Saturday, July 26, 2025

Creating Content

 —Poetry by Ryan Quinn Flanagan,
Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of Medusa
 
 
ESCAPE FROM CRETE

The suitcases are packed
with horror movie hatchets
and the sweater buttons have
come undone.

Partitions slammed over
a hellish crag,
the height of all dominions.

Remember, how Daedalus
skimped on glue
and Icarus took a tumble.
 
 
 

 
CONTENT CREATOR

He showed me his pay stub,
how the numbers
had been cubed like meat.

The corporate art
on the wall
was fumigated
vomit.

I asked him
why he was a content creator
and not just a creator,
and he said his boss
demanded it.

Even though
he wasn't sure what
content was,
it was very important
that he created
it.
 
 
 
 

DOUG BERGMAN’S BOX

I saw it there,
among your things.

It was Doug Bergman's box,
scrawled in black marker.

Scuffed along the edges.
A little worse for wear.

Only,
nobody knew who
Doug Bergman
was.

Just that
he had his own
box.
 
 
 

 
TIPPING HATS

The medicine man
dancing hellfire
over cobbles
like bursting pianos.

Ezekiel's Wheel
in the heart
of body shop
banter.

Dingos for dogs
and that lie
of bloodless coups.

Of tipping hats
holding the cheek
line.

This rib
I tore away
from a garden
gated man.

Living in boots
and out of boxes.

The adjusters
out cutting rates
like skulking cheese mites
brought back to
market.
 
 
 

 
SAM

Sam walked down the street
with the help of Sam's only feet
to get his bread, from the ladies that fed
everyone, even the squirrels
in the trees.
 
 
 
 
 
MOLD

The allergist
walks into the office,
looks down at his chart
and tells my wife
she should avoid mold.

"Shouldn't everyone avoid mold?"
I interject.

The allergist says nothing,
seems to be avoiding
me.

He must think
I am mold.
 
 
 

 
GOLDEN GLOBES

I would like to thank astronomy.
I would like to thank Deuteronomy.
I would like the thank the economy.
I would like to thank salami.

I would like to thank Maserati.
I would like to thank that table full of Robbies.
I would like to thank Benghazi.
I would like to thank the Stasi.
 
 
 

 
REVERSE GOD

I knew this guy
who refused to shower
all week.

That is,
until Sunday came
around.

Then he'd shower,
and begin all over again.

Like some reverse God.

Rests all week.
And on the seventh day
he showers.
 
 
 

 
GOODBYE KISSES

Goodbye kisses
find the bend in the road,
tear at ice hut masters
over a hole in the lake.

It's no different in the ground,
a box of goodbye kisses.

The placement of hands
and a goodbye wind.

Everything gone sideways
with the mindless tenured rains.

__________________

Today’s LittleNip:

SIX ON THE PATIO
—Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Five was enough, but we had one more.
Four would have been a travesty,
and three could bake a cake.
Two was close to one,
but we had six.

__________________

Welcome back to Ryan Quinn Flanagan, a SnakePal who is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage. His work can be found both in print and online in such places as
Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Medusa's Kitchen, Setu, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review. Ryan drops in to the Kitchen every now and then when he can thaw himself out, and we're always happy for it!

_________________

—Medusa



One of Ryan's neighbors drops by . . .
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Joe Nolan, Stockton, CA












 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A reminder that
the Sac. Noir Tour takes place
this morning, 9am, starting at
Sacramento Poetry Center;
and contributors from
the
Voices anthology
will read at the
Sacramento Poetry Alliance
in Sacramento today, 2pm.
For info about these and other
future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
 during the week.

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.

Poets’ bios appear on their first MK visit.
To find previous posts, type the name
of the poet (or poem) into the little
beige box at the top left-hand side
of this column. See also
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom
of the blue column on the right
side of this column to find
any date you want.

Miss a post?
You can find our most recent ones by
scrolling down under this daily one.
Or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column.
(Please excuse typos in older posts!
Blogspot has been through a lot of
incarnations in 20 years!)

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
send poetry and/or photos and artwork
to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!

LittleSnake in his Canada garb~
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
















 
 

Friday, July 25, 2025

Otis and the Underworld

 —Poetry and Photos by Taylor Graham,
Placerville, CA
—And then scroll down for
Form Fiddlers’ Friday, with poetry by
Nolcha Fox, Stephen Kingsnorth,
Caschwa, Joyce Odam, and
Mitali Chakravarty
 
 
TRAIL OF THE PRIMEVAL FERN

You mentioned ferns. I chose today’s
trail for ferns unfurled on a steep rocky
cutbank above an abrupt ravine.

This trail is no primeval forest—only
runaway backyard ivy cloaking tower oaks
and tree-of-heaven imitating ferns.

This morning, not a trace of fern.
They need water. It’s the wrong season.
I’ll choose another walk,

a deeper dark-greener canyon
where even in July the ferns will fan
their mysteries of light and shadow. 
 
 
 
 

WOODS ART

In the aspen grove
lives a carven woodpecker
with a daylight owl.
The pig-sketch didn’t survive
wildfire—sylvan crash & burn. 
 
 
 
Otis
 
OTIS IN THE WOODPILE

Himself is
a poem leaping
burrowing
unmindful
of the mercury (it’s hot!)
yet mercurial

the black plume
his tail—inverted
pendulum,
metronome
birthing its own breeze, its song
of wondering life

his muzzle
huffing underworld
of woodpile
for something
hiding—more fundamental
than words—pulse and breath. 
 
 
 


UN RAMO DE ROSAS
     for S.


Surprise, he’s back! headed for his shady
spot beside the hiking trail. He went north
last year, for better prospects. Now he’s back.
Maestro of bel canto on the stage.
Will he sing Granada for me again?
Song holds a lingering scent of roses
even here along the trail in summer
where the only flower is a tall white
species of carrot. Will he be at his
old station? Surprise! New road construction
just above the trail, all vegetation
cleared, nary a dapple of shade. Life takes
its toll. Granada blooms in memory,
no matter how old and way-worn the voice.
Even if There isn’t There anymore. 
 
 
 
 

MR. THORN

He keeps to his property, his terrain,
its microclimate, piece of sky, and stars.
Does he begrudge his neighbors with a view,
the doe and fawn who visit their domain,
their ridge that rises toward the red of Mars,
the hawk that perches on a branch askew?

He has his own, and isn’t that enough?
His drive is paved while theirs is rocky rough.

He can’t shut out the children’s high refrain
that sounds like joy unsolved and, just by chance,
it changes timbre with the wind and rain,
the wind that moves like truth caught in a dance.
And what’s in all that roughhousing to gain?
He fears the vibes might bind him in a trance. 
 
 
 
 
 
I WANTED SOME TOO . . .

Who’s
eating wild
cherry plums just
ripe? Must be Little
Elf.

___________________

Today’s LittleNip:

7000 FT ELEVATION
—Taylor Graham

Listen to the wind
shiver aspen leaves—wonder
about everything.

___________________

Taylor Graham has sent fine forms and fotos on this summery day; our thanks to her for today's contributions! Forms she has used this week include a Tanka (“Woods Art”); a Shadorma  that is also an Ars Poetica (“Otis in the Woodpile”); a Response Poem to Katy Brown’s "Living with the Prehistoric”( https://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/search?q=Living+with+the+Prehistoric) (“Trail of the Primeval Fern”); an Elfchen (“I Wanted Some Too…”); some Blank Verse that is also a Response to Medusa’s Tuesday Seed of the Week, The Lingering Scent of Roses (
“Un Ramo de Rosas”); a Haiku (“7000 Ft Elevation”); and an Alfred Dorn Sonnet (“Mr. Thorn”). The Elfchen is an old German 'form’: 11 words (not syllables), 5 lines consisting of 1 word, then 2 words, 3, 4, 1. The Alfred Down Sonnet and the do-any-form-you-want prompts were last week’s Triple-F Challenge.

In El Dorado County poetry, Poets and Writers of the Sierra Foothills features our new Poet Laureate, Moira Magneson, in Camino this Sunday, 2pm; and Poets and Writers of El Dorado will present a workshop, Writing Words to Light the Way, with Lara Gularte next Thursday, 5:30pm in El Dorado Hills. Info about these plus El Dorado Country’s regular workshops is listed on Medusa’s calendar (if you scroll down on http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html/). For more news about such events and about EDC poetry—past (photos!) and future—see Taylor Graham’s Western Slope El Dorado Poetry on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry. Or see Lara Gularte’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/382234029968077/. And you can always click on Medusa's UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS (http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html). Poetry is Gold in El Dorado County!  
 
And now it’s time for…    
 
 
FORM FIDDLERS’ FRIDAY

It’s time for more contributions from Form Fiddlers, in addition to those sent to us by Taylor Graham! Each Friday, there will be poems posted here from our readers using forms—either ones which were sent to Medusa during the previous week, or whatever else floats through the Kitchen and the perpetually stoned mind of Medusa. If these instructions are vague, it's because they're meant to be. Just fiddle around with some challenges—  Whaddaya got to lose… ? If you send ‘em, I’ll post ‘em! (See Medusa’s Form Finder at the end of this post for resources and for links to poetry terms used in today’s post.)


Check out our recently-refurbed page at the top of Medusa’s Kitchen called, “FORMS! OMG!!!” which expresses some of my (take ‘em or leave 'em) opinions about the use of forms in poetry writing, as well as listing some more resources to help you navigate through Form Quicksand and other ways of poetry. Got any more resources to add to our list? Send them to kathykieth@hotmail.com for the benefit of all man/woman/poetkind!
 
* * *
 
 A Street With No Name, v3 by SHADOWFINCH467
Last Week’s Ekphrastic Photo


Poets who sent responses to last week’s Ekphrastic photo were Nolcha Fox, and Stephen Kingsnorth:



KLIMT-ISH
—Nolcha Fox, Buffalo, WY

Klimt might have walked
this street in dreams,
longing for the perfect woman
he could gold-leaf into art.

The doors were locked,
the windows, closed,
the building, Art Nouveau,
the road was nameless loss.

Yet somehow he
returned each night
to search and search
and search.

* * *

WHET OR DULL?
—Stephen Kingsnorth, Coedpoeth, Wrexham, Wales

So what is this, designer frame,
its lines more vital than content?
The stuff content—contented stuff—
both contents and the satisfied—
for accents change that meaningful,
and emphasis has started wars.

A panel beater circumscribed,
purveyor of the misty side
unless the slide itself has moved —
provided fuzzy photograph
to leave surveyor mystified?
I do learn that eye test is due.

I stare, to better focus there
where mergers may be overlapped,
geometry itself is stayed—
why, what is compartmentalised?
Amongst shape range, tree canopy?
Is that alone free living sight?

I cannot reckon with this work,
nor understand this ‘street_no_name’;
so do I miss the obvious,
this patchy work behind a veil,
deprived of detail to debate?
I would on unseen speculate.

What questions looming in the fog?
What focus, as tired eyes protest?
Do devils lie is those details?
When execution seems precise
can reproduction be device
to whet or dull the appetite?

* * *

Caschwa (Carl Schwartz) writes: “For today’s Ekphrastic Challenge, I submit not a poem, but a caption:”


Ageless AC’s Accomplish Altered Atrium Aesthetic

—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
 
* * *

For our Freestyle challenge this week, (do any form you want), Joyce Odam sent a poem in ababcc (etc.) that is also a Response to our Tuesday Seed of the Week, The Lingering Scent of Roses:
 
 

 
THE BITTER ROSE
(After Galway Kinnell)
—Joyce Odam, Sacramento, CA


Well, she has kissed the bitter rose
and now her lips have blood on them.
One thorn for love is what her grievance knows.

This blood red rose that once was talisman
she makes symbolic with a kiss
and dried up tears.  She’ll not surrender this.

The taste of blood is bittersweet.
She mocks a bitter laugh.  Her lip
shines red.  She bites it with red teeth.

The rose has died, as now her love is dead.
She peels its petals for her crimson shrine
to all her dead heart vows to keep confined.
                                                  

* * *

And Mitali Chakravarty has sent us two Limericks, along with her photos:



ANIMAL LIMERICKS
—Mitali Chakravarty, Singapore 
 
 
 
1

There lived a family of whiskered otters.
One went for a swim in murky waters.
A monitor swam by.
The otter took fright.
It leapt out and joined the walkers. 
 
 
 
2

A seagull flew to Colosseum in Rome.
It had a penchant to tour and roam.
It stood under a tree
And watched tourists in glee
As they queued outside the gated zone.

________________

Many thanks to today’s writers for their lively contributions! Wouldn’t you like to join them? All you have to do is send poetry—forms or not—and/or photos and artwork to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post work from all over the world, including that which was previously-published. Just remember: the snakes of Medusa are always hungry!

__________________

TRIPLE-F CHALLENGES!
 
See what you can make of these challenges, and send your results to kathykieth@hotmail.com/. (No deadline.) How about a little Prosopopoeia? Just what you need on a Friday morning, right?

•••Prosopopoeia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopopoeia#:~:text=The%20term%20derives%20from%20the,Caecus%2C%20a%20stern%20old%20man

•••AND/OR explore the form TG found for us, the wee Elfchen:

•••Elfchen: https://medium.com/@Stevie.TheWritersRevival/creating-an-elfchen-poem-821eadecb2c7

•••See also the bottom of this post for another challenge, this one an Ekphrastic one.

•••And don’t forget each Tuesday Seed of the Week! This week it’s “Shadows on Our Lives”.

____________________

MEDUSA’S FORM FINDER: Links to poetry terms mentioned today:

•••Ars Poetica: www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ars-poetica
•••Blank Verse: literarydevices.net/blank-verse AND/OR www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-what-is-the-difference-between-blank-verse-and-free-verse#quiz-0
•••Ekphrastic Poem: notesofoak.com/discover-literature/ekphrastic-poetry
•••Elfchen: https://medium.com/@Stevie.TheWritersRevival/creating-an-elfchen-poem-821eadecb2c7
•••Haiku: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/haiku-or-hokku AND/OR www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/haiku/haiku.html
•••Limerick: poets.org/glossary/limerick
•••Prosopopoeia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopopoeia#:~:text=The%20term%20derives%20from%20the,Caecus%2C%20a%20stern%20old%20man
•••Response Poem: creativetalentsunleashed.com/2015/11/18/writing-tip-response-poems
•••Shadorma: www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/poets/shadorma-a-highly-addictive-poetic-form-from-spain
•••Sonnet, Alfred Dorn: https://classicalpoets.org/2022/01/obsession-an-alfred-dorn-sonnet-and-other-poetry-by-tamara-beryl-latham/ AND/OR https://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/topic/1056-the-alfred-dorn-sonnet
•••Tanka: poets.org/glossary/tanka
•••Tuesday Seed of the Week: a prompt listed in Medusa’s Kitchen every Tuesday; poems may be any shape or size, form or no form. No deadlines; past ones are listed at http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/calliopes-closet.html/. Send results to kathykieth#hotmail.com/.

__________________

—Medusa
 
 
 
 Today's Ekphrastic Challenge!
 
 Make what you can of today's
picture, and send your poetic results to
kathykieth@hotmail.com/. (No deadline.)

* * *

—Artwork Courtesy of Public Domain
 
 
 
 
 















 
 
 
 
 
For info about
future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
 during the week.

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.

Poets’ bios appear on their first MK visit.
To find previous posts, type the name
of the poet (or poem) into the little
beige box at the top left-hand side
of this column. See also
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom
of the blue column on the right
side of this column to find
any date you want.

Miss a post?
You can find our most recent ones by
scrolling down under this daily one.
Or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column.
(Please excuse typos in older posts!
Blogspot has been through a lot of
incarnations in 20 years!)

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
send poetry and/or photos and artwork
to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
 

 


















 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Ghosts of What We Were

 —Poetry by Lynn White,
Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of Medusa


THE EMPTY HOUSE

It fascinated us as children,
the empty house in the countryside
where we walked the neighbour’s dog.
Why was it empty?
Who had lived there?
We imagined secret passages
leading to priest holes,
walled up dead bodies
and buried treasure.
No one knew.
But we knew
that the dog was reluctant to go near
and we had heard that dogs were sensitive
to the spirit world.
So we knew
it was haunted.
That ghosts lived there,
spirits of the past.
We dared each other to enter
through the broken window.
Maybe we broke it first,
but I don’t remember that.
In the end we all went in,
leaving the dog outside.
But there was nothing.
Just a house.
Empty.
Ordinary.
Not spooky.
Just empty.
I passed it today,
all these years later.
There’s no entering now.
Police tapes surround it.
Maybe the dog knew
that the ghosts were of the future,
not the past.

(First published in Secret Passages, Pilcrow and Danger,
July 2018)
 
 

 
 
SPIRITING AWAY


All that is solid
melts away
in death
consumed by fire
or worms
transformed
decaying
into so much dust.

So only memories remain.

And the spirits,
of course,
the ghosts
of what we were
of what became us
and what we became.


(First published in Poets Online, Ghosts, May 2025)
 
 
 

 
HAUNTED


I am being haunted
by my ghost.
It must be my ghost,
it knows too much
to arise from someone else’s body.
It remembers my past.
Remembers my dreams,
the ones I forgot so quickly on wakening
and the ones I left behind later,
only to revisit in future dreaming.

It knows too much.
It remembers the past
I prefer to forget,
the mishaps,
the missed opportunities,
the opportunities grasped too soon,
too impetuously,
the people left behind, happily or not,
the feelings I felt.
It remembers it all
and stalks my present with its memories.

It must be my ghost.
It knows too much
to arise from someone else’s body.
No one came that close.
Not for so long,
a lifetime.
I made sure of that.
But how can it be my ghost?
I’m still living.
Still alive.
And ghosts belong to the dead,
to those with no future.
But it must belong to me,
this ghost of my present
living in my past.


(First published in ParABnormal Magazine,
Hiraeth Books, June 2020)
 
 
 

 
HOUSE


It was hardly a gingerbread house.
Only the roof was gingerbread colour.
We thought the old woman living there was a witch.
Later we didn’t believe in witches
and we knew she was no more a witch
than the raindrops
hanging from the trees
were really diamonds,
though she said that they were.
Now the house stands empty and derelict
and we know no one has lived there for centuries.
Only the raindrops remain
frozen in time
hard as diamonds
just as she said they were


(First published in parABnormal, September 2023)
 
 
 

 
AUNTIE AGGIE


It was a beautiful seventeenth-century farmhouse
in a picture-postcard English village,
the family home of Liz
who would drop me off there
on our way back home from college.
I would pick up the bus for the last fifteen miles.

That night was my first overnight stay.
Liz lived with her parents and granny
and inside it was as olde worlde as out
with creaky floor boards and beamed ceilings.

It was Saturday and her parents were out
so we played our music loud.
Granny was said to be a little deaf
and she didn’t complain about the music.
I could hear her as she crossed the room above
to open a drawer or cupboard and then return
to her favourite chair in the corner
but there was no angry banging on the floor,
just frequent sorties back and forth,
her footsteps sprightly and unremarkable.
I didn’t mention her to Liz,
it felt rude, somehow.

At about eleven we heard a car draw up
and turned our music down.
Liz’s parents came in
followed by Granny.

Confused, I asked about the footsteps above
and they all laughed.
“That’s Auntie Aggie,” said Liz,
“She lived here when the house was first built.
She always walks when someone new visits.
She likes to introduce herself.
She’ll stop now you’ve acknowledged her.”

And she did!


(First published in
Dark Winter, November 13, 2023)
 
 
 

 
 THE HAUNTED SAUCEPAN

“You’ll be in the soup
if you go out in this”
she said,
“it’s a real pea-souper.”
I carried on stirring,
I wasn’t thinking of going out anyway.

I have to keep stirring
or I’ll be in the soup,
that’s what my saucepan says.
And I listen to her
as I peer through the fog
inside.
I know
what a sticky mess she can make
if I don’t obey her.

So I keep on stirring,
hoping that soon
she’ll let me eat.

I keep on stirring,
hoping that sometime
she’ll let me eat.


(First published in Brave and Reckless,
Monster She Wrote,
October 2021)

__________________

Today’s LittleNip:

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.

—Francois de La Rochefoucauld

__________________

—Medusa, with thanks to Lynn White for today’s fine, ghostly poetry. Ghosts aren't just for Halloween, ya know . . .
 
 
 

 











 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For info about
future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
 during the week.

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.

Poets’ bios appear on their first MK visit.
To find previous posts, type the name
of the poet (or poem) into the little
beige box at the top left-hand side
of this column. See also
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom
of the blue column on the right
side of this column to find
any date you want.

Miss a post?
You can find our most recent ones by
scrolling down under this daily one.
Or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column.
(Please excuse typos in older posts!
Blogspot has been through a lot of
incarnations in 20 years!)

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
send poetry and/or photos and artwork
to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
 
Snakes can haunt too, you know . . .
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 















Wednesday, July 23, 2025

A New Show Is Beginning~

 —Poetry by Linda Klein, Playa Vista, CA
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of
Joe Nolan, Stockton, CA
 
 
TRUTH IS A JAZZ PIANIST

(Inspired by and written for Emmet Cohen. His
first name, Emmet, means “Truth” in Hebrew, and  
in his piano playing there is a sense of truth. He is
doing what he was meant to do and he knows it.)

Absorbed by the music, the moment,
watching, awaiting your turn to turn
and let your fluid fingers fly across the keys.
Your curls shake and sizzle with electricity.

You smile, knowing just what to play
and how to play it, blend, slide, glide
into an unfolding odyssey.
I am lifted and carried along.

I see and feel truth sparkling in your eyes,
warm and clear as the notes you play.
They delight my ears and my heart.
I cannot help but sing your song.
 
 
 

 
COLOR CURTAINS

The sky has glorious ways of expressing itself.
It sings out in colors and shades beyond our
imagination, filling us with wonder and awe.

Color curtains descend.
A new show is beginning.
When the curtains ascend,
What drama will be spinning?
 
 
 

 
SUNSET

The sun does not leave quietly.
Its reluctance to be diminished,
so evident, fills the sky in
angry shades of fire until
it has said its say, to let us know
it will be back, for it is never finished.

__________________

Today’s LittleNip:

FRIENDSHIP
—Linda Klein

Practice makes it stronger.
Each encounter is a bond,
binding and reinforcing
its existing strength,
the glue holding it together.

Being there when needed for
support and aid is irreplaceable.
Absence at such times is inexcusable.
It makes the friendship a lie.

__________________

—Medusa, with thanks to Linda Klein for today’s fine poetry, and to Joe Nolan for finding the colorful photos to go with it!

SnakePal Freya Pickard will be dedicating a post to Medusa's Kitchen on her poetry blog,
Pure Haiku, today at around 2pm UK time. That’s at Pure Haiku, https://purehaiku.wordpress.com/?p=8530/. Check it out! (Thanks, Freya!)
 
 
 
Sunrise in Sri Lanka
A new show is beginning…


















 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For info about
future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
 during the week.

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.

Poets’ bios appear on their first MK visit.
To find previous posts, type the name
of the poet (or poem) into the little
beige box at the top left-hand side
of this column. See also
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom
of the blue column on the right
side of this column to find
any date you want.

Miss a post?
You can find our most recent ones by
scrolling down under this daily one.
Or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column.
(Please excuse typos in older posts!
Blogspot has been through a lot of
incarnations in 20 years!)

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
send poetry and/or photos and artwork
to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
 

 





























Tuesday, July 22, 2025

The Sacrifice of Roses

 Moonlight Rose Petals 
—Poetry by Joyce Odam and Robin Gale Odam,
Sacramento, CA
—Photos and Original Art by Joyce Odam
 
 
THE FABRICATED MUSE
(Poet and his muse, Omar Khayyam)
—Joyce Odam


Never mind, Old Poet, your dream
still lives,
perfect and unsullied
as any desire
while
tenacious vine
climbs up your musing window
where you lean on your elbow
and sigh
and close your eyes
and sniff the air
and your conjured Muse
still hovers near
like a tiny hummingbird,
but your pen won’t move
and your thoughts won’t clear
though she strokes your dreaming ear
and whispers, write me . . . write me . . .


(prev. pub. in Medusa’s Kitchen, 2/2/21) 
 
 
 
Rosewater
 
 
THE ROSE-EATERS
—Joyce Odam

tonight
we will tear a rose
and devour it
for we are hungry
for certain tastes
and urgencies

we have been
away so long
from
sweet tongues
of the flowers

our lips
will be
pink with flavor
as we smile
through the half darkness
at each other


(prev. pub. in ARX, Sept. l969;
in
The Rose Eaters Mini-Chap, 1972
by Joyce Odam (The Pleiad);
and in Medusa’s Kitchen, 3/25/10; 12/1/15;
11/30/21) 
 
 
 
Gathering
 

FOR ROSES
—Joyce Odam

Thorned, and petaled soft,
the marvel of their scent—
their wonder is enough.

For science and intention,
for all that intervention,
all is moot—

that something of the mind
can alter what is there,
will alter what is truth.

Thorned, and petaled soft—
with lack of scent—how can
the sacrifice of roses be enough.
 
 
 
Blue As In Blues
 

IN THE ALLEY
After Ted Kooser's "In the Alley"
—Robin Gale Odam


within the turning of a day
I saw them sorting through a trash   

no matter of their countenance
by each of them a prize was found

a fragrance drifting from the heap—
the wilting spray of handsome rose

and now with no apology
I write them here, a prize secured

that tender turning of a day—
a sweet bouquet of hidden verse 
 
 
 
Rose Garden, Full Sun
 

THE MEMORY-SCENT OF DRIED
ROSE PETALS
—Joyce Odam

What are roses when they wilt—
wilt and die—scented and soft,
as the softest words to say this—

expensive when alive :
roses for lovers
as token,
as symbol,
perfection without claim—
roses with long green stems,
innocent thorns, warning against touch.

Roses cut from bushes are for sacrifice.
Shrubs cannot hold them against this.
Vases will oblige them—present them.

Single,
or by the dozen,
roses will pose for you with their presence—
admire them,
sigh over them,
take their picture from bud to fullness, to petal-fall,

trash now—
tossed away—given to loss—
leaving a trail of sadness behind them.

                                                
(prev. pub. in Medusa’s Kitchen, 11/19/19; 6/28/22;
10/1/24)
 
 
 
Night Blooming
 
  
WILTING ROSES
—Robin Gale Odam

Twenty synonyms lingering,
every day another woe . . .

Once the scent becomes a sorrow,
a memory, that one phrase of a song,
a fading and featureless image only
in the night . . .

What has become of life, of love . . .

Piano keys, viola strings, the music
score harboring notes of darkness . . . 
 
 
 
Sunbird
 

In broken roses now

we lie among thorns
caress the long stems
and twine among the petals

sweet
sweet smelling
and clinging

they fall like rain from our arms
as we fall
from each other

like
the
roses

so many flounderings
against the
love


—Joyce Odam

                             
(prev. pub. in Medusa’s Kitchen, 4/924)
 
 
 
Wild Flowers, No Breeze
 
  
WHITE FLOWERS
—Robin Gale Odam

She rose into the dark morning
and gave her candle its flame.
She placed it behind the stained glass
hummingbird of lavender
with green wing feathers
and a soft yellow sky.

She dropped a lemon peel
and three ice cubes
into a glass of water.
She dusted her body
with the scent of white flowers
and put on her tiny diamonds
set in white gold.
She sipped the bitter lemon
and stared at the translucent bird
in its yellow sky.
It looked as beautiful as a sunrise.

She knew the day would steal her away.
She would cook oatmeal with raisins
and count lunch money
and remind them all to please 
hang up their wet 
    towels.
She would navigate traffic
and wait for every red light
and her secret would be
that her music was turned up full blast.
She would cling with all her life
to the heavy sound of the drums and the bass
and her heart would pour itself out again.

She would be nine minutes late.
She would accept every task
and turn every way
and do many things at once
and eat crackers for lunch
and forget to breathe
and not stop once until the end.
She would fall through a dream
of traffic and red lights
and a stop at the store
for something she would not remember
and children in the schoolyard
and the five steps to her front door.

She would say she loves them
and remind them to please
pick up their shoes and socks.
She would slide into her old soft gown
and place her diamonds into the red silk box.
She would lean into her feather pillow
and close her eyes for just a moment.
Her sons would blow Pachelbel’s Canon
through their flutes.
Her daughter would draw her a picture
of a wolf with long eyelashes
wearing a saddle and bracelets.
She would not be able to open her eyes.
She would smell the faint scent
of white flowers.
                         

(prev. pub. in Medusa’s Kitchen 12/20/22; 9/3/24)
 
 
 
Sunny Field
 

VERILY, VERILY…
—Joyce Odam

1.
The bride sweeps through the petals
strewn by the girls in pink. The sky
is a gentle blue and later there is a waltz.

2.
The ballroom grows dizzy—
circling and circling within the music,
turning the clinging—lingering waltzers.

3.
There will be dreamy music this night.
It will last until sleep,
like an exhausted lullaby.

4.
But, oh, waltzers—oh, music, dance on.
This adoration will not last.
Something will happen to the perfection.
 
 
 
Time As Timeless
 
 
CHARADE
—Joyce Odam

If a perfect rose is not enough beautifica-
tion for your shoulder what must you lose
of love with its wanting—your long look
down your arm toward the floor, your eyes
so terrible with loss and waiting for the
background to overtake you—what use
memory that saddens and holds—what
use this worrisome glitch of time with its
cutting symbol of mockery. The rose is
beautiful—will wilt. He’s gone.


(prev. pub. in Medusa’s Kitchen, 2/2/21) 
 
 
 
Hybrid


SINGLE ROSE IN BUD VASE
—Joyce Odam

Rose, and echoed rose, single-hued
in mirror-facing windows, where
the twi-lit glass mirrors her rare
garden roses—publicly viewed.
Her Silk Rose now takes all her care.
           
                           
(prev. pub. in Poets’ Forum Magazine, Winter 2008)
 
 
 
Healing Incense
 

Today’s LittleNip:

SYMPATHIES
—Joyce Odam

Meager though the tokens are
I hoard them now.

A paper clip will fit them all :

One letter, and one formal card,
one small note from a shop bouquet.


(prev. pub in

The Muse of Fire, August l997;
and in Medusa’s Kitchen, 11/19/19)


___________________

Our two resident rose-buds, Joyce and Robin Gale Odam, have sent us poems about roses today as we celebrate our Seed of the Week, The Lingering Scent of Roses. Thank you, Joyce and Robin! And thanks to Joyce for all these visuals.

Our new Seed of the Week is “Shadows on Our Lives”. Send your poems, photos & artwork about this (or any other) subject to kathykieth@hotmail.com. No deadline on SOWs, though, and for a peek at our past ones, click on “Calliope’s Closet”, the link at the top of this column, for plenty of others to choose from. And see every Form Fiddlers’ Friday for poetry form challenges, including those of the Ekphrastic type.

Be sure to check each Tuesday for the latest Seed of the Week.

___________________

—Medusa
 
 
 
 "Sweet bouquets of hidden verse..."
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of Medusa











 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
 during the week.

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.

Poets’ bios appear on their first MK visit.
To find previous posts, type the name
of the poet (or poem) into the little
beige box at the top left-hand side
of this column. See also
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom
of the blue column at the right
side of this column to find
any date you want.

Miss a post?
You can find our most recent ones  by
scrolling down under this daily one.
Or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column.
(Please excuse typos in older posts!
Blogspot has been through a lot of
incarnations in 20 years!)

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
send poetry and/or photos and artwork
to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!