Abyss

Patricia Hickerson

THE YEAR OF BEING THIRTEEN
—Patricia Hickerson, Davis

August without soul,
nothing moves
sap not rising
dusty branch
crackling leaf
soon to fall...

bristle of chin
thread of hair
thin of lip
corner bubbling...

He comes toward me
Hold still he says
wet kiss—
bristles scorch my face
Don't tell he says
nothing moves
but Grandpa

__________________

Thanks to Patricia Hickerson for today's sharp poems on a difficult subject. Born in New York, Pat Hickerson danced in Warner Bros. "kiddie" [movie] shorts, is a former Bay Area journalist and Penthouse contributor, and presently lives in Davis, California.


ROMANCE
—Patricia Hickerson

Rape, I want you to get the feel of it,
said the Green-Eyed Knight to his lady-in-arms
and she obeyed at 3 a.m.
bedded down at Grail Castle Hotel,
once the inn of gold-seekers,
storied of old, waters edge,
Port Camelot.

He held her
rammed against the bedstead's iron bars
head twisted round.
Hustled into her
deep, wide
too deep, too wide—

Hers was a small space skin space
soft place
linked to rose petals and nerve tendrils
trickled down the backs of her legs
locked in currents of pain
the rest of her life...

In too deep.
Was it only a 3-second nap
from all the fire pumped into her? or
from passion perverted,
its saturnine face darkly smiling
into hers?

She-who-must-be-punished
—she began to wonder,
floated a cautionary sailboat
out across Reason's lake.

__________________

ABYSS
—Patricia Hickerson

the hole kept getting bigger

she staggered out of her bedroom
down the hall to the dining room
and there, by one of the chairs,
she was stopped by the sight of the hole
spreading from where she stood
she was about to fall into it

she didn't care about her husband, only
her children
(who knew nothing about the nightmare man
at her heels)
though she could no longer see her children while
standing over their bodies in bed

to the hospital for pills
Have you been assaulted?
no...yes...I wanted it

she trembled—
Mother was reading Bluebeard
wives hung on hooks in the locked closet
blood pooled at their dangled feet
Mother's thready voice called up to the lookout tower:
Sister Anne, Sister Anne, do you see my brothers coming?

the pills kicked in,
she fell asleep hiding the tell-tale key
(Fatima waiting for rescue)

pills
hypo
breathless she slid down a no-holds brick wall
the abyss waited below

she pretended to be alive
ghost living in a foreign land...

___________________

SOFTLY PURRING HE RAPES HER PURSE
—Patricia Hickerson

King of Cats—
denizen of dark alleys
muscled, sleek and smiling
whiskers angled
ears on edge
slides over the back fence
six pack under his arm
out of Lisa's yard
into Megan's

Surprise!

scratches at the door
purrs her name whatever it is—confusion
after a day at the track
lost a bundle
but what of it?
he knows where to pounce...

Claws retracted
his velvet paws
massage her fur
into oblivion—
she'll forget she ever had a purse
Mmmmmmeow!

__________________

Today's LittleNip:

Twilight—the only conversation
on this hill
Is the wind blowing through the pines.

—Ryokan (translated by John Stevens)

__________________


—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

October is Sacramento Poetry Month! October’s releases from Rattlesnake Press include a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a free littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). Both are available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or from me (kathykieth@hotmail.com), or from rattlesnakepress.com/. Rattlechaps are $6 by mail, $5 at The Book Collector.

Be sure to join us on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, when Rattlesnake Press will release not one, but 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??

And check out B.L. Kennedy’s interview with Art Luna in the latest Rattlesnake Review (#19)! Free copies are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I’ll mail you one (address below). Next deadline, by the way, is November 15.

Coming in November: November will feature a new rattlechap from Red Fox Underground Poet Wendy Patrice Williams (Some New Forgetting); a littlesnake broadside from South Lake Tahoe Poet Ray Hadley; our 2009 calendar from Katy Brown (Beyond the Hill: A Poet’s Calendar) as well as Conversations, Vol. 4 of B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series. That’s Weds., November 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.


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 SOWs; 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.

Dreaming Like A Fish

Photo by Ronald Edwin Lane

FALL REFLECTIONS
—Ronald Edwin Lane, Weimar

The scent of summer still clings in the dry soil and shallow streams, high up in these mountains where summer barely gains a grip. It’s gone now; summer slipped down-slope to gather up geese in the valley, I suppose, while winter sweeps at its feet, from the north, nudging it to the south. Fall is nothing but a battleground scarred yellow and red that eventually bleeds to naked limbs and white painted pines. On this day the lake is a mirror holding mountain peaks and clouds for trout to kiss and send rings through the stratosphere of their watery world. And I, I stand on this battleground, dreaming like a fish of what lies beyond my world, of a girl, of rings, and of a tender kiss.

__________________

This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight (Friday, 10/24), 7:30 PM: Special Sacramento Poetry Center reading features Katy Lederer and Rebecca Morrison at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Refreshments. Katy Lederer is the author of the poetry collection, Winter Sex (Verse Press, 2002) and the memoir, Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers (Crown, 2003), which Publishers Weekly included on its list of the Best Nonfiction Books of the Year and Esquire Magazine named one of its eight Best Books of the Year. Her second poetry book, The Heaven-Sent Leaf, will be out with BOA Editions in the fall of 2008. Katy Lederer's poems and prose have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Harvard Review, GQ, and elsewhere. She has been anthologized in Body Electric (Norton), From Poe to the Present: Great American Prose Poems (Scribner), and State of the Union (Wave Books), among other compilations. Educated at the University of California at Berkeley and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she serves as a Poetry Editor of Fence Magazine. Her honors and awards include an Academy of American Poets Prize, fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a Discover Great New Writers citation from Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writers Program. Lederer currently works at the D.E. Shaw group, a proprietary trading firm based in New York City.

Rebecca Morrison (aka Eskimo Pie Girl) graduated summa cum laude from UC Davis. She has published 5 chapbooks. She was the former VP of the Sacramento Poetry Center, was one of the founding editors of Poetry Now, and is currently one of the hosts for the SPC reading series. She has been the editor of eskimopie.net for 7 years. She has been running the 3rd Sunday Writer's Group with Nancy Wallace since 1995. She has given over a 100 readings and has read her poetry in Sacramento, Davis, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Lodi, Stockton, Reno, Auburn, Nevada City, El Dorado Hills, New Hampshire, Fresno and elsewhere.

•••Sat. (10/25), 7-9 PM: ‘The Show’ poetry series presents the Berkeley Slam Team, which has won many local, regional, and national titles and features Christian Drake, the 2008 Berkeley Grand Slam Champion. 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 (10/26), 1 PM: Brad Buchanan will be performing poems from his new book, Swimming the Mirror, at The Avid Reader, 1600 Broadway, Sacramento. Brad Buchanan is the editor of Roan Press, an operation that he co-founded with his wife, Kate Washington, food writer for the Sacramento News & Review, Sunset Magazine and Via. Roan Press will be publishing 1-2 books per year, including poetry, fiction, essays, and memoirs, and are currently open for submissions. Below is the url for a story that came out about Swimming the Mirror and Roan Press, in the Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/107/story/1108331.html/. Brad has done many readings in the area (see this online review of one of his readings at http://greatamericanpinup.blogspot.com/2008/07/noras-favorite-brad-buchanan-poem.html)

•••Sunday (10/26), 11 AM: El Camino Poets (a chapter of California Society of Chaparral Poets, Inc.) meets at the Ethel Hart Sr. Center, 27th & J Sts., Sacramento for a poetry workshop. Bring 8 copies of your poems for critique. All poets are welcome!

•••Monday (10/27), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Meg Withers and Tom Goff at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic after. Meg Withers is a writer, teacher, artist, social activist, and community college instructor of English teaching at Merced Community College (Los Banos campus), but has Sacramento connections, as she has published in Poetry Now and the American River Review, in addition to such well-known journals as Nimrod. She received her MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State, where her graduate advisor was Maxine Chernoff. In particular, A Communion of Saints is moving, elliptically told, yet faithful to lived experience as it traces “ourgirl’s” wanderings amid the gay-lesbian-transgender community of Honolulu, Hawaii in the Eighties. Here are some samples:

***

…in the beginning was

the queen…not the queen certainly not the word…because they lie…the families this man/woman without kin exiled for abominations…wearing sequins parading through ranchstyle domicile in mothers pantyhose…spectator pumps shirtwaist dress with silicon injections for boobs later on… watery look leaks over drugs/mascara…such a lonelyheart this mirror…he/she asks the echo… ostracized? answers move to paradise… and thus…

…she painted her face and tired her head and looked out at a window.

—2 KINGS 9:30

***

. . .as ourgirl straddled grief
cold gulf between icon-pure desire of flesh...aware intrinsic
arid symbol status...she was all juggle dance soft flesh...
created to dwell amongst some other flesh...her softness
wore her down...flesh dying in bottles/pills/spoons...with
those other ones forsaken...those who schlepped her crystal
earrings/rhinestone pumps...but from whom there was no
fondle/kiss nor even touch...of her...
...for i also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore
suffered i thee not to touch her...

—GENESIS 20:6

(Two excerpts from A Communion of Saints, © Meg Withers)

***

CALIFORNIA PERENNIAL
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

Thick smoke invests the air for miles around.
But “miles around” supposes a pleasing distance.
This intimate gray presumes upon the ground;
it mimics fog—no moisture, just the dimness.
Tongues taste of a brass- or copper-savored spray.
No starts or jolts to scan for the motion sensor:
my workroom darkens. Outdoors, no birds fly:
just smoke, swung rich and repellent from the church censer.
Say this is our California, choked by fire;
these fumes a common perennial. Each return
of summer may expect the fey gray bloom
as writer’s block battens on trances, needle-inspired.
Will this pandemic recur? Then speed the doom.
I know it would not come back if it could not burn.

(with thanks to James Lee Jobe’s Just Poetry site, where this was posted)

***

FROM THE DARK END OF THE HALLWAY
—Tom Goff

The dark end of the hallway
gave on to my mother’s bedroom,
the room Mom at last had to be gently
brought to. There she’d be cajoled
to undress, persuaded into her nightgown,
coaxed to compose her restless hands
and wandering feet to sleep. She slept, or
was meant to, in the high, ebony-black Kentucky
bed brought so long ago over the Cumberland Gap,
the bed whose mattress began four
feet off the ground. This height dizzied her
like first planting feet on a gently canted plateau
atop a mountain, or the slow turn of a carousel
—beds are good for turning the slow dizzies in,
even for waltzing over and over the whole turnstile
world’s whirl—or perhaps her thoughts jumped
the great Cumberland Gap. At all events,
from the dark end of the hallway,
our bright-lit near end rendering the far dark
darker, blurrier, would come music, whistling
lips as if pressed upon the air: my mother,
whistling no particular tunes in no particular times,
but liquid, cherry-cheery. Was she reliving
the alternative girl she’d held
together like a time-release capsule,
let dissolve grain by grain these years,
only now accorded the last full fizz? Bartering
music for sleep, she’d lip-shape the notes
louder, louder, louder, the effervescence
filling the house, oxymoronic bonfire in the wet,
whistling not in the dark, but just whistling dark,
her whole musical soul bubbling
in ever more dizzy and lifting spirals
the waters of dissolve…

(previously posted at Medusa’s Kitchen)

__________________

THE 66
—dawn m. dibartolo, mather

bus stops.
sulfuric hiss
as doors open ~
welcome.

caramel man
with black-tooth grin
beckons me to
“climb on in!”

and i do.

he takes route 6.

i sit next to
an old man
with yellow skin
and red-rimmed eyes
locked in vacant, glassy stare.
all the other faces
are blank too;
acceptance ~ we all know

…we all chose.

childhood dreams
of golden streets
thru cracked windows
whiz by without so much
as a lingering memory…
fog upon the plexiglas
for all an eternity’s drive.

__________________

Today's LittleNip:

WHEN IT IS SNOWING
—Siv Cedering

When it is snowing
the blue jay
is the only piece of
sky
in my
backyard.

__________________


—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

October is Sacramento Poetry Month! October’s releases from Rattlesnake Press include a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a free littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). Both are available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or from me (kathykieth@hotmail.com), or from rattlesnakepress.com/. Rattlechaps are $6 by mail, $5 at The Book Collector.

Be sure to join us on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, when Rattlesnake Press will release not one, but 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??

And check out B.L. Kennedy’s interview with Art Luna in the latest Rattlesnake Review (#19)! Free copies are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I’ll mail you one (address below). Next deadline, by the way, is November 15.

Coming in November: November will feature a new rattlechap from Red Fox Underground Poet Wendy Patrice Williams (Some New Forgetting); a littlesnake broadside from South Lake Tahoe Poet Ray Hadley; our 2009 calendar from Katy Brown (Beyond the Hill: A Poet’s Calendar) as well as Conversations, Vol. 4 of B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series. That’s Weds., November 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.


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 SOWs; 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.

Chalk For Our Obituaries

SOIREE
—B.Z. Niditz

Off Tremont Street
in Jamesian fashion
you hid Remy de Gourmont
in the yellow book
over the veiled portico
as twin cremonas
played Bach's
'Double Concerto'
gents and ladies
eyed Boston
on the card table
Mrs. Gardner shined
with the Berenson boy
passionate for Uccello, Vermeer
a Venetian ring
hands in her newest sable
and parodying Edward Lear.

You carried a bundle
of expatriate letters
wine by your elbow
of cold connoisseurs
enjoying the Japanese china
along the bric-a-brac wall
admiring the past Whistler
and a script of Wilde,
you remember the soirees
and last November's teas
where you read 'Child Harold'
in Byronic company,
now it's another Fall to Rome
by way of Greece and then home.

__________________

GOOD MORNING
—B.Z. Niditch

You are tired
by the weeds
demanding an hour

the brie omelette
is out of reach.

The minor bird
doesn't answer

all the tires
are uneven

your notebook
has lost its rings

and the nosebleed news
is delivered
by a crow's voice.

__________________

B.L.'s Drive-bys: A micro-review by B.L. Kennedy

For A Few Demons More
By Kim Harrison
Harper Collins
456 pp, Hardcover, $21.95
ISBN 978-0-o6-078838-4

It seems like time travel or something, for here I am again in some bookstore with Charlene Ungstad and Malgwyn. This time it’s Barnes & Noble and we had just eaten a rather large dinner and Char is looking for some anti-Republican tome and Malgwyn is looking for whatever he looks for in these Big Box stores. And me, well I am fucking bored! However, from the side of my eye I spy the gleam of a cover that catches my attention. It’s a book by an author that I have never encountered, named Kim Harrison. I look at the backside and she’s dressed in an all-black outfit with a hip sailor hat and the book, shit, where can you go wrong with a title like For A Few Demons More? This just screams to me, so I buy it. Get home read it and—nothing. Okay, so you’re asking “Kennedy, what’d you expect?” Well, for one thing, I had expected a good read. I mean I did pay hard cash for the book, so the author should at least entertain me with a good story… right? Wrong. Don’t bother with this one. kids, for it’ll just be cash in the trash.

________________

EXILED DAYS
—B.Z. Niditch

On picnic grounds
three-fourths
of your mouth
fills with pomegranates
eaten between
mountains
and a crow's nest
you dust up
by a cave's shade
faithful to your nature

You initial
postcards of silence
with your sunglass vision
by sky painted birches
over unmade beds
of muddy blue stars
of Bethlehem.

Hearing sharp piano notes
to mimic crows off shore
at zero hour leave
marooned with sea shells
tattooed by curved roses
and butterflies
with a sailor's brush stroke

Another year
snowflakes on your sleeve
walking by dogwood
harried on exiled days
wanting to dance like dolphins
winds tarry in a sandstorm drapery.

__________________

ON THE CHARLES, CAMBRIDGE, 1990
—B.Z. Niditch

In my solid brick dormitory
when the Charles River
interlocks its snow flakes
from a mosaic of light
I wish for candles
on my murdered ice cake
at the end-of-season studies.

With European standards
through a mesh
of provincial goodbyes
I crab my orange
translating parables on my dinner tray
watching from a school
of safe-conduct neons
pool-bed black mollies
and kissing fish.

I took my leave
from a Roman life
of a sabbatical
with irony's favor
carrying a cherry sheet
of a poet's taxing exhaustion
knowing the astonishment
of any person's mystery
invited to my generation's timetable.

__________________

HURRICANE ANDREW
—B.Z. Niditch

With water on the windows
Chopin stops his etudes
in eagerness
of short-lived hours
cats lose sisters
in the soft muzzle
of the first palm's wrinkle,
you hardly spoke,
only infinite thickets
have fallen in branches
closing your bullet-holed eyes
from astonished casements
a wreckage of cars
crumbed limpid leaves
in its cold caresses
in unfriendly common places
Andrew turns the head
of skinny cupboard angels
as books and suitcases fall
like killer bees and locusts
dank waters flood
finding yourself
on a plywood mattress
looking for chalk
for your own obituary.

____________________

Today's LittleNip:

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

~Anton Chekhov

__________________

—Medusa

SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

October is Sacramento Poetry Month! October’s releases from Rattlesnake Press include a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a free littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). Both are available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or from me (kathykieth@hotmail.com), or from rattlesnakepress.com/. Rattlechaps are $6 by mail, $5 at The Book Collector.

Be sure to join us on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, when Rattlesnake Press will release not one, but 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??

And check out B.L. Kennedy’s interview with Art Luna in the latest Rattlesnake Review (#19)! Free copies are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I’ll mail you one (address below). Next deadline, by the way, is November 15.

Coming in November: November will feature a new rattlechap from Red Fox Underground Poet Wendy Patrice Williams (Some New Forgetting); a littlesnake broadside from South Lake Tahoe Poet Ray Hadley; our 2009 calendar from Katy Brown (Beyond the Hill: A Poet’s Calendar) as well as Conversations, Vol. 4 of B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series. That’s Weds., November 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.


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 SOWs; 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.

Omnibus

Canada Geese, Maine
Photo by Katy Brown, Davis

NIGHT BUS
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

This flight between leaving and arriving, flashed
with lights through blinded windows, strait-jacketed
in a seat among so many others traveling the same
black-river asphalt while the mind crosses its water,
crosses, re-crosses the fox hanging in her perfect fur,
teeth clamped to electric horse-fence, fox-lips frozen
in the eternal question-mark how did she get there
just beyond the shoulder? How did we all get here,
the girl across the aisle in tears since she boarded,
wiping grief with her sleeve, the swallow smashed
against stockwire highway R/W, at the back of the
bus the old man fingering coins from his pocket,
muttering, putting them back, the roadkill rabbit,
the woman in front checking her wrist, its digital
illumination like the answer to our destination,
a place I didn’t want to go. We’re an hour closer
and still on schedule.

__________________

Thanks, TG, for this response to our Seed of the Week: Bus Ride to Hell. We have other "bus" poems today, too, from Mitz Sackman and her "bus trip from heck" and from James Lee Jobe, whose poem yesterday suggested the SOW to me. JLJ says he has lots of bus poems, and I find that an intriguing idea. Thanks also to Chrissy D., for today's LittleNip, and to Katy Brown, who has gone to England for the month and hopefully will find many more wonderful photos and poems for us over there. Be sure to save room on your wall for Katy's 2009 calendar of photos and poetry, Beyond the Hill, which will be released on November 12 at The Book Collector. Katy, are you listening? Are you cyber-cafe-ing us from across the pond?

But first, a poem about teeth. I went to the dentist yesterday, which is a different kind of Bus Ride to Hell.....


REFLECTIONS DENTAL
—Phyllis McGinley

How pure, how beautiful, how fine
Do teeth on television shine!
No flutist flutes, no dancer twirls,
But comes equipped with matching pearls.
Gleeful announcers all are born
With sets like rows of hybrid corn.
Clowns, critics, clergy, commentators,
Ventriloquists and roller skaters,
M.C.s who beat their palms together,
The girl who diagrams the weather,
The crooner crooning for his supper—
All flash white treasures, lower and upper.
With miles of smiles the airwaves teem,
And each an orthodontist's dream.

'Twould please my eye as gold a miser's—
One charmer with uncapped incisors.

__________________

THE #1 BUS ON AUBURN BLVD.
—James Lee Jobe, Davis

An angry young woman boards the bus like Sherman taking Atlanta,
wearing a pained, bored expression and shoes that belong
in my generation. Her brutally chopped hair is dyed a shade of red
not found in nature—well, at least not in human hair. She plops down
hard on the worn, dirty seat with an audible sound of disgust, disdain.
This bus, and we passengers, are clearly beneath her. Vermin,
we are contemptible slaves who have not served the dinner properly.
We are the swine from the bank, here to repossess the farm.
The girl's contempt is a dark cloud that hangs over us
as the afternoon sun reflects off of her nose-ring. Her contempt
is an animal, a lioness maybe, taking out the weak gazelle,
the slow one. Like me. I will not tell her about this poem.

__________________

VISION BUS RIDE
—Mitz Sackman, Murphys

It has been the bus trip from heck
This journey with my eyes
Still in progress and I am still in process
Went blind in one eye early in August
Had to sign up for surgery
The only plus was I could gross out
All three of my kids
With the gory details
There is just something about
Cutting open the eye
Surgery morning up at 4 am
Happily woke up in the recovery room
Vomiting cheerfully
Missing the bucket
Next morning at the post-op
Discovered my retina had detached
Back into surgery that night
Put a ball of silicon oil in the eye
After two hours of spot welding
With a laser beam
How cool is that!
Six weeks later removed the ball
Surgery three
Just found out
Have a cataract formed
Because of all the surgeries
The operation was a success
But the patient is still blind!

__________________

Today's LittleNip:

IN THE NUDE
—Chrissy D., Sacramento

"Why do you write about such things?" he asked
"Because I want you to know what I look like without make-up." I replied.

__________________

—Medusa

SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

October is Sacramento Poetry Month! October’s releases from Rattlesnake Press include a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a free littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). Both are available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or from me (kathykieth@hotmail.com), or from rattlesnakepress.com/. Rattlechaps are $6 by mail, $5 at The Book Collector.

Be sure to join us on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, when Rattlesnake Press will release not one, but 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??

And check out B.L. Kennedy’s interview with Art Luna in the latest Rattlesnake Review (#19)! Free copies are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I’ll mail you one (address below). Next deadline, by the way, is November 15.

Coming in November: November will feature a new rattlechap from Red Fox Underground Poet Wendy Patrice Williams (Some New Forgetting); a littlesnake broadside from South Lake Tahoe Poet Ray Hadley; our 2009 calendar from Katy Brown (Beyond the Hill: A Poet’s Calendar) as well as Conversations, Vol. 4 of B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series. That’s Weds., November 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.


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 SOWs; 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.

Dreams, Wings & Holiday Underwear

Mitz (Michelle) Sackman
with son-in-law Jonathan and Izzy


DREAMS TELL ME
—Mitz Sackman, Murphys

My story in dreams
Visits me in the night
Fills me with mystery
My life seen darkly
Through a distorted lens

My dreams are
Life telling me
That I need to get on with it
Solve the problems
Don’t just stand back and wait

Accept that change is the constant
Chaos is avoided by accepting
That truth

Stories told in a collage
Of odd images
Creating the frame for my understanding

Refugees living in a hotel lobby
Big as an airport
Impersonal cold
Sharing the lobby restroom
As the sole sanitary facility
Stepped over by staff
Lacking acknowledged existence
I have to clean the restroom
To survive intact
Have to declare my humanity
Against the inhumanness
Of the situation

My dreams tell me stories
Leading me to action
In my life

______________

Thanks, Mitz! Mitz Sackman lives in Murphys, California. She burned all her poems at age 15 since she was one of ten children with a bent for dramatic reading of other people's writings without permisssion.

At age 45, she no longer cared what others read or thought, so she took up her pen and has not laid it down since.

________________

Poet's Lane returns!

Those of us who used to enjoy Pleasanton’s Past Poet Laureate Cynthia Bryant’s website, Poet’s Lane, will be happy to know that it’s back up again, even though Cynthia has moved far away to Kansas City. Check out its many features at PoetsLane@everestkc.net/.

_______________

WINGS
—Michelle Sackman

Older women have wings
Gradually finding our angel self
We pay for the wisdom
Gained through tough living
With bags and sagging skin
Lacking surgical tucks
Say our priorities
Have changed
Cut through our learning
Knowing the only life
Is lived in truth
To live with lies
Of pretend youth
To let go of trying to be young
Is to fly

________________

SALE SHOPPING
—Mitz Sackman

I was cruising the mall
Looking for bargains
Poked my nose into the bargain bin
Out of season underwear
I don’t claim to know about everyone
But for me
Underwear is a year around need
Not a seasonal one
The holiday panty blowout
I love it

Burrowing through my size,
On this cold wet January evening
I happily find and buy
Brightly striped snowman underwear
For a pittance of their original cost
To keep my tushie warn and
The ice skating penguins
Bought in previous year company

I wear these holiday underwear in the winter
To celebrate the season
And in the summer to think cool
Remembering that in the heat
Other times are coming soon

_______________

AFTER FLAUBERT
—Allegra Silberstein, Davis

The human tongue is a cracked cauldron on which we
beat out tunes to set a bear dancing when we would make
the stars weep with our melodies. —Gustave Flaubert

The S.O.S. drummers
(Sex On Sunday)
set our hips swaying
our feet shuffling
like dancing bears.

The lead singer
belts out a melody
on the make
with a mike

his tongue’s not cracked
(nor a cauldron)
but he is loud…

Flaubert wants stars to weep
though he knows they can’t.

On the make
with words, myself,
I understand.

Words are too much with me.

And my ear’s a willful harp
playing out folk melodies
when I would be symphonic—
make the stars to weep—

I tell my tongue be still,
think Save Our Ship, think
Sex On Sunday,
keep feet shuffling
like a dancing bear.


(originally published in Poetry Now)

__________________

Thanks, Allegra, for the Flaubert poem, a response to a recent LittleNip that used this same quote by the gentleman.

__________________

BUS RIDE TO HELL
—James Lee Jobe, Davis

This highway goes on and on, and the bus
never stops.

Above—dust and clouds, sure, but also
a kind of fear that beaten dogs know.

The road itself is conrete and asphalt,
cracked, exisiting with the sadness
of the inanimate.

Each crack, in fact, is a dream
that was broken with time,
and patched with the spittle
of weak resolve.

No one answers for anything.

This bus stops for nothing!

The silent passengers are many,
no one dares to pull the cord
to get off.

__________________

And thanks to James Lee Jobe for our Seed of the Week: Bus Ride to Hell. Send me the poems you've written/will write about... well, what does your muse say about a bus ride to hell? That's kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. (Sorry, no giveaway this week.)

________________

Today's LittleNip:

METAPHYSICAL BOXING
—James Lee Jobe

Lead with your heart.
Keep your soul right up in front of you
for protection from the cruel jabs.
And keep your brain moving,
dancing away from danger.
And if your opponent lowers his guard,
embrace him, forgive him.
He feels what you feel,
just the same. Exactly the same.
His spirit is as large
as your forgiveness.

__________________

Priscilla
Photo courtesy of Donald R. Anderson, Stockton,
a response to last week's SOW: Cats

—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

October is Sacramento Poetry Month! October’s releases from Rattlesnake Press include a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a free littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). Both are available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or from me (kathykieth@hotmail.com), or from rattlesnakepress.com/. Rattlechaps are $6 by mail, $5 at The Book Collector.

Be sure to join us on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, when Rattlesnake Press will release not one, but 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??

And check out B.L. Kennedy’s interview with Art Luna in the latest Rattlesnake Review (#19)! Free copies are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I’ll mail you one (address below). Next deadline, by the way, is November 15.

Coming in November: November will feature a new rattlechap from Red Fox Underground Poet Wendy Patrice Williams (Some New Forgetting); a littlesnake broadside from South Lake Tahoe Poet Ray Hadley; our 2009 calendar from Katy Brown (Beyond the Hill: A Poet’s Calendar) as well as Conversations, Vol. 4 of B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series. That’s Weds., November 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.


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 SOWs; 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.

Our Gypsy Blood

Frank Dixon Graham

KOI
—Frank Dixon Graham,
Sacramento

swim by sleepy fish
bright orange spot
evening water cools
the bow of the bridge
your reflection,
leaves in ripples
water-grasses
bend to your lips
murky water,
lotus blossom
one above, one below
fins and petals,
two fish, two bubbles

__________________

Thanks, Frank! Frank Dixon Graham says: I grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa. Childhood was full of curiosities and discovery. The obstacles I’ve faced and solutions I’ve found have enriched me in some way I can only begin to describe. After attending college in Oklahoma and Arkansas, I went to work for the banking business that my paternal grandfather bought and ran over sixty-five years ago. At the beginning of my poetry career, I moved to Boston, Massachusetts to study the craft and live among a vibrant poetry community. My poetry has benefited from the instruction of Daniel Bosch, Naomi Shihab Nye, Richard Moore, Geoff Olesner, Cheryl Gravis and the Sacramento Poetry Center workshops. A few years ago I moved to California’s state capitol, where I currently reside, to engage in political activism. Along with an appreciation for the astounding beauty of Northern California, I found that the poetry community in Sacramento is as active as it gets. I serve as a board member of the Sacramento Poetry Center, a preliminary judge for poetry contests, have read poetry for a recital performance of the Sacramento Ballet, organized numerous poetry readings, and have conducted interviews for publication with many poets. I’ve also won contests, including ”The Most Romantic Reading of an Original Love Poem” by a Tulsa area bookstore and a Master Poet distinction from the Harwelden Institute. I currently edit Sacramento Poetry Center's monthly publication, Poetry Now. I hope the reader finds my poems convey a sense of gratitude for people and nature.

You may have noticed Frank's photographs in Rattlesnake Review, too. The following poem is from the recent chapbook he has produced of his poetry, entitled Out on the Reach. "The Night Birds" also appears in frank andrick's new Luna's anthology of poems, art and photographs: La Luna: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Café, which will be released by Rattlesnake Press on Thursday, October 30 at Luna's Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento.


THE NIGHT BIRDS
—Frank Dixon Graham

Bicycling through Midtown
Our voices spill into empty streets
We found the moon over a palm tree
And the night birds, his easy libretto.
You are leaving.
The gentle wind says so.
You are the night bird
And the night bird’s cooing

___________________

This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (10/20), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Dan Bellm, Terry Ehret and Gilliam Wegener of Sixteen Rivers Press at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Open mic after. [See last Friday's post for bios.] Next Monday (10/27), SPC will present Meg Withers and Tom Goff.

•••Wednesday (10/22), 6-7 PM: The Upstairs Art Gallery poetry reading, 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.

•••Thursday (10/23), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Café, 1414 16th St., Sacramento features Rafael A. and Corry. Open mic before and after.

•••Friday (10/24), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Katy Lederer and Rebecca Morrison at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento.

•••Sat. (10/25), 7-9 PM: ‘The Show’ poetry series presents the Berkeley Slam Team, which has won many local, regional, and national titles and features Christian Drake, the 2008 Berkeley Grand Slam Champion. 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.

About Berkeley Slam Team Coach Charles Ekabhumi Ellik:

Ekabhumi embodies a rare combination of successful published poet, award-winning performer, respected organizer, and popular emcee. He produces the Berkeley Poetry Slam, which has earned 'Best of The East Bay' and many critics' choice awards since its inception in 1999. The Berkeley teams he coached have won many local, regional, and national titles. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in '97, he took over the SF slam and touched off an explosion in the Northern California performance poetry scene, resulting in a First Place tie at the National Slam in '99 between SF and San Jose, with Oakland in third.

•••Sunday (10/26), 11 AM: El Camino Poets (a chapter of California Society of Chaparral Poets, Inc.) meets at the Ethel Hart Sr. Center, 27th & J Sts., Sacramento for a poetry workshop. Bring 8 copies of your poems for critique. All poets welcome.

__________________

BEFORE I TELL YOU

let you see it in my eyes
and wonder, perhaps our secret.

before i hold your hand
or kiss you,

let my breath rise and fall
imagine your body the same.

and like tides
the ocean lives inside us.


—Frank Dixon Graham
__________________

A VAGABOND SONG
—Bliss Carman

There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood—
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.

The scarlet of the maple can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.

There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir;
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill of flame
She calls and calls each vagabond by name.

__________________

Today's LittleNip:

SPRUCE WOODS
—A.R. Ammons

It's so still
today that a
dipping bough means
a squirrel
has gone through.

__________________

Photograph by Frank Dixon Graham

—Medusa


SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:

October is Sacramento Poetry Month! October’s releases from Rattlesnake Press include a new rattlechap from Moira Magneson (He Drank Because) and a free littlesnake broadside from Hatch Graham (Circling of the Pack). Both are available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or from me (kathykieth@hotmail.com), or from rattlesnakepress.com/. Rattlechaps are $6 by mail, $5 at The Book Collector.

Be sure to join us on Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 PM, when Rattlesnake Press will release not one, but 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??

And check out B.L. Kennedy’s interview with Art Luna in the latest Rattlesnake Review (#19)! Free copies are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I’ll mail you one (address below). Next deadline, by the way, is November 15.

Coming in November: November will feature a new rattlechap from Red Fox Underground Poet Wendy Patrice Williams (Some New Forgetting); a littlesnake broadside from South Lake Tahoe Poet Ray Hadley; our 2009 calendar from Katy Brown (Beyond the Hill: A Poet’s Calendar) as well as Conversations, Vol. 4 of B.L. Kennedy’s Rattlesnake Interview Series. That’s Weds., November 12, 7:30 PM at The Book Collector.


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 SOWs; 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.