Perhaps

Just right
off the freeway
I run into it,
a street
that has my last name.

Going east
to somewhere better,
I do look down
the gravel
both directions.

The stop light
is exonerately,
extraordinarily long.

It is a shambles:
some second-hand attempts
at houses,
empty slate grey
warehouse
abandoned not too delicately
as this economy
dictates is de rigueur.

A few green trees
drooping, dropping

all under a steel wool
mewling sky.

The signal changes
I go

The street stays behind

apart of me
maybe.


—Mike Cluff, Highlands, CA

_________________

Thanks, Mike! Here's another one from jolena holt, and two from David Humphreys.

PLACES I HAVE BEEN: ON ILLNESS
—jolena holt, Fair Oaks

I.

In the Land of Illness
I have waited
for Wellness
but it was slow

It was so very slow.
But I kept waiting
unsure of myself
or my body

My body told me to sleep
to lie down
and “I lay down to sleep”
like the old nursery rhyme prayer,

“Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake
I hope to God my soul to take”

I thought I might die.
I felt the big scary God
in the sky might take me
and keep me
like when I recited the pray
as a child

II.

Then I would remember my daughter
or she would remember me
awakening me with a poke of her finger
asking me to make a snack
turn on the VCR for a “Movie”

She (a child)
kept me going
I would get up and move
as slow as I needed
with cane in hand or hanging onto the
backs of furniture

Then I would transform
my pain (in my brain)
Free myself
(releasing all the endorphins)
I could muster

We would play imaginary games
Smile and laugh
When the day grew into evening

Her Daddy would come home
We were both nurtured and fed
(And the child would finally take a nap)

We were illness and comfort, together
In our little family of three


III.

My heart is sad
for the thought
of so much loss,

glad for the treasured keeping
of the life flame I had close to me
(warming and reviving me)

reminding me to steer clear
of The Land of Illness

Bringing me about full-stern
with masts a sail
Into the Wind of Wellness
And Settling in the Land of Comfort

_________________

LINGUAGGIO
—David Humphreys, Stockton

Language is a fence at which neighbors meet
to discuss the passing day.
Language is a tree branching
from one thing to the next searching for a way
or a field furrowed for a harvest coming in the fall,
bricks stacked high with mortar to build a standing wall.
Language is a river running to the far-off distant sea,
words like silver raindrops to grow things perfectly.

Music of angels voicing poetry’s deepest meaning
in historic halls symphonic strings and kettle drums
a savage wrath of impact
craters covered by root cellar jungles. How to express
the length and extent of ages? It is the rhapsody of words
strung like pearls in an idea necklace thoughtful and
sequential proper logic a priori civilization essential as a harness
to a plow. Language bristles with thorns of all impending

change. It boils with passion, shimmers on the water’s
moonlit surface with its own
peculiar gravity drawing significance to its
molten core as alive as if a warm body walking.
Torch of truth, fire of lies, innocent song, wise judgment
foolish leap of mindless faith. Language is hope in the
eyes of tomorrow, little hands clutching a little flower large as
a dream of happiness under a wide and noble sky.


_________________

PERHAPS,

perhaps will listen closely much as
something might be brightly thought
of sentient, lucid, ambient so to lean
autonomic and individual flourishing
in greater context of rippling sea,
wind blown between two long landscapes
green and alive as this may be. What would
when if then was once as well as after?
Relative time place swirls enigma,
how many stars in a grain of sand too
many to count or ever know one solitary
moment together beginning to end to
pause and look around this train dashing
through its darkness of tranquility within
a train car stopped short in its tracks
as the golden spike is nailed to the central
joining of one side of one thing all the
way to the other. Here, how meaningful
atmosphere comes to command attention
in scent and breath of wind temperature
more pronounced than any other vehicle
transporting vivid memories simple as a
maybe blessing of stunning visual sunsets
abundant and perpetual as seasons are
stacked end to end in tree rings counting
halos in the towering wilderness, God so
infinite and inscrutable.

—David Humphreys, Stockton

_________________

Today's LittleNip:

Don't believe everything you think.

—Bumper sticker

_________________

—Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

(Contributors are welcome to cook up something for any and all of these!)

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing: favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorite tools.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in future issues of Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration—yet another way to feed our ravenous poetic souls.

And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

Coming next Wednesday, June 11: Two Moons in June: Join us at The Book Collector for the premiere of Day Moon, a new chapbook by James DenBoer, and Mindfully Moon, a littlesnake broadside by Carol Louise Moon, as well as Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. All this PLUS a brand-new edition (#18) of Rattlesnake Review! That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM, June 11. See you there!


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.

Squeak, Squeak, Squeak

Carol Louise Moon

BELLA, THE SIMULTANEOUS BIRD
—Carol Louise Moon, Sacramento

Not today, Dr. Kildare
sqeak, freak, tweak
Is that alright with you,
Daddy? squeak, tweak
Cartoon blockbuster, Buster
squeak, squeak, squeak

Please...
Don't speak... glass
cleaner leaves no streaks
freak, tweak, squeak

I'll crawl through the vent
in the wall down the hall
freak, squeak, freak
just to get a peek
at the Simultaneous Bird

How absurd! TV, popcorn
and a bird on a perch!
Just don't leave me in the lurch
at the church.
How long do you think
We're gonna be on this island,
Gilligan?
At least a week?! tweak, tweak

__________________

Thanks, Carol Louise! Carol Louise Moon has been published in Brevities, Rattlesnake Review, Poetry Now, Updrafts and Poets Forum Magazine. Watch for a new littlesnake broadside from her (Mindfully Moon), coming this Wednesday evening to The Book Collector.

__________________

This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight (Friday, 6/6), 5:30 PM: Enjoy a night under the stars of Murphys with poetry from the West! Complete with a chuck wagon barbecue buffet, the night will be reminiscent of an evening on the old cattle drive trail. Presented by the Cowpoke, the night will feature the cowboy poetry of Pat Richardson, John Kitz and Jeralynn Strong. The Supper bell will ring around 5:30 PM for all to gather around the chuck wagon. For a full evening of entertainment, the event is a reasonable $40 per person. The event will be held in the great Ironstone Amphitheatre, 1894 Six Mile Rd., Murphys. Please call to make your reservations: 209-728-1251, Ext. 46, Paul E. Mundy Jr., Manager of Special Events, Ironstone Vineyards, Ironstonevineyards.com/.

•••Sat. (6/7): Galleria Posada open mic in Spanish and English, 1024 22nd St., Sacramento. Contact for times: 916-456-5323 or www.larazagaleriaposada.org/ or larazagaleria@sbcglobal.net/.

•••Sat. (6/7): Rhythm N Rhymes open mic every first Saturday, webcast and filmed for public TV. Butch N Nellie's, near corner of 19th & I Sts., Sacramento. Contact for time: myspace.com/RNRshow/.

•••Mon. (6/9), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents F. D. Reeve and Al Garcia at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Franklin Reeve is a poet, critic, and novelist who has had a varied career, for a while driving a combine in the Midwest wheat fields, later acting in summer theater and working as a longshoreman on the Hudson River docks. He learned Russian and spent a year in Moscow and Leningrad as an exchange professor between the ACLS and the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He also served as translator for Robert Frost during his historic visit to Russia to meet with Nikita Kruschev in 1962. His books of poetry include: The Toy Soldier, Bayeux Arts Press, 2006; The Return of the Blue Cat, New York: Other Press, 2005; "The Secret Orchard" published online by Verse Daily, 2003; The Urban Stampede and Other Poems, Michigan State University Press, 2002; A World You Haven’t Seen: Selected Early Poems (downloadable pdf) New York: Rattapallax Press, 2001; The Moon and Other Failures, Michigan State University Press, 1999; Concrete Music, Pyncheon House, 1992; Nightway, The Press at Colorado College, 1987; The Blue Cat, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1972; In the Silent Stones, William Morrow, 1968. He has translated a dozen books from Russian, including Five Short Novels by Turgenev, the two-volume Anthology of Russian Plays, The Garden (poems by Bella Akhmadulina), The Trouble with Reason by Alexander Griboyedov, The King and the Fool by Alexander Borshchagovsky, and Lions and Acrobats: Selected Poems by Anatoly Naiman.

Al Garcia is the author of two poetry books: Rainshadow [Copper Beech Press, 1996] and Skunk Talk [Bear Star Press, 2005] He has had work published in North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, Laurel Review, Poetry East and Yankee Magazine. He is currently serving as the the Dean of the Languages and Literature Department at Sacramento City College. He lives with his wife, Terry, and three children in Wilton, where he chooses to consistently honor everyday moments.

__________________

Coming deadline:

Many local poets and Snakepals have had their work published in the beautiful Song of the San Joaquin, the journal published in Modesto by Poets of the San Joaquin, a chapter of the California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc. Deadline for the summer issue is June 15; the focus of the magazine is "poetry having to do with life in the San Joaquin Valley of California, defined as the region from Fresno to Stockton," and from the foothills on the west to those on the east. (If you think you don't have any poetry that fits this geography, though, think again.) Check them out at www.ChaparralPoets.org/SSJarchives.html/ or submit or write to the editor at ssjq03psj@yahoo.com/. Submissions are three poems, 3-5 line bio, SASE, name/info on each poem. PO Box 1161, Modesto, CA 95353.

Speaking of Song of the San Joaquin, here are three poems from Editor Cleo Griffith, who manages to maintain a productive writing life even while she edits. Cleo came up to Sacramento for last month's rattle-read, and rumor has it that she'll be here again this month...

DRIVING MY SON DOWN THE INTERSTATE
—Cleo Griffith, Modesto

Billboards, conspicuously rainbow,
flash past my eyes
purple, red, royal blue, plum,
yellow, orange.

While home for a visit
my son ate cut-up oranges
with his good right hand,
pickled beets deep cranberry-purple,
Red Delicious apples
steeped in deep red illusion
which turned out to be dry,
tasteless as cardboard,
with no crisp succulence
but we ate it,
and the orange,
hold each other
in our rainbow security
even now
in the car, the traffic, the way back.

___________________

STONE
—Cleo Griffith

His eyes, flat black,
see something of your fairness
although he does not soften,
this friend who smiles only for you.

The rest of us, over time, become porous,
take in moisture, become spongy,
absorbing and relinquishing.

He stands dry.
Through rain and drought
nothing changes him
yet he chooses to have you to touch
with his sleek cold hand.

Perhaps he is melting outward from his core.
Too slowly, oh too slowly to match his lifetime.
He will still weigh heavily as his coffin is lowered
to merge with cold hard ground
from which he never enjoyed
wild grasses of the field, bird feathers,
sips of mountain springs
and yet made one friend out of some need
he will never understand.
Life is too short
for his mystery.

__________________

THE KING KONG EFFECT
Elizabeth and Bandit

The old movie still entrances:
gargantuan of an ape,
anger in his eyes abating
as the tiny frail woman
lies awestruck in a brute-hand
which could crush a bridge.

They face no arguments
in their contact,
no decline of affection, attention,
time-stopped in this
black-and-white dimension
of basic emotions.

No Kong now, no Beast for Beauty,
but the large black dog with requited love,
solid gargantuan head,
her small hand beside his massive paw,
edge of fear subdued by soft eyes
of longing.


—Cleo Griffith

_________________

Today's LittleNip:

IN THIS HOUSE OF LANGUAGE

verbs polish nouns into mirrors;
adverbs perfectly reflect or distort meaning;
adjectives modify fuzzy reality.

In this house of language
words dance between the mirrors;
float beneath the undefined ceiling;
gather momentum for release.


—Katy Brown, Davis

_________________

—Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

(Contributors are welcome to cook up something for any and all of these!)

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing: favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorite tools.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in future issues of Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration—yet another way to feed our ravenous poetic souls.

And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

Coming next Wednesday, June 11: Two Moons in June: Join us at The Book Collector for the premiere of Day Moon, a new chapbook by James DenBoer, and Mindfully Moon, a littlesnake broadside by Carol Louise Moon, as well as Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. All this PLUS a brand-new edition (#18) of Rattlesnake Review! That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM, June 11. See you there!


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.

Demeter & Other Golden Girls

Temple of Demeter, Naxos, Greece

DEMETER AND HESTIA RETURN
—jolena holt, Fair Oaks

I.

I will disperse in all directions
(a flowering acacia tree)

bright yellow and full of pollen

I will be a single daffodil
or the mustard plants
in the alfalfa field


II.

my flowering puffs
will blow in the east wind
as I cajole with the west wind
and land in your garden

I will plant myself in a million ways
brush up against your buttered dandelions
lay down on your soaked black earth


III.

when I arrive (late)

I will build a house
of adobe bricks
and yellowed straw

and a hearth of sand stone

I will light a fire
for warmth

and cook

__________________

Thanks, Jo! jolena holt writes: After being accused of plagiarism in the fourth grade, I did not write again until the seventh grade, where I met an English teacher who encouraged me to write. Many English teachers later, I took the pen name, jolena holt. Lena is Hebrew for shelter or lean-to. Holt is German for burrow. I would like to burrow back into my lean-to, now.

__________________

Sacramento's Michelle Kunert has a different take on summer:

What horrid fashion comes out of the closet
(with the summer sun)
Bra straps publicly uncovered
with athletic tanks and spaghetti-stringed tubes
The look of street hooker and trailer trash
one can recall was banned in school
Perhaps for this school rules were right
along with banning these "shorts"
that only once looked good on Daisy Duke
but on so many others just show off cellulite
At a Crocker Art museum display of art "nudes"
I saw a Muslim lady wearing a Hawaiian-print hijiab
thinking these Arabs probably have the right idea
Not just religious modesty but for protection
for it's really not "cooler" to expose all this skin
just a modern Western sexual obsession
and skin cancer associations would agree

—Michelle Kunert

___________________

Thanks, Michelle!


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

NIGHT
by dave pishnery
10 pages, $10 + $2 (S&H)
Alan Horvath
Kirpan Press
P.O. Box 2943
Vancouver, WA 98668

I have generally found that it’s a very cool day whenever I get a package from Kirpan Press. Alan Horvath has been doing some wonderful things with d.a.levy and various other Cleveland poets. So, when I received a package a few weeks ago with a nicely bound edition of Random Sightings 1967 by d.a. levy, it was very cool. Also in that package was a copy of Night by dave pishnery and another book by that same poet. I wish that I could give dave pishnery a good review in this Drive-By, but I can’t, for the poetry in Night is, for the most part, a wasted effort. There is no lyric, no playful sense of language, only a few badly written poems by someone who should have stopped writing years ago.

___________________

MADNESS IS MY MONSTER: IN THREE PARTS
—jolena holt, Fair Oaks

I.

You are the monster
inside of me
who will not yield,

I see you smile
your teeth they are divine
and yet grotesque,

they are as sharp
as rage.


II.

I smell your fear.

I see your head,
your torso,
and your tail.

You run and hide
(your tail curls and bristles).


III.

You climb the ladder,
leaning on my yellow painted house.

You come to the front door and knock.

Behind my curtained window,
I see you.

Later, you are waiting by the white picket fence
sampling wild purple berries
the juice drips down your mouth, your breasts
(the inside of your legs)

After, you curl- up
sleeping just
inside the white picket fence
and garden gate,

wrapped in thick dark green ivy
(covered in sticky black and red beetles).

My Monster is inside my garden,
where I am a little girl
(waiting).

When She awakens,
I am alone like her
and we are waiting,
together.

___________________

Three poet birthdays this week: Thomas Hardy last Monday, Allen Ginsberg last Tuesday, and Federico García Lorca today:

CASIDA OF THE GOLDEN GIRL
—Federico García Lorca

The golden girl
bathed in the water
and the water turned golden.

The algae and the branches
in shadow shadowed her,
and the nightingale sang
for the white girl.

The clear night came
muddied with evil silver
with bare mountains
under the tawny breeze.

The wet girl
was white in the water,
and the water ablaze.

The unblemished dawn came
with its thousand cow faces,
stiff and shrouded
with frozen garlands.

The girl of tears
bathed among flames,
and the nightingale wept
with charred wings.

The golden girl
was a white heron
and the water gilded her.

___________________

CASIDA OF THE DARK DOVES
—Federico García Lorca

Through the branches of the laurel
I saw two dark doves.
The one was the sun,
the other the moon.
Little neighbors, I said to them,
where is my tomb?
In my tail, said the sun.
In my throat, said the moon.
And I who was walking
with the earth at my belt
saw two eagles of marble
and a naked girl.
The one was the other
and the girl was no one.
Little eagles, I said to them,
where is my tomb?
In my tail, said the sun,
in my throat, said the moon.
Through the branches of the laurel
I saw two naked doves.
The one was the other
and both were no one.


(Today's Lorca poems were translated from the Spanish by W.S. Merwin.)

___________________

Today's LittleNip:

Writing is so difficult that I often feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter.

—Jessamyn West

_________________

—Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

(Contributors are welcome to cook up something for any and all of these!)

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing: favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorite tools.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in future issues of Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration—yet another way to feed our ravenous poetic souls.

And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

Coming next Wednesday, June 11: Two Moons in June: Join us at The Book Collector for the premiere of Day Moon, a new chapbook by James DenBoer, and Mindfully Moon, a littlesnake broadside by Carol Louise Moon, as well as Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. All this PLUS a brand-new edition (#18) of Rattlesnake Review! That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM, June 11. See you there!


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 Floor of the Universe

James DenBoer

SEPT. 26

The river is flat gray
with only the slightest
waver of sky-bitten
current cutting across

its languid tremor we can’t
even call a wave. ¿Que
onda? old Mexican
hippie talk. No

ondas, no wind. Sodden
cotton of cottonwoods
annoyingly on
pages of my book of

kharjas, pages where the
past, fog-shimmed, struggles up
clumsy pond turtles in
Sacramento River

wash to rest on fallen
sycamore limbs downed
by last week’s hard storm.
Day moon: Fall and cease:
/ Albany, Lear


—James DenBoer

___________________

Thanks, Jim! Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of a new chapbook from James DenBoer, Day Moon, next Wednesday, June 11 at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, at 7:30 PM. For more information about Jim, including his extensive list of credits plus poems from his previous rattlechap, Black Dog, click on rattlesnakepress.com at the right of this column.


OCT. —

I am not speaking to Him again until
He apologizes – no, until he repents (Cavell)
for inventing, paving
– “I have prepared a way before you” –
only two roads: salvation or damnation

both hard stony dry & wicked to walk
false signage leading to the same spot again
imagine No gate No Saint Peter
your name in No big book

instead a swarm of arguing happy inviting
wrens dragonflies monkeys other

ways to understand
than this compulsive dialectic

eighteen more ways (thirteen/Stevens)
out of here
(sing yourself
out, entreats Dr. Miracle; one option among few)


—James DenBoer

__________________

This week's HandyStuff Quickie:

If you don't know about The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux (W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1997), you should, and if you do know about it, let me remind you that this is a book that bears revisiting from time to time. Divided into four sections, it covers not only craft but the more nebulous (and troublesome) aspects of writing: Subjects for Writing (including sections such as Writing the Erotic, The Shadow, Death and Grief and Witnessing) and The Writing Life (Self-Doubt, Writing in the Electronic Age, Writer's Block and Getting Published). Unfortunately the Internet section is eleven years old, but much of the rest includes timeless truths (as well as way-cool writing exercises), and I was surprised to see that all the resources listed in the Appendix on Finding Markets (such as Poet's Market and Writer's Digest) are still active! Check it out, a classic from two NorCal poets/teachers.


Another addition to this week's NorCal poetry calendar:

•••Friday (6/6), 5:30 PM: Enjoy a night under the stars of Murphys with poetry from the West! Complete with a chuck wagon barbecue buffet, the night will be reminiscent of an evening on the old cattle drive trail. Presented by the Cowpoke, the night will feature the cowboy poetry of Pat Richardson, John Kitz and Jeralynn Strong. The Supper bell will ring around 5:30 PM for all to gather around the chuck wagon. For a full evening of entertainment, the event is a reasonable $40 per person. The event will be held in the great Ironstone Amphitheatre, 1894 Six Mile Rd., Murphys. Please call to make your reservations: 209-728-1251, Ext. 46, Paul E. Mundy Jr., Manager of Special Events, Ironstone Vineyards, Ironstonevineyards.com/.

__________________

DEAR E.
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

It’s 2008 AD. How can I write you
150 years ago? I don’t even know the letter-
rate back then. No matter, our topic
is timeless: Peace, the Imaginable Unknown.
You always believed it could happen.

But think of the old Greek and Roman gods,
forever embroiling poor mortals
in their immortal jockeying
for position. A goddess scorned,
and Troy goes up in flames.

And then, the Bible: remember,
as a child, you loved to read of holy battles.
David, psalmist of peace, smiting
the Philistines and Amalekites; civil war,
Israel against Judah.

Now, in these days of 42-cent postage,
we’ve got Chechnya, Palestine,
Darfur, Iraq. In your ageless other-
world, has anyone invented a telescope
to discover a godlier universe,

one that lies beyond the vision
of history and mythology? In what solar
system is there a Sun called Peace
with its planets
Brotherhood and Love?

___________________

Thanks, TG! Taylor Graham took yesterday's Seed of the Week ("letters you'll never send") and wrote to her peace-activist relative, Elihu. Keep 'em comin'— there's never a deadline for Seeds of the Week.

___________________

Today's LittleNip:

SUBSTANTIAL PLANES
—A.R. Ammons

It doesn't
matter

to me
if

poems mean
nothing:

there's no
floor

to the
universe

and yet
one

walks the
floor.

_________________

—Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

(Contributors are welcome to cook up something for any and all of these!)

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing: favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorite tools.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in future issues of Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration—yet another way to feed our ravenous poetic souls.

And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

Coming next Wednesday, June 11: Two Moons in June: Join us at The Book Collector for the premiere of Day Moon, a new chapbook by James DenBoer, and Mindfully Moon, a littlesnake broadside by Carol Louise Moon, as well as Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. All this PLUS a brand-new edition (#18) of Rattlesnake Review! That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM, June 11. See you there!


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.

A Sprouting of Seeds

Photo by Ann Privateer

MONSIEUR CARAPACE
—Ann Privateer, Davis

All day, hanging on a string
without you, only
you can bring me life.

_________________

Thanks, Ann! Watch for more of Ann Privateer's photos and poetry in Snake 18, due out in mid-June. And for more about Ann, see her rattlechap page on rattlesnakepress.com and check out her chapbook, Attracted to Light.


Time to harvest some Seeds of the Week:

Some of our regional poets have responded to recent Seeds of the Week. Here are a couple about keys/locks (two weeks ago), and one about last week's sand castle:

KEY
—Marie J. Ross, Stockton

Padlock a room
and all notions
are held hostage.
Windows cloud
cerebral activity,
shades pull down
on rationality.
Doors creak,
rusty nails impale
corroded wood of
groundless emotion,
splinters left to converse
in the darkness.
Cogitation is confined
to invisible rooms,
where from behind walls
indecision is culprit,
the doorknob of light not
yet turned.
The key unlocks
when shined and polished,
picks locks and opens gates.
Unbolts link fences that lead
to windows reflecting man's
saner side,
profiles his self assuredness,
no longer a shroud of dark
words,
as doors swing open into the sun
and the padlock falls.

________________

PLACES I LIVE
—jolena holt, Fair Oaks

I am as lonely
as one piece of pie
on an aluminum plate

I am as alone
as the Lochness monster
(one of a kind)
mythical dragon-like creature

A huge beast believed to be extinct
(living in a large body)
of water between Ireland and England
called a Loch

I am as lonely as a lock
with no keys or door
I am as alone
as a smooth warm stone in mud

___________________

READING THE PAST
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

Out the window, the mesa dims
in twilight; turns dark, monumental.
She swirls her cup, so tea leaves

rise and settle, symbolic
as the lines engraved on skin
after the tattoo artist lays aside

his tools; as swirls of sand
after tides sweep away the child’s
castle; as the tick

of a wind-up tin soldier’s heart.
Who’s to wind it now, she wonders,
as a chill wind finds its way

down-canyon. Last light, a slant
yellow beam through aisles
of cottonwood, leaves falling

to come again next season,
repetitious as the mechanical toy
of a son who’s gone.

__________________

Thanks, Marie Ross, jolena holt (a new voice heard from!—watch Medusa for more from jolena later this week), and Taylor Graham! All of these poets will also be represented in Snake 18. And it's never too late to respond to any of Medusa's Seeds. Bring 'em on!

Time for a new one, though. In Volume Three of Conversations from B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series (due out June 11), Sacramento's first co-Poet Laureate, Viola Weinberg, talks about the epistolary poems she wrote for her book, Letters to Pablo Neruda. There are lots of ways to write epistolary poems: the love letter comes to mind, or the "Dear John" letter, or William Carlos Williams' note to his wife about plums, or even letters to one's self. How about "the letter you'll never send", which could be angry, sad, nostalgic, humorous... Your call. Send Medusa your poem that's "the letter you'll never send".

And speaking of Conversations, who's the go-to person in our area when you need an Esperanto translation? Pick up your copy of Conversations #3 when it premieres at The Book Collector on June 11 and find out! (For a listing of poets who will be interviewed in this volume, scroll down to SnakeWatch below.)

__________________

Additions to this week's NorCal poetry calendar:

•••Weds. (6/4), 8 PM: Mahogany Poetry Series every Weds. night at Queen Sheba Restaurant, 1704 Broadway, Sacramento with Khiry Malik Moore, Slam, open mic.

•••Sat. (6/7): Galleria Posada open mic in Spanish and English, 1024 22nd St., Sacramento. Contact for times: 916-456-5323 or www.larazagaleriaposada.org/ or larazagaleria@sbcglobal.net/.

•••Sat. (6/7): Rhythm N Rhymes open mic every first Saturday, webcast and filmed for public TV. Butch N Nellie's, near corner of 19th & I Sts., Sacramento. Contact for time: myspace.com/RNRshow/.

__________________

Marie Ross and Donald Anderson have embarked on some interesting work recently by co-writing poems. Here's one they sent me; another will appear in Snake 18:

IN A WORLD OF HER OWN
—Donald R. Anderson and Marie J. Ross, Stockton

From the podium of the mind
such works of classical magnitude
ring forth like words.
She would sit and listen, in that secret
small corner, and read Poe and Heinlein by lamplight,
while the orchestra performed, and the audience cheered.
Like a judge’s gavel she strikes a relationship with each note,
each pulse of sound.
In this state, she can almost see through the black lacquered panels
to the velvety red seats, the angelic faces in their masquerade.
In the mood of Poe, harps pluck like the claw of a raven,
and she sinks into discontent.
A clasp holds a turquoise jewel around her wrist on silver chain;
she taps her fingers to the notes, then turns yellowed page.
The old book of Grimm’s Fairy Tales intrigued her, she envisioned
fifes and cymbals reverberating as children danced joyfully.
She sipped red wine from a goblet, encrusted with sparkling reflections,
scenes of elves and peasants feasting around round tables of plenty.
She felt Wagner’s mind speak from his podium when he composed
Lohengrin, as the Holy Grail lay on the manuscript.
As she drifted to sleep, characters came to life in dramatic inhabitation,
a valley where side by side were Huckleberry Finn and Sherlock Holmes.
The pages drifted into the wind of her mind; slowly she passed the podium,
where works of classical magnitude faded softly.

__________________

Today's LittleNip:

The material's out there, a calm lake waiting for us to dive in.

—Beverly Lowry

_________________

—Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

(Contributors are welcome to cook up something for any and all of these!)

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing: favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorite tools.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in future issues of Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration—yet another way to feed our ravenous poetic souls.

And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

New for May: Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval and a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, by Stephani Schaefer. Both of these are now available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, and at rattlesnakepress.com/.

Coming June 11: Two Moons in June: Join us at The Book Collector for the premiere of Day Moon, a new chapbook by James DenBoer, and Mindfully Moon, a littlesnake broadside by Carol Louise Moon, as well as Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. All this PLUS a brand-new edition (#18) of Rattlesnake Review! That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM, June 11. See you there!


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.

A Vase of Perfumes

THE PRESENCE OF DAYLILIES
IN A LONG MARRIAGE
—Colette Jonopulos

You fry eggs in
the cast iron skillet
that takes my two
hands to lift, nestle
seeded blackberry
jam into crevices
of thick sliced French
bread. All morning
you move pans from
burners to sink, pour
coffee into identical
mugs. By afternoon
the daylilies drop their
once-pink lips onto the
kitchen floor, leave
behind crossed
stems, vase full
of brackish water
floating yellow dots
of pollen. There are
too many years
behind us to doubt
how Saturday begins,
to imagine anything
but daylilies in their
infinite undoing.

__________________

I SPY
—Be Davison Herrera

a robin scurries
across the freshly
rain washed grass
joined by another
and yet another
in the constant
search always on
since apparently food
is generally abundant
on this hillside
under fruiting trees
since the robins
keep coming back.

___________________

Thanks, Be and Colette! Having just returned from Oregon myself, today we celebrate two ex-Sacramentans/now Oregonians, Colette Jonopulos (Eugene) and Be Herrera (Corvallis). Colette Jonopulos lives, writes, and edits in Eugene, Oregon. She has two non-fiction books in print: The One Thing Needful and Living Waters for a Parched Land. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals, and she has published a littlesnake broadside and a chapbook (The Burden of Wings) for Rattlesnake Press. She currently co-edits Tiger’s Eye: A Journal of Poetry with JoAn Osborne. Click on her name to the right of this column for Tiger Tracks, the Tiger’s beautiful blog.

Be Davison Herrera says she is 66 and thriving: poet, circumnavigator, handspinner, welder, labyrinth designer. Aspiration: to construct a phrase key for the tranquillity of the Milky Way Galaxy or do backup for Willie Nelson in August, whichever comes first. Be will be hosting a reading in Sacramento later in June; watch for details. She was also very instrumental in connecting Sacramento and the Vietnamese Poetry Society (see previous issues of Rattlesnake Review for information about them and their work).

__________________

This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight (Monday, 6/2), 7:30 PM: Time Tested Books and the Sacramento Poetry Center present Theresa McCourt (Poet), Sasha Tkacheff (Violinist), and C-Sus Vocal Jazz Group. 1114 21st St., Sacramento. Info: http://sacramentopoetrycenter.blogspot.com/. On May 14 of this year, Theresa McCourt was awarded the Albert and Elaine Borchard Fellowship in poetry through the University of California, Davis, creative writing program for the 2008 Tomales Bay Workshops. In both 2007 and currently in 2008, she has been part of the Artist Residency Institute, through the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. In January 2007, her poetry won a 1st place recognition in the Maggi H. Meyer Memorial Contest, and in Fall 2006, she won a 1st in the Ina Coolbrith Poetry Contest. In 2005, she won a 3rd in the 79th Annual Berkeley Poets Contest. In March 2007, she received an honorable mention in the Sacramento Poetry Center's poetry contest. Credits include mamazine.com, Brevities, Poetry Now, Song of the San Joaquin, Rattlesnake Review, Toyon, and Night and Day. Theresa is a transplant from Manchester, England, with a BA in English Literature and Drama from Birmingham, England, and a MA in English Literature (with an emphasis on teaching writing) from CSU Sacramento. While in business for herself, Theresa provided writing seminars and wrote freelance articles for national and local magazines and newspapers, including an eight-year run as a biweekly columnist for The Sacramento Bee.

Born in Woodland, California of Ukranian-Russian heritage, violinist and songwriter Sasha Tkacheff began studying the violin at age eight with Ingrid Peters at the Pease Conservatory of Music. Her first performance as a soloist was at her sixth grade graduation from Foulks Ranch Elementary School. Over the past seven years, Sasha has performed numerous times, participated in chamber music workshops, Sacramento Youth Symphony concerts, and served as concert mistress with the Sacramento Youth Symphony Junior Orchestra. Sasha is a junior at Franklin High School and is an honor student. “My music is lyrical, but modern. It is romantic, passionate, jazzy.” Influenced by Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Sting and Regina Carter, Sasha’s goal is “to get my ideas out to people so they can be inspired just like I was by the people before me. Musically, my goal is to become a great performer and play with an abandon that no one has seen before.”

C-Sus is an award-winning vocal jazz group from Sacramento State. This octet, consisting of four women and four men, includes Kristen Poirier and Caitlin Clarke, sopranos; Kate Janzen and Gaw Vang, altos; Ramsey Kouri and Tim Weiss, tenors; Steve Bingen, baritone, and Bob Stanley, bass.

•••Every Tuesday night: 3rd Eye Collective presents the live interactive webcast poetry show, Life Sentence (7:30-10 PM, Coffee Garden, 2904 Franklin Blvd, Sacramento, www.ArtisticInsomnia.com/).

•••Wednesday (6/4), 9 PM: Sacramento City College Professor Jeff Knorr will read his poetry at Bistro 33’s Poetry Night. Jeff Knorr is the author is three books of poetry: The Third Body, Keeper, and Standing Up to the Day. His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Chelsea, Connecticut Review, The Journal, Red Rock Review, Barrow Street, and Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America. A sought-out visiting author and professor, Jeff Knorr has edited, judged, and been a visiting writer for various conferences and festivals. He is the founding co-editor and poetry editor of the Clackamas Literary Review, has been an invited judge for the Willamette Award in Poetry and the Red Rock Poetry Award, a visiting writer for venues and festivals such as Wordstock, University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writer’s House, The Des Moines Festival of Literary Arts, and CSU Sacramento’s Summer Writers Conference. He currently directs the River City Writer’s Series at Sacramento City College and serves on the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission’s Poet Laureate committee.

Poetry Night at Bistro 33 takes place on the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 226 F Street in Davis. The featured reader begins at 9 PM, and an open mic follows the feature. All Poetry Night events are free and open to the public. The hosts of Poetry Night are Brad Henderson and Andy Jones. Info: (530) 756-4556

•••Thursday (6/5), 9-11 AM: The final workshop in the 2008 series at Cache Creek Nature Preserve (Prose Poetry II) begins this Thursday, June 5, and is offered free to the general public, thanks to support from the Teichert Foundation and Cache Creek Nature Preserve. To register, email Rae Gouirand at rgouirand@gmail.com with your name, email address, and phone number; there are still a few spaces available.

•••Thursday (6/5), 12-1:30 PM: Join California Lawyers for the Arts for a workshop. San Francisco attorney and publishing expert Robert Pimm will discuss legal and business aspects related to independent self-publishing, including relevant agreements, copyright protection, product distribution, publishing strategies and other concerns. There will be time for Q/A, so you can ask questions pertinent to your specific situations. You are welcome to bring your lunch. The Avid Reader at the Tower 1600 Broadway, Sacramento. Admission: $5 students/seniors, $10 members of CLA, $20 others.

•••Thursday (6/5), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Featured readers, with open mic before and after.

•••Sunday (6/8), 4 PM: Charles Entrekin will be reading from his new novel, Red Mountain: Birmingham, Alabama, 1965, at the Off Center Stage at the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley.

___________________

3:30 AM IN STARSHINE
—Be Davison Herrera

the good thing is
most of us die
before we've caused too
much trouble for ourselves
and others no matter
how tenaciously we try
to hang on clamping
our dreams of love
to poundage and length
archaic notions of peacemaking
through war or economic
power played as politics
without awareness we dance
in conjunctive connection with
those who quietly keep
all alive: the trees
the wind the rain
turning turning us all
a ball in space.

__________________

MANIFESTO FOR AN ILLNESS
—Colette Jonopulos

as the moon rises
becomes white on the sky
white on our faces
I will hold you
while you ease into tiredness
your head held stiff on the thin
stem of your neck
and later while you sleep I
will lay my arm across
your waist breathe so quietly you
might guess my absence
I will stay awake while you form
dream words in the worlds
you inhabit without me
movement will alert me
to your awakening
a flurry of sheets gathered
at your chin I will bring
you pomegranate juice cut
with orange hold the cup
to your lips I might speak
and you might answer
or I might weave your
fingers through mine
accept the silence you’ve become
your pale half-moon shoulders
all nervous energy along
my chest my arms the wings
of your imminent exit

__________________

HER MOUTH NOW
—Colette Jonopulos

she stands under broad magnolias with
mourners and the minister who

speaks of glorious tomorrow

she imagines that last conversation
the bracelet left behind:
hammered silver
jade
the gaping fish mouth

if they had argued at least

shown their cards for once
said something true that opened
their mouths like the hammered fish mouth:
instead of river water exiting the oval

only light—the wavering field of it in

her mouth now
like buttered candies and honey
wiped from lips onto jeans

like tongues and napes and
mornings not waking up alone

but with someone watching your
next thought rise

as if she weren’t standing here in a garden
of hard stones and
gargoyles believing in

the gate that opens once
and closes

___________________

Today's LittleNip:

An hour is not merely an hour, it is a vase filled with perfumes, with sounds, with projects, with climates...

—Marcel Proust

_________________

—Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

(Contributors are welcome to cook something up for any and all of these!)

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.

Wednesday: HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing. Favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorite tools.

Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration—yet another way to feed our ravenous poetic souls.

And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

New for May: Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval and a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, by Stephani Schaefer. Both of these are now available at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, and at rattlesnakepress.com/.

Coming June 11: Two Moons in June: Join us at The Book Collector for the premiere of Day Moon, a new chapbook by James DenBoer, and Mindfully Moon, a littlesnake broadside by Carol Louise Moon, as well as Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. All this PLUS a brand-new edition of Rattlesnake Review! That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM, June 11. See you there!


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 World is a Mist

SANDPIPER
—Elizabeth Bishop

The roaring alongside he takes for granted,
and that every so often the world is bound to shake.
He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward,
in a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake.

The beach hisses like fat. On his left, a sheet
of interrupting water comes and goes
and glazes over his dark and brittle feet.
He runs, he runs straight through it, watching his toes.

—Watching, rather, the spaces of sand between them,
where (no detail too small) the Atlantic drains
rapidly backwards and downwards. As he runs,
he stares at the dragging grains.

The world is a mist. And then the world is
minute and vast and clear. The tide
is higher or lower. He couldn't tell you which.
His beak is focussed; he is preoccupied,

looking for something, something, something.
Poor bird, he is obsessed!
The millions of grains are black, white, tan, and gray,
mixed with quartz grains, rose and amethyst.

___________________

—Medusa