter
in the blackness.

Fecund language and silent dreams,
what are you hiding from me?
To satiate this hunger I starve you...

Give back to me what is mine!
O entombed muse, what have you to say
now that you are slain?

A sacrificial veil on the tongue of oblivion
calls from the cavernous remains of sanctity, its demure tenor shallow;

"The incongruent shadows pace,
with the fervor of the forgotten;
humanity has been laid to rest."

___________________

Thanks, Robbie! Robert Grossklaus will be reading tonight at Sacramento Poetry Center; see below for his biography.


This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (9/22), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents poets Robert Grossklaus and Miles Miniacci with the band, Litany, at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St. Sacramento. Open mic after. Robert Grossklaus lives with his wife, Sabrina McKinney, in Roseville. He earned his A.A. in English from Bakersfield College, his B.A. in Philosophy from UC Santa Cruz and is currently working on an M.S. in Accountancy at CSUS. Robert has been published in Eclectica, Liquid Ohio, Poetry Now, and Rattlesnake Review among others. He is the former editor of Poetry Now, former assistant editor of The Tule Review and former assistant editor at Rattlesnake Press. He is currently fixated on his own imprint, Polymer Grove, which has produced nine chapbooks and one CD since its inception in 2005.

Miles Miniaci received his B. A. from San Francisco State and his M. F. A. from the University of Southern California. His poetry and fiction have appeared in The American River Literary Review, Poetry Now, Catchphrase Collection, and Harpoon, among others, and he has been a featured reader at such venues as Luna’s, H. Q. Center for the Arts, Café Montreal, Amnesia (S. F.), and M Bar (L. A.). His prose (mostly humor and music pieces) has been seen—or heard—in ‘zines, e-‘zines, and podcasts, including Morbid Curiosity, Short Bus, Retrocrush, and The Backseat Kiss. He also publishes the occasional scholarly article for journals such as American Quarterly (California American Studies Association) and ATHE News (The Association for Theatre in Higher Education). In addition to writing, Miles has made his living, at various times, as a professional actor, a high school and college instructor, and an arts administrator. He makes his home in Sacramento with his partner, Beth, and his children, Gabriel and Maya, and considers himself incredibly fortunate.

Litany is a non-traditional power trio consisting of three multi-instrumentalists bent on defying genres and expectations. Bob Wilson, Miles Miniaci, and Chéne Watson are veterans of numerous Sacramento-area bands, playing a range of styles from folk to power pop to progressive rock. Between the three of them, they sing and play not only the standard guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards, but also less familiar instruments including dulcimer, mandolin, harp, marimba, and many others. The band has been performing regionally for the past five years, appearing at venues such as Cesar Chavez Park, Southside Park, Capital Garage, The Distillery, Luna’s, The Space, and various Second Saturday galleries. They have also produced a self-released demo and appeared on KVMR and nationwide on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Coming Sept. 29 to SPC: Alan Williamson and Andrena Zawinski.

•••Weds. (9/24), 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.

•••Thurs. (9/25), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café presents Traci Gourdine and Rebecca Morrison. Open mic before and after. 1414 16th St., Sacramento.

•••Friday (9/24), 7:30 PM: Open Mic Night at the Valhalla Grand Hall in Tahoe, just north of Camp Richardson on Hiway 89. Travel Hiway 50 to the "y" then take 50 north about 5 miles. The second edition of writings from the Lake Tahoe Writing Club is out, by the way. It's been renamed The Edge, and it’s very attractive: 73 pp, perfect-bound with colored photographs. They are now accepting submissions for the next edition. Go to TahoeWritingClub.com or info@LakeTahoeWritingClub.com/.

•••Sat. (9/27), 1:15 PM and Sun. (9/28), 12:15 PM: Brigit Truex, Rebecca Morrison, Charlene Ungstad, and Jeanine Stevens read at the KVMR Celtic Festival in Grass Valley at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. Their exact venue can be found on the program; see kvmr.org/.

•••Saturday (9/27), Noon-4:00 PM: 15th Annual Dancing Poetry Festival at San Francisco's Florence Gould Theater in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor Art Museum. Info: www.dancingpoetry.com/.

•••Sat. (9/27), 7-9 PM: ‘The Show’ poetry series presents Myisha Cherry from Brooklyn, plus Sacramento's own Jock Smith, Jamarr Jones aka Young Mack, Yolanda Stevenson and Chadwick Jamison. Wo'se Community Center 2863 35th St. off 35th and Broadway, Sacramento. $5 general admission. All artists (poets, singers, musicians, comedians, etc.) are encouraged to sign up early for open mic. Info: 916-208-POET.

•••Sunday (Sept. 28), 4:30 PM: Poems-For-All is pleased to welcome Donald Sidney-Fryer presenting The Atlantis Fragments, his omnibus edition of the trilogy, Songs and Sonnets Atlantean. The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Info: 916-442-9295.

__________________

Perspectives needs poems! NOW!

John McCreadie, Editor of Perspectives, the bimonthly arts magazine of the Arts Council of Placer County, writes: I wonder if you might know poets who’d be interested in submitting holiday season-themed poetry. I’d like to do something bright and cheery in our Nov/Dec edition. Looking for something that captures the holiday/human spirit or snowy season or by-the-fire poetry. Probably not to exceed 300 words. Send them my way no later than Weds., Sept. 24. We will consider all submissions, but do not guarantee we will publish any of them. Submissions should include a phone no. and email address for reaching the poet. Send them to perspectives@PlacerArts.org. Info: (530) 878-6727.

___________________

OCEAN
—Robert Grossklaus

Sacrifice the night to ebullient dreams
where dripping lips and oceanic stares
drown in awe all that encircles the flesh.
A breath for salt-filled lungs in a gasping for life...
A hunger for death in the softness.

___________________

TOYBOX SPILLED BLOOD ON THE MOON
—Robert Grossklaus

Grace, a quality
absent this ground
when the sun's presence
still echoes across the ridge
and the winds shout angrily
at aluminum siding.
Sleep dear, sleep
the night leaves too soon.

Sleep, sleep, that you may wake
Tomorrow is a promise that I just can't make

Afternoons were always spent waiting
for the dark glory of moonlight
and the soft humming of gunfire
in the distant hills
to trickle through the evening winds
into his toybox of memories
that he would, on occasion,
open as one might wish on a
penny in the stillness of a watershed.

__________________

TORRID
—Robert Grossklaus

Sovereign kiss of summer,
stay that midnight heat
full of weary and dread;
the door opens to sultry thoroughfares
and the sky stills that brash hollow.
Seen once in a dream,
the oak tree, branches drawn down,
barren in the trenches.

___________________

Today's LittleNip:

FEAR
—Charles Simic

Fear passes from man to man
Unknowing,
As one leaf passes its shudder
To another.

All at once the whole tree is trembling
And there is no sign of the wind.

__________________


—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

Now available at The Book Collector in Sacramento, and (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/: Thirteen Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell; #2 in Katy Brown's series of blank journals (Musings2: Vices, Virtues and Obsessions); a free littlesnake broadside (Wind Physics) from Jordan Reynolds; plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review (also free!). Contributor and subscription copies of RR19 will be going into the mail this week. Next deadline for submissions is November 15.

Coming in October: October’s release at The Book Collector on Weds., Oct. 8, will feature a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). That's at the Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s.

Then, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, Rattlesnake Press will release two SpiralChaps to honor and celebrate Luna’s Café, including a new collection of art and poetry from B.L. Kennedy (Luna’s House of Words) and an anthology of Luna’s poets, artists and photographs (La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café) edited by Frank Andrick. Come travel with our Away Team as we leave the Home of the Snake for a brief road trip/time travel to Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento to celebrate Art Luna and the 13 years of Luna's long-running poetry series. Who knows what auspicious adventures await us there?


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 (sometimes): 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 and in-between! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

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.

Mother's Biscuits

MOTHER'S BISCUITS
—Freda Quenneville

In a big bowl she'd fluff in flour,
Make a fist-dent
For buttermilk and lard which she squeezed
Between her fingers
The way a child goes at a mud puddle,
Raking dry flour
From the sides until it mixed right.

She'd give the dough a pat for luck,
Nip a springy bud,
Roll it round and flat-it-down
With a motion
Continued to a grease-shined pan.
Mother's biscuits
Cooked high, crusty, with succulent middles
That took attention
At company dinners; but on kitchen-nights
They were finest
Soaked with pot liquor or gravy.

And those rich biscuits could put a shine
On Sunday patent
That let the Lord know who was there.
A panful stood
Ready as magic at dawn's light:
I'd take some
When leaving late to the schoolbus
And up the road
I'd run, puffing through biscuit crumbs
My haloed breath
Into the skin-sharp morning air.

___________________

—Medusa

Sleepless Dunes

THE CAPE'S ULYSSES
—B.Z. Niditch, Brookline, MA

Airy crows and egrets
reach a trembling dawn,
in the yellow sun
you gesture July daylight
wanting a bronze oar,
sweating and out of breath
with the sparkle
of your adventurous eyes
like an exiled Ulysses
scarring the surf,
not expecting Minotaurs
and wandering mermaids
to follow the wind and sea
combing the beach
and shifting
your spongy visor
by lighthouse sounds,
you collect shining sails
shells and visions
on the wings of swans.

__________________

Thanks, B.Z.! B.Z. Niditch is a frequent contributor to the Snake; see our latest issue for more of his poems.

VISITING HOURS
—B.Z. Niditch

Hectoring Spanish memories
of the Caribbean Sea
when you lost
your Yucatan cap
on twilight waves
in the frenzied wind
by a sailboat's gaze
along capricious seas.

You were unprepared
at lunch break,
suddenly caught up
in the white walled room
of body worries,
eyeing tubes, water, blood
in a travel of grief,
bed clothed in icy odor
by cheering-on words
of comfort inside.

Your noonday face
stares at mirror, liquids, lilacs
to the rudderless stop
of a dead-end silence,
wishing again
for the mawkish delight
to phantom dance
down river, forever.

__________________

RUST ISLAND
—B.Z. Niditch

Blackbirds call
under a buried sky,
seaflakes depart
on an ocean scent
besieged by clouds
of hibiscus and rose.

You walk a pebbled sand path
as shore winds murmur,
an island flutters
over your sealed lids
till you awaken
in a sleepless dune
between night and shade.

In the barest of grasses
you wander aimlessly,
passing forgotten kayaks,
on a dispersion of shells
till you reach the ocean's
fresh air memory
and sea gulls appear,
gliding over
a daytime's limpid waters.

__________________

WHITE MOUNTAINS
—B.Z. Niditch

On wakened paths
watching puzzles of flakes
slip off deciduous elm
the wind tosses covers
over dizzy branches
icicles hang on downy rocks
haystacks and daybeds,
beaked eyelids
will capture boughs
of hilltop grasslands
transparent as snowbirds
too cautious for morning.

You make no promises
in an abandoned landscape
frozen in your palms
wishing for nature's simplicity
by vanilla garden boxes
an incalculable stone
hedged in for a last time
skywriting your initials
on climbing memory.

_________________

KALEIDOSCOPE
—B.Z. Niditch

An absent time
like a death
in the camera store
someone ages
and an exile
winks nearby
trying to catch
the hair from moving
on his poised cat
by a dusty runaway
looking out
at our daydream
while taking pictures
from a stolen lens
on the sun effaced hour
blades are mowed down
by the butterfly pond
near the aspen tree
caught on audible flesh
the wind removes you
like a memory of footsteps
by the half greensward field
you long for the sea
even for the friendship
of the snowy Atlantic
or eating up photos
of unpronounceable fruit
in a distant country.

__________________

BURDEN DOWN
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

I am my abandoned belongings, loosely packed
mindsets left in terminals, thoughts adrift with

lives, heirlooms, journals, poems, in
an oilstain sea flame-laced, conscience cargo

bobbing applish and elusive,
PT-109 crew already scooped up

one boat over, something having missed,
me having missed some awakeness,

some airlift, some rapture. Where’s
God, now that I’ve kicked away

Her rope ladder in the wave-chop,
certain that desperate I would never need

the scoop-up rescue. What is punishment
enough? I lost a sea-floor array of books,

certain the 1986 flood wouldn’t swamp
the garage. A three-volume Rambler

by Samuel Johnson, reprint from 1806,
went, and schools more of tomes,

vaster and faster than Bishop’s
wasn’t-a-disaster. What I left

now feels like what tore from me in a rage,
rage and neglect the glue

peeling from me chunks of tissue, Hercules’ shirt,
Hercules’ shirt. Sheila the caregiver

persuaded me I could dispense
with scrapbooks, looseleafs, reams

of old mom and grandma photos.
Her mind’s gone, and what you have left

is just luggage. Take; eat; this is my body.
Shred, rip, toss; this was her and me.
Tell me no more to lay my burden,
my burden, my burden down.

___________________

Thanks, Tom, for responding to this week's Seed: What We Leave Behind.

___________________

Today's LittleNip:

To be happy, a man must love death and failure.

—Marvin Bell, from his poem, "Written During Depression: How to be Happy"

__________________


—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

Now available at The Book Collector in Sacramento, and (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/: Thirteen Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell; #2 in Katy Brown's series of blank journals (Musings2: Vices, Virtues and Obsessions); a free littlesnake broadside (Wind Physics) from Jordan Reynolds; plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review (also free!). Contributor and subscription copies of RR19 will be going into the mail this week. Next deadline for submissions is November 15.

Coming in October: October’s release at The Book Collector on Weds., Oct. 8, will feature a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). That's at the Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s.

Then, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, Rattlesnake Press will release two SpiralChaps to honor and celebrate Luna’s Café, including a new collection of art and poetry from B.L. Kennedy (Luna’s House of Words) and an anthology of Luna’s poets, artists and photographs (La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café) edited by Frank Andrick. Come travel with our Away Team as we leave the Home of the Snake for a brief road trip/time travel to Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento to celebrate Art Luna and the 13 years of Luna's long-running poetry series. Who knows what auspicious adventures await us there?


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 (sometimes): 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 and in-between! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

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.

The Stars Are Calling

Allan Johnston

LAST NIGHT
—Allan Johnston, Evanston, IL

Last night I took my telephone out
for a walk. The stars were calling.

It was high time. I needed to watch it.
Stars phone water. What can I say?

The pointillist or needle machine
of the abashed heavens? Up there

atomic wars twinkle, it's the fashion.
Last night the ice was skimming

watch-face thin across the water,
moving like God in crazed creation,

for the ice, too, crazed as I stepped,
and there were coins of snow

strong as a pulse as they feathered through
the air. The world was involving itself

with winter; I didn't know who to call
any longer, or what to call them:

freezing, still, intense, near sorrow.
Last night I looked at what I thought

to be the grave of everything,
and I was right. The seasons danced

like aging acrobats,
the fire sign couldn't do anything.

Last night the heavens announced the news:
There is only peace on earth.


(originally appeared in Flnid's English)

___________________

Thanks, Allan! Allan Johnston lives near Chicago, where he teaches writing and literature at DePaul University and Columbia College. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Poetry East, Rattle, The MacGuffin, Rhino, Weber Studies, and over 60 other journals. He has also published one book of poems, Tasks of Survival. Among his awards are placement in the New Letters poetry competition and a fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council.

___________________

Is it Friday already?? We missed a Thursday Drive-by! My bad...

B.L.'s Drive-Bys: A Micro-Review from B.L. Kennedy:

California Gothic
by Dennis Etchison
DreamHaven Books
1309 Fourth Street, S.E.
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414-2029
$28, 216pp, Hardcover
ISBN 0-9630944-6-7

I’ll tell you that it is not easy finding unique titles and authors to review, so it blows your mind when it happens all at once—with not one but two titles by writer Dennis Etchison, the author of such classics as DarkSide and short story collections, The Dark Country, Red Dreams and The Blood Kiss. Etchison is, simply put, one of the best writers out there today. You may ask “Why haven’t we heard of him?” The simple answer would be BIG BOX BOOK PUBLISHING and BIG BOOK BOOKSTORES!

Whenever or wherever you see a book by Dennis Etchison and have the chance to purchase it, do so without question. You cannot go wrong with the investment. His books are not easy to find, but please do hunt them down. Hunt them down and bury yourself in the narrative.

—B.L. Kennedy, Reviewer-in-Residence

__________________

This weekend's NorCal poetry:

•••Friday (9/19), 7:30 PM: An Evening of Baroque Poetry: Annual All-Spanish reading based on the poems of the Mexican nun, Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1-24 22nd St., Sacramento. Presented by Escritores del Nuevo Sol / Writers of the New Sun. Donation: $5, or as you can afford. Info: 916-456-5323.

•••Friday (9/19), 7:30 PM: The Other Voice presents James Lee Jobe at The Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, 27074 Patwin Road, Davis. Allegra Silberstein will host. There will be an open reading following the featured reader. This is a free event. Info: 530-750-3514.

•••Friday (9/19), 7 PM: Poetry at Raven's Tale Bookstore, 352 Main St., Placerville. Featured readers are Indigo Moor and Quinton Duval. A short poetry open-mic follows (signup before the featured readers). There is no charge.

•••Saturday (9/20), 4-6 PM: Autumn edition of the Women's Writing Salon; men are welcome to join the audience, too. Coffee Town, 134 S. Auburn St., Grass Valley. Entrance is free, food and beverages are available at the cafe. Readers include Doreen Domb, Grace Fae, Grace Tea, Robin Zimmerman, Chris Irving, Betsy Graziani Fasbinder. Info: bgf2u@sbcglobal.net or Patricia Miller, dovepat@oro.net/.

•••Saturday (9/20), 7-9 PM: Underground Books poetry series presents Claudia Epperson and The Forgotton One at 2814 35th St. (off 35th & Broadway), Sacramento. $3.00. Info: (916) 208-POET.

•••Monday (9/22), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Robert Grossklaus and Miles Miniacci, with music by Litany. HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. Open mic after.

___________________

DEPARTURES
—Allan Johnston

Picture the wicker of the rippled water
as he remembers it, or recall
the surface burnished smooth as stone, the weather
easy as a summer ought to be;
easy as the liquor in the glass
through which the table's curvature distorts
into a bulging eye, or else an egg
forever unbroken. After it passes the lip,
the loud song of vodka in the mouth
details another moment of departure,
another salutation to the missing
that brings him back across the continent
to face again the place where waves slap down
and splash the land below the orange-brown cliffs
he'd climb down to reach the sea and find her
mottled in foam and in memoranda of driftwood,
in the hottentot fig and coastal flowers
that open spiked heads outward toward water.
On the bicycle path he'd follow homeward
past the fields where deer feed in wild wheat,
the black heads of grasses sway in breezes
before you and behind you. If you remember
the waves of grass, if you recall the sound
of birds as they chirp their hopelessness,
if you recall the seed of loss that opened
in his voice, the dream of the second person,
then you know the time is ripe for departure,
for the land between us is as real
as the brief stretch of my hand before my eye,
and yet as ineffaceable as stone,
as insistent as the patterning of water
and as hard as the broken love that comes between us.


(originally appeared in Dickinson Review)

___________________

SANTA ANA
—Allan Johnston

suddenly it comes out of nowhere
upsetting the venetian blind, attacking
the rubber plant, knocking the sash cord
against the TV's whispering.

out of the nowhere of the mad
igniting the air, fusing the senses
with smells of the south, with heat in its jaws
it breathes out the block of summer,

the sweat and heaviness
out of nowhere in the house
is now gone out the window
leaving sweat drying on the skin,

the heart beating, a hot wind that somewhere
justifies murder, as if lit
with the yell of air. It fires the man-hide,
dries skin, cleans mind, callously refreshes.


(originally appeared in Orbis)

___________________

AFTER SUMMER'S DROWNING
—Allan Johnston

Carapaces of ice on branches
Dagger downward to surfaces
Where with the ease of dancers,
The skaters now start winter
Gliding across the water's surplus,
Defying frozen air.

In the cold-bleached atmosphere
Of blades tracing a lace
Upon the ice, all calling hinders
Any pursuit of answers
For what lies under the face
Of incommunicable dances.

They come gliding—brief glancers
Into beauty, recrossing the trace
Of their own blades' cuttings, fixed trances
Revealing enchanted splendors
Of art for itself. Such givers of grace
Abstract thought or fear

Out of the under-surface. Here,
Above, tops spinning on glass,
Crystal harmonics of light! The wonder
Of such figured elegance
Surrenders winter to this place.
No longer do fretful glances

Linger on the hand that launches
Out of that water; the moment's waste
Becomes a remembered slant
Of sunlight drifting on the blanch
Of drunken stupor bringing the pass
Over the boat edge; whiskey and beer

Can blast memory, destroy clear
Remembrance, as a knife would slash
So easily through all the staunched
Surprise of beauty. No need to repent
The way even death is bathed
In such watery runs of romance.


(originally appeared on CAPSU online)

__________________

Today's LittleNip:

It's silly to suggest the writing of poetry as something ethereal, a sort of soul-crashing emotional experience that wrings you. I have no fancy ideas about poetry. It doesn't come to you on the wings of a dove. It's something you work hard at.

—Louise Bogan

__________________


—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

Now available at The Book Collector in Sacramento, and (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/: Thirteen Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell; #2 in Katy Brown's series of blank journals (Musings2: Vices, Virtues and Obsessions); a free littlesnake broadside (Wind Physics) from Jordan Reynolds; plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review (also free!). Contributor and subscription copies of RR19 will be going into the mail this week. Next deadline for submissions is November 15.

Coming in October: October’s release at The Book Collector on Weds., Oct. 8, will feature a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). That's at the Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s.

Then, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, Rattlesnake Press will release two SpiralChaps to honor and celebrate Luna’s Café, including a new collection of art and poetry from B.L. Kennedy (Luna’s House of Words) and an anthology of Luna’s poets, artists and photographs (La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café) edited by Frank Andrick. Come travel with our Away Team as we leave the Home of the Snake for a brief road trip/time travel to Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento to celebrate Art Luna and the 13 years of Luna's long-running poetry series. Who knows what auspicious adventures await us there?


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 (sometimes): 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 and in-between! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

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.

We Did Laugh

nila northSun

BABY FINGERS

—nila northSun, Fallon, Nevada

grandson is getting close
to the terrible twos
when i arrived
he just had on diapers
and he immediately wanted
to get dressed cause
he thought i was there
to pick him up
to see his great-grandparents
i know this 'cause
he said 'poppa'
i said no we're just going to
sit here and visit
he scowled and started to
pinch himself!!
he ís just a little baby
he ís still just saying moo when
i ask what the cow says
and meow when i ask
what the cat says
when i sing the itsy bitsy spider
his little fingers mimic mine
as they wiggle into the air
and now this devious twist
for his baby digits
the little bugger is
a budding self mutilator
his tiny little fingers taking
teensy little bits of arm flesh
and pinching
oh so sad to see
my little guy hurt himself
need to teach him
other ways of coping
i won't mention
gramma's suicide fantasies.

_________________

Thanks, nila! This Thursday (9/18), at 7:30 PM, The Nevada County Poetry Series features nila northSun and Sacramento's Terryl Wheat in the Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Info: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included. [See last Tuesday's post for bios.]

Then Friday (9/19) at 7:30 PM, The Other Voice presents James Lee Jobe at The Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, 27074 Patwin Road, Davis. Allegra Silberstein will host. There will be an open reading following the featured reader. This is a free event. Info: 530-750-3514. [See last Monday's post for a bio.] James Lee sent us this prose poem as a response to Medusa's Seed of the Week, which he (rightly) interpreted as being about letting go:

1st Wife
—James Lee Jobe

Dear Laura,

Hi. I saw a woman this morning that looked a lot like you, or rather, she looked as I would imagine you might look today. It is more than 30 years since my passion for you was as a young man's passion should be. I wrote you many poems, wrecked a relationship to be with you, went down in flames when you walked out on me. Let's just say it was you. You looked good, baby. Your eyes were darker than I remember, that might be the wear of years and other divorces, other late night clutchings that went south on you. You were standing in a line for cinnamon buns at a stand when I saw you, this fine spring morning, the air was as cool as a dream, and the sun draped across my skin like warm velvet, and I fell into line behind you, took a chance and smelled your hair, clean and fresh, new, just like before. The line was slow, way too slow for you, the way married life was. You grew bored, made little snuffling sounds of protest, and finally just wandered off, leaving me there on my own. This time I didn't crash, dear Laura, first wife, I stayed, waited it all out, smiled at other people who were waiting too, had a delightful breakfast on a shady bench, found a quarter on the ground, and pulled out my notebook one more time for you. Goodbye, goodbye.

Love,

James

___________________

LET'S DO LUNCH
—nila northSun

A co-worker of a couple months
said let’s do lunch
She figured to be
A team player
Slipped into the
Passenger seat
Beside him
He shifted gears smoothly
Flipped a cd in
And drove onto
The freeway
Where are we going?
She asked as buildings
Turned to trees
He purred I know a special place
It’ll be at the next exit
As he slipped his hand
Toward her knee
Bared from a too-short skirt
Damn it she thought
I should have worn pants
He took the exit
More rural
Trees and narrow roads
Umm
I think I made a mistake
I better get back
To the office
I don’t have time for lunch after all
She said looking at his face
For some tell tale signs

Besides
‘no’
it was the last thing
she ever said

it’s about power
not about sex.

__________________

WHAT MAKES THEIR EYES GO DEAD
—nila northSun

you always hear how their eyes
were black holes
as they committed some
atrocity
like the man
who just stomped his
2 year old to death
killing him way past dead
last weekend in california
or the woman who
drove a knife repeatedly into
her aging father's back
or even my cousin
as he held his young wife's
shot gurgling body down
so it could bleed out
while family and cops
stood in horror
and we saw black holes
dead eyes in his face
he didn't even look like my cousin
some zombie stranger instead
just like the father killing his
baby son
people holler
people grab at them
they don't hear
their black eyes don't see
they just do what they do
as if possessed

where is the chemistry in this?
somebody tell me
there is an explaination
and don't tell me about the devil
tell me how
the 'normal' person
suddenly does these things?
the good neighbor
the good co-worker
the good child
don't tell me about the devil
but i do believe
their soul is gone
how did that happen?
what ate it up?
and can we make it stop doing that?

__________________

THESE LIPS
—nila northSun

these lips
will not know
earthly pleasures
like the sip of wine
or your kiss
they will not whisper
what i have learned
about who i am
into your patient ear
that you might pass
my legacy onto
future generations
but for the time
i was here
we did laugh
we did tease
we did tell stories
remember that each day

and on some nites
you will feel
my lips brush your
sleeping cheek
and kiss the dried tears.

___________________

Today's LittleNip

Just get it down on paper, and then we'll see what to do with it.

—Maxwell Perkins

__________________


—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

Now available at The Book Collector in Sacramento, and (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/: Thirteen Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell; #2 in Katy Brown's series of blank journals (Musings2: Vices, Virtues and Obsessions); a free littlesnake broadside (Wind Physics) from Jordan Reynolds; plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review (also free!). Contributor and subscription copies of RR19 will be going into the mail this week and next. Next deadline for submissions is November 15.

Coming in October: October’s release at The Book Collector on Weds., Oct. 8, will feature a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). That's at the Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s.

Then, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, Rattlesnake Press will release two SpiralChaps to honor and celebrate Luna’s Café, including a new collection of art and poetry from B.L. Kennedy (Luna’s House of Words) and an anthology of Luna’s poets, artists and photographs (La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café) edited by Frank Andrick. Come travel with our Away Team as we leave the Home of the Snake for a brief road trip/time travel to Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento to celebrate Art Luna and the 13 years of Luna's long-running poetry series. Who knows what auspicious adventures await us there?


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 (sometimes): 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 and in-between! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

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.

The White Silence

WHAT WE’RE KEEPING,
WHAT WE LEFT BEHIND
—Taylor Graham, Somerset/Placerville

Three German Shepherds and two cats—
cougar sign at dawn, coyote howl—
Tlingit eagle totem, Alaska 1972—
Sandhill Cranes passing over—
Polaris pointing our north corner—
Leonids above the windmill field—
Rilke’s Duineser Elegien—
shelves of books I haven’t read in years—
Mozart’s Horn Concertos on your hard-drive—
my grandmother’s antique organ—
your father’s desertscape in oils—
cathedral pines before the door—
blue-and-tawny stoneware from Moke Hill—
twenty Thanksgivings of Blue Willow—
my mother’s Navajo blanket—
bedrock mortars and a midden stone—
the Harvest Moon reflected threefold in glass—
Wolf Moon stalking our west window—
old photos of us much younger—
all those long-gone years—
We’ll keep each other.

___________________

Thanks to Taylor Graham for responding to our Seed of the Week: What We Keep/What We Leave Behind. Donald Anderson also sent in a response:


JUST ANOTHER DAY
—Donald R. Anderson, Stockton

I still like the sushi restaurant
we would meet at when together;
we would meet at as friends sadly
contemplating getting back together or not.
Our passion knew limits,
though I denied it at the time.
The beauty in your face, your body,
all stays with me no matter what.
But it's not enough to overcome
the obstacles of a heart grown older,
in the way that angels have to give up
on the world of the living.
A new life now,
but still rings the echoes
of the good that existed.
The songs we shared in the car,
in my apartment,
in the places we went.
The sharing of experiences
that were rebellious of the world,
stretching the limits.
I still hear your footsteps,
and as the leaves turn red,
I still hear your voice
in Just Like Heaven.
Like a thousand generations before us,
love is known,
and we take souvenirs that remind us
despite the homesick feeling it brings.
Is it easier to forget?
Or is the inexplicable beauty of sadness deeper
than the oceans;
is this necessary,
necessary in defining us, who we are,
in making it through another day.

__________________

Donald reminds us to check out his http://rainflowers.org/, and that the anthology, Moon Mist Valley, is accepting submissions through December (guidelines on www.moonmistvalley.com).


In the mood for a workshop?

•••Tuesday nights, 7:30 PM (on-going): Sacramento Poetry Center sponsors a critiquing workshop at the Hart Center on 27th & J Sts. in Sacramento. Bring 15-20 copies of a poem you'd like to have workshopped. Free.

•••Room to Write: Bob Stanley leads a poetry writing workshop on Thursdays from 7-8:30 PM. This weekly group offers in-class writing exercises, group work, and individual feedback, providing a supportive forum for beginning poets as well as more advanced writers. Drop-ins are welcome at $30/session. To register, or for more info, call Bob at 916-240-1897 or email bobstanley@sbcglobal.net/.

•••Tuesday nights in Truckee, 6:30-8 PM, Teen Center on Donner Pass Rd. next to Kid Zone. You can sign up for a slight discount for four-week sessions ($68) through the Rec. Dept. of Truckee at the Community Center, 10046 Church St., Truckee, 530-582-7720 or you can pay $20 drop-in fee and just show up each Tuesday night. Either way, if you want to develop your writing and your writing practice, this workshop will make it happen. Write. Connect with a writing community, generate new material, play with language and meaning, explore craft and form, and develop a writing practice in a creative environment. Learn to workshop your pieces in a supportive group. Karen Terrey, poetry editor for the literary arts journal, Quay, holds an MFA in creative writing, attended the Squaw Valley Writer’s Poetry Conference, the Napa Valley Writer's Conference, and teaches creative writing at Sierra Nevada College. Publications in which her work can be found include Poet’s Espresso, Moonshine Ink, Off the Coast, Rattlesnake Review, Sierra Nevada Review, and forthcoming in Rhino and Word Riot. Info: www.karenaterrey.blogspot.com/. [Also check out Medusa's profile of Karen; go to May, 2008 in the archives column at the right of this and scroll down to May 22.]

•••December 7-12, 2008: Writing and Knowing: 5th Annual Poetry Workshop with Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux and Joseph Millar at Esalen, Big Sur, CA. Ellen Bass writes: We will write poems, share our writing, and hear what our work touches in others. We'll also read model poems by contemporary poets and discuss aspects of the craft. But mainly this will be a writing retreat—time to explore and create in a supportive community. Though the focus is on poetry, prose writers who want to enrich their language will find it a fertile environment. Please join us if:

*You've hit a plateau in your writing and want to break through to the next level.
*You're just beginning and want to get started with supportive teachers.
*You're an experienced writer and just want a chance to learn more from the best.
*You're in a dry spell, due to lack of inspiration or time.
*You love to write and want a gorgeous, inspiring retreat.

Esalen fees cover tuition, food and lodging and vary according to accommodations, ranging from $475 to $1060. The least expensive rate is for sleeping bag space which can be very comfortable, but it's limited, so you need to sign up for it early. Some work-scholarship assistance is available, as well as small prepayment discounts and senior discounts.

All arrangements and registration must be made directly with Esalen. If you have questions about the workshop itself, please email Ellen (ellen@ellenbass.com) or call her at 831-426-8006. (Also check out her website at www.ellenbass.com/.) Please register directly with Esalen at 831-667-3005 or visit www.esalen.org/.

_________________

INDIAN SUMMER AT LAND'S END
—Stanley Kunitz

The season stalls, unseasonably fair,
blue-fair, serene, a stack of golden discs,
each disc a day, and the addition slow.
I wish you were here with me to walk the flats,
toward dusk especially when the tide is out
and the bay turns opal, filled with rolling fire
that washes on the mouldering wreck offshore,
our mussel-vineyard, strung with bearded grapes.
Last night I reached for you and shaped you there
lying beside me as we drifted past
the farthest seamarks and the watchdog bells,
and round Long Point throbbing its frosty light,
until we streamed into the open sea.
What did I know of voyaging till now?
Meanwhile I tend my flock small golden puffs
impertinent as wrens, with snipped-off tails,
who bounce down from the trees. High overhead,
on the trackless roads, skywriting V and yet
another V, the southbound Canada express
hoots of horizons and distances...

___________________

NOTES FROM ANOTHER CITY
—Virginia Hamilton Adair

As you struck the keys
a force of visions and passions came forth.
I was seeing the hands of the composer
over the keyboard marking black notes on white paper.
All the while, beyond a window:
the autumn leaves were letting go,
saying good-bye to the parent tree,
the safe residence of the bough;
I could see their colors as the shaper of the sonata
saw them, winging into the water
that eddies under the stone bridge,
coloring the cobbles under the horse's hoofs,
half-heard, half-seen by the musician.
The living line under his pen marked the melody in his mind,
while its rhythm partook of the ghostly hoofbeats,
passing so long ago, so far distant.

The builder of that edifice of sounds heard it,
and the pianist of this morning
a hundred years beyond the builder's death
heard it, and I, listening as a ghost in that town
look up at the window
behind which the composer plays a bar,
watches the leaves falling and fallen,
puts their track on paper:
the white silence that will be reborn
forever at the touch of two hands.

___________________

Today's LittleNip

Writing is a form of talking to oneself. It is no exaggeration to say that I could not have survived as well without it. For ordinary talk, a walk will do. But talk that flings itself from a cliff to see if it can fly is another thing...

—Marvin Bell

__________________


—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

Now available at The Book Collector in Sacramento, and (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/: Thirteen Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell; #2 in Katy Brown's series of blank journals (Musings2: Vices, Virtues and Obsessions); a free littlesnake broadside (Wind Physics) from Jordan Reynolds; plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review (also free!). Contributor and subscription copies of RR19 will be going into the mail this week and next. Next deadline for submissions is November 15.

Coming in October: October’s release at The Book Collector on Weds., Oct. 8, will feature a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). That's at the Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s.

Then, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, Rattlesnake Press will release two SpiralChaps to honor and celebrate Luna’s Café, including a new collection of art and poetry from B.L. Kennedy (Luna’s House of Words) and an anthology of Luna’s poets, artists and photographs (La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café) edited by Frank Andrick. Come travel with our Away Team as we leave the Home of the Snake for a brief road trip/time travel to Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento to celebrate Art Luna and the 13 years of Luna's long-running poetry series. Who knows what auspicious adventures await us there?


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 (sometimes): 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 and in-between! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

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.

The Pack-Rat In All Of Us

AUTUMN POEMS
—Nikki Giovanni

the heat
you left with me
last night
still smolders
the wind catches
your scent
and refreshes
my senses

i am a leaf
falling from your tree
upon which i was
impaled

___________________

Addition to this week's calendar:

•••Thursday (9/18), 7:30 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series features nila northSun and Terryl Wheat in the Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Info: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included.

nila northSun, of Shoshone-Chippewa descent, is the daughter of renowned Native American activist Adam Fortunate Eagle—one of the more prominent figures in the 1969-1971 Indian takeover of Alcatraz. She is identified with the Native American Renaissance of the 1970s and 1980s; her poem, "moving camp too far", remains a sentinel work of the period. northSun has published four volumes of poetry: love at gunpoint; a snake in her mouth; Small Bones, Little Eyes; and Diet Pepsi and Nacho Cheese; and authored After the Drying Up of the Water: A Tribal History, a history of the Paiute-Shoshone tribe. She lives on the Stillwater Indian Reservation in Fallon, Nevada, where she works as a grant writer. nila recently received the Sierra Arts Foundation Literary Award 2008 for her contributions in poetry. Her poems bridge family history and traditional tribal identity with the challenges of being a contemporary American woman.

Terryl Wheat remembers first writing at age twelve. She says, “At fourteen or fifteen I attended my first open-mic and was hopelessly hooked. There was nothing anyone could have done. No amount of math, science or history could have saved me, the poems had me!” Moving to midtown Sacramento brought Terryl to Luna's Cafe where, as she says, “I met many wise old cats that became priceless mentors. Without them I fear what I would be writing now—the thought is unnerving.” For Terryl, it’s not only the poetry, but the learning experiences and characters met along the way. Outside of poetry, Terryl climbs rocks and, on occasion, after a healthy dose of spirits—maybe a midtown building—she does the trendy yoga thing, plays with kitty cats, likes candle lit dinners, long walks on the beach, is a Leo and open-minded. Terryl says. “I have successfully dropped out of City College three times—with the intentions of doing so again...” [See Volume 2 of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series, for an interview of Terryl Wheat.]

_________________

REQUIEM FOR A WAYSIDE DOG
—Allegra Jostad Silberstein, Davis

dies irae, dies illa
that day
had I left a few moments earlier…or later
had I stayed home
had I been driving slower or faster
had the hourglass not emptied

quantus tremor est futurus
the fleet shadow
the brief thud
terror braking when all was lost
except the dreadful knowledge

ingemisco tamquam reus
with guilty moan I make a u-turn
revealing the dog who had crossed over
to open field on the other side
no collar
only a bit of rope around his neck
on his side as if at rest

oro supplex et acclinis
I kneel beside him
pray he might still be alive
his jaw opens and closes
I place my hand on his head
on his shoulders
feel the wracked breath

mors stupebit et natura
I feel death near
as gently I pet him hoping
touch might pass through the pain
to give comfort
moments only—his breathing stops

lacrymosa dies illa
tears blinding I leave
with heart contrite
covered with ashes
cor contritum quasi clinis
libera me, dona me pachem

___________________

Thanks, Allegra, for your response to last week's Seed of the Week: Dogs—and, actually, the SOW the week before: Things You Don't Want to Write About. Be sure to head on over to Davis this Friday, by the way, as Allegra hosts a poetry reading featuring James Lee Jobe in the Unitarian Church of Davis, 27074 Patwin Road, Davis. There will be an open reading following the featured reader. This is a free event. Info: 530-750-3514. [See yesterday's post for a bio of James Lee Jobe.]

This week's Seed of the Week is The Things We Keep/The Things We Leave Behind. Two years ago, the Kieths down-sized to a smaller house, and it has taken us all this time to finally get re-organized. Now Hatch and Taylor Graham are "moving house", leaving the home they built in Somerset and moving to one just below Placerville. Such moves are an exercise in what to keep, what to throw away. What do you need? What can't you do without? What do you think you need? Of course, we're not just talking about things here...

By the way, the Grahams have a Danish modern birchwood oval table with two extension sections for sale, if you need one. Contact me and I'll pass it on.

___________________

MASTER CHARGE: BLUES
—Nikki Giovanni

it's wednesday night baby
and i'm all alone
wednesday night baby
and i'm all alone
sitting with myself
waiting for the telephone

wanted you baby
but you said you had to go
wanted you yeah
but you said you had to go
called your best friend
but he can't come 'cross no more

did you ever go to bed
at the end of a busy day
look over and see the smooth
where your hump usta lay
feminine odor and no reason why
asked the lord to help me
he shook his head "not i"

but i'm a modern woman baby
ain't gonna let this get me down
i'm a modern woman
ain't gonna let this get me down
gonna take my master charge
and get everything in town

_________________

ALONE
—Nikki Giovanni

i can be
alone by myself
i was
lonely alone
now i'm lonely
with you
something is wrong
there are flies
everywhere
i go

__________________

BALANCES
—Nikki Giovanni

in life
one is always
balancing

like we juggle our mothers
against our fathers

or one teacher
against another
(only to blaance our grade average)

3 grains salt
to one ounce truth

our sweet black essence
or the funky honkies down the street

and lately i've begun wondering
if you're trying to tell me something

we used to talk all night
and do things alone together

and i've begun
(as a reaction to a feeling)
to balance
the pleasure of loneliness
against the pain
of loving you

___________________

Today's LittleNip: The Things We Leave Behind

You can fire your secretary, divorce your spouse, abandon your children. But they remain your co-authors forever.

—Ellen Goodman

__________________

Pack-rat

—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

Now available at The Book Collector in Sacramento, and (soon) from rattlesnakepress.com/: Thirteen Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell; #2 in Katy Brown's series of blank journals (Musings2: Vices, Virtues and Obsessions); a free littlesnake broadside (Wind Physics) from Jordan Reynolds; plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review (also free!). Contributor and subscription copies of RR19 will be going into the mail this week and next. Next deadline for submissions is November 15.

Coming in October: October’s release at The Book Collector on Weds., Oct. 8, will feature a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). That's at the Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s.

Then, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, Rattlesnake Press will release two SpiralChaps to honor and celebrate Luna’s Café, including a new collection of art and poetry from B.L. Kennedy (Luna’s House of Words) and an anthology of Luna’s poets, artists and photographs (La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café) edited by Frank Andrick. Come travel with our Away Team as we leave the Home of the Snake for a brief road trip/time travel to Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento to celebrate Art Luna and the 13 years of Luna's long-running poetry series. Who knows what auspicious adventures await us there?


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 (sometimes): 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 and in-between! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

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.