Kevin Dobbs and Lee Rossi
the reading is to support
Stop Stigma, a mental health awareness program in Sacramento
Monday, April 29, 7:30 pm
Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th Street
Hosts: Leonard Germinara and Tim Kahl
| Kevin Dobbs lived away from America for 24 years in Japan, China, USA, UAE, and Qatar. With recent poetry in Painted Bride Quarterly, American Journal of Poetry, The Wayfarer, Paddock Review, and Enizagam, his work has also appeared in New York Quarterly, Poet Lore, Carolina Quarterly, Sou’wester, Chelsea, Florida Review, The Journal (England), Gulfstream, New Delta Review, Whiskey Island Magazine, and many others. He’s also placed fiction and non-fiction in Beloit Fiction Journal, Mid-American Review, Raritan: a Quarterly Review, Sou’wester, Karamu (Bluestem), and many others. His work has also appeared in anthologies. Kevin’s now been back for a few years in Sacramento where, in the early 80’s, he was an active participant in Sacramento’s poetry scene, having been one of Landing Signal’s editors along with Annie Menebroker and Douglas Blazek. |
On Bosphorus Bridge When an Earthquake Happens One of hundreds Of fishermen with a line Over the rail Wears a 70’s Elvis Presley wig With long sideburns. His high-collared, white shirt is Open down to his belly And his red slacks are flared Over sequined-white Dance shoes. I’m shooting A video of him. A cook from a restaurant Below the bridge Buys his large pail of Bluefish. Bonito, and Horse Mackerel. The cook smiles at me as if he Knows why I’m shooting. Suddenly the bridge Starts to shake; it’s an earthquake, Common in Istanbul: Some fishing poles whip over The rail and into the Bosphorus. Pails of fish shimmy across The walkway. The cook drops To his knees and grimaces. The man in the Elvis wig Tightens the nylon rope That holds his pole to the rail, turns Toward the cook and me And tries to balance himself, He appears to be dancing. The more he tries to find balance, The better he dances. from The American Journal of Poetry |
| Lee Rossi is a winner of the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize. His latest book is Darwin’s Garden, from Moon Tide Press. Recent poems appear in The Southwest Review, Rattle, Poet Lore, Spillway, The Chiron Review and The Southern Review. His poetry, reviews, interviews and essays have appeared in numerous journals, including The Sun, Poetry East, Chelsea, The Wormwood Review, Nimrod, Beloit Poetry Journal, Poet Lore and many others. He is a member of the Northern California Book Reviewers and a Contributing Editor to Poetry Flash. Rossi was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He studied 5 years for the Roman Catholic priesthood before leaving the seminary. He has published two ESL (English as a Second Language) textbooks from Prentice-Hall, as well as a critical study of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. He is the author of two books of poetry, Ghost Diary (2002) and Beyond Rescue (1992). He is a winner of the Sense of Site poetry contest sponsored by the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. |
MICROCOSMOLOGY
Everything fits into everything else.
We know that who come bursting
from our mothers in a gush of being,
our children already nestled in sacs
tucked safely inside. Infinite regression
sends us back into the womb
after womb from which we grew.
There was a soup, we’re told,
where the first living creatures
were brewed, not something you’d
eat, but eat it they apparently did
until little was left but waste
oxygen and each other.
How long did they take to find
a taste for those other squirming
thingies—eat it or fuck it,
and in which order, the rush
to colonize never stopped.
Except in our imagination,
we can’t stuff ourselves
back into that ever-expanding bottle,
which itself was once just something
infinitely dense, unimaginably hot,
and before that not even not.
from Rattle
