Waterbirds

Photo by Katy Brown, Davis


In the withered fields
there's no need for the crane
to stretch out its neck

—Shiko

Thanks for the photo, Katy! Katy Brown says: I saw Medusa's column last Sunday about the cranes. I went down to the wildlife preserve near Lodi a couple of weeks ago and took some shots of the sand hill cranes. They are spectacular!


NOCTURNE
—Li T'ai Po (701?-762)

A white moon
Floating
On sea-green waves;
A snowy heron
Flying
In the night;
Girls
Walking home
From water-chestnut picking
And singing
In the moonlight.

____________________

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.

______________________

THE CRANES
—Raymond Carver

Cranes lifting up out of the marshland...
My brother brings his fingers to his temples
and then drops his hands.

Like that, he was dead.
The satin lining of autumn.
O my brother! I miss you now, and I'd like to have you back.

Hug you like a grown man
who knows the worth of things.
The mist of events drifts away.

Not in this life, I told you once.
I was given a different set of marching orders.
I planned to go mule-backing across the Isthmus.

Begone, though, if this is your idea of things!
But I'll think of you out there
when I look at those stars we saw as children.

The cranes wallop their wings.
In a moment, they'll find true north.
Then turn in the opposite direction.

_____________________

—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.) 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).

SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Rattlesnake Review: The new issue of Rattlesnake Review (Sweet 16) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you one. The last of contributors' and subscribers' copies go into the mail this week. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in December! Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro, and Notes From The Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Sacramento's Ann Wehrman. And while you're down at The Book Collector, pick up a few poetic Christmas presents, including any of a number of wonderful books and chapbooks, Rattlesnake and otherwise—not to mention A Poet's Book of Days, our first perpetual calendar, featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown.

Coming in February: The Snake has crawled into winter hibernation for the rest of December and for all of January: no readings, no books, no broadsides. (Medusa is always awake, however, and will keep posting through most of that time. Send stuff.) Then, on February 13, Rattlesnake Press will roar to life again with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Don and Elsie Feliz (To Berlin With Love), plus a new littlesnake broadside from Carlena Wike (Going the Distance), as well as Volume Two of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Of Clover and Bees

Carol Louise Moon

DOGS BOTHER ME

especially the dog next door.
I could hear him woowing. He wasn't
woofing, but woowing. Woow. Woow.

I didn't know what it meant.
I didn't know what he meant it to mean.
He wasn't mean, he was just woowing,
whatever that means.

It's not like we woo when we're wooing.
He wags while he's woowing, and
it bothers me when he wags his tail
because it's attached to his spine.

And if he's spinning and whining,
and woowing and wagging that means
his spine is wiggling, and that's
what really bothers me.

I almost died in the hospital last week,
and if I had died and was dead
I never would have met this dog next door.

I couldn't have rung the doorbell and said
"Is that your damned dog woowing so much?"

I now see him spinning in circles
on a circular carpet, and I see those
brown beagle eyes bulging, and I
become ambivalent about his barking.

He's kinda cute, but could
you calm and quiet him?

—Carol Louise Moon, Sacramento

____________________

Thanks, Carol Louise! Carol Louise Moon is a Northern California poet who is affiliated with the Sacramento Poetry Center and the Tuesday Night Workshop in Sacramento. She has been published in Poetry Now, Brevities, and Rattlesnake Review. She has won third place in the monthly California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc. contest and has been published in the organization’s Updrafts. The second edition of her chapbook, Fuzzy Spiral Twist, a book of poems about children, is soon to be released.


This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (12/17), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Celtic Women Brigit Truex, Charlene Ungstad and others at HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. Open mic before and after. Host (and Celtic woman) Rebecca Morrison writes: Please join us for poetry, food and drink, broadsides, music and images celebrating all things Celtic—Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Cornish, English, etc. Please join in the open mic with your own Celtic poems. We will be reading poetry from a wide selection of Celtic women poets. We are also putting together a gift basket for Jeanine Stevens (one of our Celtic group) who recently lost her son, so if you have anything for Jeanine, please bring it to the reading.

[Note: there will be no SPC readings Dec. 24 or 31. And there will be no Tuesday Night Hart Center Workshops 12/25 or 1/1.]

•••Weds. (12/19), 6-7 PM: Because of Christmas, poetry comes early in December in Placerville! Join us at the Upstairs Poetry Reading this Weds. at The Upstairs Art Gallery, 420 Main St (2nd floor), Placerville. It's an open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. No charge.

•••Thurs. (12/20), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, features Katastrophe from SF (aka Rocco Kyatatos), famous international "Homo Hop" star and lyrical poet who is also a member of the original Sister Spit spoken word group. Plus Sac poets Gene Bloom and Barbara Noble. Free.

•••Friday (12/21), 7 PM: Our House Poetry Reading features Gene Altshuler and Wendy Patrice Williams. Note: new, temporary (December only) location: Event Center at Raley's in El Dorado Hills, 3935 Park Dr. An open mike follows. There is no charge.

•••Sat. (12/22), 7-9 PM: "The Show" poetry series features R&B vocalist Marcia Lewis plus slam champion He Spit Fire, plus NY poet Tantra (www.tantrasmasterwordplay.com). $5, Open mic. The Guild Theater, 2828 35th St., Sacramento. Info: 916-208-POET.

_____________________

FOGDOM
—Carol Louise Moon

Fog is creepy on my skin
impposing its dampness
deep into my pores,

insulting my delicate
blood vessels with threats
of graspness and dread,

skulking as it does with
everything else green
and tan and black. It

is not nice, but impolite,
antigregarious and rude.
If I could, I would shove

it away with my breath,
only to find it clinging to
my teeth inappropriately.

_____________________

THE CARPENTER
—Carol Louise Moon

I wish I had known him
better
the old man
Only this house
remains

and the ivy......
a living vine
of words
so green
I cannot read
his thoughts.

And the window
wide open...

the air whispers
what I cannot read
of the vine

"He is in the wood—
his hands."

______________________

CLOVER
—Carol Louise Moon

Halcyon sky over clover
meadows, clover indeed.

Breath-taking, yes.
But no, not death.

You were the one
who had something
to try for—

a starry sky.

Day ending all too soon
with clover and bees, and
buzzy swarms of questions
and stinging answers.

______________________

—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.) 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).

SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Rattlesnake Review: The new issue of Rattlesnake Review (Sweet 16) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you one. The last of contributors' and subscribers' copies go into the mail this week. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in December! Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro, and Notes From The Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Sacramento's Ann Wehrman. And while you're down at The Book Collector, pick up a few poetic Christmas presents, including any of a number of wonderful books and chapbooks, Rattlesnake and otherwise—not to mention A Poet's Book of Days, our first perpetual calendar, featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown.

Coming in February: The Snake has crawled into winter hibernation for the rest of December and for all of January: no readings, no books, no broadsides. (Medusa is always awake, however, and will keep posting through most of that time. Send stuff.) Then, on February 13, Rattlesnake Press will roar to life again with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Don and Elsie Feliz (To Berlin With Love), plus a new littlesnake broadside from Carlena Wike (Going the Distance), as well as Volume Two of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Kind As The Innocent Sun

PAPER CRANES
(The Hibakusha come to Gethsemani)
—Thomas Merton

How can we tell a paper bird
Is stronger than a hawk
When it has no metal for talons?
It needs no power to kill
Because it is not hungry.

Wilder and wiser than eagles
It ranges round the world
Without enemies
And free of cravings.

The child's hand
Folding these wings
Wins no wars and ends them all.

Thoughts of a child's heart
Without care, without weapons!
So the child's eye
Gives life to what it loves
Kind as the innocent sun
And lovelier than all dragons!




____________________

—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.) 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).

The Soul is Still Strong

MADLY SINGING IN THE MOUNTAINS
—Po Chü-I, 772-846

There is no one among men that has not a special failing;
And my failing consists in writing verses.
I have broken away from the thousand ties of life;
But this infirmity still remains behind.
Each time that I look at a fine landscape,
Each time that I meet a loved friend,
I raise my voice and recite a stanza of poetry
And marvel as though a God had crossed my path.
Ever since the day I was banished to Hsün-yang
Half my time I have lived among the hills.
And often, when I have finished a new poem,
Alone I climb the road to the Eastern Rock.
I lean my body on the banks of white Stone;
I pull down with my hands a green cassia branch.
My mad singing startles the valleys and hills;
The apes and birds all come to peep.
Fearing to become a laughing-stock to the world,
I choose a place that is unfrequented by men.

________________________

STARTING EARLY
—Po Chü-I

Washed by the rain, dust and grime are laid;
Skirting the river, the road's course is flat.
The moon has risen on the last remnants of night;
The travellers' speed profits by the early cold.
In the great silence I whisper a faint song;
In the black darkness are bred somber thoughts.
On the lotus-bank hovers a dewy breeze;
Through the rice furrows trickles a singing stream.
At the noise of our bells a sleeping dog stirs;
At the sight of our torches a roosting bird wakes.
Dawn glimmers through the shapes of misty trees...
For ten miles, til day at last breaks.

______________________

SLEEPING ON HORSEBACK
—Po Chü-I

We had ridden long and were still far from the inn;
My eyes grew dim; for a moment I fell asleep.
Under my right arm the whip still dangled;
In my left hand the reins for an instant slackened.
Suddenly I woke and turned to question my groom.
"We have gone a hundred paces since you fell asleep."
Body and spirit for a while had changed place;
Swift and slow had turned to their contraries.
For these few steps that my horse had carried me
Had taken in my dream countless aeons of time!
True indeed is that saying of Wise Men
"A hundred years are but a moment of sleep."

_____________________

A DREAM OF MOUNTAINEERING
—Po Chü-I

At night, in my dream, I stoutly climbed a mountain,
Going out alone with my staff of holly-wood.
A thousand crags, a hundred hundred valleys—
In my dream-journey none were unexplored
And all the while my feet never grew tired
And my step was as strong as in my young days.
Can it be that when the mind travels backward
The body also returns to its old state?
And can it be, as between body and soul,
That the body may languish, while the soul is still strong?
Sound and body—both are vanities;
Dreaming and waking—both alike unreal.
In the day my feet are palsied and tottering;
In the night my steps go striding over the hills.
As day and night are divided in equal parts—
Between the two, I get as much as I lose.

(Today's poems were translated from the Chinese by Arthur Waley.)

____________________

—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.) 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).

SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Rattlesnake Review: The new issue of Rattlesnake Review (Sweet 16) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you one. Contributors' and subscribers' copies go into the mail this week and next. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in December! Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro, and Notes From The Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Sacramento's Ann Wehrman. And while you're down at The Book Collector, pick up a few poetic Christmas presents, including any of a number of wonderful books and chapbooks, Rattlesnake and otherwise—not to mention A Poet's Book of Days, our first perpetual calendar, featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown.

Coming in February: The Snake has crawled into winter hibernation for the rest of December and for all of January: no readings, no books, no broadsides. (Medusa is always awake, however, and will keep posting through most of that time. Send stuff.) Then, on February 13, Rattlesnake Press will roar to life again with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Don and Elsie Feliz (To Berlin With Love), plus a new littlesnake broadside from Carlena Wike (Going the Distance), as well as Volume Two of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

A Mind of Winter

Photo by Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos

SHAKESPEARE WINTER
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

As winter comes, “old Adam’s penalty”
being to shiver-shake as spears of chill
thrust rude tips between ribs
thinly skinned over, thoughts of the great
spear-shaker work like antifreeze
in the engine: is not all winter the “candied
brook?” Isn’t the American River
somewhat of the “ice-brook’s temper,”
as the fog breathes like the horse that
stamps the fresh drift? William Shakespeare,
or Edward, Earl of Oxford, whoever you are,
speak liftingly, take this boy back
to when Arden Way was a Forest of Arden,
and every puddle surrendered its “candied”
window to our numb fingers come January.
It’s a late world for that now, but the geese glide,
the fog graduates into cloud, and the sky
is blueberry swirl, candied up with vanilla.
O Shakespeare, does your concordance
with all its wonderful plant-names
encompass the sharp pang of spearmint?
Well, we have what we have, saved from the ice,
held up glitteringly, the skimmed sheet of ice.
To remember the sweetness is to drape
the mundane in dramatic habiliments,
the “mind of winter” taking character
from its house playwright, as the ink
off the tip of the quill drabbles the snow…

_____________________

Thanks, Tom and Steph!


This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Tonight (Friday, 12/14), 8-10 PM: Lori Jean Robinson, Random Abiladeze and LaRue. Isis Bazaar, 122 I St., Sacramento. $5. Info: 916-208-7638.

•••Saturday (12/15), 7-9 PM: Poets Candy and Bret Freeman at Underground Books, 2814 35th Street (35th and Broadway), Sacramento, 916-737-3333. $3 includes a spoken word workshop and open mic. Learn more about:
—CD recording and book writing
—The difference between performance and slam poetry
—Self publishing
—Copyrights
—Poem memorization
—Mic posture and stage presence
—Having a good bio
—How to read your poem effectively
—How to market yourself and your work
—Performing at your own level
And much more! The workshop will discuss other arts as well.

•••Saturday (12/15), 2-6 PM: Poetry Fest featuring poets from the poetry anthology, Sun Shadow Mountain, at Cesar Chavez Central Library, downtown Stockton, 605 N. El Dorado St. There will be refreshments, artwork, musical accompaniment, and more! For information call Donald R. Anderson (209) 405-4041, or visit the website www.sunshadowmountain.com/.

•••Sunday (12/16), 2-4 PM: A Winter Solstice Salon, presented by The Woman's Writing Salon of Grass Valley, including Gail Entrekin, Meredith Ely, Molly Fisk, Maxima Kahn, Terry Lowe and Robin Wallace. Rhythm's Music Cafe (formerly The Beat Cafe), 114 W. Main St., Grass Valley. They say: this will be the last Salon after two years of great readings. We are ending the series and hope you can come and help us close it out. Info: www.nevadacountryartscouncil.org/womenswriting/salon.html/.

•••Monday (12/17), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Celtic Women Brigit Truex, Charlene Ungstad and others at HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. Open mic before and after. Host Rebecca Morrison writes:

Please join us for poetry, food and drink, broadsides, music and images celebrating all things Celtic—Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Cornish, English, etc. Please join in the open mic with your own Celtic poems. We will be reading poetry from a wide selection of Celtic women poets. We are also putting together a gift basket for Jeanine Stevens (one of our Celtic group) who recently lost her son, so if you have anything for Jeanine, please bring it to the reading.

Brigit Shea Truex is a Native American/Irish poet who was born in Washington DC,
then lived in Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Maryland and finally moved to Northern
CA. She is a member of the Red Fox Poetry Underground Group and has published in
journals such as Poetry Now, Rattlesnake Review, Manzanita, Folio, PDQ, Drumvoices
Review and the following anthologies: Sacramento 100 Poems, Nantucket, Washing 
The Color of Water Golden, Small Town USA.  She is writing a novel set in Ireland.
Her latest chapbook is from Rattlesnake Press, called A Counterpane Without.

Charlene Ungstad has been a member of the Sacramento poetry community for many years
and was instrumental in the October in the Railroad Earth reading series and
the Java City Poetry Marathon. She has published in many local anthologies and
is one of our resident Celtic experts with a penchant for the "history of Celts
in America."  

____________________

THE TREE
—Ezra Pound

I stood still and was a tree amid the wood,
Knowing the truth of things unseen before;
Of Daphne and the laurel bough
And that god-feasting couple old
That grew elm-oak amid the wold.
'Twas not until the gods had been
Kindly entreated, and been brought within
Unto the hearth of their heart's home
That they might do this wonder thing;
Nathless I have been a tree amid the wood
And many a new thing understood
That was rank folly to my head before.

____________________

MUSHROOMS
—Sylvia Plath

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.

___________________

—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.) 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).

SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Rattlesnake Review: The new issue of Rattlesnake Review (Sweet 16) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you one. Contributors' and subscribers' copies go into the mail this week and next. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in December! Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro, and Notes From The Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Sacramento's Ann Wehrman. And while you're down at The Book Collector, pick up a few poetic Christmas presents, including any of a number of wonderful books and chapbooks, Rattlesnake and otherwise—not to mention A Poet's Book of Days, our first perpetual calendar, featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown.

Coming in February: The Snake has crawled into winter hibernation for the rest of December and for all of January: no readings, no books, no broadsides. (Medusa is always awake, however, and will keep posting through most of that time. Send stuff.) Then, on February 13, Rattlesnake Press will roar to life again with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Don and Elsie Feliz (To Berlin With Love), plus a new littlesnake broadside from Carlena Wike (Going the Distance), as well as Volume Two of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

When We Love, God Thinks In Us

Kenneth Patchen, 1911-1972

WE GO OUT TOGETHER INTO THE STARING TOWN
—Kenneth Patchen

We go out together into the staring town
And buy cheese and bread and little jugs with flowered labels

Everywhere is a tent for us to put on our whirling show

A great deal has been said of the handless serpents
Which war has set loose in the gay milk of our heads

But because you braid your hair and taste like honey of heaven
We go together into town and buy wine and yellow candles

O this is celebration enough for twenty worlds!

_____________________

LIKE A MOURNINGLESS CHILD
—Kenneth Patchen

The rescuing gate is wide
On villages that drift through the sun.
I do not listen to sleep anymore.
Cows pasture on stalks of green hours
And a haze of joyous deer drinks eternity.
Bells make blue robes for the wind to wear.
Summer whistles for her dogs of tree and flower.
The old faith plays jacks with idiots on church lawns.
I am so close to good. I have no need to see God.

______________________

Today Kenneth Patchen would've been 96 years old.


A Very Local Call for Submissions:

Are you a member of the Davis Food Co-op? Send them your poems...or your (very!) short fiction or non-fiction. In celebration of National Poetry Month in April, Natural Choices will be publishing creative writing by Davis Food Co-op members. Members of all ages are encouraged to participate. All submissions should be somehow on the subjects of food, community, or cooperation, and should be sent by e-mail (no paper submissions, please!) to amy.radbill@alumnae.brynmawr.edu NO LATER than January 15, 2008. Work may be sent either as an attached Word document or with the text in the body of the e-mail. Submissions should be clearly marked with your name, your contact information, and the name under which your Davis Food Co-op membership is listed, and they should be no more than 400 words. Submissions that don't comply with these requirements will be disregarded. Decisions about publication will be made by the Natural Choices staff before the end of February (unfortunately, we have limited space, so we can't publish everyone).


Snakes are in!

Yesterday, lots of copies of the new Rattlesnake Review (#16) went into The Book Collector. Also yesterday, lots of copies also went out—there were only six of them left in there by the end of the reading last night! I'll be back down with more on Saturday, though, and contributor/subscriber copies start going into the mail today.

Lots of goodies in this issue, including Shawn Pittard's new feature, "Joining the Conversation"; Patricia Wellingham-Jones' article on "Healing Poetry"; tons of reviews; our regular columnists; three interview "teasers"; and poetry, poetry, poetry—plus oodles of way-cool photos, too! 74 pages of NorCal's finest, and all for free!

And while you're there, pick up free broadsides, including the latest (Notes From The Ivory Tower by Ann Wehrman), and buy yourself (or your friends) a rattlechap or six, including our brand-new one from Patricia D'Alessandro (Metamorphic Intervals from the Insanity of Life).


Tonight in NorCal Poetry:

•••Thursday (12/13), 7 PM: Susan Kelly-DeWitt will be reading at Lyon Books in Chico, 121 W. 5th Street, Chico, (530) 891-3338 this coming Thursday. Susan Kelly-DeWitt has published both her eighth chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree (from Rattlesnake Press), and her first full-length collection of poems, The Fortunate Islands, this year. Her work has appeared widely in literary journals, and she’s been featured in both Writer’s Almanac and Verse Daily. Carole Simmons Oles says of her poems, “Susan Kelly-DeWitt breaks our hearts and puts them together again with words.”

•••Also Thursday (12/13), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Featured reader plus open mic before and after.

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BECAUSE MY HANDS HEAR THE FLOWERS THINKING
—Kenneth Patchen

I scooped up the moon's footprints but
The ground climbed past with a sky
And a dove and a bent vapor.
The other half of cling together wove by
In the breath of the willows; fall in
Sand eagle ox ferret and emerald arch.
O we, too, must learn to live here;
To use what we are, O fall in now!
For only love is community! O various likenesses, none
Unless one love! In the lionleaf, the sonshade
Spreading over a father's road! When we love,
God thinks in us. And in that home-going time,
We see with the eyes of grass; and in the trees
Hear our own voices speak! So gently, gently, I say
That sleep is the secret-releasing key to this world.
our lives are watching us—but not from earth.

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REST, HEART OF THE TIRED WORLD
—Kenneth Patchen

Rest, heart of the tired world.
Hush... go to sleep.
Men and cities keep their cold terrible watches,
And the ocean frets at these naked lands of pain.
O hushabye... and go to sleep.

This red rain...
To breathe...
To weep...
To love where only murder has been lain...
To find youth, and faith, and all their quick kin,
Buried deep in talking halls of horror...
No.
It is that we cannot see,
That we cannot hear,
That we cannot smell,
Or taste, or feel, or think;
For surely no will in heaven or earth
Could endure what we seem to possess;
We live in the shadow of a greater shadow—
But there is the sun!
And from him man shall have life,
And he shall have redress from the crimes
Of his most brutal habitation...

O rest, heart of the tired world.
Hush... and go to sleep.
There is a beautiful work for all men to do,
And we shall at last wake into the sun.

_____________________

—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.) 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).

SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Rattlesnake Review: The new issue of Rattlesnake Review (Sweet 16) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll send you one. Contributors' and subscribers' copies go into the mail this week and next. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in December! Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro, and Notes From The Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Sacramento's Ann Wehrman. And while you're down at The Book Collector, pick up a few poetic Christmas presents, including any of a number of wonderful books and chapbooks, Rattlesnake and otherwise—not to mention A Poet's Book of Days, our first perpetual calendar, featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown.

Coming in February: The Snake has crawled into winter hibernation for the rest of December and for all of January: no readings, no books, no broadsides. (Medusa is always awake, however, and will keep posting through most of that time. Send stuff.) Then, on February 13, Rattlesnake Press will roar to life again with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Don and Elsie Feliz (To Berlin With Love), plus a new littlesnake broadside from Carlena Wike, as well as Volume Two of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

This Unkneeling Flame

Photo by Jane Blue, Sacramento

DELIGHTED WITH BLUEPINK
—Kenneth Patchen

Flowers! My friend, be delighted with what you like; but with something.

Be delighted with something. Yesterday for me it was watching sun on stones; wet stones.

I spent the morning lost in the wonder of that. A delight of god's size.

The gods never saw anything more enchanting than that. Gorgeous! the sun on wet stones.

But today what delights me is thinking of the bluepink flowers! Not that I've seen any....

Actually there isn't a flower of any kind in the house—except in my head.

But, my friend, o my friend! what wonderful bluepink flowers! Delight in my bluepink flowers!

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Thanks, Jane, for the photo (and the bluepink flowers!). Tonight The Snake is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro; Notes From The Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Sacramento's Ann Wehrman; and a brand new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#16), which includes more photos from fine poets such as Jane Blue. Come celebrate all of these tonight at 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

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THE STARS GO TO SLEEP SO PEACEFULLY
—Kenneth Patchen

The stars go to sleep so peacefully...
Their high gentle eyes closing like white flowers
In a child's dream of paradise.

With the morning, in house after grim house,
In a haste of money, proper to kiss their war,
These noble little fools awake.

O the soul of the world is dead...
Truth rots in a bloody ditch;
And love is impaled on a million bayonets

But great God! the stars go to sleep so peacefully

______________________

THIS SUMMER DAY
—Kenneth Patchen

You briing me Ocean Star a dreaming Song
that shakes the Bones of Apples
and makes a Church in this Snake's Head

—above the living—irrecoverably
a Bright Heart Goes Down—but every
Sign from Thee is beautiful O I love

this weary little rain—
the sadness of knees—O are ye in love with
brown woods and the silver tinkle
of evening birds? (Immortal? why
yes! A thinking book on a white table.
O Death must be this little girl
purshing her blue cart into the water.
O all Life must be this crowd of kids
watching a hummingbird fly around itself.)
And there is an Ear. And a Golden Heart.
And This Unclosing Eye.

There is a man wading in the river...
A woman baking little cakes...
There is a village we will come to—
O there are arms for us!
A tree of remembering stars—
There is This Unkneeling Flame—

This sudden beautiful excitement—
O have ye buckets great enough
to catch so much Wonder in!

______________________

—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.) 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).