Catching up with Daniel Snethen

South Dakota poet and naturalist Daniel Snethen has been busy lately, editing an anthology (Catfish McDaris is in it!) and publishing chapbooks.  He sent me a few poems, which I will publish this evening.  The first is a charming sonnet about vegetables.

Vegetables

 

Rutabagas, turnips, radishes, beets,

store earthly nutrients and vitamins.

Fry them in lard, sprinkled with cinnamon

and you’ll have a dish most scrumptious to eat.

Rutabagas, turnips, radishes, beets,

very nutritious they’ll help keep you thin.

Consume these roots daily, it’s not a sin.

They taste mighty good and awesome with meat.

 

Sweet peas and string beans and gumbo okra

taste great in their seed pods but hard to beat

with a pinch of salt, slathered in butter.

Sweet peas and string beans and gumbo okra,

rutabagas, turnips, radishes, beets,

all taste awesome with roast beef and butter.

Your Lovely Pear

 

Thank you Dear

for the lovely pear.

The sweet soft flesh

and aromatic smell.

 

And when I smelt

and tasted of your pear,

sweet nectar dribbled

down my whiskered chin.

 

I thought ambrosia

should taste so good

and realized nothing

on this Earth was quite

as lovely as your perfect pear.

 

Thank you Dear

for that lovely pear,

that lovely pear, that lovely pear.

I love you Dear, I love you Dear.

 

Thank you Dear

for that lovely pear. 

 

Canyon County Predators

 

blue-green centipedes

Idaho camel spiders

hunt unwary prey

across Pickles Butte lava

beneath the sweltering sun

Arctic Melt

 

arctic ice melting

terminal global warming

polar bears drowning

Spilogale

 

We spotted the skunk,

not striped, but spotted.

 

Slaughtered,

 

along the bi-longitudinal stripe

of an isolated

Bennett County highway.

Nocturnal Toad

 

elliptical eyes

evening entomologist

western spade-foot toad

Insecta-cipher

 

Antlion Aaron

Always Ate Ants

After April.

 

Bumblebee Bob

Bombastically Buzzed,

Beethoven’s Bagatelle.

 

Caterpillar Charlie

Crocheted

Cocoons.

 

Dragonfly Dan

Dazzled

Damselflies.

 

Ernie Earwig

Eats

Everything.

 

Firefly Freda

Found

Firefly Fred.

 

Grasshopper  Gertrude

Gobbled

Green Grass.

 

 

Horsefly Harry

Hiccupped

Hysterically.

 

Icabod Ichneumon

Ingested

India Ink.

 

June-bug Julie

Just Juggled

Jelly Jars.

 

Katydid Kate

Ketched Khaki

Kinnikinick.

 

Lacewing Lucy

Loved Licorice

& Licked Lemon Lollipops.

 

Monarch Millie

Munched

Milkweed.

 

Netwing Nellie

Knitted Naughty Ned Nit’s

Neon Knickers.

 

Owl-Fly Oliver

Owned Ochre

Optical Ocelli.

 

Paula Praying Mantis

Politely Pickled

Pedro Pea Weevil’s Pea.

 

Question Mark Quentin

Quizzically Quibbled

Querying Querulous Queens.

 

Robber Fly Rob

Ridiculously Rode

Rhode Island Red Roosters.

 

Stink Bug Sam

Stunk.

 

Termite Tom Tasted

Tsetse Fly Tillie’s

Tangerine Turnovers.

 

Underwing Ulysses

Usually Umpires

Under Umbrellas.

 

Velvet Ant Vickie

Vacuumed

Viceroy Vick’s Violin.

 

Wyatt Wasp

Watched Westerns.

 

Xerces Butterfly Xerxes

X-rayed Xanthic

Xenophobic Xiphosurans.

 

Young Yellow Jacket Yao

Yo-yoed  & Yodeled.

 

Zebra Swallowtail Zelda

Zanily Zigzagged

& Zoomed.

Recently I was listening to Akale Wube, a French group that performs Ethiojazz.  In 2020, I've been playing a lot of Ethiojazz on YouTube, and this group seems like it would be a good entry into this type of music.

This song "Anbessa" features the late Manu Dibango: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT6O4bDioAE

"Enken Yelelebesh" features vocalist Girma Beyene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5AcjXPSX4Q

"Jawa Jawa" is an instrumental piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1fYa2kpXu0

"Ragale" sounds a bit French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRZSHEc3wW4