A Garment of Brightness

Criminentlies—Enough with this dog talk!
Photo courtesy of Fotosearch

SONG OF THE SKY LOOM
—Tewa Song

Oh our Mother the Earth, oh our Father the Sky,
Your children are we, and with tired backs
We bring you the gifts that you love.
Then weave for us a garment of brightness;
May the warp be the white light of morning,
May the weft be the red light of evening.
May the fringes be the falling rain,
May the border be the standing rainbow.
Thus weave for us a garment of brightness
That we may walk fittingly where birds sing,
That we may walk fittingly where grass is green,
Oh our Mother the Earth, oh our Father the Sky!


(trans. by Herbert Joseph Spinden)

___________________

—Medusa

Dogs & Their Birthdays

DOG LIPS
—David Humphreys, Stockton

Dawg leeps, you softy bear
fur soft as mink. After our
morning walk you bounce around
like a dim wit puppy but then settle
down on your bean bag bed for your
day long snooze, Mr. Dog.

___________________

Thanks, David. David Humphreys is responding to last Tuesday's Seed of the Week.


Sacramento Poetry Center Conference: April 4-5

This year's Sacramento Poetry Center Conference will feature readings, lectures, and workshops. Here's the schedule:

Friday April 4:

6 PM late registration, passes, hors d'ouevres, book sales
6:45 PM Reception opening, introduction
7:00 PM Reading at The Space: Camille Norton, Joshua McKinney, Jane Hirshfield
8-8:30 PM Closing/Book Sales

Saturday April 5:

8:45-9:20 AM Breakfast, Late Registration, Briefing from President
9:30-11:30 AM Workshop A Camille Norton
9:30-11:30 AM Workshop B Joshua McKinney
11:30 AM Lunch
1-1:30 PM Al Young Lecture
2-4:00 PM Workshop C Ellen Bass
2-4:00 PM Workshop D Quinton Duval
4:15-4:30 PM Closing remarks by President
4:30 PM Reading at The Space: Quinton Duval, Ellen Bass, Al Young
5:30 PM Closing Book Signings

Fees: Members: Friday $10 [Reading only] Saturday $10 [Reading/Lecture only] Both Days $35; Non-members: Friday $10 [Reading] Saturday $15 [Reading/Lecture only] Both Days $45. Special one-time SPC membership fee at the conference: $25. Mail to: 1719 25th Street , Sacramento, CA 95816.

__________________

THE DOG'S MUSIC
—Russell Edson

The rich hire orchestras, and have the musicians climb into trees to sit in the branches among the leaves, playing Happy Birthday to their dogs.

When the manservants come with birthday cakes, they are told, not now, do not dare disturb me when I am listening to my dog's music.

I was just wondering, sir, if I should light the candles?

I said not now. Do you want to distract me from my dog's music? Don't you realize that this is his birthday, and that it's been a whole year since his last birthday?

Shall I just put the cake in his feeding bowl, sir?

You are still distracting me from my dog's music. I wonder why you do it. This is not your birthday. Why are you trying to attract my attention?

But, sir, the cake...

But do you think I want my dog to see me talking to you while his music is being played? How would it seem to you if I talked to the dog while your music was being played?

So sorry, sir. I'll take the cake back to the house...

Oh no, it's gone too far for that—Sic'em, sic'em, cry the rich to their dogs.

And so the dogs of the rich leap on the serving men, who cry, help help, to the rich, who reply, not now, not now, the dog's birthday is passing into history with all its marvelous music!

__________________

—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: News from Rattlesnake Press

The brand-new Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Contributor copies and subscriptions will go into the mail this week and next. And if you aren't any of those but would like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.

Also New in March: Attracted to Light, a chapbook by Ann Privateer; Eclipse, a free littlesnake broadside by Jeanine Stevens; and Conversations Volume Two of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.

Coming in April: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing the Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading at 7:30 PM. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS: Photos and Prompts For Capturing Creative Thought. Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!

Water

Photo by Katy Brown, Davis


On the rushwood gate
instead of a lock—
one snail
—Issa

***

The snail goes to sleep
and wakes up
just as he is
—Issa

***

Like some of us,
he looks very important
— this snail
—Issa

***
While I ponder
a snail
passes me by
—Anonymous

___________________

Thanks, Katy, for the great photo! Be sure to look for more of Katy Brown's poetry and photography in the new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#17), available at The Book Collector in Sacramento—not to mention her "Snake Eyes" column. She also has a beautiful SnakeRings SpiralChap, The Quality of Light, for sale there (see our new, expanded bookshelf!) as well as A Poet's Book of Days, our Rattlesnake HandyStuff perpetual calendar. And now, coming in April, watch for the first of Katy's blank (well, not really) journal of photos and poetry prompts, Musings.


This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Today (Friday, 3/14), 11 AM: Poetry Out Loud State Finals: This year marks the third time the California Arts Council has produced the Poetry Out Loud competition, a contest that encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. The competition will take place at the Secretary of State Auditorium, 1020 "O" Street, Sacramento. Members of the public are invited to attend. At stake: $200 and the chance to compete for the over $20,000 available at the national finals. The competitors: high school students from 20 counties throughout California. The tools: as Shakespeare said, "words, words, words." And the contest: Poetry Out Loud. In case you are in the neighborhood and want to stop in, check out the CAC website: http://www.cac.ca.gov/artsnews/whatsnewdetail.php?id=19/.
It has links to more info about the program, which was started by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation.

•••Saturday (3/15), 4 PM: The Central California Art Association and the Mistlin Art Gallery announce a poetry reading, reception and book signing in the gallery 1015 J Street downtown Modesto. Three readers from Sixteen Rivers Press, a writing collaborative based in San Francisco, will be at the podium: Terry Ehret from Sonoma county and author of Lucky Break, Dan Bellm from San Francisco and author of Practice, and our very own Gillian Wegener from Modesto and author of The Opposite of Clairvoyance. You can sample their poems and read their bio's and endorsements at www.sixteenrivers.org/.

•••Also Saturday (3/15), 11 AM-3 PM: Help Woodland celebrate the beauty of trees with poems at Woodland's Arbor Day Celebration, The Gibson House Museum, Gibson Road, Woodland. Either write a poem or find a good one to share, and either email it to damasa@pacbell.net or mail it to Tree Poems, 42 Clark Court, Woodland, CA 95776. Indicate whether you'd be interested in reading your poem at the event, or whether you'd prefer to have it displayed. For questions, contact Marjorie Brown at 530-662-2124 or Chris Gray at 530-661-3311.

•••Also Saturday (3/15), 7-9 PM: Random Abiladeze, Carla Fleming and the BME tour. Underground Books, 2814 35th St., Sacramento. $3. 916-208-7638.

•••Sunday (3/16), 2-4 PM: Women's Writing Salon (Men Welcome!): Come to the Spring Celebration reading of poetry and prose penned by six Nevada County women writers, including Liz Collins, Jan Fishler, Donna Hanelin, Judie Rae, Lesley Schneider, and Loraine Webb. It’s a great time to hear the literary voices of our own Foothills community of women. Rhythms Music Café, 114 W. Main Street, Grass Valley. Admission is free! Food and beverages available at the Café.

•••Monday (3/17), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Black More at HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th St., Sacramento. Blake More resides along the tree, ocean, and character-lined vistas of the not-so-lost Mendocino coast. Engaged in many creative expressions, Blake’s work spans the spectrum from poetry, fiction, to non-fiction, to plays and performance pieces, to theatrical costume and mixed media functional art pieces, assemblage sculpture and wildly painted poetry art cars. The author of three full-length books (New Age Anonymous: 12 Steps for the Recovering New Ager, The Photon Energy Diet, and How To Heal Your Headache Naturally) and five books of poetry (Lingua Franca, Late-Eve(all) Woman In Paradise, I Scribble; Therefore I Am, postcards from the sun, and godmeat), Blake’s work has also appeared in magazines and journals worldwide (including Utne Reader, Yoga Journal, Alternative Medicine Digest, Japan International Journal, Nippon View, Tokyo Today, and Tokyo Time Out). Her original solo performance pieces and ensemble plays have appeared on streets and stages in New York, Tokyo, San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Los Angeles, Marin, Sonoma, and the Mendocino coast. She has worked with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Bay Area Video Coalition, The Marsh Theater, The Arena Theater, Gualala Arts, California Poets In The schools, Laughing Squid, KZYX Radio, KTDE Radio, SF Liberation Radio, and Radio Amsterdam. She coordinates a monthly poetry series and an annual poetry and jazz event on the south coast of Mendocino County. Blake’s newest book, godmeat (Beatitude Press, January 2008), is a collection of poetry, prose and color artwork and includes a poem movie compilation DVD. To learn more about godmeat, go to www.godmeat.com/. To explore Blake’s many other creative endeavors, please go to her website: www.snakelyone.com/.

___________________

RAIN
—Wendell Berry

It is a day of the earth's renewing without any man's doing or help.
Though I have fields I do not go out to work in them.
Though I have crops standing in rows I do not go out
to look at them or gather what has ripened or hoe the weeds from

the balks.

Though I have animals I stay dry in the house while they graze in

the wet.

Though I have buildings they stand closed under their roofs.
Though I have fences they go without me.
My life stands in place, covered, like a hay rick or a mushroom.

Photo courtesy of Fotosearch

A WET TIME
—Wendell Berry

The land is an ark, full of things waiting.
Underfoot it goes temporary and soft, tracks
filling with water as the foot is raised.
The fields, sodden, go free of plans. Hands
become obscure in their use, prehistoric.
The mind passes over changed surfaces
like a boat, drawn to the thought of roofs
and to the thought of swimming and wading birds.
Along the river croplands and gardens
are buried in the flood, airy places grown dark
and silent beneath it. Under the slender branch
holding the new nest of the hummingird
the river flows heavy with earth, the water
turned the color of broken slopes. I stand
deep in the mud of the shore, like a stake
planted to measure the rise, the water rising,
the earth falling to meet it. A great cottonwood
passes down, the leaves shivering as the roots
drag the bottom. I turn like an ancient worshipper
to the thought of solid ground. I was not ready for this
parting, my native land putting out to sea.

___________________

THE SPRINGS
—Wendell Berry

In a country without saints or shrines
I knew one who made his pilgrimage
to springs, where in his life's dry years
his mind held on. Everlasting,
people called them, and gave them names.
The water broke into sounds and shinings
at the vein mouth, bearing the taste
of the place, the deep rock, sweetness
out of the dark. He bent and drank
in bondage to the ground.

_____________________

WATER
—Wendell Berry

I was born in a drouth your. That summer
my mother waited in the house, enclosed
in the sun and the dry ceaseless wind,
for the men to come back in the evenings,
bringing water from a distant spring.
Veins of leaves ran dry, roots shrank.
And all my life I have dreaded the return
of that year, sure that it still is
somewhere, like a dead enemy's soul. Fear
of dust in my mouth is always with me,
and I am the faithful husband of the rain,
I love the water of wells and springs
and the taste of roofs in the water of cisterns.
I am a dry man whose thirst is praise
of clouds, and whose mind is something of a cup.
My sweetness is to wake in the night
after days of dry heat, hearing the rain.

___________________

—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: News from Rattlesnake Press

Coming in April, we will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing the Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading at 7:30 PM. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS: Photos and Prompts For Capturing Creative Thought. Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!

Of Cats & Lightning & Dog-Faced Dogs

Photo by Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos

ELECTRICAL STORM
—Elizabeth Bishop

Dawn an unsympathetic yellow.
Cra-aack!—dry and light.
The house was really struck.
Crack! a tinny sound, like a dropped tumbler.
Tobias jumped in the window, got in bed—
silent, his eyes bleached white, his fur on end.
Personal and spiteful as a neighbors' child,
thunder began to bang and bump the roof.
One pink flash;
then hail, the biggest size of artificial pearls.
Dead-white, wax-white, cold—
diplomats' wives' favors
from an old moon party—
they lay in melting windrows
on the red ground until well after sunrise.
We got up to find the wiring fused,
no lights, a smell of saltpetre,
and the telephone dead.

The cat stayed in the warm sheets.
The Lent trees had shed all their petals:
wet, stuck, purple, among the dead-eye pearls.

___________________

The only sly thing about that cat
was that he was not a cat.
He was a dog.
A dog-faced dog.
A dog-faced dog with no nasty
cat venom in his veins.
No fever from that scratch.
Just a bark and a wag.
Woof.

—Noel Kroeplin, Grass Valley

___________________

Thanks, Noel! Noel Kroeplin is responding to last Tuesday's Seed of the Week.

And thanks to Steph Schaefer, too, for the dramatic photo. If you'd like to see more of Steph's photos, pick up a copy of the brand-new Rattlesnake Review (#17), now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Contributor copies and subscriptions will go into the mail this week and next. And if you aren't any of those but would like me to mail you one, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.

Also premiering last night at our monthly rattle-read: Attracted to Light, a chapbook by Ann Privateer; Eclipse, a free littlesnake broadside by Jeanine Stevens; and Conversations Volume Two of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series. Speaking of B.L., it's Drive-By Day!


B.L.'s Drive-By: Micro-Review of the Week:

Wild Strawberries by Eric Greinke, Presa :S: Press, PO Box 792, Rockford, MI 49341. 95pp, $15.

Okay, I want to make it right this time. I have nothing against the poetry of Eric Greinke. I have nothing against any writer of poems. What I dislike are poems without focus. Poems which, had the writer taken a little more time, would have been outstanding works of literature. I'm not saying that this is the case with Eric Greinke, for his new collection, Wild Strawberries, has some wonderful work. Not great work, but wonderful work. Hugh Fox has put into print that Greinke “melds man, the universe, and the divine.” I don’t know if I can agree with that statement, but we all see what we want to see… right?

Anyway, back to this review: like all collections of poetry, this one has the good & not-so-good poems. There are poems that crawl up your spine & out your mouth, & this is so true of Wild Strawberries. Eric Greinke has some fine poems in this collection, & for that alone it is worth the read. Would I recommend that you run out to your local bookstore & purchase a copy tomorrow? No, I can’t do that because if I recommended every book in which I have enjoyed a poem or two or three, you, my dear reader would be hitting the food lines; you’d have a cool library, but you’d be broke! So, how did Roger Ebert say it? Oh, a mild thumbs-up for Wild Strawberries.

___________________

THE ORANGE BEARS
—Kenneth Patchen

The orange bears with soft friendly eyes
Who played with me when I was ten,
Christ, before I left home they'd had
Their paws smashed in the rolls, their backs
Seared by hot slag, their soft trusting
Bellies kicked in, their tongues ripped
Out, and I went down through the woods
To the smelly crick with Whitman
In the Haldeman-Julius edition,
And I just sat there worrying my thumbnail
Into the cover—What did he know about
Orange bears with their coats all stuck up with soft coal
And the National Guard coming over
From Wheeling to stand in front of the millgates
With drawn bayonets jeering at the strikers?

I remember you could put daisies
On the windowsill at night and in
The morning they'd be so covered with soot
You couldn't tell what they were anymore.

A hell of a fat chance my orange bears had!

___________________

—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: News from Rattlesnake Press

Coming in April, we will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing the Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading at 7:30 PM. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS: Photos and Prompts For Capturing Creative Thought. Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!

Battered and Shiny

A DOG’S YEARS
—Taylor Graham, Somerset

Dogs age so much faster
than a man. Decades of dogs.
This one he sometimes mistakes,
calls by the name of a pup
who used to fetch for him,
dead these sixty years.
On a cool March morning,
man and dog creak past cracks
in sidewalk, joint by joint,
warmed by a dog’s last spring.
A man still thinks of puppies.
He won’t get a new one.
Already too many old names
to remember. He’ll call
them one by one. Shut his eyes
and watch them come bounding.

__________________

Thanks, TG! Taylor Graham is responding to yesterday's Seed of the Week, sent in by Steve Williams. It's not too late for you to tackle that one yourself. There are no deadlines for inspiration...

Tonight's the night! Big doin's at The Book Collector: Rattlesnake Press will be releasing a chapbook from Ann Privateer (Attracted to Light), a littlesnake broadside from Jeanine Stevens (Eclipse), Conversations Vol. 2 of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, and a brand-new issue of Rattlesnake Review! Join us to celebrate all of this at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, tonight at 7:30 PM.

This volume of Conversations, incidentally, is another of B.L. Kennedy's spectacular collections of interviews/discussions with eleven area poets: Julia Connor, Victoria Dalkey, Josh Fernandez, Ted Finn, Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Jose Montoya, Joyce Odam, Chris Olander, Phil Weidman, Terry Wheat, —and B.L. Kennedy, shamelessly interviewing himself! Come pick one up at The Book Collector for just $8—over 100 pages of personalities in all their grandeur and occasional irreverency...

Molly Fisk writes: The March Boot Camp is almost upon us, so sign up if you'd like to write six new poems in six days, beginning Sunday March 16th and running through Friday March 21st. Or even to rewrite six poems in six days, in the Revision Camp (e-mail me for info). More about all of this is at http://www.poetrybootcamp.com. While you're there, you can also peruse the new "links" page, full of arbitrary and personal connections you might find interesting.

___________________

INSOMNIA
—Elizabeth Bishop

The moon in the bureau mirror
looks out a million miles
(and perhaps with pride, at herself,
but she never, never smiles)
far and away beyond sleep, or
perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.

By the Universe deserted,
she'd tell it to go to hell,
and she'd find a body of water,
or a mirror, on which to dwell.
So wrap up care in a cobweb
and drop it down the well

into that world inverted
where left is always right,
where the shadows are really the body,
where we stay awake all night,
where the heavens are shallow as the sea
is now deep, and you love me.

__________________

THE SHAMPOO
—Elizabeth Bishop

The still explosions on the rocks,
the lichens, grow
by spreading, gray, concentric shocks.
They have arranged
to meet the rings around the moon, although
within our memories they have not changed.

And since the heavens will attend
as long on us,
you've been, dear friend,
precipitate and pragmatical;
and look what happens. For Time is
nothing if not amenable.

The shooting stars in your black hair
in bright formation
are flocking where,
so straight, so soon?
—Come, let me wash it in this big tin basin,
battered and shiny like the moon.

___________________

—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).

Who Are The Nameless Surgeons?

Tired Dog
Richard Kalvar, Paris, 1974 (Magnam Photos)

TIRED DOG
—Steve Williams, Portland

Gray, cracked—façade and stone.
Unashamed of naked age—Old beagle woman
do you see him sniffing a bit of weed?

Or do you watch an empty sidewalk
while arthritis creeps up your bones
like a wagon train of biting ants?

You cannot see or smell your owner—
he is crumbling concrete sand
roiling in your belly, warmed by the sun.

There is a jagged hole beside you,
a blind corner at the end of the building row,
you are on the verge of adventure.


__________________

Thanks, Steve! Rattlechapper Steve Williams sends us this poem and photo for our Seed of the Week. Use it to trigger your thoughts and get your muse a-goin'. Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers that you have come up with, such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—send us whatever you think might tickle somebody's muse. I'll pick one and post it on a Tuesday, then Medusa readers are encouraged to rise to the occasion with their responses to your triggers. All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review, starting with the up-comer issue (#17) which is due out tomorrow. Send your work to me at 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.

Speaking of triggers, check out the new Rattlesnake Review, which will be available at The Book Collector beginning tomorrow night at the rattle-read. This "trigger-happy" issue is full of ideas that should get you started on writing. Plus, Steve Williams reminds us that Wild Poetry Forum has an active "trigger" section on it, besides. Look it up at: http://wildpoetryforum.com/~wildpoet/discus/messages/32729/33591.html?1203391863


Dancing Poetry deadline:

Deadline is May 15 for Artists Embassy International’s Fifteenth Annual Dancing Poetry Contest. All DPF prize winners will receive a prize certificate suitable for framing, a ticket to the Dancing Poetry Festival ’08, and be invited to read their prize winning poem at the 2008 Dancing Poetry Festival, September 27, 2008, Noon-4 PM in the Florence Gould Theater in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor Art Museum in San Francisco. Three Grand Prizes will receive $100 each, plus their poems will be danced and videotaped for the winners. Each Grand Prize Winner will be invited onstage for photo ops with the dancers and a bow in the lime light. In addition, five First Prizes will receive $50 each; ten Second Prizes will receive $25 each, and 25 Third Prizes will receive $10 each (over $1000 in prizes!). For any additional info, including submission guidelines, please visit www.dancingpoetry.com.

___________________

And in case you haven't heard, tomorrow (Wed., 3/12), Rattlesnake Press will be releasing a chapbook from Ann Privateer (Attracted to Light), a littlesnake broadside from Jeanine Stevens (Eclipse), Conversations Vol. 2 of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, and a brand-new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#17—next deadline is May 15). Join us to celebrate all of this at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, March 12 at 7:30 PM.

___________________

RAINBOW
—Max Jacob

It was the hour when night makes the mountains lament
And the crags creak under the footsteps of animals,
The birds flew away from the countryside like poison
To get to the sea, to get to a better horizon.
Pursuing a poet then the devil went.
The poet stared at the sea as if he were dead,
For there the sea powdered the edge of a bay
And covered the skin of the giant rocks with scales.
But Jesus, with fire shining behind his head,
Came to climb up the black crags, bearing the cross.
The poet stretched out his arms towards the Savior
And everything vanished: the somber night and the beasts.
The poet followed God for his happiness.

__________________

PATIENCE OF AN ANGEL
—Max Jacob

You can beat me, beat me! beat me, said the demon who stood near the stoup of holy water, but you cannot destroy me. I am the rebel angel but I am an angel and my face that you so often mar bears at least the trace of one virtue: patience. You can beat me! beat me! My time will come.

__________________

BANKS
—Max Jacob

I complain like the flute,

Always the same tune
No rests in the water-cress
The toad sounding "do"
Would prefer the bassoon.

Elves whose forces beguile
Must I, for my part,

Go to bed all my life
Dreaming of greater Art?

So many stops and looks
But never any listens
For a poor man who traps
A snowstorm that glistens.

_________________

HELL IS GRADUATED
—Max Jacob

When I was employed at Cooperative Fashions, in spite of the dark, ugly old maid, I tried to steal some garters. I was pursued down the superb staircases, not for the theft, but for my laziness at work and for my hatred of the innocent finery. Descend, you are pursued. The staircases are less beautiful in the offices than in the part open to the public. The staircases are less beautiful in the "service" quarters than in the offices. The staircases are still less beautiful in the cellar! But what can I say of the marsh where I arrived? What can I say of the laughter? Of the animals that brushed by me, and of the whisperings of unseen creatures? Water gave place to fire, to fear, to unconsciousness; when I came to myself I was in the hands of silent and nameless surgeons.


(Max Jacob's poetry was translated by Elizabeth Bishop.)

_______________________

—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).

On the Ceiling

Ann Privateer

FOUND IN THE STREET
—Ann Privateer, Davis

black and whites photos
with crinkled edges
kept loose,
found in the street.

a girl veiled
for communion
a white prayer book.

a man looks
giant size
by a tool shed

a baby,
a wedding gown—
a half frown

black and white photos
more real than color.

__________________

Thanks, Ann! Ann Privateer says, I started writing nature poems in my early 20’s, quickly jotting down thoughts after the first thaw when it was warm enough to walk on icy creek water without wearing a jacket. Nature consisted of an exciting mix of elements, challenging me to put dizzying feelings into words.

That’s how it was, growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio.

Some of those stark differences made their way with me to California where I married, concluded a BA in English, had two children, and taught school. The water is still icy some of the time, but now it reflects family as often as it does flowers.

This Wednesday, March 12, Rattlesnake Press will be releasing a chapbook from Ann Privateer (Attracted to Light), a littlesnake broadside from Jeanine Stevens (Eclipse), Conversations Vol. 2 of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, and a brand-new issue of Rattlesnake Review (#17—next deadline is May 15). Join us to celebrate all of this at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, on Wednesday, March 12 at 7:30 PM.


Other NorCal poetry this week:

•••Tonight (Monday, 3/10), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Edythe Haendel Schwartz at HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. Open mic.

•••Wednesday (3/12), 7:30 PM: Rattle-read at The Book Collector (see above).

•••Thursday (3/13), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Featured readers, with open mic before and after.

•••Friday (3/14), 11 AM: Poetry Out Loud State Finals: This year marks the third time the California Arts Council has produced the Poetry Out Loud competition, a contest that encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. The competition will take place at the Secretary of State Auditorium, 1020 "O" Street, Sacramento. Members of the public are invited to attend. At stake: $200 and the chance to compete for the over $20,000 available at the national finals. The competitors: high school students from 20 counties throughout California. The tools: as Shakespeare said, "words, words, words." And the contest: Poetry Out Loud. In case you are in the neighborhood and want to stop in, check out the CAC website: http://www.cac.ca.gov/artsnews/whatsnewdetail.php?id=19/.
It has links to more info about the program, which was started by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation.

•••Saturday (3/15), 4 PM: The Central California Art Association and the Mistlin Art Gallery announce a poetry reading, reception and book signing in the gallery 1015 J Street downtown Modesto. Three readers from Sixteen Rivers Press, a writing collaborative based in San Francisco, will be at the podium: Terry Ehret from Sonoma county and author of Lucky Break, Dan Bellm from San Francisco and author of Practice, and our very own Gillian Wegener from Modesto and author of The Opposite of Clairvoyance. You can sample their poems and read their bio's and endorsements at www.sixteenrivers.org/.

•••Also Saturday (3/15), 11 AM-3 PM: Help Woodland celebrate the beauty of trees with poems at Woodland's Arbor Day Celebration, The Gibson House Museum, Gibson Road, Woodland. Either write a poem or find a good one to share, and either email it to damasa@pacbell.net or mail it to Tree Poems, 42 Clark Court, Woodland, CA 95776. Indicate whether you'd be interested in reading your poem at the event, or whether you'd prefer to have it displayed. For questions, contact Marjorie Brown at 530-662-2124 or Chris Gray at 530-661-3311.

•••Sunday (3/16), 2-4 PM: Women's Writing Salon (Men Welcome!): Come to the Spring Celebration reading of poetry and prose penned by six Nevada County women writers, including Liz Collins, Jan Fishler, Donna Hanelin, Judie Rae, Lesley Schneider, and Loraine Webb. It’s a great time to hear the literary voices of our own Foothills community of women. Rhythms Music Café, 114 W. Main Street, Grass Valley. Admission is free! Food and beverages available at the Café.

__________________

SLEEPING ON THE CEILING
—Elizabeth Bishop

It is so peaceful on the ceiling!
It is the Place de la Concorde.
The little crystal chandelier
is off, the fountain is in the dark.
Not a soul is in the park.

Below, where the wallpaper is peeling,
the Jardin des Plantes has locked its gates.
Those photographs are animals.
The mighty flowers and foliage rustle;
under the leaves the insects tunnel.

We must go under the wallpaper
to meet the insect-gladiator,
to battle with a net and trident,
and leave the fountain and the square.
But oh, that we could sleep up there...

__________________

—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).