No Pen

Tibetan Monk in Placerville
Photo by Irene Lipshin, Placerville

I WROTE

—Tadeusz Rosewicz

I wrote
for a moment or an hour
an evening, a night
I grew angry
I trembled or sat
silent at my side
my eyes full of tears
I'd been writing all that time
until I suddenly realized
I'd no pen in my hand.

______________________

California State Poetry Society: outlets for your poetry:

If you don’t belong to CSPS, you might consider joining. Queries about membership, CSPS publications, subscriptions, contests and sample copies should go to Kate Ozbirn, President: kateozbirn@yahoo.com. To become a member, send her $25 at P.O. Box 7126, Orange, CA 92863 and she’ll send you a fat envelope of poetry and news, plus you’ll automatically become a member of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. CSPS provides several ways you can get your poetry published:

•••California Quarterly (CQ) is a 9”X6” perfect-bound book with color art cover that uses a “revolving editor” system—a panel of editors, each of which edits one issue every so often. They use poems of one page, sometimes two, almost never three pages. There is no deadline for submissions; the poems roll over to the next editor/s for consideration in the following issue. They read 300-700 poems each time, and use about 45. Four issues per year, supported by subscribers and a few modest patrons. (Consider being immodest.)

•••Poetry Letter and Literary Review: A “second-reading” opportunity, this is a sheaf-type publication on ivory paper which uses formerly published short poems displayed in two columns per page on 4-8 pages, size 8-1/2”X11”. It also publishes short book reviews (250-500 words). (Contact the Editor, C. Bryce, for book review assignment.) PL&LR accompanies CQ and goes to subscribers, and also to poets separately; if you are not yet a subscriber, include SASE. Send in your previously published poems to PL&LR, P.O. Box 7126, Orange, CA 92863.

•••Private Poetry Line is also a “second-reading” publication from CSPS, but it’s completely e-mail, not printed like PL&PR. Editor Russell Salamon (thesalamons@earthlink.net) says: Please send one or two previously published poems by email to Russell for possible use here. Note: Please send your poems in the body of the e-mail, and please try not to use fancy type styles. (Weird things happen.) Private Poetry Line came about because, since submissions to CQ come with email addresses, I began saving them with the intention of asking you to become a member of CSPS (which I still do). Then it occurred to me that these valuable names should not be tossed back into the sea of Non-Existence, so I asked if you would like an occasional, ephemeral issue for a second reading of your previously-published poems. Many said Yes. Now every time I get 8-12 poems, I will prepare an E-MAIL ISSUE (THIS IS NOT A WEB SITE) to send to about 500 fellow poets. Please send by e-mail one or two published poems with name of magazine where originally published, along with your name and the city you live in so we can get an idea of where we all are. You retain all rights. THIS IS A VAPOROUS, ELECTRONIC MOMENT OF COMMUNICATION. There is no hard copy or web site.

CSPS also sponsors some contests:

•••Annual Contest: Deadline this year is May 31. Send entries between March 1-May 31 to Maura Harvey, CSPS Annual Chair, P.O. Box 2672, Del Mar, CA 92014. Open to all poets in the United States, members or not. Prizes: 1st: $100; 2nd: $50; 3rd: $25. Ten Honorable Mentions. Judging by one or more independent professional poet(s). Please include SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope) if you wish to receive the list of winning poems; you will not otherwise hear from the contest judge unless you include a SASE. Fee: $3.00 per poem entered. Check or money order in US funds only, made payable to CSPS. NO LIMIT on number of entries. Note: If a poem does not meet qualifications as listed below, fee(s) will not be returned but the poem will be submitted of consideration for publication in California Quarterly (CQ). The first through third place winners are guaranteed publication in CQ, but all entries will be considered for publication in CQ after the contest. You will not hear from us unless your poem has been accepted by CQ for publication.

Annual Contest Rules:
•••Any form any theme, 50 line limit per poem.
•••Single space, one page only, 8 1/2x11 inch, white paper only,
one side of paper only. No paper clips, folding of poems individually,
or staples.
•••Two copies of each poem; one with name and address in upper
left corner, and one without for judge's copy.
•••Poems must be original and unpublished, in English, not awarded
a monetary prize, and not illustrated.
•••Give us a chance with your poems until October 15, 2007; after that feel free to submit to other contests, or for publication elsewhere unless your poem was accepted by us. Keep copies of your entries; poems will not be returned after judging and after consideration for publication in CQ.
•••Decisions of judges are final. Winners will be notified by mail with
prizes enclosed by July 15, 2007. For a winner's list send SASE.
•••In addition to prizes, copy of CQ will be included upon publication.

And CSPS also sponsors monthly contests, open to all poets. Contact President Kate Ozbirn for information on monthly rules, deadlines, eligibility, entry fee, prizes, judging, notification, at CSPS Monthly Contest, P.O. Box 7126, Orange, CA 92863. Include SASE. This year’s topics:

January: Create a poem from words: answer, stitch, fire, salt, gold
February: Romance, Love, War & Peace
March: Any Subject
April: "Found poem" (with poem, mention venue of finding)
May: Sonnet, Blank Verse
June: Any Subject
July: Haiku, Tanka
August: Humor, Satire, Joy of Life
September: Any Subject
October: Experimental Poem (get creative!)
November: Family, Friendship, Human Condition
December: Best of Your Best (winning or published poem;
indicate name of publication and issue date/year)

_______________________Today's photograph is part of the display at the Cozmic Cafe in Placerville (594 Main St.), featuring photography by Irene Lipshin. Be sure to drive up and see Irene's beautiful photographs celebrating the concept of world peace. The showing will continue through March 31.

Thank you to Stephani Schaefer of Los Molinos for today's poetry.


Judy Halebsky on Dr. Andy today:

Sacramento poet and littlesnake-broadsider Judy Halebsky writes: I'm going to be interviewed on KDVS (90.3 FM) today, Wednesday, March 21, on Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour from 5-6 PM. I'm supposed to be on at 5:20. Judy will be leaving us soon, so catch her while you can.

_______________________

FROM MARCH '79
—Tomas Tranströmer

Tired of all who come with words, words but no language
I went to the snow-covered island.
The wild does not have words.
The unwritten pages spread themselves out in all directions!
I come across the marks of roe-deer's hooves in the snow.
Language but no words.

_______________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

Vernal Confusion

Photo by Jane Blue, Sacramento

SPRING
—Philip Larkin

Green-shadowed people sit, or walk in rings,
Their children finger the awakened grass,
Calmly a cloud stands, calmly a bird sings,
And, flashing like a dangled looking-glass,
Sun lights the balls that bounce, the dogs that bark,
The branch-arrested mist of leaf, and me,
Threading my pursed-up way across the park,
An indigestible sterility.

Spring, of all seasons most gratuitous,
Is fold of untaught flower, is race of water,
Is earth's most multiple, excited daughter;

And those she has least use for see her best,
Their paths grown craven and circuitous,
Their visions mountain-clear, their needs immodest.

_______________________

So, is this the Vernal Equinox, or isn't it? I have several calendars in the house; some say it's today, some tomorrow. I guess I found the answer on Infoplease: the beginning of Spring is 12:07 AM tomorrow, Universal Time. Which makes it 8:07 PM today EDT, or 5:07 PM today here in PDT. Whatever. The daffodils and birdsong around my house say spring is here, rain or not.


Joyce Odam and Pat D'Alessandro to be honored:

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will be awarding Snake-Pals Joyce Odam and Patricia D'Alessandro Lifetime Achievement Resolutions today at 2 PM. They will be presented in the Board chambers, located on the first floor in the County building on 700 H St., Sac. Please come if you'd like or if you can. At any rate, please feel free to pass on this information to anyone who might want to come and support them. Joyce has two chapbooks out from Rattlesnake Press, and Pat will be releasing one next December. Both poets have been published in Rattlesnake Review from the beginning, including the new issue, and Joyce serves the Snake as Formalist-in-Residence.

_______________________

LAMBS
—Thomas James

Under branches of white lilac
They crop the wet grass just before dawn.
They move smokily through the half-light, smudge pots
Pulsing against a thick morning frost.
My watch glows like a small, improbable moon. Six o'clock.
I have been driving into the dark too long.

I pull to the side of the road.
I am a branch, a stone. The lambs are not aware of me.
They have been fading into the hillside
Like shadows that have peopled someone's fever
In the shut room of a dilapidated farmhouse
Where the walls reiterate a spray of honeysuckle.

They ignore one another. They are blanketed with thistles,
A little out of sorts in this shabby light.
Five or six of them are wandering through a peach orchard,
Not even aware of my personal squalor.
What stumbles from their tongues is never music;
It is the echo of a badly damaged shell.

Now they are moving by a ditch of rainwater,
Inspected for flaws in the foggy mirror.
I walk into the field, I am not afraid of them—
They scatter like the last edges of a sickness.
The sun has begun to enlarge its tawny fleeces
At the expense of no one in particular.

________________________

LOVELIEST OF TREES
—A.E. Housman

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

_______________________

For more poems about Spring, go to infoplease.com and click on "Poems in Honor of Spring".

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

Of Roses, Guns & A Goldmine of Colors

North Fork Yuba
Colored pencil drawing by Ken Waterstreet

KEN'S GIFT
—Phil Weidman, Pollock Pines

Ken Waterstreet is an interpreter of images.
His cramped studio, dozens
of paintings, various sizes,
leaning five or six deep
against its walls,
is his sanctuary.

He spends as many hours
as he can glean from each day
drawing and painting water
in its natural environment:
sections of streams,
rivers, lakes.

Studying Ken's "North Fork Yuba"
made of hundreds of meticulously
rendered interlocking shapes
that reflect a goldmine of colors,

I marvel at such
a crystal clear window
on a reality I've witnessed many times
without truly seeing...
until now.

_______________________

Thanks, Phil! Phil Weidman will be reading at Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe (1414 16th St., Sac.) this Thursday, March 22 (his birthday!) along with Laura Hohlwein, 8 PM. Phil has many chapbooks out, including his latest, Fictional Character: The Ernie Poems from Rattlesnake Press. Born in Alturas, California in 1936, and graduated from Chico High School, Phil Weidman served two years in the U.S. Army, then worked as a newspaper reporter, landscape gardener and warehouseman. A practicing visual artist for thirty years who exhibited throughout Northern California, he graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1968 and a Master’s in 1970. In Sacramento, he taught a variety of subjects in Sacramento schools, including McClasky School for Handicapped Adults, and he worked with at-risk youth in an after-school program in Sacramento County. He is currently a patient care volunteer for Snowline Hospice in Placerville, California; he lives in Pollock Pines with his wife, Pat. Author of eight books of poetry, beginning with Sixes in 1968 (The Runcible Spoon), Phil’s poetry has appeared in periodicals as varied as The American Bard, Hearse, Scree, Olé, Stance, Pinch Penny, Poetry Now, Red Cedar Review, Caprice, Sure, The Wormwood Review, Nerve Cowboy, Pearl, Chiron Review and Rattlesnake Review. His work has also appeared in two anthologies: Revolutionary Poetry (New York, 1972), and Landing Signals (Sacramento, 1985). Fictional Character is Phil’s ninth collection of poetry.


Also this week:

•••Monday (3/19), 7:30 PM, Sacramento Poetry Center, HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sac. presents Ricardo Sternberg and Stephen Yenser. See last Friday's post for bios of these two fine poets. Next Monday's poet (3/26) will be Tim Bellows.

•••Thursday (3/22), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe (1414 16th St., Sac.) presents Phil Weidman and Laura Hohlwein. Info: 916-441-3931 or www.lunascafe.com. Open mic before/after. Next Thursday's poet (3/29) will be Kathy Kieth.


The Rose of Manzanita:

I had the opportunity to meet Monika Rose of Manzanita (a lovely perfect-bound anthology that appears annually, sometimes...) again last Friday at her Our House reading; she is full of energy and good poetry vibes, and she is trying to scrape together the funds to put out another gorgeous Manzanita anthology. Her people have scheduled a variety of poetic activities for the next few months, and the first two of note include:

•••Saturday (4/21), 2-5 PM: Historical reading at Historic Courthouse and Museum of Calaveras County in San Andreas. Come dressed as your favorite literary figure of the 1800's, up to the turn of the century. Read a piece from the writer's work and then read your own. $8 entrance includes museum fee, refreshments, art opening, and reading. Nonprofit event. Proceeds assist writers' and artists' future events and publications.

•••Manzanita Camp! Monday-Sunday, June 25-July 1: Manzanita Writers Retreat at Big Trees State Park. Week-long camping, where writers hike, reflect, write, share, and participate in weekend workshops, flashlight storytelling and poetry around the campfire. $180 covers campsite shared with other conference writers, weekend workshops, s'mores, etc. for the week and Friday and Saturday workshops. Weekend day-tripper rate: $75, or $35 for the day. Bring your own everything and write inspired work with help from the giant Sequoia muses and like-minded writers. Resources and field guides available with on-site library. Docents available on arranged hikes. Free public lectures on the Sierra habitat and environment daily. Small groups will hike and hold craft sessions and critiques with a writer/leader and write fresh, new work daily.

For more information on Manzanita or on these (and other) events, contact Monika Rose, Manzanita Editor, (209) 754-0577.

_______________________

ORPHANS OF WAR
—Phil Weidman

Who will hug these children,
sing them lullabies, divert
their thoughts from brain numbing
explosions, flesh tearing shrapnel,
collapsing, blood-splattered walls,
the common staccato of bone
shattering automatic weapon fire?

Who will hold them
until they stop shaking?

Who will nurse and feed them,
address their wounds
and provide safe, warm beds?

Who will teach them retribution
fuels a continuing cycle of destruction,
that forgiveness is not cowardice,
that love is more powerful than fear?

Who will convince them
they will grow into adults
and thrive in a world
they no longer trust?

("Orphans of War" currently appears in Rattlesnake Review #13)

_______________________

LOST
—Phil Weidman

I'd forgotten we had a doorbell.
Our dogs assure us it's not a dream.
I stagger to front door, flip
on porch light, hold dogs back
and ease door open.
A thirty-something, scantily-dressed woman
is slipping on shades.
She starts with apologies
and says she's lost.
I close our door and study the dark
as she shares her story,
then apologizes again.
She appears to be on foot,
but her story is as holey
as Swiss cheese.
I'm too weary to be heroic.
I give her directions
to Sly Park Road,
return to bed, reassure wife
and check the exact
location of my .45.

_______________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

What Should I Reply?

SOMETIMES
—Hermann Hesse

Sometimes, when a bird cries out,
Or the wind sweeps through a tree,
Or a dog howls in a far-off farm,
I hold still and listen a long time.

My soul turns and goes back to the place
Where, a thousand forgotten years ago,
The bird and the blowing wind
Were like me, and were my brothers.

My soul turns into a tree,
And an animal, and a cloud bank.
Then, changed and odd, it comes home
And asks me questions. What should I reply?

_______________________

I LIVE MY LIFE
—Rainer Maria Rilke

I live my life in growing orbits,
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.

I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years.
And I still don't know if I am a falcon,
Or a storm, or a great song.

(Today's poetry was translated by Robert Bly.)

________________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

Erin Go Bragh

Potato

Photo by Jane Blue, Sacramento

THE POTATO
—Jane Blue, Sacramento

It is a rough oval pocked with shadows.
At one end pale tentacles poke out.
The potato itself is dense but the shoots
are different; if you should break one with a thumb
it would snap, making a shy sound, like a cry
one hopes is not heard. Potatoes are humble.
They keep in a pantry or cellar for a very long time.
But in mid-nineteenth-century Ireland
they rotted in the fields and the storehouses,
in the winter, when they were needed most.

The grief of emigration is in my bones.
I am cold with it. The potato warms me,
it retains heat like coal. Potatoes sit in the dark
and observe with their friable eyes.
They remind me of nuns. Irish nuns wed
to America sight unseen. They came young
and died old, never traveling back to that beloved
green isle. They sang their quavering songs:
"On Galway Bay" and "The Wearing of the Green."
A particular fat nun who taught high school French
had so many folds of flesh under her black habit
I could only think of her body as a field
of potatoes in black earth. It was not until
graduation that she embraced me,
folding me into her loam.

(Previously appeared in The Hurricane Review)

________________________

Thanks, Jane! Jane BLUE and Katy BROWN (our two color-ladies) are two of the main contributors of photographs to Rattlesnake Review; pick up the new Snake (Lucky 13!) at The Book Collector and check out their photos (plus others), or wait for it in the mail if you're a contributor or subscriber. About her work today, Jane says: I have an Irish poem. I don't have any pics of shamrocks, but I've got... a potato, which I tried to make look like a Kevin German shot (Sacramento Bee photographer) with a ragged border. I'm reading a novel by Edna O'Brien, who is an Irish writer who makes me think of Virginia Woolf. Jane will be reading at the McClatchy Library on April 21 at 2 PM; more about that later.


Addendum to today's calendar:

•••Sat. (3/17), 7-9 PM: Underground Poetry Series presents a CD/release party for Terry Moore at Underground Books, 2814 35th St., Sac. (35th & Broadway). $3, open mic. Terry's new spoken word CD, Validated, also features Poet He Spit Fire; vocalists Yardley Griffin, Mae Gee, Calvin Lymos; rapper Izreal.

_______________________

David Humphreys writes: I have a sonnet poem for you written in honor of Lene Hau, who actually just stopped light! You can find her via Google.

STOPPING LIGHT
—David Humphreys, Stockton

This is not just a drawing of drapes or slipping
on sunglasses against the glare of blinding sunlight.
Glancing off cresting wave tops at the salt briny
beach stops spectral light dead in its very tracks on
its eight second downhill Klammer run from the sun
spot hot babe surface. This is essentially about what
this youngster wizard, Lene Hau, has done a mere nine
years further along than Mozart on his fever racked
deathbed, something that for me is more than stunning,
actual mirror reflection of Marie Curie's Nobel triumph
of 1903, application of course always key to all things
practical and patent but fiber optic sequence coding
seems so well suited to entwine our future in swirling bliss,
figurative suspension of a frozen subatomic cipher tryst.

________________________

Thanks, David! Stopping light. Wow—it's all I can do to stop anything, let alone light itself...

_______________________

LABASHEEDY (The Silken Bed)
—Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill

I'd make a bed for you
in Labasheedy
in the tall grass
under the wrestling trees
where your skin
would be silk upon sillk
in the darkness
when the moths are coming down.

Skin which glistens
shining over your limbs
like milk being poured
from jugs at dinnertime;
your hair is a herd of goats
moving over rolling hills,
hills that have high cliffs
and two ravines.

And your damp lips
would be as sweet as sugar
at evening and we walking
by the riverside
with honeyed breezes
blowing over the Shannon
and the fuchsias bowing down to you
one by one.

The fuchsias bending low
their solemn heads
in obeisance to the beauty
in front of them,
I would pick a pair of flowers
as pendant earrings
to adorn you
like a bride in shining clothes.

O I'd make a bed for you
in Labasheedy,
in the twilight hour
with evening falling slow
and what a pleasure it would be
to have our limbs entwine
wrestling
while the moths are coming down.

________________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

Poetry Tracks

Tracks in the snow leading up to our house—a fox?

AN GHORTA MOR, THE GREAT HUNGER
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

While waiting for the steamer, I wrote an earnest appeal
to the people of New England for aid for the starving Irish.
I trust my earnest entreaties will not be in vain.
—Elihu Burritt, Cork, February 28, 1847

Children with jaws deformed by famine,
children bent as if under the weight
of eighty years. Children without voices.
“Breathing skeletons.” Starved folk
of all ages, dead by the side of the road,
mouths stained green with grass
that couldn’t nourish them.

That winter, Elihu, you traveled
from England to document the Irish misery.
You went from village to village;
you became sick yourself. Still,
you wrote pleas to your countrymen
for famine relief. From Boston
came a warship loaded with provisions.

*

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day.
We celebrate with green beer
and corned beef so tender,
it falls off the fork; sweet
cabbage boiled with potatoes.
Potatoes we don’t have to dig
from the ground ourselves.

*

At Castlehaven in a hovel surrounded
by filth, you find an orphan girl
three years old, lying on a plank. “Never
have I seen such bright, blue, clear eyes,”
you wrote, “looking so steadfastly
at nothing.”
Elihu, help us remember.

_______________________

Thanks, TG! Our sleuthing tells us those may well be fox tracks that appeared nightly when we had snow on our driveway—see what a straight line they make? Either that, or as I told TG, a burglar on a pogo stick... Anyway, if it were a fox, it would be appropriate, since Taylor Graham and her Red Fox Underground buddies will be making poetry tracks twice this weekend:

•••Tonight (Friday, 3/16), 7 PM: Brigit Truex will read with Manzanita Editor Monika Rose in El Dorado Hills at the Our House Gallery; take the Latrobe exit south and turn left into the shopping center. Brigit has a brand-new rattlechap available from Rattlesnake Press, called A Counterpane Without.

•••Tomorrow (Saturday, 3/17) at 7 PM, all six of the Red Fox Underground (Taylor Graham, Irene Lipshin, Kate Wells, Wendy Patrice Williams, Moira Magneson, and Brigit Truex—yes, again!) will read at the Cozmic Cafe in Placerville (594 Main St.), featuring photography by Irene Lipshin. The reading is presented by El Dorado Peace and Justice in the Season of Nonviolence; it will begin with a reception from 5:30-7 PM, and will be followed by refreshments. Be sure to drive up and see Irene's beautiful photographs celebrating the concept of world peace.


Also this weekend:

•••Friday (3/16), 7:30 PM: “An Honoring of The Artists / Los Artistas: Featuring a Tribute to CoMadres Artistas”: Music, poems, verbal tributes—all will be used at La Raza Galería Posada, 1024 22nd St., Sac. to honor artists who have depicted, expressed, promoted and preserved the images of the lives and ideals of the Chicano/Latino community. Especially to be featured is the extraordinary group of women artists called CoMadres Artistas, who have worked together as an artistic cooperative for many years, and whose work will be on display at the Galería: Helen Villa, Irma Lerma Barbosa, Carmel Castillo, Laura Llano, and Mareia de Socorro. This event, the annual La Noche de los Viejitos /Night of the Elders, takes place each year at La Raza Galería Posada. The tribute is being arranged by the writers’ group, Writers of the New Sun/Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol. Admirers of all visual artists are also invited to come for the Open Mic and to share your memories, observations, and the inspiration of this creative and vital group, los Artistas / the Artists. Suggested donation $5, but no one denied for lack of $$. Info: 916-456-5323.

•••Friday (3/16) is also the deadline for Six Ft. Swells Press, which is now accepting poetry submissions for the next chapbook in their famed Cheap Shots Poetry Series. This will be a themed issue featuring a collection of the best poetry that reflects those goodtime evenings of drinking, music, and streetlight love affairs, and/or the painful reality of the morning after and the vague remembrance of what may or may not have occurred in the neon night before. Either way, no apologies are given. "We believe poetry is meant to be a good time, so we are only looking for poems that explore these themes in an entertaining, fun, humorous, and/or enthusiastic manner. We will not accept sappy, depressing, AA recovery, or the evils-of-alcohol poems." Send 3-5 poems with cover letter and SASE to 417 Neal St., Grass Valley, CA 95945 or (preferably) email to Todd (Cirillo) & Julie (Valin) at sixfootswells@yahoo.com; please use “Bottoms Up” in the subject line. Poems should not exceed 40 lines; previously-published okay if indicated. Info: www.myspace.com/sixftswells

•••Saturday (3/17), 5-8 PM: A reception honoring Victoria Dalkey, art correspondent for The Sacramento Bee. Through the publication of numerous thoughtful and articulate articles, she has continued to raise awareness and interest in the arts to the benefit of artists, galleries, and museums in this region and beyond. This event will be held in the wonderful art-filled home of Burnett and Mimi Miller. Proceeds from the event will be used to purchase a brick, to be installed in CCAS, honoring Victoria's tremendous contribution to the local arts community and to support CCAS arts programming. Appetizers, fabulous conversation, and outstanding art available through silent auction by renowned artists Wayne Thiebaud, Fred Dalkey, Troy Dalton, and David Hollowell, as well as others. Guest presenters, Diana Daniels, Assistant Curator at the Crocker Art Museum, and Julia Connor, Sacramento Poet Laureate. Please send your payment in now as space is limited. Tickets are available online through Paypal at www.ccasac.org, or call (916) 498-9811 for further information. Member (per person) $50; Non-member (per person) $70.

•••Sunday (3/18), 4-5 PM: Clive Matson Poetry Reading at the Colonial Coffee & Tea Company, 5923 Clark Road, Suite A, Paradise. Phone: 530-877-6949.

•••Monday (3/19), 7:30 PM, Sacramento Poetry Center, HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sac. presents Ricardo Sternberg and Stephen Yenser. Richardo Sternberg was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1948 and moved to the United States with his family when he was fifteen. He received a B.A. in English literature from the University of California, Riverside and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA. Between 1975 and 1978, he was a Junior Fellow with the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. His poetry has been published in magazines such as The Paris Review, The Nation, Poetry (Chicago), Descant, American Poetry Review, The Virginia Quarterly and Ploughshares. Vehicule Press (Montreal) published The Invention of Honey (1990, republished 1996), Map of Dreams (1996) and McGill-Queen's University Press published Bamboo Church (2003, republished 2006). Cyclops Press released a CD of his readings, Blindsight, in 1998.

Stephen Yenser is author of Blue Guide (University of Chicago Press, 2006) and The Fire in All Things (which was chosen by Richard Howard to receive the Walt Whitman Award in 1993). He has also published a collection of essays, A Boundless Field: American Poetry at Large (University of Michigan Press, 2002), as well as The Consuming Myth: The Work of James Merrill (1987) and Circle to Circle: The Poetry of Robert Lowell (1975). With J. D. McClatchy, he edited James Merrill's Collected Poems (2002), Collected Novels and Plays of James Merrill (2003), and The Changing Light at Sandover (Knopf, 2006). He is professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.

_______________________

Joyce Odam and Pat D'Alessandro to be honored:

The County Board of Supervisors will be awarding Snake-Pals Joyce Odam and Patricia D'Alessandro with Lifetime Achievement Resolutions on March 20 at 2 PM. They will be presented in the Board chambers located on the first floor in the County building on 700 H St. Sac. Please come if you'd like or if you can. At any rate, please feel free to pass on this information to anyone who might want to come and support them. Joyce has two chapbooks out from Rattlesnake Press, and Pat will be releasing one next December. Both poets have been published in Rattlesnake Review from the beginning, including the new issue, and Joyce serves the Snake as Formalist-in-Residence.

_______________________

TG confesses to a current obsession with Elihu Burritt:

OLIVE LEAVES AT THE OLD SODA WORKS
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

There are words to be spoken
with the living tongue and earnest heart
for great principles of truth
and righteousness.
—Elihu Burritt

Olive Leaves you called those leaflets from the tree
of peace, sent to newspapers and left in trains
and railway stations, where you hoped to reach
your countrymen with reasons against war.

Did your olive leaves make it this far west, Elihu,
to this 49er ice-and-soda works in Old Hangtown,
this enterprise rooted in abandoned shafts
where men mined for gold?

So close to Civil War, were you still
sending forth your hopeful Leaves in 1859,
when John Pearson raised these walls
of Mariposa slate and rhyolite?

So far away, so near in time and place —
in this Season for Non-Violence, we paste our poems
on the old stone walls, our questions
about right and righteousness.

Iraq, Darfur, Guantanamo, the broken Buddhas.
Our own words, but a message you would understand,
Elihu. The absurdity of oppression and war,
the natural grace of peace.

_______________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)

The Ides of March

Photo from Maui by Rhony Bhopla, Sacramento

THE QUIET ONES
—B.Z. Niditch, Brookline, MA

You say you can spot them
anywhere,
by their eyes, expression, skin,
colorful dress
but it is your monologue
which approaches
in an imperfect time
or an unimaginable hour
from a meagre age
that you first heard
there is no room
or meal
for them;
write it down,
say it never happens
that you never knew
or met them face to face
it must be someone else
some other place
it occurs, never here.

_______________________

B.Z. Niditch is a regular contributor to the Snake; he is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and teacher, as well as founder and artistic director of The Original Theatre in Boston. His work is widely published in journals and magazines throughout the world, including: Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Art; The Literary Review; Denver Quarterly; Hawaii Review; Le Guepard (France); Kadmos (France); Prism Internatiional; Jejune (Czech Republic); Leopold Bloom (Budapest); Anticoch Review and Prairie Schooner, among many, many others. He says he aims for euphony in his potry—that is, sound musicality. He plays violin, both classical and jazz, and believes poetry should be read out loud by the reader, to capture the essences and vibes of the poem. Enjoy his poetry today on the Ides of March.


The new Snake is out!

Lucky #13 "hit the stands" last night, and contributor copies and subscriptions will go into the mail in batches this week and next, or you can pick up your free copy at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sac. This issue features poetry and articles by more than 60 contributors, as well as photos, sketches, reviews, our regular columnists, and two interviews by B.L. Kennedy to launch the Rattlesnake Interview Series which will begin in April at the Snake's Third Birthday Party on 4/11.


Wildpoetryforum.com:

Our March book release by Steve Williams was a bi-state affair, with Steve and his lady, Constance, both here from Portland, and Tiger's Eye Co-Editor Colette Jonopulos visiting with Snake-pal Laura LeHew, both from Eugene. Steve and Constance told us all about the interesting Internet poetry forum they run at www.wildpoetryforum.com. Sounds like it is—wild, that is—with over 1000 participants from around the world! Check it out! And check out Steve's new rattlechap, Skin Stretched Around the Hollow, available at The Book Collector, and a new littlesnake broadside, Ultrasound, from Sacramento's Brad Buchanan.


Another Internet forum:

Poet’s Lane is still looking for themed poems for March: Aries, Daylight Savings Time, Springtime & Limericks; please pick one or several and send to PoetsLane@comcast.net. Mistress Cynthia Bryant says: So far every poem has been Springtime, and I know you all have more imagination than that. Coming in April, the poetry theme choices will be Poems on Poetry, Child Abuse Awareness, Fools and Mentors. Look them up with a stroll down Poet’s Lane (www.poetslane.com), and send your work to Cynthia Bryant at PoetsLane@comcast.net. Or Perhaps you need to rant in a poem about the injustices of life; send in a poem for her Get it Off Your Chest (mental health poetry) page. Cynthia has also added a new page to Poet’s Lane; she asks a question and posts the answers. The page is called "That Would Be Telling", and the first question was, "How has poetry changed your life?" Second question: "When do you write?" Third question: "What is your favorite Literary Publication and why?" Send your answers to PoetsLane@comcast.net.


Tonight the Truex-a-thon begins:

February Rattlechapper Brigit Truex (A Counterpane Without) will be reading at three venues this week: tonight, Friday, and Saturday:

•••Thursday (3/15), 8 PM: Join the folks at Poetry Unplugged (Luna’s Café, 1414 16th St., Sac.) for a pre-St. Patrick's Day night poetry fest, and feel free to bring Celtic Poetry and stories to share (anything from Northern Europe qualifies). Featured readers will be Celtic women Jeanine Stevens, Brigit Truex, Charlene Ungtad and Rebecca Morrison. Info: 209-727-5179 or www.lunascafe.com (916-441-3931). See last Friday's post for bios of these fine poets!

•••Friday (3/16), 7 PM: Brigit Truex will read again, this time with Manzanita Editor Monika Rose in El Dorado Hills at the Our House Gallery; take the Latrobe exit south and turn left into the shopping center.

•••Saturday (3/17) at 7 PM, all six of the Red Fox Underground (Taylor Graham, Irene Lipshin, Kate Wells, Wendy Patrice Williams, Moira Magneson, and Brigit Truex) will read at the Cozmic Cafe in Placerville (594 Main St.), featuring photography by Irene Lipshin. The reading is presented by El Dorado Peace and Justice in the Season of Nonviolence; it will begin with a reception from 5:30-7 PM, and will be followed by refreshments. Be sure to drive up and see Irene's beautiful photographs celebrating the concept of world peace; if you miss the reading, they'll be on display throughout March.


Also tonight:

•••Thursday (3/15), 7:30 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series will present the poets Mikhail Branski, Gene Bloom and Barbara Noble. Co-host Bill Gainer says, For those concerned with political correctness, the content of language and the politeness of thought—be warned, these three writers test the limits, they are known for challenging the accepted, the use of adult content and the informality of personal expression. For those sensitive of heart and weak of spirit, these three may prove a fairly dangerous bunch! Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 general, seniors and students, and $1 for those under 18. Refreshments and open-mic included. The show will be in Off Center Stage (the Black Box theater, enter from Richardson Street) at the Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley. Info: (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384. See last Friday's post for bios of these fine poets!

And see last Monday's post (or tomorrow's) for more info about what's happening this weekend.

________________________

15 CANDLES
—B.Z. Niditch

It's your birthday
but no one around
you walk to the museum
hurting from a bully's wound
with Mercurochrome on your chest
a pug at your side
standing at the sidewalk
amid a vast Van Gogh sadness
in unpredictable light
now with broken sunglasses
from yesterday's assaults
insensate encounter
you climb up
the art house steps
waiting to visit the moderns
taking out your own oils
unwilling to take any blame
for being an original.

_______________________

THE REVENANTS
—B.Z. Niditch

At the last Renoir film showing
you walk out at midnight
translating your own hunger
and kick a climbing stone,
rain gave you status
it washed us and then stopped,
sleep was only an hour away
but a crust of french
carried every fleshly image
to a porch in November
where love was made up
near strawberries and vine,
a faded voice flickers
in Pacific river-mouth black
blurring the bluest stars
running from their clouds,
you want to be a poem
or at least a line
from the silent screen
of motionless picture
taking off your life jacket
near a port of call
fireflies spotlight
the parking lot plaza
at six minutes, five seconds
you become pale with spells
the leafless time suffocates
under the torn marquee,
your second wind
pounds out the theme song
betraying your hunger
by the dazzling Technicolor
a soldier on the set
shoots outside the movie house.

________________________

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)