California Quarterly 45:1, Spring 2019
Cover Art: Blue Ice by Marion Wang
EDITOR'S NOTE
Poets from many parts of the United States and the world send work to California Quarterly, and so the task of editing became an international experience as I read and edited, sitting here in the southernmost tip of our state. The poets have responded with passion to what they see and feel.
Some poems sing of California life, as does Clara McGill in “Scenes by the Pepper Tree”; others range as far as the Middle East, like L. B. Miller in “Game of Plastic.” Several consider the art of writing as in David Anderson’s “a pantoum to be titled” and Claudia Chapline’s “Here Now.”
Many write about the state of our world and its future, as we see in Sharon Fain’s “What Will You Do” and Joanne Sharp’s “don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” Those of us who live near the border with Mexico feel keenly the situations facing other parts of the world. The entire state of California, along the Pacific Coast, relates to and connects to Asia and beyond in a singular and powerful way.
Two poets included here have chosen action through poetry to express their concern for the larger world. Joe Milosch, in “Great Uncle Tierney,” and Jim Moreno, in “A Lifetime in a Cup of Tea,” are members of the San Diego/Tijuana ReEvolutionary Poets Brigade, a bilingual/binational poetry circle. The Brigade collects food and holds poetry readings at Enclave Caracol in Tijuana; then they donate the collection made to that cafe to “Food Not Bombs, Tijuana,” which feeds the homeless in that city. Along with Tijuana poets, these Californians help counter racism against Mexico.
As poets share their work, we see the power that poetry can exert. I am grateful to play a part in this common experience as we continue our poetic journey together.
Maura Harvey California Quarterly
Oceanside, California Volume 45, Number 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
California Quarterly, Volume 45, Number 1
Go to the Blue Oak - Dave Seter 7
Prism at Sunrise - Marganne Glasser 8
My Clarity - Lea Aschkenas 9
Scenes by the Pepper Tree - Carla McGill 10
Here Now - Claudia Chapline 12
Untitled Haiku - Elizabeth Yahn Williams 12
a pantoum yet to be titled - David Anderson 13
Who Will Inherit Our Earth? - James Deahl 14
Phoenix - Steve Denehan 15
The Formula for Success - Matthew J. Spireng 15
અક્ષર - Piyush Thakkar 16
Letter - Dileep Jhaveri (Tr.) 17
Old Westerns and a Fistful...- Neal Zirn 18
Autumn Sunlight - 3 Tanka - Jane Stuart 19
Sixty - Doris Padilla 20
Day Dream - Michael J. Shepley 20
A Man at Sixty - Warren Slesinger 21
Great Uncle Tierney - Joseph Milosch 22
What Will You Do - Sharon Fain 23
Recordando Sus Pasos - Brian Kirven 24
Remembering His Steps - Brian Kirven (Tr.) 25
Assisted Living - Joanne Sharp 26
A Walk in the Woods - Diane Funston 27
Brevity - Brenda Yates 28
Untitled Haiku - Elizabeth Yahn Williams 29
Dawn - Liz Dossa 30
A Sense of Direction - Mai-Lon Gittelsohn 31
A Lifetime in a Cup of Tea - Jim Moreno 32
On a Painting by Chagall - David Denny 33
Game of Plastic - L. B. Miller 34
Fall Sweep - Gwen Monohan 35
Seagulls - Dion O’Reilly 36
Out of the Blind - Stephen Ajay 37
Investment Advice - AE Hines 38
My Head Under Construction - Amanda Lewis 39
An Old Story - Al Zolynas 40
Sometimes I Can’t Watch... - Marty Walsh 41
The Bears - Kristin Ruth Lawrence 42
Collecting Cuyas - Tomás Gayton 43
Mt. San Jacinto, Sunrise - Peter Hein 44
The Cruel One - Dennis B. Ledden 44
Bats at Twilight Penny Perry 45
don’t know what you’ve got... - Joanne Sharp 46
Widow Ellen - Tovatt Leary 47
It’s Her Way - Gary Metheny 48
* - Simon Perchik 49
Customer Service Has Its Limits - George J. Searles 50
Hoarding Time - Claire Scott 51
The Dance - Sandy Carpenter 52
Winding Down - John Forrest Harrell 52
Untitled Haiku - Elizabeth Yahn Williams 53
Farewell to Bristol - Michael J. Shepley 53
Hollywood Glamour V... - David E. Spiering 54
Nasturtium - Patricia Nelson 55
Assumptions - Cathy Porter 56
Without Rain - 4 - Daniel Thomas 57
Solstice - John P. Kristofco 58
ABOUT THE EDITOR
MAURA HARVEY
Maura Harvey is a bilingual poet, author and artist who has lived in California since 1950. She holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from UC Irvine. Her poetry in both Spanish and English has appeared widely. Dr. Harvey is a founder of Taller del mar, a monthly poetry workshop with members from Tijuana and San Diego. She feels very proud to have published a poetry anthology in Barinas, Venezuela, in 1993 and to have been able to meet Venezuelan and Cuban poets personally while travelling in those countries. She has exhibited her art in many venues in California and had a show in Instanbul, Turkey, in 2006. She joined the editorial board of the California Quarterly in 1999, editing many issues and serving for years also as Secretary of the CSPS and as the CSPS Annual Contest Chair. Most recently, she edited the second issue of the CQ for 2017 (Vol. 43, No. 2).