Contents of California Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Autumn 2026) Edited by Maja Trochimczyk

California Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Autumn 2026)

Edited by Maja Trochimczyk. Cover Art: Dance of Five Elements 

watercolor on paper by Diane Lee Moomey (2012).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• I Could Really Use a Poem  —  Bill Baynes  —  7
• Territories and Field  — David Rosenheim —  8
• My Dog in Heaven  —  Cecil Morris  —  9
• between curtain  —  Gregory Cecil  — 9
• At the Natural History Museum  —   Pat Owen —  10
• Dinosaur Tracks in the Riverbed —  Henry Hughes —  11
• Too Much Time in the City  —  Pamela Singer   —  11
• Green  — Andrew You —  12
• African Daisies —  Byron Beynon —  12
• Canvas in Cornwall  — Anna Maria Mickiewicz   —  13
• Carcassonne  — Byron Beynon  —  13
• High Sierra  —  Michael Breuleux  —  14
• Yellowstone  — Henry Hughes   — 15
• Communion —  Charlie McCurdy  — 16
• Detached Ken Fifer.  — 17
• Narrow Roads Sarah Baker —  18
• laughing on a trail  — Susan Rogers  —  18
• Geography of Daylight  —  W.C. Gosnell —  19
• Hollow Hearts and Thimble Skins  — Daniel N. Abukuri  —  20
• Look  — Greg Moglia  —  21
• Things I Used to Love to Do —  A. Dearborn Goldsmith  —  22
• Mayhaps Bill Baynes  —  22
• On Seeing Hair on X.com  —  Maja Trochimczyk  — 23
• Déjà Vu / Ghosts —  Jack Tessoro.  —  24
• Haunted —  Byron Beynon —  25
• Unlined —  Dan Raphael —  26
• Uneasy Chrysanthemums —  Roman Montemorano  — 27
• Farewell of a Man  —  Anna Maria Mickiewicz —  28
• Zinnia  — Rosemary Ybarra-Garcia  — 28
• No —  Patty Dickson Pieczka  —  29
• Indian Summer Twilight — Joanne Jagoda —  30
• Going There  — Alamgir Hashmi  —  31
• The Depth  — Anna Maria Mickiewicz —  32
• The Truth  — W.C. Gosnell —  32
• It Is Enough  — Valerie Martinez —  34
• Hay Noche Puesta — Lola Andrés —  34
• Night Has Fallen — Marta López-Luaces, tr.— 35
• Borrowed Wings — Robert Haas  — 36
• The Great White Egret — Rosemary Ybarra-Garcia  — 37
• late summer rapture  — Susan Rogers —  37
• 12 Variations on the Moon Maja Trochimczyk 38
• Moon —  Rebekkah Gomez  — 39
• Cell Window —  Robert Haas   —  40
• At the New Moon —  Bruce Heard  —  41
• Renoir’s Apples — Andrea Potos —  41
• Azimuth  — Marie C. Lecrivain —  42
• Silence — Charlie McCurdy —  42
• Silent Intervals  — David Denny —  43
• walking and walking —  Gregory Cecil —  43
• Soft Eyes — Pamela Singer —  44
• Water Drops  —  Bruce Heard  —  44
• Even Now — Ziggy Edwards  — 45
• seaside sensation — Susan Rogers —  45
• Wait a Second — Ken Holland —  46
• Love Your Enemies —  David Dephy —  46
• Music in the Air  —  Steven Larry Klein —  47
• Piano Memories  —  W.C. Gosnell —  48
• Pulsings —  Charlie McCurdy —  49
• Mudras —  Bill Baynes —  50
• Be Yourself  — Dennis Ross  —  51
• Where I Am From —  Cecil Morris —  52
• You Are Given What You Are  — Sandra Irwin — 53
• Who I Am — Bruce Heard 54
• The Given  — Andrea Potos 55

• COVER ART: Dance of Five Elements by Diane Lee  Moomey, watercolor on paper, 2012 
• Contributors in Alphabetical Order   —  56
• CSPS Contest Opportunities —  56
• CSPS Newsbriefs 2026, No.3 by Maja Trochimczyk   —  59
• Publishing Opportunities with CSPS —  61
• 2026 CSPS Donors, Patrons, and Membership — 63
• Membership Form  — 64

Earth Fire Dance, watercolor by Diane Lee Moomey

EDITOR'S NOTE

Autumn is the time of harvest, time of fruition. In the third issue of the California Quarterly published in the year of the 250th anniversary of the U.S., readers find a fine crop of verse found on Submittable.com, submitted on our website, and mailed to our P.O. Box. Forty-eight poems have been written in California, six in New York, five in Pennsylvania, four in Massachusetts, three in Oregon, two in Texas, and one each in Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, and on an Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.  

Poetry also came to us from friends in distant lands. Among six poems from the U.K, we find a tribute to African Daisies (Beynon), vivid visions of Carcassonne and Cornwall, and the unbearable memory of losing a son (Mickiewicz). From Ghana, we have a pean to Grandma’s raspberry (Abukuri). From Pakistan – an ocean-faring adventure, ending under “a different sky” (Hashmi). From Spain – a night vision with a translation (Lola Andrés and Marta López-Luaces, translator). Poems take us on adventures into the High Sierras (Breuleux), the Yellowstone (Hughes), and among dinosaur remains (Owen, Hughes). 

Pamela Singer notices the harm of spending too much time in the city, Gosnell observes how the landscape encompasses its inhabitants. Poets say farewells in shocked disbelief (Pieczka), or melancholy reconciliation (Jagoda). They look at the moon (Gomez, Heard), even from a cell window (Haas). They admire animals soaring in the sky (Morris, Ybarra-Garcia), enjoy making music (Klein), and listening to sound bowls and silence (McCurdy, Denny). Within, they seek and find voices that are uniquely theirs, yet universal (Ross, Morris, Irwin, Heard). At the end, they are grateful for what is given (Potos).

I’m thankful for the inspired Dance of Five Elements that Diane Lee Moomey, a wonderful poet and artist, found for our cover. Since I enjoy classical music’s counterpoint, I wove this CQ issue into a tapestry of words, echoing and resonating in each other. Longer poems are interspersed with haiku by Gregory Cecil and Susan Rogers. In the polyphony of human experience, we overcome grief and become aware of cosmic unity: “streams become rivers / And the river becomes the sea” (Heard). And so, our journey continues, words flourish anew.

Maja Trochimczyk, Editor

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Maja Trochimczyk at Poetry Reading, Booksellers Club, Warsaw, Poland, June 2024

 

Maja Trochimczyk is a Californian poet, scholar, translator, photographer, and non-profit director from Poland. She published six books of poetry: Rose Always - A Love Story, 2008, rev. 2020; Miriam's Iris, or Angels in the Garden, 2008, both from Moonrise Press; Slicing the Bread, Finishing Line Press 2014, Into Light, and The Rainy Bread (Moonrise Press, 2016) and Bright Skies (Moonrise Press, 2022). She also edited five poetry anthologies: Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse (2010); Meditations on Divine Names (2012), Grateful Conversations (2018, co-edited with Kathi Stafford), We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology (2020, co-edited with Marlene Hitt), and Crystal Fire. Poems of Joy and Wisdom (2022). Her poetry and photographs appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, such as: Clockwise Cat, California Quarterly, Cosmopolitan Review, Magnapoets, Quill and Parchment, Ekphrasis Journal, Edgar Allan Poet Journal, Epiphany Magazine, Hybrydy, Kritya, Lily Literary Review, Loch Raven Review, Lummox Journal, OccuPoetry, Quill and Parchment, Phantom Seed, Pirene's Fountain, poeticdiversity, Poezja Dzisiaj, Pisarze.pl, Poezja Dzisiaj, The Sage Trail, The Scream Online, San Diego Poetry Annual, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Spectrum. She was also featured in anthologies by Poets on Site, Southern California Haiku Study Group, and other collections. She edited the following California Quarterly issues in 2018-26: 44:4, 45:3, 46:4, 47:2, 48:1, 49:2, 49:4, 50:3, 51:3, 52:3. As a music historian, she published ten books of music and culture studies, most recently Paderewski Essays & Poems (2026). A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she is a recipient of PAHA's Creative Arts Prize (2016) for her two poetry books about WWII experience of Polish civilians, including her family under German and Soviet occupation (Slicing the Bread, 2014 and The Rainy Bread: Poems from Exile, 2016). She was nominated Acting President  of the CSPS in February 2019 and elected President in October 2019. She serves as Managing Editor of the California Quarterly, Editor of the Poetry Letter, and Annual Contest Chair. Her small publishing house, Moonrise Press, issued 36 books since 2008.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

DIANE LEE MOOMEY

After traveling long around the US and Canada making and showing art, composing and reading prose and poetry, Diane settled in Half Moon Bay, California, where she can hear the surf through her bedroom window. Working in clay, watercolor and collage has been an experience that both seeds and is seeded by, her poetic imagery. These do seem to arise from the same place. Sculptures over the years have been of porcelain, earthenware, polymer clay, paper and fiber. The theme that has woven itself throughout all these works has been energy expressed through the feminine form. Lover, mother, daughter, dancer, goddess, dakini, shaman, queen of each of the Five Elements, she-Buddha. Standing, sitting, dancing; with her lover and alone . . .

During the past decade or so, during which she has worked almost exclusively in watercolor, Diane continues to honor the feminine and to further explore the Five Elements and the ways in which they interact with each other. She is particularly intrigued by Portals, those mysterious doorways between dimensions that one encounters from time to time — and by occasional glimpses of the spirit beings that share our world with us. You may see her artwork at www.dianeleemoomeyart.com In addition to the themes mentioned above, much of Diane’s poetry focuses on memoir, presenting glimpses of the people and places that have been so important in her life. A regular reader at San Francisco Bay Area poetry venues, her words have appeared in The MacGuffin, Light, THINK, Mezzo Cammin, MacQueen’s Quinterly, PoeTalk, Caesura, Red Wheelbarrow, California Quarterly and others and has been nominated for three Pushcart prizes. She has received awards and honorable mentions for both art and poetry from Soul-Making Keats, the Ina Coolbrith Circle and the Coastal Arts League. She is also the author of four poetry  collections, the third of which, Make For Higher Ground, is available from

Barefoot Muse Press. www.barefootmuse.com The newest collection, Sourdough, a poetry memoir, is available from Kelsay Books. www.kelsaybooks.com. Go to www.dianeleemoomeyart/poetry-portal.com to hear Diane read her poetry.  

Diane also co-hosts a Zoom poetry series, “Coastside Poetry” on the second Tuesday evening of each month. (www.coastsidepoetry.org)

Dance of Five Elements by Diane Lee Moomey.

NEWSBRIEFS NO. 3 OF 2026

The great philosopher and scientist Aristotle supposedly said: “Change in all things is sweet”—but can we trust the ever-hallucinating AI that found this quote for me? Let’s call it “bitter-sweet” then, like chocolate. The CSPS Board of Directors and the California Quarterly Editors are in the midst of such “bitter-sweet” changes. 

First, we are going to say our farewells to the pillar of this society, John F. Harrell, who will end his Board tenure of 35 years as CSPS Treasurer at the end of December 2026. He joined the Society in 1988, became its Treasurer in 1991 and served as the twelfth CSPS President (2012-19), concurrently being the Society’s Webmaster. So many hats! 

These just a few of the different “lives” of our great Treasurer: his most important position is that of the Bishop of the Celtic Catholic Church for North America and Pacific Islands. He has been active since 1982 as Deacon, Diocesan Chancellor, Priest, Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the Isles of Saint Brendan, and Abbot of the Community of the Companions of God. Meanwhile, his engineering career, started in 1969 at Aerojet-General, took him through a variety of positions at Rockwell Collins, Northrop Grumman, and the Aerospace Corporation. How could one person have done so much?

Maybe because he is so well educated: B.Sc. in Mathematics and American Literature from Harvey Mudd College, M.A. in American Literature from Cal State Long Beach; STL, ThM, and DD degrees in Sacred Theology and Divinity from St. Columba School of Theology; and last but not least MBA/MBE, MSMIS, and PhD in Economics, Management and Information Science from Claremont Graduate University. A titan of learning!  

John occupies a unique place among our 13 Presidents (Phillip Padellford, Romayne Dowd, Joyce Odam, Ellis Oveson, John F. Kerr, Gary Lagier, Ward Fulcher, Jack Fulbeck, Helen Shanley, Torre Houlgate-West, Kate Ozbirn, John Forrest Harrell, and Maja Trochimczyk) and 12 Treasurers (Jane Wolgemuth, Piche McBee, Eugene G. E. Botelho, Robert Knighton, Elaine Jenkins, Lawrence Jaffa, Margaret Cortes, Raymond Rose, Helen Shanley, Clara J. Koziolek, Jo-Ann Allee, and John Forrest Harrell). 

Since we are celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the Birth of the U.S., this year, let me end this brief tribute to John with a poem from his book The Hand of the Midnight Moon (2017). Many thanks for your service!!!  

The American Dream

1978

The yellow flame flickers lightly in my Uncle’s tomb

And dances with the sounds of crickets in the night.

In the shadows it throws on the walls of the rotunda

I see the shades of his friends and fellow soldiers.

They were strong, mighty warriors in their own time,

But here they walk only as adjuncts and lieutenants,

Assisting in the power and the presence of my Uncle.

Now, when the lamp lifted by his Lady has not light,

When her lovely, flowing robes are sullied and torn,

When every battle of the war is lost to politicians,

I come into the calming quiet and remember eternity.

In this place the vision of my Uncle is overwhelming

And the certainty and direction of his loving dreams

Are set in nature, to be the future for all mankind.

The shadows move the yellow flame with the whispers:

Let us be free, let us be free, Lord, let us be free.

John Forrest Harrell

Alas, we do not yet have another suitable candidate for the role of the CSPS Treasurer, maybe one of our subscribers would be willing to dedicate their leisure hours to the cause of poetry? Contact me at maja.trochimczyk@gmail.com. 

Our second Board change is the resignation of Nicholas Skaldetvind from the position of  CQ Editor, after editing four issues since 2022 (49/3, 50/2, 51/2, and 52/2 in 2026). His current pursuits, include working on Ph.D. degree at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, teaching, traveling, and publishing poems and book reviews in such venues as Tupelo Quarterly, or Trampolin Poetry. 

Meanwhile, Ambika Talwar published two poems in Echoes of Freedom – A Nation in Many Voices edited by Debdoot Mukherjee and published by CRF, Convergence Research Foundation, Kolkata. This book commemorates India's Independence and was launched on 15 August 2026.

My features with three poems each appeared in Polish (Hybrydy journal in Poland), and English (Kritya journal in India). Six poems appeared in California Poets Part 10, on LAdige website edited by David Garyan. 

In the time of harvest, let’s keep writing and using well our short time here!

Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President

Mother of the World, watercolor by Diane Lee Moomey

CSPS Poetry Letter No. 2, Summer 2026, Part II - Book Reviews (Kathleen Gregg and Lynn Fitzgerald)

 

MICHAEL ESCOUBAS REVIEWS SOLILOQUY TO THE NIGHT SKY BY KATHLEEN GREGG

           Soliloquy to the Night Sky by Kathleen Gregg. 35 Poems ~ 43 pages. Accents Publishing.

Preparing to write this review has been a challenge. I note this because I witnessed my younger brother’s slow decline from brilliance to the dark night of total loss. My heart is enveloped in Kathleen Gregg’s poetic cocoon of loss and the dilemma it presents for the meaning of life. Soliloquy to the Night Sky will resonate with thousands who have witnessed a loved one’s final monolog with whom they once were and will never be again. “No False Hope,” appears half-way through the collection. Nancy,  Kathleen’s older sister, is in the latter stages of Alzheimer’s:

When I visit now, I am faced

with a body emptied of you.

Your heart still beats its rhythm,

lungs push air in and out.

If a nurse lifts a spoon to your lips,

you open, chew and swallow.

Sometimes, the aides park you

in front of the common room TV.

You stare at the screen with eyes

devoid of awareness. This is

how I find you today. I squat

in front of your wheelchair, smile,

say Hi, Nancy, it’s me, your sister,

and you turn those blank eyes on me.

The poem continues describing the poet’s longing that her efforts to love, comfort, and amuse her beloved will somehow reach Nancy’s awareness. Notice how this poem is a series of declarative sentences, stark, rational. Nancy’s life-situation has become exactly that, descriptive rather than engaging.  How did we get here? Kathleen opens her collection with “No Off Ramp,” a poem perfectly placed as Nancy is, “sobbing and / sobbing and / begging for her life / to make sense again.” Kathleen is trying to comfort her panicked sister over the speaker phone while driving in traffic. “relentless traffic / is the only thing keeping me grounded / from the jolt / of my sister’s distress.” Indeed, in the moment and in the larger life-setting, Kathleen knows there is no “off ramp” for this. There is “just enough awareness / to split us down the middle.”

“Nancy is Never the Same,” is an early clue of what is ahead: 

After her year of breast cancer therapy,

she knows it. Chemo Brain is real.

I’m not as sharp as I used to be. Still,

we believe surely, with time,

her fogginess will clear up. Surely.

Then, for the first time ever, she forgets

my birthday. No card, no phone call.

I let it go.

However, these are just the first fruits of Nancy’s decline; the inability to work through things that in times past were not problematic for her sister’s keen mind. From there telling incidents build one upon the other. The poem “I Ignore the Signs,” portrays my own experience with my brother’s decline. I consistently told myself This isn’t really happening. It was trivial things that Kathleen and I ignored: 

                        my sister needs a dress

for her granddaughter’s wedding

tells me she dreads the search

(my cue to offer help)

I jump at the chance

to do such a girl thing with her

This poignant poem chronicles a series of “little things” that tell a big story in retrospect: Nancy has never heard of Marshalls, where they will shop; inside the store Nancy loses her sense of place, looks “defeated” as she browses the racks and tries on dresses; she asks, “What’s the name of this store again?” All of this and more return to Kathleen as she mourns and ponders Nancy slow, irreversible decline. “The End of Pretending” ties a bow around the phase of denial:

I feel Nancy hunt and hunt for words,

as if she is rifling through a box of loose photos.

Mostly she just gives up, spits out a laugh,

Well it’s gone. I try to make light of it, fill in

the blanks, fall back on our inside jokes. That lifeline

is fraying (face it) from the weight of my furious grip.

Today, I attempt to reminisce about our cousins,

the big family gatherings. Her flat voice admits,

I don’t know who they are. And I hear

the first goodbye.

From this seed that captures Nancy’s steady decline, there are moments of light. “What a Difference the Right Meds Make,” delivers momentary jubilation as Kathleen visits Nancy, now under the care of trained nurses. Nancy seems better than before. She is chatting coherently, swaying to the vibrations of Mustang Sally, joy is bubbling out of mouths encouraging her. But the joy fades, like the slow decline of a light bulb . . . “I

realize my sister is still confused, / her memories jumbled, disappearing. / but her terror, my helplessness / in the face of it, has been lowered / to the bottom of the well. Reading Soliloquy to the Night Sky, I felt the gentle prodding of a shepherd, somehow knowing that I needed time to process the roller coaster of feelings she was experiencing. I haven’t considered, in this review, all the poems that deserve treatment. But as I read each one slowly, savoring their content, I somehow felt renewed in my soul. This is a gift of poetry. Only poetry can achieve the solace one needs at such an hour. I think of my brother Tom as I offer these unforgettable lines from “Acceptance”:

Let my sister lift up

and out

of her useless body.

Let her feel

my love rush

after her.

Let her float

in an ocean of light.

Warm, peaceful,

safe.

Let her memories

spark

within her soul,

brimming

and bright.

Let her sing

in a blur of joy,

I am whole.                                                         

“A prayer of sorts? Indeed, it is a prayer of sorts. Perhaps my brother Tom has met Nancy somewhere in heaven’s precincts . . . and with full throat they are singing, I am whole, praise God, I am whole!            

                                                                                                   ~  Michael Escoubas

MICHAEL ESCOUBAS REVIEWS HER DRESS DOES A FLIP BY LYNN FITZGERALD

                      Her Dress Does a Flip by Lynn Fitzgerald, 27 poems ~ 55 pages. Dancing Girl Press

A Word About the Cover. I was instantly intrigued by Lynn Fitzgerald’s choice of a cover image for Her Dress Does a Flip. For this reviewer, the image suggested fun, craziness, mystery, and a kind of wily deception. I noted that the legs projecting from the carriage wear high heels. Right then I knew I was in for the buggy ride of my life! And I was right. I would buy this book simply for its entertainment value. But this collection is so much more. Her Dress Does a Flip seeks to penetrate to the core of what it means to be human. I must admit that my life-carriage often resembles Fitzgerald’s artistic life-metaphor.

A Word about Structure. The work is not divided into sections or parts. Its poems appear one after the other suggesting a cathartic journey within the poet’s life. It is as if Fitzgerald has determined to get everything said and gives her muse permission to become a fountainhead of poetic expression . . . expressions that MUST be expelled for the last time. In support of the above observation I am struck by Fitzgerald’s unconventional sonnet, “Sine Qua Non,” which I reproduce in full here: 

The essential element we look for, what we lack 

From our genes or chemistry, culture, religion.

This gap we seek to fill or at the very least to conceal

Lest we be thought of as lacking some primordial

Quality. The definition around which all else spins,

Creating an orbit, the unbroken circle we inhabit.

A circle we walk endlessly in until we

Come face to face with that one being

Who emanates everything we have missed

And we feel our orbit stretched into an angular

Geometry, some shape not our own, a shape

We wished to be. In resignation we settle

For that which is offered: a subtle, explosive gift

For which we have no words.

This poem seeks clarity about that which is vital for life. What will suffice? What is that one thing one cannot do 

without that defines a “good life?” Throughout the collection FitzGerald is conversing with herself. Examining life here, evaluating her experiences there, enjoying the journey and not especially concerned with arriving at a destination. In the collection’s lead poem “il-logic” the poet creates an anomaly about love:

He can only imagine the world

She walks or wears her hair in

Love is a deprivation of sorts

Some logic lost, an interruption of integrity.

She can only imagine the world

He walks and wears his glasses in

Or how he doesn’t look at life but does.

Yet she knows how his hands feel

How definite the grasp

And this holds fast the dream,

The arm reaches with the fingers for the pen

The wrist supports the words.

Is this a poem or is it life?

The man stretches his dark coat across

His shoulders, walks through the doorway

Into his world and the woman steps

Inside her life, silent as a leaf falling to the ground.

Excursions into Life with Lynn Fitzgerald. With the above poems serving as foundation, Fitzgerald’s journey is just beginning. “How My Parents Meet,” is written in present tense as if she is watching what they do, noticing special things that drew them close. These paint a picture of love:

He remembers the color of her dress, the careless elegance,

of her step. She recalls the knot in his tie,

how she straightened it as he held her body to his—

he is her land. She steps ashore, the briny smell familiar,

but this has never happened before.

This lovely oracle must have brought joy, as the words tumbled forth as from the muses’ fountainhead. The poet stows her dream in her treasure chest of memories.

As I worked through the collection, I counted six poems which were “wildly” delightful with indentations. These are by design suggesting that this poet will not be confined or defined by convention. Poems such as “Paradise of Myself,” “Scotch on the Rocks,” “Pas de Deux,” and “Les Crudités,” are so revealing, so fresh, as to defy containment in traditional structures. I spent extra time with these poems and was richly rewarded.

With that said, Professor Fitzgerald (City Colleges of Chicago) is a seasoned practitioner of her craft. Her stanza productions feature couplets, tercets, quatrains, unique stanzaic mixtures, and long and short line combinations. Additionally, I was delighted when I encountered traditional forms such as villanelle, rondeau, and cento. Taken together, these round out a superior display of poetry acumen.

“Ordinary” is a poem I kept returning to. This poem profoundly speaks to the inner core of Lynn Fitzgerald. At the end of the day, the best poets elevate what most people miss and find Sine Qua Non:

I know I’ve left friends and missed each one

I’ve listened to a flock of geese as they have taken flight

in search of sunlight and warm sand

and I have considered what has been missed,

what I have not said, although felt, and why

this is so. How I must live with the thoughts of loss,

profound loss, while the trees chant remembrances

and I listen to the wind. I feel a hand rest on my shoulder,

hear someone calling me and then calling in the children from play

and someone else is arriving at the door, the buzzer blaring—

and here, while I contemplate loss

is the extravagance of ordinary life.

And this is precisely why Her Dress Does a Flip belongs on your library shelf.   

                                                                                                ~ Michael Escoubas

POETRY LETTER 

The Poetry Letter ((Online ISSN 2836-9394; Print ISSN 2836-9408) is aquarterly electronic publication, issued by the California State Poetry Society. Edited by Maja Trochimczyk since 2020 and by Margaret Saine earlier. The Poetry Letter is emailed and posted on the CSPS website, CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety.org. Sections of the Poetry Letter are also posted separately on the CSPS Blog, CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety.com. The Poetry Letter publishes winners of CSPS Monthly Contests, featured poets, and poetry book reviews, with colorful illustrations (possible since it is not published in print).

MONTHLY CONTEST SUBMISSONS GUIDELINES

California State Poetry Society encourages poetic creativity by organizing monthly poetry contests. The contests are open to all poets, whether or not they are members of the CSPS. Reading fees are $1.50 per poem with a $3.00 minimum for members and $3.00 per poem with a $6.00 minimum for non-members. Entries must be postmarked during the month of the contest in which they are entered. They must consist of a cover page with all contact information (name, address, telephone number and email address) as well as the month and THEME on cover page, and the titles of the poems being submitted.

 Starting in January 2023, we are accepting previously published poems for our Monthly Contest. Please note the publication where it first appeared on any such poem. There are three ways to submit. 

(1) by regular mail (enclosing check) or email (using PayPal  CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety@gmail.com):  CSPS Monthly Contest – (Specify Contest Month). Post Office Box 4288, Sunland, CA 91041

(2) by email, using PayPal to pay (CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety@gmail.com) and email to send your poems (CSPSMonthlyContests@gmail.com (specify the month). 

The monthly contest winners are notified the month after they are awarded. All of the winners for the year are listed in the first CSPS Newsbriefs and published in the first Poetry Letter of the following year. Prizewinning poems are also posted on the blog, CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety.com. The 1st prize winner receives half of the prize pool for pools less than $100. Please note: Do not send SAEs. We do not return poems. If you win, we will let you know. Otherwise, there are no notifications.

CSPS Monthly Contest Themes (Revised): 

① January: Nature, Landscape;

② February: Love; 

③ March: Open, Free Subject; 

④ April: Mythology, Dreams, Other Universes;

⑤ May: Personification, Characters,

Portraits; ⑥ June: The Supernatural; 

⑦July: Childhood, Memoirs; 

⑧ August: Places, Poems of Location;

⑨ September: Colors, Music, Dance; 

⑩ October: Humor, Satire; 

⑪ November: Family, Friendship, Relationships; 

⑫ December: Back Down to Earth (Time, Seasons).

CSPS 39TH ANNUAL POETRY CONTEST — DEADLINE 30 JUNE 2026 

his contest is open to all poets, whether or not they are members of the CSPS. The Contest is managed by CSPS President, Maja Trochimczyk, and adjudicated by an experienced, published poet who is approved for this roe by the CSPS Board. A different poet is selected to judge the CSPS Poetry Contest each year. The Judge in 2026 is Mary Langer Thompson Ed.D. Poems must be postmarked or uploaded to our website or from March 1st through June 30th. Reading fees for all entries, domestic or international, are $3.00 per poem for members of CSPS and $6.00 per poem for non-members. There is an 80-line (two page) limit for each poem and seven poems per poet.

AWARDS: There are three main prizes that include publication in the California Quarterly, a small cash prize and a certificate and six to ten Honorary Mentions. Poets winning 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes receive $100, $50 and $25, respectively. Six to ten Honorable Mentions may also be awarded. Winning entries will be announced on our website, blog, and in the CSPS Newsbriefs in September 2025 and published in the fourth issue of the CQ in December 2025The Honorable Mention poems and other submissions are forwarded to the CQ and the Poetry Letter editors for possible inclusion in the subsequent issues. Contest results are posted on our website. 

250th BIRTHDAY PRIZE: :This year, the CSPS Board decided to add a special 250th Birthday Prize for the best poem celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States in 1776. The prize .consists of a certificate, publication and $76 in cash. 

SUBMISSION: Please submit unpublished poems, written in English, with 80-line (two-page) limit per poem, with reading fees, using one of two options. If submitting by mail, send a cover letter with all poet information and a list of submitted poems, one copy of each poem with no poet identification, plus an email or SASE for contest results (only for those poets who do not have an email address) to: Maja Trochimczyk, CSPS President & Contest Chair P.O. Box 4288, Sunland, California 91041-4288

More information: CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety@gmail.com

You may also upload your poems and pay reading fees at our website: www.californiastatepoetrysociety.org, by first registering your account with a password, and then login-in to upload poems and pay the fees. If you find it too difficult to register on the website, you may submit your reading fees via PayPal with a note stating "Annual Contest Reading Fees" with your name and contact information, including State Poetry Society you are a member of, to PayPal account while also emailing the poems to CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety@gmail.com, Please make sure your poems were not published in any format (print or online) prior to submission.

CONTEST JUDGE - MARY LANGER THOMPSON

An award-winning poet and writer who currently lives in the high desert of California where she opened a public school as principal, Mary Langer Thompson was born in Illinois and traveled to California on Route 66. She credits her bi-weekly critique group with helping her to transition into writing fiction and children’s stories. She has been a secondary English teacher, adjunct professor, and elementary school principal. Thompson is active in the California Writer's Club, High Desert Branch, and was California's Senior Poet Laureate in 2012-13. She won the Jack London Award in 2019 and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2020. She has given poetry and writing workshops in schools, colleges, and prisons.

Most recently she was the featured poet, along with Pat Connors, on Saturday Afternoon Poetry. She edited From Silence to Speech: Women of the Bible Speak Out in 2015, published Poems in Water in 2014 and wrote two children’s books, How the Blue-Tongued Skink got His Blue Tongue; and The Gull Who Thought He Was Dull, both illustrated by Samantha Kickingbird. She also published several chapbooks.