Jan Steckel's Blog: Horizontal Poet Sings Bidyke Blues - Posts Tagged "jan-steckel"
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride....
It's time to vote in the Goodreads Newsletter Poetry Contest at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2.... My poem "Cancer and the Man" is one of the finalists. All the poems are great. Hope you'll enjoy all of them and vote for whichever one you like best.
In other news: if you'd like to, you can read my prizewinning poem "Alameda in the Shutter-Click" on THE FREE POET at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...
Going to go submit those Passover poems.... hope everyone else's writing and other endeavors are going well.
In other news: if you'd like to, you can read my prizewinning poem "Alameda in the Shutter-Click" on THE FREE POET at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...
Going to go submit those Passover poems.... hope everyone else's writing and other endeavors are going well.
Gently Criticized Literature
What a wonderful review of my fiction chapbook Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009) by Mary Meriam in Gently Read Literature at
http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2010/...
The book is still available for $8 at http://www.gertrudepress.org/catalog?...
Congratulation to Jane Ellen Glasser for winning this month's Goodreads Newsletter Poetry Contest with her delightful poem "Le déjeuner sur l’herbe." Thanks to all of you who read the poems and voted for your favorite. My poem "Cancer and the Man" came in fourth out of sixth finalists in the Goodreads poll.
How is everyone else's writing going? Anyone know a good place to submit poems about Passover? Seems like the right time to submit the ones I have, if not a bit too late.
http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2010/...
The book is still available for $8 at http://www.gertrudepress.org/catalog?...
Congratulation to Jane Ellen Glasser for winning this month's Goodreads Newsletter Poetry Contest with her delightful poem "Le déjeuner sur l’herbe." Thanks to all of you who read the poems and voted for your favorite. My poem "Cancer and the Man" came in fourth out of sixth finalists in the Goodreads poll.
How is everyone else's writing going? Anyone know a good place to submit poems about Passover? Seems like the right time to submit the ones I have, if not a bit too late.
Sumer is Icumen in
One of the oldest rounds in English is "Sumer is Icumen in." See the manuscript here. It's so warm today here in Oakland, and the birds are singing so loudly in our back yard, that it feels like summer's on it's way. I have two readings scheduled for this summer, and I hope those of you in the SF Bay Area will save the dates.
The first is at the Berkeley Poetry Festival on Saturday, June 5, in front of the old Cody's bookstore at Telegraph and Haste. I'll be reading at 2:30 PM; the festival lasts from 12:30 to 6. I'll post more details soon.
The second is at Works in Progress (WIP), a women-only reading hosted by Linda Zeiser, on July 10, where I'm honored to be featured with Giovanna Capone. WIP will move to a new location in Piedmont that evening; details to follow.
You can find three poems of mine online now in Apparatus Magazine, edited by Adam W. Hart. Those of you who are poets and writers, be sure to let me know about your readings and publications, too! Enjoy the warmer weather.
The first is at the Berkeley Poetry Festival on Saturday, June 5, in front of the old Cody's bookstore at Telegraph and Haste. I'll be reading at 2:30 PM; the festival lasts from 12:30 to 6. I'll post more details soon.
The second is at Works in Progress (WIP), a women-only reading hosted by Linda Zeiser, on July 10, where I'm honored to be featured with Giovanna Capone. WIP will move to a new location in Piedmont that evening; details to follow.
You can find three poems of mine online now in Apparatus Magazine, edited by Adam W. Hart. Those of you who are poets and writers, be sure to let me know about your readings and publications, too! Enjoy the warmer weather.
Jazz, Giovanna and me....
Happy Pride, y'all! We marched in a Bisexual contingent in the San Francisco Pride parade today. So good to see old friends and make some new ones there. It was even fun lying on the sidewalk for two hours waiting for our contingent to move -- I got to look up a lot of skirts, some worn by women.
Speaking of women, if you're not all put off by the objectification (which in my case is strictly equal opportunity), I hope the women among you will consider coming to my July 10 reading in Piedmont/Oakland, CA, USA:
"Works in Progress Reading and Concert
(An Open Mic for Women)
Saturday, July 10, 2010, 6:30pm - 10 pm
Fireside Room, Plymouth United Church of Christ
424 Monte Vista (corner of Oakland Ave), Piedmont/Oakland.
The driveway on Monte Vista goes to the Fireside Room, parking lot & wheelchair access.
SIXTH ANNIVERSARY PARTY !!!
Poetry, music, champagne and cake for everyone!
Featuring Jan Steckel. Jan’s incredible poetry will leave you thrilled, stunned and grateful. Her Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009) won the Gertrude Press fiction chapbook award for LGBT writers. The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006) won in the lesbian and bisexual poetry categories for an international Rainbow Award. www.jansteckel.com.
And Giovanna Capone. An Italian American poet and fiction writer, Giovanna’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry, ed. by M. & J. Gillan. Her work has been taught in Poetry for the People, a grassroots-oriented workshop at UC Berkeley. Currently, she is at work on a manuscript of her original poetry.
Introducing Cheri Anderson, a contemporary jazz vocal stylist who infuses lyrics that are rooted in Love, music that is "Jazzin' the Spirit.” With songs about love, love of God, love of ourselves, and love of one another, Cheri sings with the smoothness of Nancy Wilson and the huskiness of Phyllis Hymen in a range that reaches five octaves.
$7-$10 Admission includes a free raffle ticket for a chance to win one
of six $25 certificates for fine dining at a local restaurant.
6:30 - 7:30 Pot Luck -- BRING YOUR FAVORITE FOOD TO SHARE!!
7:30 - 10:00 fireside Performance
Hosted by Feminist Author & Poet Linda Zeiser, Produced by Linda Zeiser & Carolyn Stull. For information, contact Linda at (510) 701-1022 or ZeiserpoetMC@aol.com.
Works In Progress is a creative space for women's art: Poets, Musicians, Comediennes, and Performance Artists. All are encouraged to share their works, completed or evolving. WIP is scent-free and wheelchair accessible."
Speaking of women, if you're not all put off by the objectification (which in my case is strictly equal opportunity), I hope the women among you will consider coming to my July 10 reading in Piedmont/Oakland, CA, USA:
"Works in Progress Reading and Concert
(An Open Mic for Women)
Saturday, July 10, 2010, 6:30pm - 10 pm
Fireside Room, Plymouth United Church of Christ
424 Monte Vista (corner of Oakland Ave), Piedmont/Oakland.
The driveway on Monte Vista goes to the Fireside Room, parking lot & wheelchair access.
SIXTH ANNIVERSARY PARTY !!!
Poetry, music, champagne and cake for everyone!
Featuring Jan Steckel. Jan’s incredible poetry will leave you thrilled, stunned and grateful. Her Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009) won the Gertrude Press fiction chapbook award for LGBT writers. The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006) won in the lesbian and bisexual poetry categories for an international Rainbow Award. www.jansteckel.com.
And Giovanna Capone. An Italian American poet and fiction writer, Giovanna’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry, ed. by M. & J. Gillan. Her work has been taught in Poetry for the People, a grassroots-oriented workshop at UC Berkeley. Currently, she is at work on a manuscript of her original poetry.
Introducing Cheri Anderson, a contemporary jazz vocal stylist who infuses lyrics that are rooted in Love, music that is "Jazzin' the Spirit.” With songs about love, love of God, love of ourselves, and love of one another, Cheri sings with the smoothness of Nancy Wilson and the huskiness of Phyllis Hymen in a range that reaches five octaves.
$7-$10 Admission includes a free raffle ticket for a chance to win one
of six $25 certificates for fine dining at a local restaurant.
6:30 - 7:30 Pot Luck -- BRING YOUR FAVORITE FOOD TO SHARE!!
7:30 - 10:00 fireside Performance
Hosted by Feminist Author & Poet Linda Zeiser, Produced by Linda Zeiser & Carolyn Stull. For information, contact Linda at (510) 701-1022 or ZeiserpoetMC@aol.com.
Works In Progress is a creative space for women's art: Poets, Musicians, Comediennes, and Performance Artists. All are encouraged to share their works, completed or evolving. WIP is scent-free and wheelchair accessible."
Diamonds and Rubies
Diamonds and Rubies
Los Angeles, 1960.
Agapanthus and jacaranda.
Sam Raskin met Max Rosby
at their granddaughter’s garden wedding.
They sat on folding wooden chairs
in their best old suits.
Sam’s pants were a little tight in the belly,
and Max’s jacket a little loose in the shoulders.
Sam told Max
he’d changed his name
from Rassin to Raskin
when he got tired of being called
“Russian” and “Raisin.”
Max told Sam
“Rosby” worked out better for him in retail
than “Rosba.”
Sam knew of some Rosbas in Latvia.
As a boy, he told Max,
he once floated down the river
with his father and the logs
from Byelorus all the way
to the Riga lumber mill
owned by the Rosba family.
The lady of the great house
offered him a glass of water.
He stood at the doorway,
not coming in with his muddy feet,
peering inside at a home grander
than any he had ever seen.
Heavy oak and mahogany chests.
Dark red velvet runners on the stairs.
Leather-bound books in shelves up to the ceilings.
A chandelier dripping diamonds large as chestnuts.
The lady wore black satin,
and when she bent to hand him the glass,
he saw hung around her neck
a heart all of rubies.
Max looked down
at his legs stretched long
on the manicured grass.
His still-broad shoulders
sloped in his jacket.
“That was my mother,”
he said softly.
“She wore a garnet heart
that came from Prague.
The chandelier was crystal.”
“Well,” smiled Sam, shrugging,
hitching up his waistband a little.
“It’ll always be diamonds
and rubies
to me.”
Jan Steckel, 2005
First appeared in the online journal New Works Review, April-June, 2006
Los Angeles, 1960.
Agapanthus and jacaranda.
Sam Raskin met Max Rosby
at their granddaughter’s garden wedding.
They sat on folding wooden chairs
in their best old suits.
Sam’s pants were a little tight in the belly,
and Max’s jacket a little loose in the shoulders.
Sam told Max
he’d changed his name
from Rassin to Raskin
when he got tired of being called
“Russian” and “Raisin.”
Max told Sam
“Rosby” worked out better for him in retail
than “Rosba.”
Sam knew of some Rosbas in Latvia.
As a boy, he told Max,
he once floated down the river
with his father and the logs
from Byelorus all the way
to the Riga lumber mill
owned by the Rosba family.
The lady of the great house
offered him a glass of water.
He stood at the doorway,
not coming in with his muddy feet,
peering inside at a home grander
than any he had ever seen.
Heavy oak and mahogany chests.
Dark red velvet runners on the stairs.
Leather-bound books in shelves up to the ceilings.
A chandelier dripping diamonds large as chestnuts.
The lady wore black satin,
and when she bent to hand him the glass,
he saw hung around her neck
a heart all of rubies.
Max looked down
at his legs stretched long
on the manicured grass.
His still-broad shoulders
sloped in his jacket.
“That was my mother,”
he said softly.
“She wore a garnet heart
that came from Prague.
The chandelier was crystal.”
“Well,” smiled Sam, shrugging,
hitching up his waistband a little.
“It’ll always be diamonds
and rubies
to me.”
Jan Steckel, 2005
First appeared in the online journal New Works Review, April-June, 2006
Alameda in the Shutter-Click
Alameda in the Shutter-Click
From Ballena Bay to Crab Cove, pilings, tide lines,
orange-eyed night heron, cluster of sandpipers.
Every picture laid with transparency over
an older island, when the naval base boomed, or earlier,
when beaches swarmed like Coney Island or Roman baths.
Sepia-toned beribboned hats, ankle-length skirts for the surf.
1918. 1908. 1905. Long-dead bathing beauties balance,
boating and swimming. Neptune Beach, Surf Beach Park,
Sunny Cove Baths, Terrace Bath. New-built Painted Ladies
stand house-proud. Nineteenth century: Tall ships
at Grand Street’s foot, masts poking out of the palimpsest.
Just like place-names, pure sound now, hide Spanish meanings:
“Tree-lined Avenue.” “Bay of the Whales.” Surely it’s more
than poppies, snapdragons, marinas, sunset over San Francisco.
These names: “Yacht Club,” “Mariners Square,”
“The South Shore Beach and Tennis Club,” conceal
ascending aspirations, wavelet after rising wave of immigrants
lacquering over squalid beginnings. (We’ll be Americans too,
and rich, when we live in such place names as these.)
Duck and hooded merganser, coot and grebe.
Each bird only the part you can see.
How much is underwater, paddling madly,
just to look serene for one snap of the camera?
Do they lie high or low in the water, like tall ships,
barnacled bottoms silently scraping the pier?
From South Shore lagoon to the Alameda Estuary:
gulls descend on mussel-bound rocks, seaweed-sheathed,
just as slippery before tide-tables were printed here.
Species introduced, species extinct. Landscape changes:
landfills, dredging, tunnels. Posey Tube and Webster Tube.
Park Street Bridge and High Street Bridge.
Hello and goodbye: to draw a bridge
or to photograph a drawbridge.
The poet is a camera, click, click, click.
Get shutter speed right, correct focal length,
and what was hazy leaps into the clear.
(Winner of the 2007 Jewel by the Bay Poetry Award. First appeared in the Alameda Sun, Aug. 3, 2007)
From Ballena Bay to Crab Cove, pilings, tide lines,
orange-eyed night heron, cluster of sandpipers.
Every picture laid with transparency over
an older island, when the naval base boomed, or earlier,
when beaches swarmed like Coney Island or Roman baths.
Sepia-toned beribboned hats, ankle-length skirts for the surf.
1918. 1908. 1905. Long-dead bathing beauties balance,
boating and swimming. Neptune Beach, Surf Beach Park,
Sunny Cove Baths, Terrace Bath. New-built Painted Ladies
stand house-proud. Nineteenth century: Tall ships
at Grand Street’s foot, masts poking out of the palimpsest.
Just like place-names, pure sound now, hide Spanish meanings:
“Tree-lined Avenue.” “Bay of the Whales.” Surely it’s more
than poppies, snapdragons, marinas, sunset over San Francisco.
These names: “Yacht Club,” “Mariners Square,”
“The South Shore Beach and Tennis Club,” conceal
ascending aspirations, wavelet after rising wave of immigrants
lacquering over squalid beginnings. (We’ll be Americans too,
and rich, when we live in such place names as these.)
Duck and hooded merganser, coot and grebe.
Each bird only the part you can see.
How much is underwater, paddling madly,
just to look serene for one snap of the camera?
Do they lie high or low in the water, like tall ships,
barnacled bottoms silently scraping the pier?
From South Shore lagoon to the Alameda Estuary:
gulls descend on mussel-bound rocks, seaweed-sheathed,
just as slippery before tide-tables were printed here.
Species introduced, species extinct. Landscape changes:
landfills, dredging, tunnels. Posey Tube and Webster Tube.
Park Street Bridge and High Street Bridge.
Hello and goodbye: to draw a bridge
or to photograph a drawbridge.
The poet is a camera, click, click, click.
Get shutter speed right, correct focal length,
and what was hazy leaps into the clear.
(Winner of the 2007 Jewel by the Bay Poetry Award. First appeared in the Alameda Sun, Aug. 3, 2007)
Lighting Up the Albany Bulb
The Albany Bulb is a spit of land north of Berkeley, California. It used to be a dump. Now it's a seaside dog park, an overgrown new wilderness, and an outdoor guerilla art gallery. -- Jan
Lighting Up the Albany Bulb
I smell it before I see it: fennel taller than we are.
Sea-salt air, and a breath of methane.
Dangling from a tree, a doll’s head,
and a black boot spray-painted orange
bearing the neatly written legend
“Not a skinhead anymore.”
A tumbledown crazy heap of giant children’s
concrete play blocks.
A castle on the bay
with a winding staircase to the roof,
where a plaque reads
“You have a heart of gold,
now live up to it.”
Pampas grass between the rebar,
coyote brush, blackberries, gulls and geese.
Porcelain doll arms wash up
in a trail like the crest of foam
or the wreckage of seaweed and driftwood
marking the high tide line.
Six-foot-long perch
grown monster-sized on industrial chemicals
blow bubbles in the surf.
At night, when the moon lights up the Bulb,
sitting men of Styrofoam pontoons,
standing men of rusting industrial junk,
a steel man riding an iron dragon,
a mermaid painted on a concrete tube,
an earthen woman in a sky-colored dress
reaching her hands to heaven,
all come alive like Golems.
They arise creaking and flaking,
swim, stride and fly across the water to the Richmond Costco
step on the roof, walk through the windows,
examine the merchandise.
They bring armfuls of lawn chairs and coolers
home to the Bulb
to fashion mates for themselves.
They couple madly to the barks of ghostly greyhounds
from the Albany track. Before the night is out,
they produce rusty babies
of old wire hangers and packing peanuts.
Later, when the icecaps melt,
and the Bulb is submerged again,
the giant perch still convene there,
among the painted concrete blocks.
They let their babies swim through the mermaid tube.
The big ones whisper in watery fish-language,
“Look on their works, ye mighty, and despair.”
Jan Steckel, 2007
First appeared in in San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, No. 36, November 2007
Lighting Up the Albany Bulb
I smell it before I see it: fennel taller than we are.
Sea-salt air, and a breath of methane.
Dangling from a tree, a doll’s head,
and a black boot spray-painted orange
bearing the neatly written legend
“Not a skinhead anymore.”
A tumbledown crazy heap of giant children’s
concrete play blocks.
A castle on the bay
with a winding staircase to the roof,
where a plaque reads
“You have a heart of gold,
now live up to it.”
Pampas grass between the rebar,
coyote brush, blackberries, gulls and geese.
Porcelain doll arms wash up
in a trail like the crest of foam
or the wreckage of seaweed and driftwood
marking the high tide line.
Six-foot-long perch
grown monster-sized on industrial chemicals
blow bubbles in the surf.
At night, when the moon lights up the Bulb,
sitting men of Styrofoam pontoons,
standing men of rusting industrial junk,
a steel man riding an iron dragon,
a mermaid painted on a concrete tube,
an earthen woman in a sky-colored dress
reaching her hands to heaven,
all come alive like Golems.
They arise creaking and flaking,
swim, stride and fly across the water to the Richmond Costco
step on the roof, walk through the windows,
examine the merchandise.
They bring armfuls of lawn chairs and coolers
home to the Bulb
to fashion mates for themselves.
They couple madly to the barks of ghostly greyhounds
from the Albany track. Before the night is out,
they produce rusty babies
of old wire hangers and packing peanuts.
Later, when the icecaps melt,
and the Bulb is submerged again,
the giant perch still convene there,
among the painted concrete blocks.
They let their babies swim through the mermaid tube.
The big ones whisper in watery fish-language,
“Look on their works, ye mighty, and despair.”
Jan Steckel, 2007
First appeared in in San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, No. 36, November 2007
I'm Reading March 12, 2011
Dear Friends,
Save the date, if you live in the SF Bay Area! I'll be among several featured readers at Works in Progress, an open mic for women. Good food, live music. NB: there's an admission fee. If you want to read, best to call Linda, the organizer (below), WELL before the reading, as the open mic list often fills up even before the show. Hope to see some of you women there! Though this is a lesbian-run reading, all women are welcome.
Warmly,
Jan
WORKS IN PROGRESS, An Open Mic for Women
Fireside Room, Plymouth United Church of Christ, 424 Monte Vista, Oakland
Saturday, March 12, 6:30-10:30 pm
Kimberly J. Miller is an accomplished vocalist who has performed across the United States, in England and on Russian Radio. She has opened for Chaka Khan, Chris Williamson, members of The Association and Three Dog Night. Her soulful, powerful performances have won her critical acclaim for a number of stage roles and well as for her concert “Salute to the Women of the Blues I & II” which were commissioned by and performed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
Kimberly will be accompanied by the illustrious Karen Mullally and Shari Kline!
Other incredible lesbian performers who will knock you out include:
Celeste McCarty, Karen Thompson, Tyler Stanley, Patty Overland, Bev Jo and Jan Steckel..
$7-$10 Admission includes a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of six $25 certificates for fine dining at a local restaurant!
6:30 – 7:30 Pot Luck - BRING YOUR FAVORITE FOOD TO SHARE!!
7:30 - 10:30 Performance, Fireside Room
Hosted by Feminist Author & Poet Linda Zeiser, Produced by Linda Zeiser & Carolyn Stull. For information, contact Linda at (510) 701-1022, ZeiserpoetMC@aol.com.
Works In Progress is a creative space for women's art: Poets, Musicians, Comediennes, and Performance Artists. All are encouraged to share their works, completed or evolving. WIP is scent free and wheelchair accessible.
Save the date, if you live in the SF Bay Area! I'll be among several featured readers at Works in Progress, an open mic for women. Good food, live music. NB: there's an admission fee. If you want to read, best to call Linda, the organizer (below), WELL before the reading, as the open mic list often fills up even before the show. Hope to see some of you women there! Though this is a lesbian-run reading, all women are welcome.
Warmly,
Jan
WORKS IN PROGRESS, An Open Mic for Women
Fireside Room, Plymouth United Church of Christ, 424 Monte Vista, Oakland
Saturday, March 12, 6:30-10:30 pm
Kimberly J. Miller is an accomplished vocalist who has performed across the United States, in England and on Russian Radio. She has opened for Chaka Khan, Chris Williamson, members of The Association and Three Dog Night. Her soulful, powerful performances have won her critical acclaim for a number of stage roles and well as for her concert “Salute to the Women of the Blues I & II” which were commissioned by and performed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
Kimberly will be accompanied by the illustrious Karen Mullally and Shari Kline!
Other incredible lesbian performers who will knock you out include:
Celeste McCarty, Karen Thompson, Tyler Stanley, Patty Overland, Bev Jo and Jan Steckel..
$7-$10 Admission includes a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of six $25 certificates for fine dining at a local restaurant!
6:30 – 7:30 Pot Luck - BRING YOUR FAVORITE FOOD TO SHARE!!
7:30 - 10:30 Performance, Fireside Room
Hosted by Feminist Author & Poet Linda Zeiser, Produced by Linda Zeiser & Carolyn Stull. For information, contact Linda at (510) 701-1022, ZeiserpoetMC@aol.com.
Works In Progress is a creative space for women's art: Poets, Musicians, Comediennes, and Performance Artists. All are encouraged to share their works, completed or evolving. WIP is scent free and wheelchair accessible.
"The Canary Islands Go to the Dogs"
My poem "The Canary Islands Go to the Dogs," about the seven Canary Islands off the coast of Spain, is one of six finalists in this month's Goodreads Newsletter Poetry Contest. If you like poetry, please go to http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...
and vote for the poem you like the best!
and vote for the poem you like the best!
Would you help me win a contest?
Dear Friends and Family,
Hope you're well. I wanted to ask for your help in a winner-take-all poetry contest. Don Kingfisher Campbell, a SoCal poet and poetry promoter, posted my poem "Declaration of Independence" on his poetry contest blog at http://winnertakeallpoetry.blogspot.com/
If you have the time, would you visit his blog? Please scroll down to my poem: entrant #2, Monday, May 23. And if you like it, would you leave a positive comment there? Whoever gets the most positive comments wins, and I could really use the cash and the ego boost right now. If you have difficulty leaving a comment, you may have to register with Google.
Thank you!
Warmly,
Jan
Hope you're well. I wanted to ask for your help in a winner-take-all poetry contest. Don Kingfisher Campbell, a SoCal poet and poetry promoter, posted my poem "Declaration of Independence" on his poetry contest blog at http://winnertakeallpoetry.blogspot.com/
If you have the time, would you visit his blog? Please scroll down to my poem: entrant #2, Monday, May 23. And if you like it, would you leave a positive comment there? Whoever gets the most positive comments wins, and I could really use the cash and the ego boost right now. If you have difficulty leaving a comment, you may have to register with Google.
Thank you!
Warmly,
Jan
Horizontal Poet Sings Bidyke Blues
Bidyke writer and disabled former pediatrician Jan Steckel writes about poetry, fiction, sexuality, doctoring, poverty, and what it feels like to remember what kind of socks everyone at her readings w
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