Tributes

April 19, 2024

“Something Fishy” by Michael Dylan Welch, C.R. Manley & Tanya McDonaldPosted by

Michael Dylan Welch, C.R. Manley & Tanya McDonald

SOMETHING FISHY

a rengay written on a Washington State Ferry

salmon time—
the path to the creek
free of cobwebs
mdw
 
he warns us again—
don’t eat the pufferfish
crm
 
field trip—
the cold stare
of the passing shark
tm
 
the guppy circling
down the toilet
mdw
 
motionless angelfish—
still waiting
for my order
crm
 
one fish, two fish
I switch off her bedside lamp
tm
 

—from Rattle #83, Spring 2024
Tribute to Collaboration

__________

Michael Dylan Welch, C.R. Manley, & Tanya McDonald: “‘Something Fishy’ is a rengay we wrote mostly on the ferry between Edmonds and Kingston, Washington. Fish seemed like a natural theme to write about while we crossed the Puget Sound. Michael wrote the first rengay with Garry Gay, its inventor, in 1992, and has been promoting the form ever since, with essays and my website. Renku always links and shifts between the verses as it seeks to taste all of life, but rengay deliberately focuses on a single theme, which we had fun exploring in various fishy nuances.”

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April 17, 2024

“Babel” by Matthew Shelton & Timothy LiuPosted by

Matthew Shelton & Timothy Liu

BABEL

Scattered across the islands of the Galápagos archipelago there are half a dozen species of lizard that rely upon a method of communication comprised of what can only be called “push-ups.” When one lizard encounters another, each takes its turn bobbing head and torso up and down in a complex and jerky system of frantic interaction. By this means, lizards of each species establish territorial authority, reinforce social hierarchies, even engage in mating rituals. 
 
It appears that these lizards evolved from a single species settling the islands from the mainland some 34 million years ago in what scientists have identified as two major waves of colonization. A small “Eastern Radiation” left two species endemic to San Cristóbal and Marchena, while the majority of lizards have come to inhabit the southern and western islands, spreading over time to the younger islands as the older were transported eastward, eventually eroding below sea level. 
 
Each species has developed its own particular vocabulary, its own dialect of body language, to such an extent that each species might be said to “speak a different language.” Suffice it to say, when a lizard from one species encounters a lizard from another, bobbing head and torso up and down in a complex and jerky attempt at frantic interaction, try as they might they cannot understand each other. Lizards from one island are consequently unable to interbreed with lizards from another island. Without communication, it appears, there can be no intercourse.
 

—from Rattle #83, Spring 2024
Tribute to Collaboration

__________

Matthew Shelton & Timothy Liu: “For the past five years, we have been collaborating on poems and performances that incorporate music with verse. The texts for the project include pieces performed both acapella and with instrumentation (tabla, shruti box, log drum, singing bowl) in the tradition of the Sufis. Through the use of repetition and incantation, a single sonnet can be stretched and pulled beyond recognition into a hypnotic and improvisational rhythmic space.”

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April 15, 2024

“Waymarks” by Michele Root-Bernstein, Laszlo Slomovits & Jennifer BurdPosted by

Michele Root-Bernstein, Laszlo Slomovits & Jennifer Burd

WAYMARKS

smalle raine downe
        … this longing
   for a change
mrb
 
 
       shall I compare thee
       sunlight caught in the web
ls
 
 
              new preferred pronoun
              did gyre and gimble
              in the wabe
jb
 
 
let us go then, you and I  
(motorized wheelchairs)
mrb
 
       forked lightning
       … took the one
       less traveled by
ls
 
              outside the checkbox                                                          
              the hill we climb
jb
 

—from Rattle #83, Spring 2024
Tribute to Collaboration

__________

Michele Root-Bernstein, Laszlo Slomovits & Jennifer Burd: “We have been writing rengay together since the start of the pandemic in 2020. A rengay is a six-verse collaborative poem, using a set alternating pattern of three-line and two-line haiku. Usually two poets compose a rengay; a threesome like ours is unusual. For each rengay, we begin by suggesting some opening haiku and posing a theme. Then the round-robin begins, as we respond to, link with, and shift from each other’s haiku. When we complete a rengay, we work together to clarify the theme, hone the language, and safeguard the space between lines and verses which allows the poem as a whole to breathe. When the rengay takes off in a direction none of us could envision on our own, it’s a sheer delight.”

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April 12, 2024

“Courage” by Ansuya Patel & Batya WeinbaumPosted by

Ansuya Patel & Batya Weinbaum

COURAGE

When I wrote a check for fifty dollars, 
that’s all I have I said to the taxi driver
 
who locked the doors of his black Mercedes.
He drove like a maniac down a dirt road.
 
Shall I drive, I asked. Don’t you trust me.
I’m not going to kill you, he yelled like 
 
he was doing me a favour. This is where 
you hang up faith, watch it somersault into air. 
 
He placed a hand on my thigh. You don’t want 
to touch me, I may have some awful disease. 
 
His fist hit the steering wheel. Crazy bitch, 
shut up. Give me all the money you have.
 
I swallowed my curses he unlocked the door,
I got out fast, fear he’d run me down. I walked 
 
for what seemed miles. A car passed by 
and stopped. You ok? I need a cab, I said.
 
Not around here. Get in, I’ll drop you. I talked 
music, he said he was off to steal wheels.
 
He turned up the music to electro beats. My feet 
tapped courage, I prayed all the way to neon lights.
 
Once home I picked up a pair of scissors, cut off 
my hair, it fell like a curtain at the end of the show.
 

—from Rattle #83, Spring 2024
Tribute to Collaboration

__________

Ansuya Patel & Batya Weinbaum: “We chose the theme courage. We both wrote a draft initially and used couplets to weave our experiences into one story. We had both been attacked by a stranger in a car many years ago. Writing in couplets allowed us to create the journey that changed us forever and remind us that courage has no gender. We have reclaimed our lives and the open road, proving that resilience is a formidable force in the face of adversity, and that no experience however dark can define the boundless potential within every individual.”

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April 10, 2024

“The Old Stove” by Herb Kitson & Ray-J NelsonPosted by

Herb Kitson & Ray-J Nelson

THE OLD STOVE

I hope the sun won’t ever burn out.
Some things seem to last forever.
Our old stove still heats up
the solar system of the kitchen.
Nana says it’s been blazing
for about 40 years.
She loves to cook on it.
We love to eat.
When she cooks, she’s beautiful.
She revolves around the stove
like a planet in her very own solar system.
 

—from Rattle #83, Spring 2024
Tribute to Collaboration

__________

Herb Kitson & Ray-J Nelson: “We have been working on projects together for a long time and enjoyed working on poetry collaboration for Rattle. Ray-J (age 13) is the content/ideas man, and I’m the form-style-structure man. To borrow from Robert A. Pirsig, Ray-J is the Romantic mode of understanding; I’m the Classical mode. He either wrote down or told me what he wanted to convey, and I assisted him in putting the material in ‘poetic’ form. We had lots of fun trying to use metaphor in each poem. Each of us contributed two metaphors. He wants to be a great writer someday; I’m pushing him toward medicine because we poets are poor. Maybe he’ll be another William Carlos Williams.”

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April 8, 2024

“Hubris” by Mariko Kitakubo & Deborah P. KolodjiPosted by

Mariko Kitakubo & Deborah P. Kolodji

HUBRIS

through
the distorted
glass
he smiles to me
from the white limousine
 
 
blue green shimmers
a peacock struts
his stuff
 

—from Rattle #83, Spring 2024
Tribute to Collaboration

__________

Mariko Kitakubo & Deborah P. Kolodji: “We started writing ‘tan-ku’ sequences and sets during the pandemic when neither of us could travel. Mariko is a tanka poet and I am a haiku poet. We started having poetic conversations via Facebook Messenger where Mariko would write a tanka and I would respond with a haiku and vice versa, often at odd hours due to the time zone differences between Tokyo and Los Angeles. Some of these poems are only two verses, but others are six, and sometimes more. We were born the same year and have common experiences, but also cultural differences which has been a learning experience for both of us. We have found that sometimes our poems take unexpected turns.”

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April 5, 2024

“The Double Image Redux” by Julie Kane & Erica ReidPosted by

Julie Kane & Erica Reid

THE DOUBLE IMAGE REDUX

Turn the photo of your mother in its frame
so she can’t tsk her tongue against her teeth:
the cold eyes will follow you just the same—
 
a trick of perspective like Mona Lisa’s gaze.
Covering her mouth can’t stifle its critiques
when you turn your mother’s photo in its frame.
 
Drape her face in silk, in rich brocade,
or swaddle her in lambswool. Under the sheath,
her cold eyes will follow you just the same.
 
Crown her in rubies as the Queen of Shame,
who made you lie in it like piss-drenched sheets
(and no use telling her that you were framed).
 
You look nothing like her. She stakes no claim
on your nose or brow, your how-may-I-help-you cheeks—
or do her cold eyes follow you just the same?
 
So hang her image in the Hall of Fame
where you can still gawk up from underneath.
It’s no use turning the photo in its frame—
her cold eyes will follow you just the same.
 

—from Rattle #83, Spring 2024
Tribute to Collaboration

__________

Julie Kane & Erica Reid: “We messaged back and forth over the course of three days as the villanelle grew a few lines at a time. One of us wrote the first 2 lines, tercet 3, tercet 5, and the second line of the quatrain. The other one wrote the third line, tercet 2, tercet 4, and the first line of the quatrain. That gave us one refrain line each; or, as Theodore de Banville put it, the gold thread and the silver thread of the villanelle. We both find collaboration joyful, as it restores the element of play to poetry when we start to get too serious about it.”

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