Much Too Soon

WHY JUST ASK THE DONKEY
—Hafiz

Why
Just ask the donkey in me
To speak to the donkey in you,

When I have so many other beautiful animals
And brilliant colored birds inside
That are all longing to say something wonderful
And exciting to your heart?

Let's open all the locked doors upon our eyes
That keep us from knowing the Intelligence
That begets love
And a more lively and satisfying conversation
With the Friend.

Let's turn loose our golden falcons
So that they can meet in the sky
Where our spirits belong—
Necking like two
Hot kids.

Let's hold hands and get drunk near the sun
And sing sweet songs to God
Until He joins us with a few notes
From His own sublime lute and drum.

If you have a better idea
Of how to pass a lonely night
After your glands may have performed
All their little magic
Then speak up sweethearts, speak up,
For Hafiz and all the world will listen.

Why just bring your donkey to me
Asking for stale hay
And a boring conference with the idiot
In regards to this precious matter—
Such a precious matter as love,

When I have so many other divine animals
And brilliant colored birds inside
That are all longing
To so sweetly
Greet
You!

__________________

This weekend in NorCal poetry:

•••Friday (5/16), 7 PM: Poetry at Wild Mountain features Allegra Jostad Silberstein and Theresa McCourt. An open mike follows. Wild Mountain Books and More is located at 352 Main St., Placerville. There is no charge.

•••Friday (5/16), 7:30 PM: Writers of the New Sun / Escritores del Nuevo Sol present The Second Annual Story Night. Enjoy brief items (about 5 minutes each) in the form of essay, short story, memoir, play scene, novel excerpt, or narrative poem. We will sit around our [figurative] campfire and share our tales. MC Sam Rios, our genial, articulate host, will have great stories of his own. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022 – 22nd Street, midtown Sacramento. This evening is dedicated to Rudy Cuellar, a man who gave so much of his life to the stories of the Chicano community.

•••Saturday (5/17), 7-9 PM: Underground Books presents Queen Sheba from Atlanta, Rodzilla (home from Denver), ImmoBme, Yoke Breaker, Random Abiladeze, La-Rue' and Supanova. 2814 35th St. (off 35th and Broadway), Sacramento. $3.00

•••Saturday (5/17), Noon to 4 PM: Poetry Picnic: California Poets in the Schools Reading with spoken word stylings of Verso Al Fresco and poetry workshops for kids of all ages. Robin Sweeny Park (corner of Litho and Caledonia Streets), Sausalito. FREE!

•••Sunday (5/18), 7:30 PM: Marin Poetry Festival presents Robert Bly, Eavan Boland & Jane Hirshfield with music of Middle East. Angelico Hall of Dominican University, 50 Acacia Ave., San Rafael. $25 general, $20 students and seniors. Sponsored by Book Passage, Dominican University and Poetry Flash. For tickets call 415.927.0960, ext. 239
or visit http://isledesk.com/festival or email PoetNews@sonic.net/.

•••Monday (5/19), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Q.R. Hand and Bill Vartnaw, HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. Free; open mic after.

__________________

David Humphreys sends us this photo and tribute to Dith Pran, the Cambodian photojournalist who was immortalized in the movie, The Killing Fields, and who passed away recently. Thanks, David!

DITH PRAN
—David Humphreys, Stockton

History is long with nutrients soaking
into soil, jungle birds exploding into sky.
Would the wilderness beside the bubbling
newness of this historical river ever consider
asking the question why?




Today's LittleNip:

Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering—and it's all over much too soon.

—Woody Allen

__________________

—Medusa (who will be off carousing for the weekend, and who will return, snakes and all, on Monday the 19th)


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

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

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

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

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

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

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

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

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

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

New for May: Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval and a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, by Stephani Schaefer.

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


Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.

Persephone Joins Us

Theresa McCourt

Allegra Silberstein

LIKE SUNLIGHT
—Allegra Jostad Silberstein, Davis

After the white and pink blossoms fall
golden mustard combs the orchard and spreads
across the fence like sunlight…

the roadside inhabited by faith.

In a vacant lot
between tall buildings this upcoming yellow
grows tall as a forest…

redwing blackbirds sing canticles there.


(first appeared in California Quarterly, Vol. 33 No. 4)

__________________

ALONG THE CANAL
—Theresa McCourt, Sacramento

Unmooring behind the backs
of coal-darkened warehouses,
small window after small window
cracked or smashed,

we saw the spoilage,
the rusty pipes crisscrossed
over and under,
leaking corrosives.

Then the murky water seemed
to renew in a meadowy place,
with coots and moorhens calling.

The twilight returned starlings,
thousands swirling,
pouring themselves into the reeds.

That night, head against the stern,
I dreamt my first living creature,
a slate-eyed wolf, staring.

Thirty years later, I am parked
in a new, mostly empty lot:

And birds, just past dawn, rise and
fall on ground they cannot enter,
splinter the air into bits of black ash.

_________________

•••Tomorrow (Friday, 5/16), 7 PM: Poetry at Wild Mountain in Placerville features Allegra Jostad Silberstein and Theresa McCourt. An open mike follows. Wild Mountain Books and More is located at 352 Main St., Placerville. There is no charge.

_______________

EARTH RISES INTO SPRING
(Persephone’s Song)
—Ann Wehrman, Sacramento

vision glides delirious
through green, blossoming leaf buds
mineral-rich satisfaction of warm earth
new grass’s fresh sweetness

trees dance like maidens
in sunlight daily brighter
strong, clean breeze lifts branches,
sparkling strands of peridot

my housebound cat begs me
to throw open all windows
bats the screen with his head
dreams he weaves through long emerald blades

toast and coffee suffice this morning
my senses swim, intoxicated
renewed by Earth’s
un-self-conscious, selfless resurrection

__________________

SCRUTINY
—Ann Wehrman

eyes gleam between
narrowed lids
twist of lip
nostril’s flare
long, thin finger
in white kid glove
details clean path
through dust
notes corner web
un-made-up face
unwashed coffee cup
scrutiny races
in quickening, darkening circles
intoning its Symphonie Fantastique

until sky lightens
breathing eases
witches fly away

__________________

SPRING RHAPSODY
—Ann Wehrman

still cool, spring’s breeze
wafts clean, insistent
wet black loam smells
of turning up, opening, warming
sun soft, brighter daily, coaxes earth
pointillist leaf and flower buds,
fruit trees riot
blossoms flame open, fall, scatter
a giant behind pink-edged clouds
pours spring rains from his watering can
nurturing, soaking
regal purple violets
with sweet, translucent stems
daffodils that bend and dance
like fields of monks in prayer
sun’s new again warmth
brings drying, cleaning of lungs
a taller stance
I put away winter’s hats and gloves
breathing more deeply, I walk
through tree-lined corridors
feel my thoughts narrow
align with cosmic rays
spring’s renewing breeze pushes me to dance—
willing, alone, exultant—
in its new green vat of re-creation
Eve in the twenty-first century’s Garden,
I smile to the snake,
sunning himself, at rest

Photo by Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos

Thanks, Ann! Speaking of snakes, don't forget that TODAY (May 15) is the deadline for Rattlesnake Review #18, due out in mid-June. Send 3-5 poems, photos, art, whatever-have-you that the Snake might like to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Watch for more poetry by Ann Wehrman in the up-coming issue, and if you don't have a copy of her free littlesnake broadside, write and ask me and I'll send you one.

__________________

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

Heart-Shaped Box
By Joe Hill
366pp
Harper Collins
$7.99

Heart-Shaped Box is the debut novel by Joe Hill that should not be ignored. Here is an unsettling ghost story that will not only scare but will delight you. With the author’s lyrical style, the book simply kicks ass! So, if you are looking for a thrill ride by a talented new writer, check out Joe Hill.

_________________

Today's LittleNip:

Societies that don't eat people are fascinated by those that do.

—Ronald Wright

__________________

—Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

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

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

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

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

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

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

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

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

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

New for May: Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval and a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, by Stephani Schaefer.

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


Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.

Best-Laid Plans

Two Manikins
Jane Blue, Sacramento

BEWARE OF DOGS FACING WEST
—Viola Weinberg

And heads hanging on walls
Horse skulls laid in moat
Beware the crystal breath caught
By paintings of the dead
And photographs that steal the soul
Beware the bloodless root of evil

And the tight, cold wire of false friends
On the high plain, beware of the steppes
That lead to the savanna, beware the
Sleepy eyes of Cesar and the charming
Roar of crowds who come to
Hail and bury deep in the Roman city

Beware of lies told by the village king
Beware of truths told in a woman’s sleep
Be careful, please, to avoid the trap
Step over the pit, walk the long way around
Take note of shadows and faces in clouds
Take care in the forum, cover your heart and run

____________________

Thanks, Jane and Viola! Watch for more of Jane Blue and Viola Weinberg in Rattlesnake Review #18, due out in mid-June. Have you sent in your poems/photos/art/what-have-you yet? 3-5 poems, etc.: No bio or cover needed, no simul-subs or previously-pubs; send 'em to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Deadline is tomorrow, May 15!

As many of you know, Viola was Sacramento's first Poet Laureate, a position she shared with Dennis Schmitz. An interview of her will appear in Conversations, Volume 3 of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, which will appear June 11. Yes, that's right, June 11, not May 14 (today) as planned; it has been postponed. The best-laid plans... Jane was interviewed in Volume One.


Speaking of May 15 deadlines, here are two more:

•••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.

•••The California Arts Council is accepting nominations for California Poet Laureate, the officially recognized poet for the state of California, as selected by the Governor. Nominations are due by May 15, so take a look at the application now! Self-nominations are accepted. http://www.cac.ca.gov/artsnews/whatsnewdetail.php?id=39


Calendar addition for this week:

•••Thursday (5/15), 7:30 PM: The Nevada County Poetry Series continues its tenth year of celebrating poetry by presenting poets Quinton Duval and Jeff Knorr. As educators, poets and promoters of the written word, Duval and Knorr use their skills to explore the human and natural condition—they celebrate the joys and tragedies found there in. Rattlechapper and Nevada County Series co-host Bill Gainer says, "The world and all that is in it is the page they work from—extraordinary talents both." Quinton Duval has published three books of poems: Guerrilla Letters (1976), Dinner Music (1984), and Joe's Rain (2005), and a new collection of poems, Among Summer Pines, is being released from Rattlesnake Press on May 14. His poems, reviews and translations have appeared in many literary magazines including: Carolina Quarterly, Ohio Review, Gettysburg Review, Quarterly West, Cut Bank, Santa Clara Review, and California Quarterly. He is the editor and publisher of Red Wing Press and teaches English and Creative Writing at Solano Community College in Fairfield, California. He lives in West Sacramento with his wife, Nancy. Sample Duval at:
http://greatamericanpinup.blogspot.com/2005/09/quinton-duvaljoes-rain.html .

Jeff Knorr is the author of the three books of poetry, The Third Body, Keeper and Standing Up to the Day. His other works include the co-authored Mooring Against the Tide: Writing Poetry and Fiction; the anthology, A Writer's Country; and The River Sings: An Introduction to Poetry. His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Knorr currently directs the River City Writer's Series at Sacramento City College and serves on the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission's Poet Laureate committee. He is Professor of literature and creative writing at Sacramento City College. Visit Jeff at: www.scc.losrios.edu/~knorrj .

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, CA. For more information call (530) 432-8196 or (530) 274-8384.


Oh—and did we mention...

that Quinton Duval is also reading TONIGHT at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM, to release his new rattlechap, Among Summer Pines? He will be joined by Stephani Schaefer of Los Molinos, with her new littlesnake broadside, Before Naming. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; brings your own poems or somebody else's.

But as we said earlier, the release of Volume 3 of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, has been postponed a month, to June 11.


Yesterday's Seed of the Week:

Medusa mispoke in her earliest edition yesterday, calling the Seed of the Week a HandyStuff Quickie. "Eek, eek," wrote Taylor Graham almost immediately; "Where's the Seed??? It's Tuesday!" Realizing her error, the wall-eyed Medusa quickly changed HStf to SOW; some of you slug-a-beds may not have even noticed. Anyway, TGraham then sent in this response to Tom Goff's challenge (which you can see on yesterday's post), saying "How about this? (though I really hate to brutalize Hopkins!)" Thanks to both TG's for this dandy bit of chicanery!


THE WINDHOVER, SUMMARIZED

What bright sparks from heaven’s hammer!
Can’t hold a hawk with English grammar.

___________________

This week's HandyStuff Quickie (yes, this is the real one; it's Wednesday, right?):

Do you know Laverne and Carol Frith's Practical Poetry: A Guide for Poets? This is a highly portable little synopsis of poetic history, elements of craft, and practical considerations in succinct style and format, a handy guide either for beginner's or those of us who are more, as we say, "well-seasoned". It has been used for many years by college campuses and individuals across the country. Practical Poetry is available from Frith Press, P.O. Box 161236, Sacramento, CA 95816-1236. (Click on the link to the right of this column for further info.)

__________________

A FAMILY OF WOMEN IN LOVE'S KITCHEN
—Viola Weinberg

1. The Maven

Once while dining at the club
She went crazy, she stood and tore her
Tailored linen blouse to shreds
The place was speechless
For a full minute the buttons flew
No silver stirred, no glass was raised

At other tables, other women
Sat with their ankles crossed
In dresses of georgette and chiffon
They looked dimly into their plates
It was Sunday, Family Day at the club
But at our table, her big breasts

Were falling out of their white cups
And the caw that uttered from her throat
Bounced from the buffet table to the pool
Just as suddenly, she swept through
The room like a stately yacht—
Her flapping napkin flown low across the bow

__________________

Today's LittleNip:

There's something about a closet that makes a skeleton restless.

—Wilson Mizner

—Medusa

When Pens Dance

Spring (Der Fruhling)
—Painting by Franz Winterhalter

THE DREAM
—Marie J. Ross, Stockton

She feels energetic
pink toe shoes tied
with satin ribbons
around her ankles,
she breathes in the
dream.
Black hair bounces,
curly, shiny,
her face like image
of cameo, she a young
lady of the dance.
Practice, practice
on the ballet bar, up down,
point toes, first position,
second position, third, forth
and fifth, until blister cuts
and burns.
The dream,
leotard, tu tu, all illusions,
all costume fantasies,
until adagio, the lift, the master
of the whirl, the bend,
face brushed close, then the stride,
lights dim,
The applause, the applause,
curtain calls, oh the exhilaration!
The curtain lowers.
She breathes in the dream, her black
hair bouncing.

___________________

Thanks, Marie! Mother's Day inspired some poetry in Marie J. Ross, as well as in our new Historian-in-Residence, Tom Goff (see below). Watch for Tom's article about California's first Poet Laureate, Ina Coolbrith, in the up-coming issue of Rattlesnake Review, due out in mid-June. Deadline for submissions of poetry, photos, art, and what-have-you is this Thursday, May 15! Eeeeek! Time's a-wastin'!


FROM THE DARK END OF THE HALLWAY
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

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

___________________

And speaking of Tom Goff (what a coincidence!), Tom sends us this week's Seed of the Week. He says:

Try to condense a famous poem into an epigram, usually but perhaps not necessarily one rhymed couplet. It takes a bit of brutality, willed obliviousness to the original's magnificent details. I was lucky enough to have the little rhyme just hit me while writing the second of these two submissions. (And Nora, my wife, was making a papaya smoothie...)

NERUDA'S “UNITED FRUIT CO.,” SUMMARIZED
—Tom Goff

Their bloody greed’s a proprietary story:
banana swine, on papaya territory.

__________________

Thanks, Tom!

Today's LittleNip:

Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?

~Friedrich Nietzsche

__________________

—Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

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

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

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

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

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

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

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

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

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

Coming May 14: Join us on Wednesday, May 14 for the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval; a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, by Stephani Schaefer; and Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM.

Also in May: Deadline for Issue #18 of Rattlesnake Review is May 15. Free copies of Issue #17 are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one.


Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.

Looking Into The Eyes Of Time

Kestrel up close
Photo by Stephani Schaefer

AFTER A LONG RAIN
—Stephani Schaefer, Los Molinos

out there
in the green half-light
beyond the window
where you've been standing so long

just there
in rain-beaded brambles
under the wet trees
is a loss you need to remember

in a minute it will come to you
the slow music of its hands
on your shoulders

_______________

Thanks, Steph! Come hear Stephani Schaefer read this Wednesday night to celebrate the release of her littlesnake broadside, Before Naming. 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento.


Also this week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (5/12), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center and presents Rebecca Foust and Elizabeth Krause at HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. Rebecca Foust was born and raised in Altoona, formerly one of the country’s great railroad towns, located in the Allegheny Mountains in western Pennsylvania. She attended Smith College and Stanford Law School on scholarships and practiced law for ten years and now lives with her husband and three teenagers in Northern California. She has published work in Atlanta Review, Dos Passos Review, Margie, Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Nimrod International Journal, North American Review, and Taproot Literary Review and is currently in the low residency M.F.A. Writing Program at Warren Wilson College. Elizabeth Krause, who had been attending American River College, will be attending the University of Iowa in the fall. She is the current layout and design manager for Poetry Now and is the master of all that is Finno-Ugrian. Did we mention she makes a mean potato salad?

•••Wednesday (5/14), 7:30 PM: Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval; a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, by Stephani Schaefer; and Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison and Phillip T. Nails. That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Free. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else's.

•••Wednesday (5/14), 7 PM, at the Peace Center, 909 12th St., Sacramento: A poetry reading for peace: Poets Against War featuring Francisco Alarcon, Susan Kelly-Dewitt, Joshua McKinney and V.S. Chochezi.

•••Thursday (5/15), 7 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Café presents Beth Lisick & Kayden Kross. 1414 16th. St., midtown Sacramento. $5 cover charge; book signing afterwards. Luna’s is proud to present Beth Lisick in support of her new book, Helping Me Help Myself. Beth’s last book, Ok Everybody Into The Pool, was a smash success, making the New York Times Best Seller List and quickly becoming a beyond-cult favorite. Beth will have copies of her new book available for purchase and signing. Also that night we feature and debut former Sacramento and now San Diego-based poet and performer Kayden Kross. Luna’s open mic will, as always, be prior and post to the features.

•••Friday (5/16), 7 PM: Poetry at Wild Mountain features Allegra Jostad Silberstein and Theresa McCourt. An open mike follows. Wild Mountain Books and More is located at 352 Main St., Placerville. There is no charge.

•••Friday (5/16), 7:30 PM: Writers of the New Sun / Escritores del Nuevo Sol present The Second Annual Story Night. Enjoy brief items (about 5 minutes each) in the form of essay, short story, memoir, play scene, novel excerpt, or narrative poem. We will sit around our [figurative] campfire and share our tales. MC Sam Rios, our genial, articulate host, will have great stories of his own. La Raza Galeria Posada, 1022 – 22nd Street, midtown Sacramento. This evening is dedicated to Rudy Cuellar, a man who gave so much of his life to the stories of the Chicano community.

•••Saturday (5/17), 7-9 PM: Underground Books presents Queen Sheba from Atlanta, Rodzilla (home from Denver), ImmoBme, Yoke Breaker, Random Abiladeze, La-Rue' and Supanova. 2814 35th St. (off 35th and Broadway), Sacramento. $3.00

•••Saturday (5/17), Noon to 4 PM: Poetry Picnic: California Poets in the Schools Reading with spoken word stylings of Verso Al Fresco and poetry workshops for kids of all ages. Robin Sweeny Park (corner of Litho and Caledonia Streets), Sausalito. FREE!

•••Sunday (5/18), 7:30 PM: Marin Poetry Festival presents Robert Bly, Eavan Boland & Jane Hirshfield with music of Middle East. Angelico Hall of Dominican University, 50 Acacia Ave., San Rafael. $25 general, $20 students and seniors. Sponsored by Book Passage, Dominican University and Poetry Flash. For tickets call 415.927.0960, ext. 239
or visit http://isledesk.com/festival or email PoetNews@sonic.net/.

___________________

OLD PICKUP
—Virginia Hamilton Adair

bent body
scarred
rotting inside

driven dry
parts hanging down
eroded &

unscrewed

turned over once
rattled &
died

__________________

SCARLATTI
—Virginia Hamilton Adair

On the beaches of the world
Scarlatti still walks reinventing
the race of notes under his fingers
while the waves spilling over themselves shoreward
read his miind when the wind blows a certain way
writing his name in flourishes of foam
racing in time to his rhythms
telling the sand to be firm
under the master's feet.

_________________

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
—Virginia Hamilton Adair

The ants rush about importantly,
their city flourishes under the hot sand.
A horned toad licks them up with its long tongue.

A man kneels in the sand.
He chips at a red rock with his little pick and hammer.
The emerging fossil was once a hunger, food, and motion.

The man eats a ham sandwich and meditates.
Something has gone very wrong with his species.
They multiply without mercy or meaning.
They are killing each other, but not fast enough.

He contemplates the next billion years
while the sun moves his shadow imperceptibly.
His teeth close on the pig that died for his appetite.
Staring at the fossil, he chews slowly.
He has looked into the eyes of time, and they are hostile.

____________________

WELCOME WIND
—Virginia Hamilton Adair

Now on the brink of afternoon, the wind
out of the far west is due to arrive
from the crash of waves bringing a taste of salt,
a hint of wet sea sand.

Leaving the coast, this welcome wind
careens over the shoreline cities
heading for the hills and canyons,
turning the cottonwood leaves inside out,
puzzling the rare cloud on its way to the sunset.

All this, a prelude, an evening canticle, the heart sings
after a hot day, to the punctual wind from the ocean,
enveloping us in its great cloak of air,
playing with the birds, teasing us into poems.

___________________

Today's LittleNip:

God
Blooms
From the shoulder
Of the
Elephant
Who becomes
Courteous
To
The
Ant.

—Hafiz

__________________

—Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

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

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

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

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

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

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

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

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

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

Coming May 14: Join us on Wednesday, May 14 for the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval; a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, by Stephani Schaefer; and Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison, Viola Weinberg and Phillip T. Nails. That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM.

Also in May: Deadline for Issue #18 of Rattlesnake Review is May 15. Free copies of Issue #17 are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one.


Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.

Mother's Day

MOTHER'S DAY
—William Stafford

Peg said, "This one," and we bought it
for Mother, our allowance for weeks
paid out to a clerk who snickered—
a hideous jar, oil-slick in color,
glass that light got lost in.

We saw it for candy, a sign for
our love. And it lasted:
the old house on Eleventh,
a dim room on Crescent where
the railroad shook the curtains,
that brief glory at Aunt Mabel's place.

Peg thought it got more beautiful,
Egyptian, sort of, a fire-sheened
relic. And with a doomed grasp
we carried our level of aesthetics
with us across Kansas, proclaiming
our sentimental badge.

Now Peg says, "Remember that candy jar?"
She smooths the silver. "Mother
hated it." I am left standing
alone by the counter, ready to buy what
will hold Mother by its magic, so
she will never be mad at us again.

___________________

—Medusa

Quinton Duval

Quinton and Nancy Duval

DOGWOOD
—Quinton Duval

How can you stay so beautiful?
At once so pale and broken
into blossoming scraps, then
the dark, smooth branches,
I mean black, that give up
an odd petal to the spring wind.

How do you seem to know
where to set yourself down?
You have all kinds of wild ideas.
I know redbud sees your play
of dark and light, and starts,
brushy, stubborn, with impossible seed.

All the right and fine things
derive from you, or something like you.
All the veined white blossoms
hold against the black branch, the alarm,
the thug of winter light, the whip
that arrives with such beauty.

_________________

Thanks, Quinton! Quinton Duval has published three books of poems: Guerrilla Letters (1976), Dinner Music (1984), and Joe’s Rain (2005). He is the editor and publisher of Red Wing Press and teaches English and Creative Writing at Solano Community College in Fairfield, California. He lives in West Sacramento with his wife, Nancy.

This coming Wednesday, May 14, Quinton will be reading at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, at 7:30 PM, when Rattlesnake Press will be releasing Quinton's new chapbook, Among Summer Pines.


LONELY VISTAS
—Quinton Duval

Sometimes the longing begins early,
mornings steering the tractor through
uniform lines of grapes. The mist
settles between the rows, down where
the sulphur grabs hold of the leaves
and workers get that little cough
and surprising yellow in the kerchief.
But you are riding higher, inside the cab
no outer noise can seep into.
Bored, you decide the noise of the motor
is the noise it takes to make the whole
dark engine run, what it costs to play.
And all you see are unchanging rows,
occasional returns, like a ship
on a stage, afloat by simple optical
illusion. What others would see
as lucky, you write off as lonely
vistas, the same old same old thing.
Today you had bologna in your sandwsich.
Today is Thursday. You can't remember
if that's what Thursdays always bring.
You long for a highway, a free-for-all
white line of constant change. The hands
that fold the lunch meat, lubricate the bread,
are hands you have watched for years.
Are they yours or hers? Does she wonder
where those lonely vistas will lead you?
Does she know how separate we are?

___________________

Today's LittleNip:

Why others write I do not know. As well ask why a hen lays an egg or a cow stands patiently while a farmer burglarizes her.

—H.L. Mencken



___________________

Medusa


MEDUSA'S WEEKLY MENU:

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

Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar

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

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

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

Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar

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

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

_________________

SNAKEWATCH: NEWS FROM RATTLESNAKE PRESS

Coming May 14: Join us on Wednesday, May 14 for the release of Among Summer Pines by Quinton Duval; a littlesnake broadside, Before Naming, by Stephani Schaefer; and Volume Three of Conversations, our third book of interviews by B.L. Kennedy, featuring Art Beck, Olivia Costellano, Quinton Duval, William S. Gainer, Mario Ellis Hill, Kathryn Hohlwein, James Jee Jobe, Andy Jones, Rebecca Morrison and Phillip T. Nails. That's at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM.

Also in May: Deadline for Issue #18 of Rattlesnake Review is May 15. Free copies of Issue #17 are available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one.


Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.